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updated: 2021-08-25
 

"The United States of America has lost more than 80% of the cases in which it has been the defendant before the WTO tribunals, and the WTO has ruled against the United States in more than 90% of the cases tried against Asian countries." --- Lou Dobbs 2004 _Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Over-Seas_ pg142

 
  need to do the calendar

2012 Jan

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

 

"The principle which protects personal writings & any other productions of the intellect or of the emotions, is the right to privacy & the law has no new principle to formulate when it extends this protection to the personal appearance, sayings, acts, & to personal relations, domestic or otherwise." --- Samuel D. Warren & Louis D. Brandeis 1890-12-15 "The Right to Privacy" _Harvard Law Review_ volume 4 #5 pg 193 et seq.

 
 
 

captain William Scott's flag for the Republic of Texas.

2012-01-01

2012-01-01
Jan Falstad _Billings MT Gazette_
Bakken boom has lifted economy

2012-01-01
Lindsay Kastner _San Antonio TX Express-News_
Guelen schools causing discord
"In just more than a decade, Harmony Public Schools, operated by the Cosmos Foundation of Houston, has grown to become one of the largest charter school networks in Texas, serving about 16,700 students last school year.   Two schools, with about 900 students last year, are in San Antonio.   Some Harmony critics point to a burgeoning number of Turkish-American-led charter networks in the United States, more than 120 in 25 states, that they say are tied to Islamic political leader Fethullah Gulen...   From 2008 to 2010, the Labor Department certified 1,197 H-1B visa requests from the Cosmos Foundation -- more than double the number of visas certified nationwide for Texas-based computer company Dell USA and about 70% as many as were certified for tech giant Apple Inc...   Harmony has about 290 employees working on H-1B visas, or 16% of its work-force, according to Superintendent Soner Tarim.   Most are Turkish, said Tarim, who is also from Turkey...   'Staffing Northside schools has never really been a problem.', said Pascual Gonzalez, spokesman for Bexar County's largest school district with 97K students, where Labor Department records show no H-1B visa certifications in recent years.   'In the past there have been thousands of people applying for hundreds of jobs.'...   But in recent years, 8 of the charter network's 10 largest contracts have gone to just 2 companies, both of which have close ties to Cosmos: the Houston-based contracting firms Solidarity Contracting and TDM Contracting.   Solidarity is run by a former Harmony school business manager, according to a report by the New York Times.   TDM was formed a couple of years ago by a former Solidarity employee.   Together, the 2 young companies have received more than $66M in Cosmos contracts since 2009, records show.   The total doesn't include cost over-runs or smaller jobs they might have been awarded."

2012-01-01
Jim Farmer _M. Feldstein_
protecting or violating the privacy and security of students: Krebs v. Rutgers, a case study in miscarriage of justice by H. Lee Sarokin
The most bizarre part was Sarokin's decree that the president of the university was immune ex officio, while PA1974 is specifically aimed at government officials and agents (of agencies), but then declaring that this government agency -- with its government over-sight board appointed by government officials, tax-victim funding, state legislature specifications of aspects of operations, etc. -- was not a government agency.   (FERPA applies to all educational institutions and practitioners, public and private.)   But as you correctly point out, in the end, even Sarokin's extremely weak reform requirements were ignored... and the perpetrators danced to the bank and fat retirement packages.

2012-01-01
Anthony Watts
Getting the year off to a good start

2012-01-01
Anthony Watts
Bad electric karma
"Fisker recalling 239 Karma plug-in hybrids for fire hazard"

2012-01-01
Anthony Watts
climate graph round-up

2012-01-01
Mark J. Perry
Whirlpool execs demanding protective tariffs: crony socialism at work

2012-01-01
Mark J. Perry
Occupational differences by sex

2012-01-01
Milton Greenberg _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Contingent faculty are toiling at low pay to subsidize the security of tenured professors who don't necessarily do a better job
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-02

2012-01-02
_KGO San Francisco CA_
NY Federal circuit court upholds rejection of candidate for police because his IQ is too high
"Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125.   But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after under-going costly training.   Most Cops Just Above Normal   The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average."

2012-01-02
Anthony Watts
The higher one goes in the government food chain the less interest in accountability

2012-01-02
William L. Anderson
Krugman shows he does not understand government debt
Christopher Mims: Smart Planet/Ziff Davis/CBS: What non-scientist, non-economist Krugman doesn't understand about debt

2012-01-02
John Cochrane
Regulation: more, less, enough, smart and stupid

2012-01-02
Mark J. Perry
manufacturing as share of claptrap decreasing worldwide

2012-01-02
Mark J. Perry
ND daily oil production

2012-01-02
Mark J. Perry
AGU fellowships are easy... the warmist clique

2012-01-02
Joe Guzzardi _Californians for Population Stabilization_
Republican candidates fail/refuse to acknowledge link between excessive immigration and US unemployent

2012-01-02
_Numbers USA_
France is cutting legal immigration by 10%
"Interior Minister Claude Guéant plans to achieve the cuts by reducing the number of work visas given out each year and slowing family reunification.   'We accept 200K legal immigrants on our soil each year.', Guéant said.   'That's the equivalent of the population of a town like Rennes and it is 2 times the population of Perpignan.'   The new rules effectively cut in half the number of occupations open to non-Europeans.   European Union nationals can usually acquire ten-year visas and permits to work.   People from outside the EU usually get short-term visas without automatic permission to work.   The overall goal is to reduce the number of legal immigrants coming to France annually from 200K to 180K.   About 20K people are allowed to enter France on work visas each year and another 15K for family unification.   Gueant also plans to step up efforts to remove illegal aliens and expel aliens convicted of a felony."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-03

2012-01-03
Anthony Watts
Paging Mike Mann -- your dendro-chronologist will see you now
"Physiologist[s] remain [unable] to build any real confidence in their ideas of how environmental factors influence tree ring formation, and dendro-chronologists therefore are not at all justified in pretending that they do."

2012-01-03
Mike Jonas
oil reserves/production ratio re-visited

2012-01-03
_Times of India_
Ill-Begotten Monstrosities' "US pay-roll challenge"
"The last time IBM broke out its American pay-roll numbers was in 2008, for the previous 5 years.   From 2003 through 2007, the company's worldwide employment grew by 21% to 386,558, while the head-count in the United States declined 11% to 120,589.   Data submitted as part of Congressional testimony indicated the downward trend in American employment continued, at least through 2009.   IBM still reports its global pay-roll, which increased to 426,750 in 2010.   IBM, undoubtedly, stopped disclosing its American employment because the trend was an invitation to criticism...   Some estimates place IBM's Indian work force at more than 100K.   That would probably place it on a par with IBM's employment in the United States...   lower labor costs in India, of course, have been a major motivation...   The company's worldwide pay-roll dropped by nearly half, to a low point of 217K in the mid-1990s.   Samuel J. Palmisano, who became chief executive in 2002, was determined that the services [bodyshopping] business would not repeat the mistake of the [low-quality, bloated, over-priced] main-frame business...   It spends $400M-500M a year on 'work-force rebalancing', payments to [US] workers let go.   It also spends about $600M a year on worker education, training and retraining [of new 3rd-world employees]."
It occurs to me that one of the reasons for the better health of the STEM job markets through most of the 1980s was that Ill-Begotten Monstrosities was out of the bodyshopping business for a number of years as a result of settlements from deceptive marketing and anti-trust cases...jgo

2012-01-03
Sarah Ryley _Daily_
corrupt USCIS management is pressuring workers to rubber-stamp visa applications even when fraud is suspected
"A 40-page report, drafted by the Office of Inspector General in September but not publicly released, details the immense pressure immigration service officers are under to approve visa applications quickly, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security.   One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes 'against their will'.   The report does not call out any particular officials and indicates that the agency has had a problem with valuing quantity over quality since at least the 1980s.   But high-ranking USCIS officials said the pressure has heightened after the Obama administration appointed Alejandro Mayorkas as director in 2009 August during an effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform, bringing with him a mantra of 'get to yes'...   At least 5 agency veterans seen as being too tough on applicants were either demoted, or given the choice between a demotion or a relocation from Southern California -- where their families were -- to San Francisco and Nebraska, according to sources and letters of reassignment provided to The Daily...   the inspector general report, which found that 14% of respondents had 'serious concerns' that employees who focused on fraud or ineligibility were evaluated unfairly.   The report also found that supervisors sometimes take cases away from an unwilling officer and assign them to someone else, against agency rules...   Nevertheless, USCIS approved 86% of the 3.9M immigration cases it reviewed between 2008 October and 2009 October -- a 4% drop from the year before...   '63 of 254 Immigration Services Officers (24.8%) responded that they have been pressured to approve questionable applications...   Another 35 ISOs (13.9%) had serious concerns that employees who focus on fraud or ineligibility were evaluated unfairly...   USCIS was more likely to grant O visa status [for aliens who have extraordinary ability in science, arts, business, or athletics] incorrectly than to deny...'"

2012-01-03
Peter Hannaford _American Spectator_
Obummer machine shoveling thousands of jobs right out of the USA

2012-01-03
_America's WatchTower_
federal government is rubber-stamping questionable visa applications
"One quarter of the agents in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] have claimed they were forced to grant people with either questionable backgrounds or questionable documents with a visa...   The officer quoted above stood on principle and on the side of the law and he found out the hard way what happens to someone who will not fall in line with the Obama regime -- he was demoted.   And he is not alone."

2012-01-03
_Dice_
Dice Report: 75,404 job ads

2012-01-03 (5772 Tevet 08)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Is Israeli society unraveling?

2012-01-03 (5772 Tevet 08)
Howard LaFranchi _Jewish World Review_
Why USA won't be center-stage in new Israeli-Arab talks

2012-01-03 (5772 Tevet 08)
Tom A. Peter _Jewish World Review_
Corrupt Obummer admin proposing release of several Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay and giving them head-quarters as confidence-building measure

2012-01-03 (5772 Tevet 08)
Emily Brandon _Jewish World Review_
How to save for retirement on a low income

2012-01-03 (5772 Tevet 08)
Elaine Woo _Jewish World Review_
judge in suit against holocaust deniers has died at age 88
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-04

2012-01-04 08:13PST (11:13EST) (16:13GMT) (18:13 Jerusalem)
Larry Dignan _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Yahoo!'s new CEO, Scott Thompson, banking on massive privacy violation scheme

2012-01-04
Nick deSantis _Chronicle of Higher Education_
e-text-books fry eyes, reduction in cost is less than $1/volume

2012-01-04
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
IIT to contaminate/pervert MIT

2012-01-04
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
Manmohan Singh says India must improve its science and research

2012-01-04 10:02PST (13:02EST) (18:02GMT) (20:02 Jerusalem)
Annalyn Censky _CNN_
unemployment soars for architecure, arts, liberal arts, engineering
Carroll MD Standard

2012-01-04
Doug Bandow _American Spectator_
As Iran rolls out nuclear weapons and missiles, we should ask congress to declare war before taking any military action

2012-01-04
W. James Antle iii _American Spectator_
Romney doomed by McCain endorsement
Quinn Hillyer: Hoist on McCain's petard

2012-01-04
Patrick Winn _Global Post_
elite Asian students cheat like mad on applications for admission to US colleges
"For the right price, unscrupulous college prep agencies offer ghost-written essays in flawless English, fake awards, manipulated transcripts and even whiz kids for hire who'll pose as the applicant for SAT exams...   'Most students don't really think it's wrong.'...   Among Asian high society, and particularly in China, parents' obsession with sending their offspring to US colleges has given rise to a lucrative trade of application brokers.   Depending the degree of assistance, families can expect to pay between $5K and $15K...   A 250-student survey by Zinch China, a Beijing wing of the California-based Zinch education consultancy, suggests college application fraud among Chinese students is extremely pervasive.   According to the survey, roughly 90% of recommendation letters to foreign colleges are faked, 70% of college essays are ghost-written and 50% of high school transcripts are falsified.   'For the right price', Melcher said, 'the agent will either fabricate it or work with the school to get a different transcript issued.'   Admission into a top 10 or top 30 school, as defined by the US News & World Report, can bring a $3K to $10K bonus for the agent, he said.   The magazine, Melcher said, is commonly confused in China for an official government publication...   Chinese citizens currently account for more than 1 in 5 foreign students studying at US colleges.   Nearly 158K Chinese students are enrolled at any given time, a full 300% jump over mid-1990s numbers, according to the Institute of International Education.   Chinese, Indian and South Korean students comprise roughly half of America's foreign college student population.   VietNam has sent 13% more students to the USA within the last year, and Malaysia has added 8%, the institute reports...   'International students are seen as a source of revenue...and the trend has exploded in the past 2 years.', said Dale Gough, international education director for AACRAO, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.   Foreign students, through tuition and living expenses, contribute $2.1G to the US economy, according to the US Commerce Department.   'In short', Gough said, 'they help the bottom line.'   Excuses abound for ignoring fraudulent applications, Gough said.   Some assume that kids who cheat will inevitably flame out anyway and never score a degree.   Some admissions officers, he said, contend that 'that's just the way it's done over there'...   His association publishes a guide to deciphering foreign scores, the only one of its kind, but fewer than 500 of the 3,500 institutions represented by AACRAO bother to buy a copy."

2012-01-04
Tom Searcy _CBS_
6 small-talk skills for the "socially challenged"

2012-01-04
Mark J. Perry
entrepreneurs work around stupid visa bureaucracy

2012-01-04 (5772 Tevet 09)
David Suissa _Jewish World Review_
Dumbing down Judaism

2012-01-04 (5772 Tevet 09)
Scott Baldauf _Jewish World Review_
Islamic terror group giving Christians living in north Nigeria days to flee

2012-01-04 (5772 Tevet 09)
Howard LaFranchi _Jewish World Review_
An accelerating covert war with Iran

2012-01-04 (5772 Tevet 09)
Carol M. Ostrom _Jewish World Review_
Brain damage from high-fat foods may be why diets fail
"Researchers at the University of Washington and other institutions say they've found the first evidence that 'hypothalamic neuron injury' is associated with obesity caused by a high-fat diet in rodents and humans."

2012-01-04 (5772 Tevet 09)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
I love greed
"Free market capitalism is relatively new in human history.   Prior to the rise of capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man.   Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving one's fellow man.   Capitalists seek to discover what people want and then produce it as efficiently as possible.   Free market capitalism is ruthless in its profit and loss discipline.   This explains much of the hostility toward free market capitalism; some of it is held by businessmen...   Free market capitalism has other enemies -- mostly among the intellectual elite and political tyrants.   These are people who believe that they have superior wisdom to the masses and that God has ordained them to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us.   Of course, they have what they consider to be good reasons for restricting liberty, but every tyrant who has ever lived has had what he considered good reason for restricting liberty."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-05

2012-01-04 18:00PST (2012-01-04 21:00EST) (2012-01-05 02:00GMT) (2012-01-05 04:00 Jerusalem)
Josh Flory _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Knoxville executives whine "talent shortage"

2012-01-05 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 535,112 in the week ending December 31, an increase of 37,423 from the previous week.   There were 578,904 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0% during the week ending December 24, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,764,364, an increase of 150,906 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.5% and the volume was 4,415,512.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending December 17 was 7,223,203, a decrease of 8,311 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending December 17.   States reported 2,932,561 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending December 17, an increase of 6,426 from the prior week.   There were 3,577,663 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02;
to 126,188,733 beginning 2011-10-01.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2012-01-05
Anthony Watts
Honda being sued for hybrid's failure to sustain promised mileage
"as the battery aged, the mileage went from the EPA sanctioned 51mpg highway sticker value to about 30mpg.   Honda ignored her complaint...   Peters opted out of a series of class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of Honda hybrid owners when she saw a proposed settlement would give plaintiffs no more than $200 cash and a rebate of $500 or $1K to purchase a new Honda.   The settlement would give trial lawyers $8.5M, Peters said.   'I was shocked.', she said.   'I wrote to Honda and said I would take $7,500, which was then the limit on small-claims in California.   It is going up to $10K in 2012.'"

2012-01-05
Quin Hillyer _American Spectator_
Obummer the tyrant must be stopped

2012-01-05
R. Emmett Tyrrell ii _American Spectator_
Leftists can't keep from going after super PACs that their "reforms" made possible

2012-01-05
George Neumayr _American Spectator_
Obummer vs. none of the above

2012-01-05
Willis Eschenbach
Defund the IPCC... and the entire UN, now

2012-01-05
Barry Neild _Global Post_
How generous are Americans?
"According to the Charities Aid Foundation, which put the United States at the top of its World Giving Index 2011, 65 percent of Americans gave money over the course of the past 12 months.   The statistic helped raise the country from its fifth-placed ranking the previous year...   what actually passes for US government 'philanthropy'.   Of the $53.3G 2012 State Department and foreign-aid budget, a huge tranche is ear-marked for military purposes.   Specifically, this includes $11.2G in war-related foreign aid for Afghanistan and Iraq, and a further $850M to help Pakistan counter-insurgency capabilities...   of $15G donated by the US to Egypt between 1974 and 1989, over half was spent in the United States.   Of the remaining 42%, or $6.3G, [Timothy Mitchell of the radical leftist Columbia U] said: 'The entire amount, as far as one can tell, was spent in the United States or on American contractors in Egypt.'...   The [even more radical leftist Obummer] White House estimates tax deductible charitable contributions will offset $43.1G in federal receipts next year."

2012-01-05 (5772 Tevet 10)
Tom A. Peter _Jewish World Review_
In Obummer admin's push to negotiate with terrorists, was a key hurdle over-looked?

2012-01-05 (5772 Tevet 10)
Pete Spotts _Jewish World Review_
Time cloaking: how scientists opened a hidden gap in time
"Indeed, scientists had already succeeded at 'spatial cloaking', which involves bending light around an object in such a way as to make it appear invisible.   Temporal cloaking involves interrupting light to create a seeming gap in time in which an event can be hidden.   At this point, the time gap that the scientists created is so brief -- about 50 trillionths of a second -- that practical implications are barely a gleam in anyone's eye.   But the researchers are interested in trying to lengthen the amount of time a beam's gap remains open, says Alexander Gaeta, who led the team reporting the results in the Jan. 5 issue of the journal Nature.   In essence, the team briefly turned off a laser beam in a way that instruments receiving the beam could not detect.   An observer would have no clue that the beam had blinked, and so would have no evidence of anything that happened to the beam in that 50 trillionths of a second.   University of Rochester physicists Robert Boyd and Zhimin Shi, who are not members of Dr. Gaeta's team, liken the phenomenon to traffic at a railroad crossing."

2012-01-05 (5772 Tevet 10)
Karen Kaplan _Jewish World Review_
Teens are not too old to boost their IQs
"It turns out that the government of Norway conducted just such an experiment -- albeit unwittingly.   From 1955 to 1972, the Norwegian government required schools to increase the number of years of mandatory schooling from 7 to 9.   This meant that students who used to be done at age 14 now remained in the class-room until age 16.   School districts didn't implement the change all at once but rolled it out over many years.   This resulted in a data set that allowed researchers to slice and dice the figures in many ways -- to check their work, IOW.   The other helpful thing about Norway is that the military there measured the IQ of all 19-year-old men as part of the universal draft.   Researchers from the University of Oslo and Statistics Norway (the government's bureau of statistics) matched up IQ and years of schooling and IQ for men born in 1950 through 1958.   They found that each of the additional years of education raised the men's IQ by an average of 3.7 points -- an increase that was deemed statistically significant.   For these men, the school reform meant that they got about 2 additional months of education, resulting in an additional 0.6 IQ points.   The results were reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

2012-01-05
"weaver"
Playing "what if" with immigration policies and Zavodny's theory

2012-01-05
UPI
CGC: 41,785 planned job cuts were announced in December
606,082 in 2011
183,064 government job cuts in 2011
financial 63,624
retail 50,946
defense/aerospace 34,759
health care/products 27,373
Orlando FL Business Journal
Sander A. Flaum: Pharmaceutical Executive
"Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School, says firms that make sweeping job cuts simply may not know any better.   There are few reliable metrics for gauging the cost of rehiring staff after a recession or the impact of lay-offs on morale."
CBS Miami FL
Kevin Kastner: Foreign Exchange Live
Orange county CA Register
Fox
Fox/MarketWatch
James Chessen: Banks and the Economy
Reuters
CGC press releases

2012-01-05
Mark J. Perry
Atlas van lines interactive map of USA migration patterns

2012-01-05
Mark J. Perry
15.2M rail-car loads in 2011, 11.9M inter-modal

2012-01-05
Mark J. Perry
3-month T-bill rates

2012-01-05
William L. Anderson
Krugman condemns himself

2012-01-05
William L. Anderson
Krugman thinks economic efficiency makes us poorer
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-06

2012-01-06
BLS
Employment picture shows slight improvement in some indicators... and a long way to improve to reach even the worst days of the 1991 recession

2012-01-06 07:20PST (10:20EST) (15:20GMT) (17:20 Jerusalem)
_Numbers USA_
USCIS OIG reports senior officials pressuring officers to rush approval of visas despite indicators of fraud

2012-01-06 08:00PST (11:00EST) (16:00GMT) (18:00Jerusalem)
Joe Jenkins _Numbers USA_
how America's backward immigration system destroys the dreams of US citizens

2012-01-06
Anthony Watts
parasitic flies -- Apocephalus borealis -- killing honey bees

2012-01-06
_MarketWatch_
Red Chinese missiles take aim at US war-ships 2K miles away

2012-01-06
Terence P. Jeffrey _Cybercast News Service_
secretaries of educationism and labor met with illegal aliens at Dept. of Educationism, discussed NIGHTMARE act

2012-01-06 12:22PST (15:22EST) (20:22GMT) (22:22 Jerusalem)
Todd Fluhr _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
"IT Crowd" nerdy gold of Brit humor
"Set at the corporate offices of Reynholm Industries, The 'IT Crowd' focuses on the 'IT' support team housed in a shabby basement office far beneath the high-rise multi-billion dollar company.   The 'IT' team is comprised of a bitter slacker named Roy and a socially inept tech geek named Moss.   Although the entire company depends on these 2 lowly tech support geeks, they are despised and mistreated by an upper management unable to use the 'power' buttons on their computers...   take for example a scene where Roy and Moss have blundered onto a deserted street only to discover a bomb-disposal robot working on a suspicious package.   They then observe a distant police barricade where the robot's remote operator is having trouble with a lap-top.   Moss shouts to the operator to describe the computer problem and operating system.   The police answers, 'Vista!'   Moss looks down at the robot and bomb as he proclaims, 'We are going to die!'"

2012-01-06
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
60% of new jobs went to immigrants
"Current immigration policy brings in around 100K new workers each month.   This means that as much as half of December's job gain may have accrued to people who just arrived in the country that month—including illegal aliens.   Even at December's elevated job creation rate, it would take about seven more years -- until around 2019 -- to absorb workers who lost jobs as well as new entrants into the labor force.   We are 10M jobs shy of where we need to be.   The 'other' employment survey, of households rather than businesses, reported a gain of 176K jobs in December.   At this rate it would take eight years to regain pre-Great Recession unemployment rates.   The Household Survey is rarely headlined in the MSM.   To do so would reveal inconvenient truths about the race, ethnicity, and nativity of new American workers.   Our analysis of seasonally unadjusted household employment figures finds that 107K, or 61%, of December's new jobs went to immigrants.   Just 69K, or 39%, went to natives.   This translates to a robust 0.5% gain in immigrant employment and a minuscule 0.06% lift for native-born employment.   In fact, at this rate, native-born Americans (of all races) may never recoup the job losses suffered during the Obama years.   2009 January -- the month Barack Obama took office -- is also the earliest month of data published in BLS's foreign and native-born employment table.   Coincidence or not, this means we can piece together the monthly points to see the president's priorities -- or at least the practical impact of his economic policies."

2012-01-06
Steve Tobak _CBS_
What inspires big ideas?
"Concentration and focus...   The team...   Brain-storming...   Success...   Doing what you love to do."

2012-01-06
Selwyn Duke _News with Views_
How excessive immigration exacerbates the USA's problems

2012-01-06 (5772 Tebet 11)
Jonathan Rosenblum _Jewish World Review_
Greatness --- and those who sully it

2012-01-06 (5772 Tebet 11)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
The Historian, the Diplomat, and the Spy: How the experts see the threat posed by Iran's rulers
 
Proposed Bills 2012

2012-01-06

DJIA	12,359.92
S&P 500(SPX)	1,277.81
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,674.22
Nikkei	8,390.35
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	1.97
crude oil(CL2G)	$101.56/barrel
natgas(NG12G)	$3.01/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB2F)	$2.75/gal
heatingoil(HO2F)	$3.07/gal
gold(GC2G)	$1,616.80/ounce
silver(S12H)	$28.68/ounce
platinum(PL2J)	$1,408.20/ounce
palladium(PA2H)	$614.00/ounce
copper(HG2G)	$0.215/ounce
soybeans	$10.70/bushel
maize	$5.51/bushel
wheat	$6.11/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)	81.244
yenperdollar (USDYEN)	77.10
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)	$1.2725
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)	$1.5431
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF)	0.9575
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR)	52.635
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN)	13.7437
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	601.17

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2012-01-07

2012-01-06 16:21PST (2012-01-06 19:21EST) (2012-01-07 00:21GMT) (2012-01-07 02:12Jerusalem)
Barbara Liston _WTVB AM_/_Reuters_
For many Americans, the on-going jobs crisis will probably last many more years as the Bush-Clinton-Shrub-Obummer economic depression stretches on and on
Himalayan Times
Inter Aksyon
Victor's Post
Flagstaff AZ Today
graphs

2012-01-07
Robert Curry
Sorting out the enlightenments in the face of intentional historical obfuscation

2012-01-07
Robert Stapler
more on the nature of inflation: The inflation nobody knows

2012-01-07 10:25PST (13:25EST) (18:25GMT) (20:25Jerusalem)
Roy Beck _Numbers USA_
urgent request to US government -- stop importing cheap, pliant foreign workers with flexible ethics
"The Department of Homeland Security's most-recent-year data show that the U.S.A. granted: 744,531 permanent green cards to working-age adults ages 20-64, and 912,735 new employment authorization documents to temporary foreign workers.   That adds up to an annual rate of 1,657,266 new foreign workers (not counting illegal workers) added to our economy.   There are no indications that the pace has slackened.   If the DHS continues to issue work permits and green cards at the same pace, we will see 138K new foreign workers arriving every month this year."

2012-01-07
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Obummer continues to grant amnesty to illegal aliens... piece by piece by piece

2012-01-07 16:32PST (2012-01-07 19:32EST) (2012-01-08 00:32GMT) (2012-01-08 02:32Jerusalem)
Glen Colton _Coloradoan_
Politicians must act rationally to put Americans back to work
"Both parties have bought into a 'cheap labor' economic philosophy based on...mass immigration, both legal and illegal.   Over the past 2 decades, millions of good paying jobs have been out-sourced to countries with cheaper labor, and we have had total immigration of more than 25M mostly (but not entirely) poor immigrants to [under-bid and under-mine] existing workers.   This has resulted in Americans having a plethora of cheap foreign-made products, a huge trade deficit and high unemployment, stagnant wages, more poverty...   The cheap labor strategy has been very successful in enriching [executives in business and academia, immigration lawyers and lobbyists] and destroying the American middle class.   Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, 'We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.'   This makes sense.   Yet, it seems that the economic elites running this country and our elected officials don't seem to get it [seem not to want to get it]...   And, U.S. senator Michael Bennett introduced legislation that would give green cards to U.S.-educated foreign students with advanced degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.   How does that help American workers?   A friend of mine noted wryly, 'I know unemployed engineers who are advising their children not to go into STEM fields because companies are hiring foreign workers over Americans for those jobs.'...   Declare a temporary moratorium on legal immigration until Americans are put back to work.   The U.S.A. currently issues well over 1M work visas per year to foreign workers."

2012-01-07
Nadene Goldfoot
do Pashtuns/Pathans of Afghanistan & northern Pakistan have Jewish roots?: G2C, GNE, M712T
Pashtun descent from Israelites? (wikipedia)
Yes Pakistan
Cohen-Levi.org
10 lost tribes (wikipedia)
Samaria (wikipedia)
London Telegraph
haplogroup G2C (wikipedia)
Council for Responsible Genetics
Family Tree DNA
Tablet Magazine: Jews in Afghanistan
Nature: Afghanistan from a Y Chromosome Perspective
DanGoor
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-08

2012-01-08
Sean Barron _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Whispering Pines District Greater Western Reserve Council Boy Scouts of America brave the elements at Klondike Derby

2012-01-08 06:26PST (09:26EST) (14:26GMT) (16:26 Jerusalem)
Mike Pare _Knoxville TN News Press_
Amazon to expand distribution center in Chattanooga
Chattanooga TN Times Free Press
"Work will start this month on an expansion that will add onto an existing second-level mezzanine and boost floor space to about 28 football fields, said Sanjay Shah, the Chattanooga center's general manager...UTC graduate who joined Amazon about a year ago and moved back to Chattanooga to run the local facility after working in Texas and India...   'We'll have 5K [workers] at some point this year' at Amazon's Chattanooga and Cleveland, TN, facilities, he said.   That's well above the 4K full-time and temporary workers that Shah said the two locations had at their peak over their first Christmas season.   Currently, he said, Amazon has more than 2K workers in Chattanooga, as the company cut back its work-force after the holidays...   At 1M square feet, Amazon's Enterprise South building..."

2012-01-08
Willis Eschenbach
The moon is a cold mistress

2012-01-08
Jeffrey R. Young _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Badges earned on-line pose challenge to traditional college credentials
"Many of the new digital badges are easy to attain—intentionally so—to keep students motivated, while others signal mastery of fine-grained skills that are not formally recognized in a traditional class-room...   Employers might prefer a world of badges to the current system.   After all, traditional college diplomas look elegant when hung on the wall, but they contain very little detail about what the recipient learned.   Students using Mozilla's proposed badge system might display dozens or even hundreds of merit badges on their online résumés detailing what they studied.   And students could start showing off the badges as they earn them, rather than waiting four years to earn a diploma.   'We have to question the tyranny of the degree.', says David Wiley, an associate professor of instructional psychology and technology at Brigham Young University...   'As soon as big employers everywhere start accepting these new credentials, either singly or in bundles, the gig is up completely.'...   Preetha Ram, argues that 'massively multi-player' on-line games like World of Warcraft do a better job exciting players about learning complicated controls and fictional missions than professors do motivating students in the class-room... on leave from her job as associate dean for pre-health and science education at Emory University."

2012-01-08
Thomas E. Brewton
Poetic justice when leftists collide
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-09

20012-01-09 05:26PST (08:26EST) (13:26GMT) (15:26 Jerusalem)
G. Chambers Williams _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Nissan and Daimler cooperate on expansion of engine plant at Decherd, TN
Tennessean
"Components produced: Engines for every Nissan and Infiniti vehicle manufactured in the United States, along with exports to Spain and Thailand; V-8 engine crank-shaft forgings; cylinder-block castings.   [Current annual] capacity: 950K engines; 1.1M crank-shaft forgings; 192K cylinder-block castings...   Decherd-built Mercedes engines will be used in new Mercedes and Infiniti compact sedans that will be introduced in 2014.   Besides engines, those two new cars will share their basic architecture under a 2-year-old collaboration between the Paris-based Renault-Nissan Alliance and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG, based in Stuttgart, Germany...   In the agreement to share engine and vehicle development, an equity exchange gave the Renault-Nissan Alliance a 3.1% stake in Daimler, and Daimler received a combined 3.1% interest in Renault, the French car-maker, and Nissan, the Japanese auto-maker whose Americas operations are based in Franklin...   The plant does make engines that go into the Suzuki Equator compact pickup, but that vehicle is assembled by Nissan in Smyrna and is based on the Nissan Frontier."

2012-01-09
Anthony Watts
2 opinions on the state of science publishing

2012-01-09 13:29PST (16:29EST) (21:29GMT) (23:29Jerusalem)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
Consumer debt increased much in November
"Consumer credit rose a seasonally adjusted $20.4G, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.   Monthly debt rose at a 10% annual rate in November, a much faster pace than had been expected by Wall Street economists...   Most significantly to economists, Credit-card debt jumped by $5.6G, or 8.5%, in the month.   This is the biggest jump since early 2008."

2012-01-09 13:47PST (16:47EST) (21:47GMT) (23:47Jerusalem)
Bbo Fowler _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Eagle Bend Manufacturing expanding, expect to hire about 38 additional workers per year

2012-01-09
John Otis _Global Post_
Nicaragua goes back to gold, and the economy is booming

2012-01-09
Jack Pearce _Mahoninig Valley Real Stuff_
Conference Board's Employment Trend Index up

2012-01-09
Mark J. Perry
"The essence and the glory of the free market... vs. compulsory monopoly of bureaucratic government"

2012-01-09
William L. Anderson
NYTimes idiotors believe that artificially forcing up labor costs creates more wealth

2012-01-09
Beryl Lieff Benderly _AAAS Science_
getting a grasp of the country-cap issue on visas

2012-01-09 (5772 Tebet 14)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
the land for peace hoax

2012-01-09 (5772 Tebet 14)
Michael Doyle _Jewish World Review_
Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard against EPA -- all the way to supreme court
Front Page magazine
"For homebuilders, farmers and major corporations, the case called Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency resonates well beyond one person's ambitions or even the wetlands protections specifically at issue.   Business groups reckon the case can help roll back federal regulations along a broader front.   'The Clean Water Act has, in short, become a tool for regulators to micromanage even the most routine decisions of farmers and ranchers.', attorney Mark Stancil wrote in a brief filed for the American Farm Bureau Federation.   Tellingly, 13 of the 14 friend-of-the-court briefs filed in the case side with Michael and Chantell Sackett.   In a [bizarre] statement on the case, the Natural Resources Defense Council characterized the Sacketts' legal allies as 'industry giants'.   In sum, the Sacketts and their business allies want more leeway to challenge EPA orders.   Specifically, they want to be able to sue the agency even before it goes to court to enforce an order.   The Sacketts ran afoul of the EPA when they sought to build a home on 0.6 acre in Priest Lake, Idaho.   The home site was several blocks from the lake, and the couple said they didn't realize they needed a permit the Clean Water Act requires for filling in wetlands with dirt and gravel."

2012-01-09 (5772 Tebet 14)
Bonnie Miller Rubin _Jewish World Review_
The new college-admission essay: short and twittish
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-10

2012-01-10
Anthony Watts
There is a reason modern tech moved on from wind-mills

2012-01-10
Paul McDougall _InformationWeek_
US government shelves talks with India's government over H-1B visas
"Talks between the U.S.A. and India on high-tech worker visas and other trade issues have been postponed indefinitely, U.S officials said Monday."

2012-01-10
Christopher S. Rugaber _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
JOLTs report says hiring increased in November, but job openings fell
"Employers filled almost 4.15M jobs in November, a 3% increase from the previous month, the Labor Department said Tuesday.   It also nearly matched September's hiring level, which was the highest since 2010 May...   Gross hiring exceeded 5M each month in the 3 years before the down-turn [though they never recovered to pre-2001 levels].   Companies and governments posted 3.16M job openings in November, according to the Labor Department's monthly survey on Job Openings and Labor Turnover.   That's down from 3.22M job postings in October and 3.4M in September, which was a 3-year high."

2012-01-10
Anthony Watts
cartoon, book "Embiggening the science"

2012-01-10
Nicole Ferraro _Internet Evolution_/_UBM_
How governments are hurting the web's progress

2012-01-10
Anthony Watts
The warmist peer pressure cooker

2012-01-10
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
police in India stop plan to use tech to cheat on college entrance exams
"During the three-and-a-half-hour test at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, several people impersonated exam takers and scanned the 23-page question booklet using Bluetooth devices stitched into their shirt collars and Android cell-phones strapped to their wrists.   The images were sent to other members of the gang, who solved the questions and dictated the answers to those taking the exam using tiny ear-phones.   According to police, who arrested the fraudsters about halfway through the exam, students allegedly paid around $60K each to have the test taken for them."

2012-01-10 12:30PST (15:30EST) (20:30GMT) (22:30Jerusalem)
Amie Parnes & Erik Wasson _Hill_
Obummer picks La Racist Cecilia Muñoz to lead domestic policy

2012-01-10 13:33PST (16:33EST) (21:33GMT) (23:33Jerusalem)
John Zappe _ere.net_
Society for Human Resource Management says fewer jobs, tougher recruiting ahead
SHRM press release

2012-01-10 (5772 Tebet 15)
Reza Kahlili _Jewish World Review_
US must make use of split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard

2012-01-10 (5772 Tebet 15)
Karen Kaplan _Jewish World Review_
Nicotine prducts neither help nor make it more difficult to quit tobacco use

2012-01-10 (5772 Tebet 15)
Paul Bedard _Jewish World Review_
maybe Fox is too balanced

2012-01-10 (5772 Tebet 15)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Kodak and the USPS
"The news that Eastman Kodak is preparing to file for bankruptcy, after being the leading photographic company in the world for more than a hundred years, truly marks the end of an era.   The skills required to use the cameras and chemicals required by the photography of the mid-19th century were far beyond those of most people -- until a man named George Eastman created a company called Kodak, which made cameras that ordinary people could use.   It was Kodak's humble and affordable box Brownie that put photography on the map for millions of people, who just wanted to take simple pictures of family, friends and places they visited.   As the complicated photographic plates used by 19th century photographers gave way to film, Kodak became the leading film maker of the 20th century.   But sales of film declined for the first time in 2000, and sales of digital cameras surpassed the sales of film cameras just 3 years later.   Just as Kodak's technology made older modes of photography obsolete more than a hundred years ago, so the new technology of the digital age has left Kodak behind.   Great names of companies in other fields have likewise vanished as new technology brought new rivals to the forefront, or else made the whole product obsolete, as happened with typewriters, slide rules and other products now remembered only by an older generation.   That is what happens in a market economy and we all benefit from it as consumers.   Unfortunately, that is not what happens in government.   The post office is a classic example.   Post offices were once even more important than Eastman Kodak, and for a longer time, as the mail provided vital communications linking people and organizations across thousands of miles.   But, today, technology has moved even further beyond the post office than it has beyond Eastman Kodak.   The difference is that, although the Postal Service is technically a private business, its income doesn't cover all its costs -- and [tax-victims] are on the hook for the difference.   Moreover, the government makes it illegal for anyone else to put anything into your mail box, even though you bought the mail box and it is your property.   That means you don't have the option to have some other private company deliver your mail.   In India, when private companies like Federal Express and United Parcel Service were allowed to deliver mail, the amount of mail delivered by that country's [government] post offices was cut in half between 2000 and 2005...   Various special interests currently benefit from the way the post office is run -- and especially by the way government backing keeps it afloat.   Junk mail, for example, does not have to cover all its costs.   You might be happy to get less junk mail if it had to pay a postage rate that covered the full cost of delivering it.   But people who send junk mail would lobby Congress to stay on the gravy train.   So would people who live in remote areas, where the cost of delivering all mail is higher...   A society in which some people make decisions, and other people are forced to pay the costs created by those decisions, is a society where a lot of decisions can be made despite their costs being greater than their benefits.   That is why the post office should have to face competition in the market, instead of lobbying politicians for government help.   We cannot preserve everything that was once useful."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-11

2012-01-10 21:01PST (00:01EST) (05:01GMT) (07:01Jerusalem)
Chris Christoff _Bloomberg_
Michigan governor Rick Snyder turns back on highly-educated unemployed/under-employed US citizens to favor aliens

2012-01-11
David Middleton
Dallas earth-quake not caused by fracking... and neither were the Ohio quakes

2012-01-11
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
On Southerners and secession (1860-1861)... motivations and complexity

2012-01-11
Don J. Easterbrook
Mt. Adams glacier study is an example of bad "science"

2012-01-11 07:14PST (10:14EST) (15:14GMT) (17:14Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Essential American food firm declaring bankruptcy
"Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, is seeking bankruptcy protection, blaming its pension and medical benefits obligations, increased competition and tough economic conditions.   The Chapter 11 filing on Wednesday comes just 2 years after a predecessor company [Interstate Bakeries] emerged from bankruptcy proceedings...   In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Hostess disclosed that its biggest unsecured creditor is the Bakery & Confectionary Union & Industry International Pension Fund, which it owes approximately $944.2M.   Its second-largest unsecured creditor, Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan is owed far less, about $11.8M...   The privately held Irving, Texas-based company said that it will be able to maintain routine operations thanks to a $75M financing commitment from a group of lenders led by Silver Point Capital LP...   its popular brands, which also include Drake's, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos...   Hostess has about 19K employees and operates in 49 states. Annual sales are about $2G, according to the company's web-site."
TwinkiesWiki
snopes
How Stuff Works
Ding Dong "diet facts"
Road Food
Hostess

2012-01-11
Tom Whitehead _London Telegraph_
excessive immigration displaced 160K British workers over the last 5 years
Numbers USA
"A Briton is displaced from the labour market for every 4 extra migrants from outside the EU that arrive in the UK, the Migration Advisory Committee (Mac) concluded...   it has kept resident workers out of jobs.   Professor David Metcalf, chairman of the Mac, also criticised the use of GDP for measuring the effects of the influx of foreign nationals as pro-immigration because more migrants will logically expand the economy...   In the last 5 years the number of non-EU migrants of working age increased by 700K meaning some 160K Britons missed out on jobs, the report concluded...   Dr. Scott Blinder, a senior researcher at the centre, said: 'This report highlights the need to decide and articulate more clearly whose needs Government is prioritising when developing immigration policy.'...   Immigration Minister Damian Green said: 'This Government is working to reduce net migration from the hundreds of thousands a year we saw under the last government, to the tens of thousands we saw in the 1990s.   Controlled immigration can bring benefits to the UK, but uncontrolled immigration can put pressure on public services, on infrastructure and on community relations.   This report makes clear that it can also put pressure on the local labour market.'"

2012-01-11
Bob Belvedere _The Camp of the Saints_
Nomination expectations the day after NH

2012-01-11
Tony Rizzo _Kansas City Star_
Thousands of illegal aliens obtained MO driver licenses
"A federal grand jury in Kansas City indicted 14 defendants, including 6 members of a St. Joseph family, for participation in the conspiracy, which allegedly allowed more than 3,500 illegal immigrants to obtain Missouri driver's licenses and other state identification documents.   Prosecutors allege that defendants made more than $5.2M in fees charged to illegal immigrants since 2009 November, when the defendants allegedly started the conspiracy...   The St. Joseph residents charged were Deborah J. Flores, 46; her sister, Sherri E. Gutierrez, 45; and Flores' children, Stephen Eugene Vanvacter, 24; Sara M. Gonzalez, 20; Christina Michelle Gonzalez, 23; and Jessica Mercedes Gonzalez, 21.   Flores and Vanvacter own a used car business in St. Joseph, A to Z Auto Credit, according to federal prosecutors.   Also charged were three residents of Carthage, MO: Elder Enrique Ordonez-Chanas, 30; Nelson Dariseo Bautista-Orozco, 26; and Ranfe Adaias Hernandez-Flores, 22.   Other defendants lived in Chicago, Texas and North Carolina.   According to the indictment, customers of the scheme were recruited from around the country.   Each customer paid $1,500 to $1,600 and received a birth certificate and [Socialist Insecurity number, SIN] in the names of other people.   Those documents typically came from conspirators in Texas who bought them from people willing to sell their documents, according to the allegations."

2012-01-11
Mark J. Perry
numbers and salaries for newly-minted PhDs in economics

2012-01-11
William L. Anderson
development of capital goods, i.e. production tools, causes lay-offs and recessions
"This is yet another example of the fallacy of 'buy back the product' in which production and consumption are regarded as two independent and unrelated things, except that unless workers can 'buy back' what they have produced, then the economy will plunge into recession.   IOW, what [the specific goods and services] an economy produces really means nothing in terms of wealth.   The production of goods is seen as an impediment to employment."

2012-01-11
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
DHS inspector-general issued stunning report on USCIS
"the IG's report is a gutsy document signed by a gutsy guy...   it is better written and easier to understand than most works of this nature.   The report, however, bears one of those GAO-type titles: 'The Effects of USCIS Adjudication Procedures and Policies on Fraud Detection by Immigration Services Officers'.   The report was set in motion by a request by senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) who, according to the document, 'expressed several concerns about the immigration benefit adjudication system.   He was uncertain about the effectiveness of USCIS efforts to protect national security and prevent fraud.'   The general conclusion of the report is that too often those procedures and policies compromise fraud detection by line officers of the agency.   Among the findings, in my words, are these: The staff is pressed hard to produce decisions, preferably positive ones, rather than to weigh each decision carefully;   The decision-making officers (Immigration Service Officers or ISOs) have too few contacts with the fraud detectors (Immigration Officers or IOs);   There should be more ISOs and IOs, given the number of petitions;   The staff does not totally believe that their job evaluation reports no longer deal with the quantity of decisions they make, as they did in the past, nor that they are not in danger of a bad evaluation if they spend too much time on fraud.   There were 2 other interesting themes in the report:   1) that outside lawyers have too much power in the actual decision-making process in cases where lawyers have been retained, and   2) that the whole concept of the burden of proof in immigration petitions should be changed in the direction of more integrity...   'An ISO said that the American Immigration Lawyers Association owns USCIS'...   'ISO managers view a preponderance of the evidence as greater than a 50% certainty that a fact is true.   Clear and convincing evidence is seen as approximately 75% certainty.   Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is 95% or more certainty...   To satisfy the preponderance of evidence in immigration proceedings, applicants or petitioners must demonstrate only that the facts in their case are slightly more likely true than not true'...   The IG report states that Congress may want to raise the standards of proof for 'some or all USCIS benefit issuance decisions'.   That is not something that USCIS can do on its own, even if it wanted to do so [so, congress is complicit in making the process non-conscientious and lax]...   the IG's 7th recommendation, 'Develop standards to permit more time for an ISO's review of case files'"

2012-01-11 (5772 Tebet 16)
Shari Roan _Jewish World Review_
Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke

2012-01-11 (5772 Tebet 16)
Tom Hussain _Jewish World Review_
Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21G in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipe-line, defying US

2012-01-11 (5772 Tebet 16)
David G. Savage _Jewish World Review_
supremes signal they won't be loosening TV's "indecency" rules

2012-01-11 (5772 Tebet 16)
Stephen Caesar _Jewish World Review_
federal 10th circuit court of appeals blocked the implementation of an Oklahoma law barring judges from considering international or Islamic law in their decisions

2012-01-11 (5772 Tebet 16)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
In greed I trust
"human greed is what gets wonderful things done.   I wasn't talking about fraud, theft, dishonesty, special privileges from government or other forms of despicable behavior.   I was talking about people trying to get as much as they can for themselves.   Think about greed and racial discrimination.   In 1947, when the Brooklyn Dodgers hired Jackie Robinson, why did racial discrimination by major league teams begin to drop like a hot potato? It wasn't feelings of guilt by white owners, affirmative action or anti-discrimination laws.   It turned out that there was a huge pool of black baseball talent in the Negro leagues.   It became too costly for teams to allow the Dodgers to gain a monopoly on this talent.   Black players won the National League's Most Valuable Player award for seven consecutive seasons.   Had other teams not stepped in to hire black players, allowing the Dodgers to hire them, it might have given the Dodgers a virtual monopoly on world championships...   The Davis-Bacon Act sets minimum wages on federally financed or assisted construction projects.   It was racially motivated in 1931, and it's still on the books.   During congressional debate leading to its passage, representative John Cochran of MO said he had 'received numerous complaints in recent months about Southern contractors employing low-paid colored mechanics getting work and bringing the employees from the South'.   Rep. Miles Allgood of AL complained: 'Reference has been made to a contractor from AL who went to New York with boot-leg labor.   This is a fact.   That contractor has cheap colored labor that he transports, and he puts them in cabins, and it is labor of that sort that is in competition with white labor throughout the country.'   Rep. William Upshaw of GA complained of the 'super-abundance or large aggregation of Negro labor', which, to him, was a real problem.   American Federation of Labor President William Green made clear his union's interests, saying, 'Colored labor is being sought to demoralize wage rates.'   There are many examples from around the world of how people have used legal and extralegal means to thwart people trying to get more for themselves, or what I like to call greed.   The suppression of these motives has always worked against the best interest of discriminated-against people."

2012-01-11 (5772 Tebet 16)
Eric Rozenman _Canadian Jewish News_
the "Palestinian" people: a 20th century creation (quoting PLO in 1977, Arab Higher Committee to UN in 1947, First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations in 1919, Newt Gingrich in 2011)
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-12

2012-01-12 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 642,381 in the week ending January 7, an increase of 102,314 from the previous week.   There were 773,499 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3% during the week ending December 31, an increase of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,139,988, an increase of 360,884 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.8% and the volume was 4,790,155.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending December 24 was 7,333,213, an increase of 111,010 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending December 24.   States reported 2,926,676 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending December 24, a decrease of 5,885 from the prior week.   There were 3,773,092 claimants in the comparable week in 2011.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02;
to 126,188,733 beginning 2011-10-01.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2012-01-12
Andrea Konz, Mimi Collins & Andrea McEwen _National Association of Colleges and Employers_
NACE 2012 Winter new grad starting salaries
"Overall, 2011 graduates at the bachelor's degree level began their first post-graduation job with an average salary of $41,701 -- up 2.3% over the average salary for Class of 2010 graduates, according to NACE's Winter 2012 Salary Survey report...   As a group, the average starting salary for engineering graduates is $61,872 -- up 1.5% over the 2010 average ($60,971).   For students earning degrees in the computer science majors, the average starting salary now stands at $60,594, a 4.1% increase over the $58,229 posted in 2010."

2012-01-12
Eric Pfahler _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute moving from Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies into new building
"Employees are expected to vacate the third floor of Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies and make their way down the block Tuesday to VGTI's new $47M, 100K-square-foot facility, a building VGTI helped design to fit the nonprofit's needs...   The state-of-the-art, 3-story building off Gatlin Boulevard is complete with penthouse for utilities, nine major laboratory work areas capable of hosting 30 working scientists apiece and systems designed to maintain precise humidity and air flows.   The facility has a patio area and conference room designed for staff meetings as well as lectures and other events.   Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Life Sciences, which has offices in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, served as the general contractor for the project, which broke ground on 2010 Oct. 20.   VGTI specializes in studying the immune system.   About 67% of the facility is set for scientific space, which is at the top of current standards, VGTI Chief Operating Officer Mel Rothberg said...   The hiring process could take anywhere from weeks to more than 6 months, Rothberg said.   The non-profit has hired about 65 people so far and is contracted to have 200 in 2018 as part of a state, city and county $117.8M incentive package.   The city's contribution mainly included infrastructure such as roads and sewer and water lines.   The city also helped VGTI by allowing the non-profit to save $1.5M in interest through revenue bonds approved in 2010 April."

2012-01-12
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_
113 Food Lion stores to close, 5K workers to be dumped, prices to rise
"Belgian super-market chain Delhaize says it is cutting almost 5K jobs in the country as it closes underperforming stars, including 113 Food Lion super-markets, according to the Associated Press.   Delhaize said it will shut down 113 Food Lion super-markets, seven Bloom and 6 Bottom Dollar Food stores within the next 30 days.   A distribution center located in Tennessee will also be closed."
1,100 jobs lost in Food Lion closings in TN
"Belgian super-market chain Delhaize said Thursday it is cutting almost 5K jobs in the United States as it closes some Food Lion, Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food stores within the next 30 days."

2012-01-12
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Effects of Goodyear plant closing not yet felt
"The 480-acre, 43-year-old Goodyear plant was Obion county's largest employer until it closed last July, putting 1,800 employees from West Tennessee and western Kentucky out of work."

2012-01-12 11:50:31PST (14:50:31EST) (19:50:31GMT) (21:50:31Jerusalem)
Mike Cassidy _San Jose CA Mercury News_
disorganized Silicon Valley tech history treasure trove will be tamed

2012-01-12 13:00PST (16:00EST) (21:00GMT) (23:00Jerusalem)
Terry McSweeney _KGO San Francisco CA_
300 job opentings at new Target store
"the high unemployment rate that drives so many to apply for work actually works in favor of the employer.   'We're excited because with the way the economy has been recently we're getting a really high caliber of candidate.', new Target store executive Susan Elbert said...   The job openings are in a variety of services.   'From food service to sales floor, cashiering, logistics.', Elbert said."

2012-01-12
George Neumayr _American Spectator_
The venture capitalist vs. the vulture leftist

2012-01-12
Quin Hillyer _American Spectator_
Santorum gets major endorsement from representative Lou Barletta

2012-01-12 14:43:59PST (17:43:59EST) (22:32:59GMT) (2012-01-13 00:32:59Jerusalem)
David Barboza _San Jose CA Mercury News_/_NYTimes_
Foxconn reaches agreement with employees
"Foxconn said the protest had involved about 150 of the 32K employees at its campus in the city of Wuhan.   In 2010, Foxconn was hit by a wave of suicides by distraught workers at several of its [Red Chinese] sites.   The company, which is controlled by Hon Hai Hai Precision Industry of Taiwan, has been accused of forcing workers to endure long hours and harsh working conditions for little pay.   Under pressure from Apple and other major brands, Foxconn has pledged to improve working conditions in [Red China], and the company has even hired psychiatrists to counsel workers."

2012-01-12
Robert G. Brown
Earth's base-line black-body model is a very difficult problem

2012-01-12
Anthony Watts
researcher who claimed heart benefits for red wine falsified data
"An extensive misconduct investigation that took three years to complete and produced a 60K-page report, concludes that a researcher who has come to prominence in recent years for his investigations into the beneficial properties of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, 'is guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data'.   In a statement published on the university's news website on Wednesday, the University of Connecticut (UConn) Health Center said the investigation has led them to inform 11 scientific journals that had published studies conducted by Dr Dipak K. Das, a professor in the unversity's Department of Surgery and director of its Cardiovascular Research Center...   According to a report from the Associated Press (AP), Dr Nir Barzilai, whose team conducts resveratrol research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, says Das is not a major player in the field.   Barzilai told AP lots of labs around the world are conducting extensive research into resveratrol, with encouraging results, and the new allegation will not make a material difference."

2012-01-12
Willis Eschenbach
USGS investigating elk

2012-01-12
Thomas E. Brewton
Federal Reserve far better at mangling the economy than "managing" it

2012-01-12
Anthony Watts
quote of the week -- Hansen unhinged

2012-01-12
Anthony Watts
the new Hollywood black-list

2012-01-12
Mark J. Perry
consumer debt delinquency rates 3.47%, bankruptcy filings down 11.6%

2012-01-12
Mark J. Perry
USA life expectancy at birth 78.7 years; life expectancy vs. claptrap per capita

2012-01-12
Mark J. Perry
mortgage rates

2012-01-12
William L. Anderson
Jonathan Macey teaches Krugman about private equity
"Krugman...wants us to believe...that government creates prosperity by spending, while businesses create recessions by becoming more efficient and by employing more capital...   wants us to believe is that companies like Bain Capital would target successful, healthy, profitable firms, purchase them, and then make money either by running them into bankruptcy and then selling their assets.   Now, perhaps at Princeton University, they teach that firm owners become wealthy by driving their firms into insolvency, but I would like to know how the market value of a company would INCREASE when it is careening into failure...   Yale law professor Jonathan Macey explains how the private equity system actually works...   a firm like Bain Capital purchases a firm that is under-performing relative to similar companies, restructures it, and then sells it.   In order to profit, the private equity firm must be able to sell the firm (or its assets) for more than it paid for the company at the beginning.   Some common sense is in order, as Macey notes.   A company cannot purchase a healthy company, run it into the ground, and then sell it for more than for the purchase price...   If the Bain Capitals of the world are going to make profits, then they have to sell businesses or their assets (or both) for more than what they paid for the company, and they are NOT going to be able do that by looting a company."

2012-01-12 (5772 Tebet 17)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
land-mark Supremes' ruling is a resounding win for religious groups

2012-01-12 (5772 Tebet 17)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
supremes say no to new rule on eye-witness testimony

2012-01-12 (5772 Tebet 17)
Ken Dilanian & David S. Cloud _Jewish World Review_
CIA and 15 other US intelligence agencies warn Obummer against leaving Afghanistan too soon

2012-01-12 (5772 Tebet 17)
Katy Hopkins _Jewish World Review_
make sure you know costs/financing arrangements before committing to an on-line degree program
"Tackling how you'll pay for an on-line degree can be as tricky as trying to fund a traditional degree.   A study in 2008 by the Babson Survey Research Group found that online students pay largely the same amount in tuition and fees as on-campus learners, and traditional forms of paying for college, such as scholarships, can be scarcer for distance learners...   keep these factors in mind: Tuition... Fees... Employer reimbursement... Program amenities... Loans... Scholarships and grants... The big picture..."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-13

2012-01-13
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
new research claims H-1Bs not under-paid
 
Recently a couple of people have called my attention to a study released by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC): H-1bs: How Do They Stack Up to US Born Workers? by Magnus Lofstrom and Joseph J. Hayes.   I believe it will be heavily circulated by the industry lobbyists, and widely quoted by the press.
 
You can download the paper at
 
Here's the abstract:
 
Combining unique individual level H-1B data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and data from the 2009 American Community Survey, we analyze earnings differences between H-1B visa holders and US born workers in STEM occupations.   The data indicate that H-1Bs are younger and more skilled, as measured by education, than US born workers in the same occupations.   We fail to find support for the notion that H-1Bs are paid less that observationally similar US born workers; in fact, they appear to have higher earnings in some key STEM occupations, including information technology.
 
Most major think tanks have an ideological bent of some kind, which in PPIC's case is [leftist] Democratic. No problem for me, as I myself am in that camp, but in the case of skilled immigration PPIC has a rather hidden source of potential bias: PPIC is funded by the Hewlett family -- as in Hewlett-Packard.   Moreover, much of PPIC's endowment consists of Hewlett-Packard stock.   See _The Role and Impact of the Public Policy Institute of California: An Operating Foundation as Think Tank_, David W. Lyon, presented to the PPIC Board of Directors at its quarterly meeting, 2004 March 4.
 
PPIC has under-written various pro-industry studies by UCB's AnnaLee Saxenian.   PPIC's Julian Betts has written in favor of expanding H-1B (San Diego Union Tribune, 2000 November 22), and so on.
 
Not surprisingly then, the paper by Lofstrom and Hayes concludes that those of us who've been doing research showing that the H-1Bs are under-paid have been wrong all these years.   They're not under-paid, claim the authors, and in fact the H-1Bs may actually be paid more than the Americans.
 
Also not surprisingly, I will be very critical of this study in my posting here.   The authors clearly have not done their home-work.   They have a number of their important facts wrong, often because they apparently haven't actually read the research papers they cite.   Then in terms of analysis, they make the same methodological errors that are so common in this little niche of labor economics.
 
Here's an outline of what I will say below:
 
1.   The authors have their important facts wrong, ranging from their incorrect descriptions of previous research findings to inaccurate descriptions of the H-1B visa itself.
 
2.   The authors' statistical analyses are based on an inadequate understand of the nature of the labor markets in question.
 
3.   Though the authors cite two of my research papers several times, they miss my major point, well familiar to readers of this e-newsletter: The primary way that employers use the H-1B program as cheap labor is to hire younger, thus cheaper, H-1Bs in lieu of older (35+), thus more expensive Americans.   Indeed, they mention repeatedly that the H-1Bs are quite a bit younger than the Americans, without realizing that THAT is the primary way that H-1B provides employers with cheap labor.
 
The details follow.
 
I believe the authors have misinterpreted the work of several authors, but I'll limit my comments here to what they wrote about my own research.   They cited my 2003 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform article (pdf) about H-1B in general, and my 2008 article for CIS analyzing whether the foreign workers are "the best and the brightest".
 
The authors say,
 
Matloff (2008) boldly states that these workers are not "the best and the brightest", a conclusion with which Hira (2007) concurs.   The primary evidence of these contentions has been lower wages among H-1B workers compared to U.S. born workers.
 
This is the exact opposite of what I say in that 2008 paper.   Instead, I say, look, for the sake of argument, let's assume the industry is CORRECT in claiming it doesn't under-pay H-1Bs.   Then if the industry is also right in saying that the H-1Bs tend to be the best and the brightest, then these workers should be making well above the average for their professions (adjusted for region, length of experience etc.).   Then I show that that is not the case.   IOW, again assuming the H-1Bs are NOT under-paid, the data show that they are not generally "the best and the brightest".
 
The authors then claim that my analyses don't adjust for age and education.   On the contrary, these 2 variables play a central role in most of my work.   Technically, the authors make this claim only about my 2008 paper, but since they did cite my 2003 paper, the reader gets the impression that my analyses don't take these variables into account, which is false.   And my 2008 paper takes years of experience into account, similar to age, and takes the education variable into account in more complex way.
 
The authors also claim that my 2008 paper concerns H-1Bs at the time they first arrive in the U.S.A., which is also false.   My paper is actually about employer-sponsored green card applications, not H-1Bs per se, and most of these applicants have been around for a few years.
 
To me the most outrageous lapse here is that the authors, allegedly having read my work, do not know my central point, which as noted above, is that the primary way that employers use the H-1B program as cheap labor is to hire younger, thus cheaper, H-1Bs in lieu of older (35+), thus more expensive Americans.  
 
As many of you will recall, I distinguish between Type I salary savings -- hiring H-1Bs at lower wages than comparable Americans would get -- and Type II salary savings, hiring young H-1Bs instead of more established Americans.   In my work I've shown that while employers can save money via Type I, the Type II savings are much larger.   As I've often said more succinctly, "H-1B is about age."
 
The authors, in pointing that the H-1Bs are younger -- about 10 years, they say for IT -- and in recognizing, correctly, that younger means cheaper, are unwittingly making my point for me: Employers save a bundle by hiring the H-1Bs, because they're younger and thus cheaper.   That's H-1B in a nut-shell.
 
The authors state, "For an H-1B visa to be approved, the US Department of Labor (DoL) must certify that the intended foreign worker does not displace...US workers", again, completely false except for the minuscule H-1B-dependent subcategory.
 
The authors fall into the same traps so many others have fallen into.   They break their analyses down into occupation groups, which is good, but don't understand the specialized labor markets.   One of their job categories is IT.  
 
My frequently-expressed complaints about economists -- as usual, my apologies to the economists on this list -- is that even though someone is a great number cruncher, their crunching can be meaningless (or worse, misleading) if they don't know WHICH numbers to crunch and what the numbers MEAN.   In studies of H-1B (whether they support H-1B or are critical of it) in the IT area -- by far the largest H-1B occupation -- this problem is quite acute.
 
The problem is that IT is much too broad a term, including many jobs that are not the types taken by H-1Bs.   Such jobs are generally of the technician type, which pay less.   That results in a built-in downward bias for the American salaries relative to those of the H-1Bs; in other words, the H-1Bs misleadingly look like they're doing well compared to the Americans, misleadingly so because they're working in different jobs from the Americans.   This is the same central problem with the 2003 Zavodny study that I've discussed before.
 
It is for this reason that in my H-1B analyses, I stick to the job market I know well, that is for programmers, software engineers and electrical engineers.   So for instance I do NOT analyze H-1B mathematicians, as I don't know that market, which has huge salary disparities due to the fact that many mathematicians now work as "quants" on Wall Street.   The authors of this study presumably don't know any of these market sectors sufficiently well to avoid the pit-falls.
 
Region is important, as wages are much higher in some regions than authors, and the H-1Bs are disproportionately in the high-wage areas.   In my case, I've always addressed that issue, either by limiting to Silicon Valley, or by using the green card data (which is adjusted by region), or by using a region variable in my regressions.
 
The authors understand this point, and lament the fact that their primary data does not include information on region.   They try to remedy that by doing a small supplementary analysis using the ACS data, but do not supply the details.   They do say that this analysis narrows the gaps they found previously between H-1B and native wages, to about 2-4%.   But without knowing exactly what they did, I can't comment.
 
What also always surprises me about economists is that they often fail to understand how basic economic principles show that the H-1Bs actually MUST be under-paid on average:
 
a.   After they're hired, the H-1Bs have limited mobility in the labor market, and if they're being sponsored for a green card, they have essentially NO mobility.   If you can't move around in the labor market, then you can't have employers bid against each other for your services.   IOW, you can't swing as good a deal for yourself as you would if you were a citizen or permanent resident -- so the H-1Bs are on average under-paid.
 
b.   The H-1Bs are getting very large non-monetary compensation, either in the form of a green card, or if they wish to go home, in the form of a U.S. work experience.   They are thus willing to work for less (have a lower "reservation wage", in economics terminology).   It's just like you and I might take a lower wage if the job had a shorter commute or it offered onsite child care, say.
 
c.   Advanced degrees, special technological skill sets and the like command a salary premium on the open market.   The employers claim they hire the H-1Bs for these special qualities.   Yet the government prevailing wage does NOT take these into account.   Therefore the law allows employers to under-pay H-1Bs relative to their worth.   Furthermore, the data show that most of the foreign workers make either the prevailing wage or just a bit higher, so most actually ARE under-paid.
 
None of these considerations shows up in the PPIC study, which for this and the above reasons is simply not a useful contribution to the H-1B debate.
 
Norm
---30---

2012-01-13 07:44PST (10:44EST) (15:44GMT) (17:44Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantel _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index increased from 69.9 in late December to 74 for early January
St. Louis Fed

2012-01-13 09:39:41PST (12:39:41EST) (17:39:41GMT) (19:39:41Jerusalem)
Patrick May, John Boudreau & Jeremy C. Owens _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Apple allows independent monitoring of Asian suppliers' factories
"released a list of its suppliers and said it would allow independent third-party monitoring of its vendors.   As the first technology company to join the Fair Labor Association, a multi-national organization that seeks to improve working conditions and protect workers' rights, Apple's making a move to address -- and it hopes disarm -- international criticism of the factory conditions in which workers make its gadgets.   But the decision to come cleaner also under-scores the challenges multi-national companies face as they try to protect their brands against abuses by suppliers who are difficult to police.   In an interview Friday, newly minted CEO Tim Cook said Apple's vow to double the number of audits along its sprawling supply chain is 'raising the bar' for the entire tech industry, and that more change is on the way...   The most dramatic part of Friday's news was that Apple will allow independent auditors from the Fair Labor Association inside the nearly impenetrable fortresses of some of its suppliers.   The fair-labor group was created in 1999 by the apparel industry [executives] to confront complaints about worker abuses in over-seas factories where American companies were moving much of their manufacturing jobs...   To be sure, simply opening its vendors' operations to unbiased parties won't guarantee major improvements in working conditions in countries where child labor and other controversial workplace practices are commonplace.   'Apple has always been pretty much above board, and they've tried to monitor their suppliers pretty judiciously.', said Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies in Campbell.   'Having said that, they don't have total control over everything at these facilities.   So things like hiring under-age workers, whether it's in [Red China], India or South America, do happen.   It's not good, but it's more culturally common in some places than others.'...   As part of the announcement, Apple unveiled an updated web-site devoted to its efforts to ensure its suppliers adhere to the rules Apple has established for the work-place.   Along with the list of 156 suppliers, which represent 97% of what the company spends on materials, manufacturing and product assembly worldwide, the company's 2012 Progress Report is included.   Apple said it conducted 229 audits last year, representing an 80 percent increase over 2010.   From 2007-2010 the company conducted only 288 total audits.   It said it looked at all levels of its supply chain, including final assembly and component suppliers.   The probe discovered a number of violations, including breaches in pay, benefits and environmental practices in plants in [Red China].   Apple said it found 6 active and 13 historical cases of under-age labor at some component suppliers but did not find any under-age workers at its final assembly suppliers."

2012-01-13
Joe Guzzardi _Californians for Population Stabilization_
H-1B holders want US teachers' jobs

2012-01-13 11:56PST (14:56EST) (19:56GMT) (21:56Jerusalem)
_Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Aegis Communications Group dumped 76 bodies shopped

2012-01-13
Susan Cain _NYTimes_
group-think vs. creativity
"Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption.   And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist.   They're extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic.   They're not joiners by nature.   One explanation for these findings is that introverts are comfortable working alone -- and solitude is a catalyst to innovation.   As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck observed, introversion fosters creativity by 'concentrating the mind on the tasks in hand, and preventing the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work'.   In other words, a person sitting quietly under a tree in the backyard, while everyone else is clinking glasses on the patio, is more likely to have an apple land on his head.   (Newton was one of the world's great introverts: William Wordsworth described him as 'A mind for ever/ Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.')   Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence.   'Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.', Picasso said.   A central narrative of many religions is the seeker -- Moses, Jesus, Buddha -- who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community.   Culturally, we're often so dazzled by charisma that we overlook the quiet part of the creative process.   Consider Apple.   In the wake of Steve Jobs's death, we've seen a profusion of myths about the company's success.   Most focus on Mr. Jobs's super-natural magnetism and tend to ignore the other crucial figure in Apple's creation: a kindly, introverted engineering wizard, Steve Wozniak, who toiled alone on a beloved invention, the personal computer.   Rewind to 1975 March: Mr. Wozniak believes the world would be a better place if everyone had a user-friendly computer...   But it's also a story of solo spirit.   If you look at how Mr. Wozniak got the work done -- the sheer hard work of creating something from nothing -- he did it alone.   Late at night, all by himself."

2012-01-13
Katherine Rowland _Nature_
incurable TB emerging in India
Maryn McKenna: Wired
Andy Coghlan: New Scientist
Globe and Mail
"Physicians in India have identified a form of incurable tuberculosis there, raising further concerns over increasing drug resistance to the disease.   Although reports call this latest form a new entity, researchers suggest that it is instead another development in a long-standing problem...   As of last spring, according to the WHO, there were about 440K cases of MDR-TB per year, accounting for 150K deaths, and 25K cases of XDR.   At the time, the WHO predicted there would be 2M MDR or XDR cases in the word by 2012."
US CDCP: Trends in Tuberculosis incidence

2012-01-13
Mark J. Perry
treasures beneath our feet

2012-01-013
Mark J. Perry
natural gas spot prices

2012-01-13
Mark J. Perry
petroleum products and fuel oil led US exports in November; does this mean the USA gets to join OPEC?

2012-01-13
Douglas A. McIntyre _24/7 Wall Street_
10 most-hated companies in USA

2012-01-13
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
US government immigration policy often rewards failure
"In labor markets, if the employer's wage-and-benefits offer is not robust enough to get the workers he wants in the U.S.A., that employer can turn to an alphabet soup of nonimmigrant worker programs that will give him the workers he wants, generally at below-market wage levels.   There's the J-1 program for universities and, as my colleague Jerry Kammer points out, for summertime jobs.   There's the H-1B program for the high tech types, H-2A for growers looking for hand-harvest workers, Q-1 for Disney, and R-1 for lesser churches (the major denominations do not need the program.)   And so on.   That's where various kinds of failing employers get the workers they want, while ignoring available resident workers.   In the investment market, as we have pointed out in several blogs, if no Stateside investor will put money into your casino or real estate scheme, you can, despite your failure in the domestic market, always go overseas with the EB-5 program for immigrant investors.   The aliens will put up half a million each without too much hope for a profit if they can get green cards for themselves and their family as a result of the investment.   USCIS, of course, does not worry if the project itself is a failure...   the K-1 visa; it is designed to bring fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens to America for marriage purposes.   USCIS has only recently begun to demand a little proof of one of its own requirements -- think of this -- that the couple has actually laid eyes on each other on at least one occasion in the last two years."
 
Proposed Bills 2012

2012-01-13

DJIA	12,422.06
S&P 500(SPX)	1,289.09
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,710.67
Nikkei	8,500.02
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	1.93
crude oil(CL2G)	$98.70/barrel
natgas(NG12G)	$2.68/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB2G)	$2.734/gal
heatingoil(HO2G)	$3.03/gal
gold(GC2G)	$1,630.80/ounce
silver(S12H)	$29.52/ounce
platinum(PL2J)	$1,488.80/ounce
palladium(PA2H)	$635.05/ounce
copper(HG2G)	$0.2275/ounce
soybeans	$11.525/bushel
maize	$5.99/bushel
wheat	$6.0225/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)	81.459
yenperdollar (USDYEN)	76.97
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)	$1.2677
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)	$1.5316
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF)	0.9575
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR)	51.425
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN)	13.597
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	610.22

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2012-01-14

2012-01-14
David Holthaus _Cincinnati OH Enquirer_/_Gannett_
When governments offer tax breaks for jobs, half of businesses fall short
"More than 3 years ago, 150 business and government leaders, including then-governor Ted Strickland, gathered in Milford to celebrate the promise of new, high-paying jobs from one of the richest companies in India's growing economy, Tata.   Tata had promised to create 1K high-paying jobs in Clermont county, enticed by up to $21.5M in state and local tax breaks and grants.   Today, Tata employs just 269 people in Clermont, yet has collected $4.8M in public benefits, state records show.   The outcome isn't unusual.   An Enquirer analysis of the region's 40 largest tax-incentive deals over the past decade found that only half created the number of jobs they promised, yet the companies claimed tens of millions in tax breaks and grants.   In Southwest Ohio, 12 of the 20 largest projects failed to meet hiring commitments -- 4 even closed down and moved out.   Only 4,804 jobs were created out of 6,534 promised.   In return, Ohio has awarded tax breaks worth at least $19M to the 20.   In Northern Kentucky, 8 of the 20 largest job-creation projects failed to meet hiring commitments.   The state won't disclose the amount of tax dollars paid to companies that signed incentive deals before 2009, citing confidentiality of tax returns.   Overall, 4,213 jobs were promised and 5,779 were delivered, because big employers including Citicorp and Toyota beat their job targets by wide margins...   Economic development officials say they're often reluctant to go after companies that haven't met job targets.   The Tata project was highly touted when it was announced in 2007 September.   Tata Consultancy Services, based in Mumbai, India, reported a profit of $2G last year developing software and maintaining computer networks for other companies.   State, local and company officials all said Tata's new North American head-quarters in Clermont County would bring 1K information technology jobs, making it one of the largest employers in the region.   To win the project -- Kentucky, Arizona and Minnesota also were bidding -- the state and county assembled an aggressive package of tax breaks.   It included a job creation tax credit equal to 90% of the income tax due on new hires, a percentage much higher than found in most incentive deals.   That tax break alone is worth up to $15.5M over 8 years; so far, Tata has received $617K, according to the Ohio Department of Development.   Ohio officials also gave Tata $2.5M to help it buy a facility at the Ridgewood Corporate Center, and another $1.7M worth of training to help Tata hire people with the skills they need.   Clermont County officials agreed, too, to provide up to $1.8M in road work on U.S. 50 to handle the expected influx of hundreds of new workers.   Tata executives signed a contract agreeing to create 1K jobs in 3 years [and they're still refusing to say how many of the few people they have hired are US citizens]." 645

40 largest tax beaks this decade

company	new jobs committed	new jobs created	est. maximum incentive	tax/credits awarded
Tata	1,000	269	$15,500,000	$616,764
Total Quality Logistics	250	524	$4,200,000	$1,281,748
LabAlliance	400	0	$4,100,000	$0
Cincinnati Financial	505	73	$3,900,000	$1,255,730
SUMCO USA	260	0	$3,000,000	$484,031
Dell
483	$2,900,000	$50
Humana Pharmacy	300	377	$2,500,000	$789,209
Clopay	480	214	$2,200,000	$225,461
ABX Air	335	0	$3,871,410	$68,902
Advics	140	329	na	$1,796,115
BAE Systems	700	127	$485,067	$1,054,416
Batavia Transmission	75	0	$2,602,179	$1,327,111
Convergys (formerly CBIS)	195	0	na	$330,613
Dunnhumby	206	418	$10,885,806	$1,523,552
Kroger	281	846	$5,062,240	$5,062,240
LensCrafters	265	794	na	$644,232
CitiCorp	569	1,143	$26,735,150	na

WikiPedia: Convergys is a privacy-violation firm derived from the Cincinnati Bell local government-enforced monopoly and its privacy-violation arm, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, together with MATRIXX/AT&T Solutions Customer Care/AT&T Transtech, DigitalThink, Intervoice, Datacom call center operations, Stream Global Services; with subsidiary operations including Infinys Rating and Billing (IRB), Dynamic Decisioning Solution (DDS), ICOMS, Customer Management Solutions

2012-01-14
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Looking at Lee-Jackson Day from another angle
"Lee and Jackson had something quite interesting in common, in that they had sisters who were devout Unionists.   I've touched briefly on Jackson's sister, Laura Jackson Arnold, before… of course it's interesting that her Unionism even impacted the relationship with her husband, Jonathan Arnold.   Anne Kinloch Lee Marshall, a sister of Robert E. Lee, was also a Unionist...and it was quite clear to the future Confederate general, as he prepared a letter to his sister informing of his decision to resign from the U.S. Army...   Anne's son, Louis Henry Marshall...was a graduate of West Point (1849), and spent his early years in 'Indian Territory'.   During his time there, he married Florence Murray Burke, at Ft. Washita, in 1854...   Louis just missed getting 'bagged' by his first cousin, Rooney Lee, during the Second Manassas campaign."

2012-01-14
Mark J. Perry
natural gas futures prices
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-15

2012-01-15
Don Baldwin _Washington DC Times_/_AP_
defendant in fatal hit-and-run jumped bail, fueling objections to Chicago's sanctuary policies for illegal aliens
"Controversy over a Cook county IL, ordinance that forbids the sheriff from notifying federal officials when they're about to release suspected illegal immigrants from jail is heating up after a suspect charged in a fatal hit-and-run posted bail and disappeared.   Amid reports that Saul Chavez, an illegal immigrant, hasn't been seen since late last year when his family posted bail, the nation's top immigration official and the board president of the county that includes Chicago have squared off with dueling statements about the ordinance passed last September.   'This ordinance undermines public safety in Cook County and hinders [the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's] ability to enforce the nation's immigration laws.', wrote the agency's director, John Morton, in a letter to County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.   'In addition to undermining local public safety, the ordinance may also violate federal law.'"

2012-01-15 12:25PST (15:25EST) (20:25GMT) (22:25Jerusalem)
Roy Beck _Numbers USA_
Santorum shifts, now says he opposes chain immigration and visa lottery

2012-01-15
Mark J. Perry
12 "clean energies" received $6.5G in tax-victim money... and all are in financial trouble

2012-01-15
Nicole Gelinas _NY Post_
A man's home is the government's castle in NY
"New York City and state regulate the rents of 982K apartments -- half the city's rental homes...   New York controls this 'market' because, they say, there's a housing 'emergency'.   The emergency is that everyone on the planet wants to live here, and only so many people fit.   With a few gaps in time, this 'emergency' dates back to just after World War I, when rents soared for returning veterans.   The system is terrible, economically and socially.   Price controls limit supply and favor those who got there first.   In 2011, someone moving into an unregulated Manhattan apartment paid an average $3,309, because of tight supply; the vacancy rate was less than 1%.   In 2008, the last year for which the city has full data, an unregulated Manhattan apartment went for an average $2,500, nearly twice the $1,300 regulated rate.   Good luck getting one of those cheaper apartments.   In 2008, 40% of rent-regulated tenants had lived in their apartments for a decade or more, compared to 17% of market-rate tenants."

2012-01-15
Sopan Deb _Made in USA News_
The United States of America may be on the verge of bringing back manufacturing jobs from Red China
legit beat
med help
Current
Plant Engineering
Industry Today
Enterprise Efficiency
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-16

2012-01-16
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_
Area median home price down 5.4% from 2010, to $155K

2012-01-16
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Is harmful era of La Racist Studies finally over in Tucson public schools?
"One of the text-books which has been used in Raza Studies is entitled _Occupied America_, which was written by Rodolfo Acuña and includes a speech given by activist and university professor Jose Angel Gutierrez in which he says: 'We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him...' (pg. 323).   The book also talks about the need for Mexico to re-take seven states in the Southwestern United States, often referred to as 'Aztlan'.   The following rather shocking quotes are taken directly from Occupied America (pg. 167): 'Supporters would execute all white males over age 16...' (also known as the Plan of San Diego).   'The Southwest would become a Chicano nation.'   In 2011 May, the woman who can easily be credited for exposing the hatred being taught in Tucson's public schools, Laura Leighton, attended a TUSD school board meeting and read excerpts from several books being used to teach children as young as 9-years-old.   Leighton read: 'Hard drugs and drug culture is an invention of the gringo because he has no culture.'   'We have to destroy capitalism and we have to help 5/6 of the world to destroy capitalism in order to equal all peoples' lives.'   'The Declaration of Independence states that we the people have the right to revolution...the right to over-rule the government...'   'Any country based on capitalism is based on greed...'"

2012-01-16
Robert Talbert _Chronicle of Higher Education_
So you want to learn to program?

2012-01-16
Anthony Watts
La Nina correlation with influenza pandemics

2012-01-16
Anthony Watts & Mathias Aare Maehlum
Zinc-air batteries

2012-01-16
Mark J. Perry
unconstitutional Medicare bureaucracy set 6G prices: Is there any chance those are the right prices? No!

2012-01-16
Mark J. Perry
dental cartel objects to competition from dental therapists

2012-01-16
Mark J. Perry
trade between USA & Red China

2012-01-16
William L. Anderson
Keynesian insanity WRT savings

2012-01-16
Suzanne Lucas _CBS_
Are teachers over-paid or under-paid?
"'...on average, public-school teachers receive total compensation that is roughly 50% higher than [150% of] what they would receive in private-sector employment.   While salaries are at appropriate levels, fringe benefits push teacher compensation far ahead of what private-sector workers enjoy.   Consequently, recruiting more effective teachers for public schools will be much more difficult than simply raising salaries.'...   Now, while money doesn't actually do a great deal towards motivating people on cognitive tasks, the same studies show that people need a minimum level of money to be willing to participate at all.   And what that minimum level is varies from person to person.   I, for instance, would need about $150K and a guaranteed massage therapist after work in order to teach first grade...but I'm not showing up for the $55K average Pennsylvania teacher's salary...   'Research over the years has indicated that education majors, who enter college with the lowest average SAT scores, leave with the highest grades.   Some of academic evidence documenting easy A's for future teachers goes back more than 50 years!'...   we want people with better skill sets in the class-room.   If we want better performance, we shouldn't be looking at people who are similar to current teachers.   We should be looking for people who are better.   And that will require, among other things, recruiting people who could make more money in the private sector."

2012-01-16
Margaret Heffernan _CBS_
Most managers are ineffective and inefficient
"That's what academics Heike Bruch and the late Sumantra Ghoshal discovered when they investigated what they called 'decisive purposeful action'.   Most companies, far from being hives of busy, effective executives, could instead be seen as 'a few isolated islands of action amid an ocean of inaction'...   'Only about 10% of the managers took purposeful action.'   The remainder were busy, just not very effective: 40% were energetic but unfocused; 30% had low energy, little focus and tended to procrastinate; and 10% were focused, but not very energetic...   There's a high likelihood they started out in the energetic 40% cohort but became disillusioned and disengaged by their inability to have an impact.   Your best hope is that galvanizing the 40% creates enough draw within the organization that the best of these get swept along.   I don't really worry about the focused but less effective 10%.   In my experience, focus is always valuable, even if it's slow."

2012-01-16
_Independent_
Mass graves discovered at site of Treblinka death camp
"Some 800K Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War...   'I've identified a number of buried pits using geophysical techniques.   These are considerable in size, and very deep, one in particular is 26 by 17 metres.'"
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-17

2012-01-17
Mark J. Perry
Gallup unemployment poll
"Gallup's unemployment and underemployment measures show modest improvement so far in January..."

2012-01-17 13:43PST (16:43EST) (21:43GMT) (23:43Jerusalem)
_MarketWatch_/_MarketWire_
Judicial Watch has filed a brief in Louisiana v. Bryson over whether/how illegal aliens should be accounted for when it comes to redistricting
"Amici are concerned about the failure to enforce the nation's immigration laws and the corrosive effect of this failure on our institutions and the rule of law.   Among the problems caused by this failure is a redistribution of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to States with large populations of unlawfully present aliens...   due to this Census Bureau policy at least 5 states will lose House seats to which they are entitled.   For example, based upon the Census Bureau's calculation, Louisiana is being allocated only six House seats, as opposed to the seven that it would have been apportioned, were it not for the inclusion of illegal aliens and 'non-immigrant foreign nationals', encompassing holders of student visas and guest workers.   The brief also notes that the 'apportionment, in turn, determines the apportionment of electors in the Electoral College for the next 3 presidential elections'."

2012-01-17
Isaac Sweeney _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Cheating is hard work

2012-01-17
Peter Hannaford _American Spectator_
Dead people and other voters

2012-01-17
Lynn O'Shaughnessy _CBS_
unemployment rates by university major (with table, parts of which appears here)

major	recent grads	experienced	grad degree
science	7.7%	4.7%	2.2%
architecture	13.9%	9.2%	7.7%
liberal arts	9.4%	6.7%	3.9%
CS + math	8.2%	5.6%	4.1%
educationism	5.4%	3.9%	1.9%
engineering	7.5%	4.9%	3.4%
bidness	7.4%	5.3%	4.4%

2012-01-17 (5772 Tebet 22)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
An ignored "disparity" part 1 of 4
"In a market economy, people pay us for benefiting them in some way -- whether we are sweeping their floors, selling them diamonds or anything in between.   Disparities in our ability to create benefits for which others will pay us are huge, and the skills required can develop early -- or sometimes not at all...   Gross inequalities in skills and achievements have been the rule, not the exception, on every inhabited continent and for centuries on end.   Yet our laws and government policies act as if any significant statistical difference between racial or ethnic groups in employment or income can only be a result of their being treated differently by others.   Nor is this simply an opinion.   Businesses have been sued by the government when the representation of different groups among their employees differs substantially from their proportions in the population at large.   But, no matter how the human race is broken down into its components -- whether by race, sex, geographic region or whatever -- glaring disparities in achievements have been the rule, not the exception...   China was once far more advanced technologically than any country in Europe, but then [after a bout of excessive government spending] it fell behind and more recently is gaining ground...   Yet these and numerous other disparities in achievement are resolutely ignored by those whose shrill voices denounce disparities in rewards, as if these disparities are somehow suspicious at best and sinister at worst.   Higher achieving groups -- whether classes, races or whatever -- are often blamed for the failure of other groups to achieve.   Politicians and intellectuals, especially, tend to conceive of social questions in terms that allow them to take on the role of being on the side of the angels against the forces of evil.   This can be a huge disservice to those individuals and groups who are lagging behind, for it leads them to focus on a sense of grievance and victimhood, rather than on how they can lift themselves up instead of trying to pull other people down."

2012-01-17 (5772 Tebet 22)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Presidential non-sense
"Last week, president Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fund-raising event, told the crowd, 'We can't go back to this brand of you're-on-your-own economics.'   Throughout my professional career as an economist, I've never come across the theory of 'you're-on-your-own economics'.   I'm guessing what the president means by -- and finds offensive in -- 'you're-on-your-own economics' is that it's a system in which people are held responsible for their actions, that they take risks and must live with the results, that people can't force others to pay for their mistakes, and that they can't live at the expense of other people.   President Obama's vision was shared by our Pilgrim Fathers of the Plymouth Colony in modern-day Massachusetts.   They established a communist system.   They all farmed together, and whatever they produced was put in a common store-house.   A certain amount of food was rationed to each person regardless of his contribution to the work.   Many Pilgrims complained that they were too weak from hunger to do their share of the work.   As deeply religious as the Pilgrims were, they took to stealing from one another.   Governor William Bradford, writing his history of the colony in 'Of Plymouth Plantation', said, 'So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue, the next year also if not some way prevented.'   In 1623, after much debate, a new system was set up, in which every family was assigned a parcel of land, and whatever they produced belonged to the family.   Governor Bradford then observed, 'The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.'   After governor Bradford's establishment of what Obama calls 'you're-on-your-own economics', harvests were so bountiful that Bradford is credited with establishing what we now call Thanksgiving.   There are several seemingly immutable, hard-wired characteristics about humans that [leftists] find difficult to deal with and would like to change.   People tend to work harder and produce more when they own what they produce.   Property is better cared for when it is privately owned.   People love to exchange, what Adam Smith called a 'propensity to truck (and) barter'.   To suppress these characteristics requires brute force."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-18

2012-01-18 08:40PST (11:40EST) (16:40GMT) (18:40Jerusalem)
Daniel Wagner _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Federal Reserve says factory output was up 0.9% in December, still 8% below 2007 peaklet

2012-01-18
Allison M. Vaillancourt _Chronicle of Higher Education_
When you've got something to hide

2012-01-18
_Billings MT Gazette_/_AP_
Obummer blocking Keystone XL pipe-line (with maps)

2012-01-18
senator Marco Rubio
A better way to fight theft of intellectual property and jobs

2012-01-18
Robert Gebeloff & Shaila Dewan _NY Times_
college majors of those within the top income percentile (with table)
Tampa Bay Times
Builder
National Review
"Health and Medical Preparatory Programs: 142,345, 11.8% of them are in the top income percentile; and they constitute 0.9% of all those in the top percentile. Economics: 1,237,863, 8.2% of them are in the top income percentile; and they constitute 5.4% of all those in the top percentile... Biology; 1,864,666, 6.7% of them are in the top income percentile; and they constitute 6.6% of all those in the top percentile... Political Science and Government: 1,427,224, 6.2% of them are in the top income percentile; and they constitute 4.7% of all those in the top income percentile..."

2012-01-18
Mark J. Perry
containers exported vie port of Los Angeles CA

2012-01-18
Mark J. Perry
natural gas production and prices

2012-01-18
Mark J. Perry
auto production up, boosting employment and local economies

2012-01-18
William L. Anderson
Kwazy Krugman says higher taxes on investment income will encourage more investment

2012-01-18 (5772 Tebet 23)
Ed Koch _Jewish World Review_
Why the crocodile tears, Hillary?
"Recognizing that Iran and its leaders are a grave danger to the world, why would anyone be distressed at the killing of an Iranian scientist who was working to create a nuclear bomb?   Iran now has ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe.   Long ago, Iran developed the rockets needed to reach Israel, with which it is in a declared state of war.   Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated many times the he intends to destroy the state of Israel.   Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, believing his country also is in danger of being nuclear bombed by Iran, according to a Reuters report of 2010 November 28, 'repeatedly exhorted the United States to cut off the head of the snake by launching military strikes to destroy Iran's nuclear program, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables'.   Iran has now publicly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of the world's oil supply has to travel to be delivered from the Persian Gulf to Japan and the Western world."

2012-01-18 (5772 Tebet 23)
George Friedman _Jewish World Review_/_StratFor_
Iran, the USA and the Strait of Hormuz crisis

2012-01-18 (5772 Tebet 23)
Alex M. Parker _Jewish World Review_
congressional district contests the main-stream media are not covering

2012-01-18 (5772 Tebet 23)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
An ignored "disparity" part 2 of 4
"When institutions of higher learning turn out highly qualified doctors, scientists, engineers and others with skills that can raise the standard of living of a whole society and make possible a better and longer life, the benefits are obvious. What is not so obvious, but is painfully true nonetheless, is that colleges and universities can also turn out vast numbers of people with credentials, but with no marketable skills with which to fulfill their expectations. There is nothing magic about simply being in ivy-covered buildings for 4 years... A decade after graduation, people whose degrees were in a hard field like engineering earned twice as much as people whose degrees were in the ultimate soft field, education [but 19 years after graduation nearly 80% of such hard majors are unemployed]. Nor is a degree from a prestigious institution a guarantee of a big pay-off, especially not for those who failed to specialize in subjects that would give them skills valued in the real world."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-19

2012-01-19 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 521,613 in the week ending January 14, a decrease of 124,606 from the previous week.   There were 549,688 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.2% during the week ending January 7, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,076,626, a decrease of 84,257 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.7% and the volume was 4,652,805.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending December 31 was 7,826,665, an increase of 493,566 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending December 31.   States reported 3,026,855 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending December 31, an increase of 100,179 from the prior week.   There were 3,719,607 claimants in the comparable week in 2011.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02;
to 126,188,733 beginning 2011-10-01.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2012-01-19 07:00PST (10:00EST) (15:00GMT) (17:00Jerusalem)
Duane Marsetller _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_Scripps_
TN's "job-creation" subsidies lack scrutiny
Tennessean/Gannett
"Tennessee doesn't require those receiving job tax credits to report their outcomes, the study said.   Nor does the state independently verify claims made by those receiving FastTrack job-training assistance, the headquarters tax credit or even sales-tax credits for a qualifying facility in an emerging industry.   The law that created the Tennessee Job Skills program, which awards job-training grants, does not contain any penalties for those who don't meet requirements, the study said.   The group said the program's administrator was 'unwilling' to answer its questions about the program...   Good Jobs First, a Washington, DC-based research group, said 10% of the 238 major state-level economic-incentive programs it studied nationwide did not require companies to report on job creation or other out-comes.   Many more had 'seriously deficient' monitoring of recipients, the group said."

2012-01-19
Joe Bastardi
Global temperatures in a crash as warmists crash the economy

2012-01-19
_KGO San Francisco CA_/_AP_
Apple starts sale of interactive text-book for the iPad
Kathleen Fitzpatrick: Chronicle of Higher Education
Jeffrey R. Young: Chronicle of Higher Education
Ed Bott: Ziff Davis/CBS: "Apple's mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement"

2012-01-19 12:19PST (15:19EST) (20:19GMT) (22:19Jerusalem)
_MarketWatch_/_MarketWire_/_Judicial Watch_
Poll shows strong dissatisfaction with DC

2012-01-19
Tom Nelson
Michael Mann: "So far, we've simply deleted all of the attempts...to draw attention to this at RealClimate."

2012-01-19
Darshan Patel _Daily Illini_
Tuition hike approved for U of IL
David Mercer: Boston MA Globe/AP
"The U of IL will raise tuition for incoming students at its three campuses next school year by 4.8%.   [When other fee increases are included] the average annual cost of a year at the university will rise to $24,206 in Urbana-Champaign, $21,162 in Chicago and, Springfield, $20,743."

2012-01-19
Phyllis Schlafly _Moral Liberal_
Public schools abuse visa programs to import foreign teachers when there are plenty of US teachers
"During 2010, the Department of Labor certified 13,157 foreign workers to teach classes in elementary schools and high schools. These foreign workers come into America on H-1B visas, and they are assigned to all kinds of public school classes, including math, science, foreign language, special education, and physical education. This deprives U.S. citizens of thousands of jobs every year in favor of foreign workers from countries such as the Philippines, Mexico, India, Columbia, and Canada."

2012-01-19
Thomas E. Brewton
Stimuli are over but the crushing debt burden and rising prices remain

2012-01-19
Rob Jenkins _Chronicle of Higher Education_
grading
"I've talked about this before, but let me review my philosophy again here.   The catalog definition of an A at my institution, as at most, is 'excellent'.   But what does it mean to be 'excellent', or to 'excel'? It means literally to stand out, to rise above, to surpass.   By definition, not everyone can excel.   If everyone stands out, then no one does.   I think that's especially true in a skills-based course...   a knowledge-based course such as algebra.   Although hardly a gifted mathematician, I was able to make an A in college algebra by studying my tail off, doing all of the home-work, asking questions in class, and getting additional help when I needed it, which was often.   (I don't doubt that, in more advanced math courses, it also takes a certain amount of talent for students truly to distinguish themselves.)...   in the end the final grade must reflect mastery, not effort..."

2012-01-19
Dustin Ensinger
H-1B program undefendable
"One Republican congressman believes that the H-1B Visa program is a failure. But not because it has displaced American workers, it hasn't displaced enough, according to 'representative' Darrel Issa... Executives from MSFT, RivetSoftware and Google, all 3 of which rely on H-1B visa holders as a form of cheap labor, were eager to complain that the program is too restrictive... [If we're serious about competition, the last thing we want to do is encourage people to come from all over the world to our best universities at US tax-victim expense without vetting them carefully. We're not even doing background investigations on them to make sure they aren't in the habit of initiating force or fraud. We're certainly not restricting visas -- student or guest-work -- to the gifted, highly-skilled or most talented.]"

2012-01-19
Mark J. Perry
it's time to pull the tax-victim plug on government subsidies for electric cars

2012-01-19
Mark J. Perry
Institute for Justice vs. oligopolists in funeral and cremation industry

2012-01-19
William L. Anderson
Should capital gains tax rates reflect ordinary income tax rates? Maybe in Wonderland

2012-01-19
Simone Sebastian _Houston TX Chronicle_
natural gas exports would raise US prices

2012-01-19 (5772 Tebet 24)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
How terrorists shed their stigma
"Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has described the Muslim Brotherhood as 'secular'.   Vice-president Joseph Biden recently said the Taliban 'is not our enemy'.   According to John Brennan, assistant to the President for counter-terrorism, terrorists who proclaim they are motivated by religion should not be described using 'religious terms'.   Where do such ideas come from? In large measure from advisors -- so perhaps it would be instructive to examine more closely what those advisors are actually saying.   U.S. Navy commander Youssef H. Aboul-Enein 'has advised at the highest levels of the defense department and the intelligence community' according to the jacket notes on his book, _Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat_, published by the Naval Institute Press."
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

2012-01-19 (5772 Tebet 24)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
An ignored "disparity" part 3 of 4
"the innumerable factors affecting human achievements are not only complex and hard to untangle, they offer neither politicians nor intellectuals the opportunity to simply be on the side of the angels against the forces of evil.   Factors which present no opportunity to star in a moral melodrama have often been ignored in favor of factors that do."

2012-01-19 (5772 Tebet 24)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
An ignored "disparity" part 4 of 4
"Different histories, geography, demography and cultures have left various groups, races, nations and civilizations with radically different abilities to create wealth.   In centuries past, the majority population of various cities in Eastern Europe consisted of people from Western Europe -- Germans, Jews and others -- while the vast majority of the population in the surrounding countrysides were Slavs or other indigenous peoples of the region.   Just as Western Europe was -- and is -- more prosperous than Eastern Europe, so Western Europeans living in Eastern European cities in centuries past were more prosperous than the Slavs and others living in the countrysides, or even in the same cities.   One of the historic advantages of Western Europe was that it was conquered by the Romans in ancient times -- a traumatic experience in itself, but one which left Western European languages with written versions, using letters created by the Romans.   Eastern European languages developed written versions centuries later.   Literate people obviously have many advantages over people who are illiterate.   Even after Eastern European languages became literate, it was a long time before they had such accumulations of valuable written knowledge as Western European languages had, due to Western European languages' centuries earlier head start.   Even the educated elites of Eastern Europe were often educated in Western European languages.   None of this was due to the faults of one or the merits of the other.   It is just the way that history went down...   Focusing attention and attacks on people who have greater wealth-generating capacity -- whether races, classes or whatever -- has had counterproductive consequences, including tragedies written in the blood of millions.   Whole totalitarian governments have risen to dictatorial power on the wings of envy and resentment ideologies.   Intellectuals have all too often promoted these envy and resentment ideologies.   There are both psychic and material rewards for the intelligentsia in doing so, even when the supposed beneficiaries of these ideologies end up worse off.   When you want to help people, you tell them the truth.   When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.   Both politicians and intellectuals have made their choice."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-20

2012-01-20 (5772 Tebet 25)
Chris Kaltenbach _Jewish World Review_
tradition of phantom toast to Edgar Allan Poe on his birthday may be at an end

2012-01-20
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
state minimum wage increase forcing employment reductions... maybe
"Ohio's new minimum wage, which climbed to $7.70 on Jan. 1, doesn't appear to be an earth-shattering increase.   On the surface, it's 30 cents more per hour than in 2010.   That's an extra $12 a week for a full-time minimum-wage worker, an extra $48 a month and an additional $624 a year, before taxes...   Though about 291K Ohio workers will capitalize directly on the wage increase, according to the Economic Policy Institute, thousands of businesses now are forced to pay higher wages...   The minimum wage has jumped 5 of the past 6 years.   In 2007, it skyrocketed from $5.15 per hour to $6.85 per hour.   The new 2012 minimum-wage rate of $7.70 applies to workers 16 and older who don't get tips.   The wage for tipped employees is up 15 cents to $3.85.   Their total pay cannot be less than $7.70 hourly.   Employers that gross more than $283K annually must comply with the state's new minimum-wage standards; all others must pay employees a minimum of $7.25 per hour.   Many point to minimum-wage increases as a way to help low-income individuals and families keep up with the cost of living.   According to EPI, Ohio's minimum-wage increase will result in $76.5M in increased gross domestic product.   The EPI report says the new minimum-wage standard is expected to create 665 full-time jobs.   Those jobs, however, likely will come from additional hours for part-time workers and not actual 'new' jobs...   About 28% of Ohio workers affected by the minimum-wage increase are under 20, according to Policy Matters Ohio...   In 2009, Pennsylvania's minimum wage was 60 cents higher than the wage in Ohio.   The Buckeye State minimum wage is now 45 cents higher than that of the Keystone State, which at $7.25 per hour matches the current federal minimum wage."

2012-01-20 03:00PST (06:00EST) (11:00GMT) (13:00Jerusalem)
Vinh Duong _Nashville TN Business Journal_
Government increasing H-1B guest-worker fraud investigations

2012-01-20
Alec Rawls
Obummer leftist "regulatory czar" Cass Sunstein wants to abuse "notifications to take down" to shut down opposition and debate
"As Congress considers vastly expanding the power of copyright holders to shut down fair use of their intellectual property, this is a good time to remember the other activities that Obama's 'regulatory czar' Cass Sunstein wants to shut down using the tools of copyright protection.   For a couple of years now, Sunstein has been advocating that the 'notice and take down' model from copyright law should be used against rumors and conspiracy theories, 'to achieve the optimal chilling effect'."

2012-01-20
Anthony Watts
Big solar coronal mass ejection headed toward earth

2012-01-20
Robert Samuelson _Real Clear Politics_
Obummer (and hence, the USA) suffering from Keystone pipe-line madness
Conservatives 4 Palin

2012-01-20
Steve Vernon _CBS_
How to live as long as the rich
"(MoneyWatch) A recent study released in the U.K. revealed that the gap in life expectancy between the rich and poor is widening.   At age 65, men in the highest socio-economic group are living, on average, 3.5 years longer than those in the lowest socio-economic group.   20 years ago, this difference in life expectancy was just 2.3 years...   Want to live like the rich? Then stop smoking, control your weight through diet and exercise, and limit your consumption of alcohol."

2012-01-20
Thomas E. Brewton
Luddite environmentalism springs both from baby-boomer pagan mythology, and from power-madness

2012-01-20
Ralph E. Stone _Berkeley CA Daily Planet_
Filipino guest-teachers in precedent-setting human trafficking case
"the complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC] in the class action case of Mairi Nunag-Tañedo, et al. v. East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, et al. , filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), 18 U.S.C. §1589, et seq.   The Plaintiffs in this case are 350 Filipino teachers who were recruited by Universal Placement International, Inc. located in Los Angeles and PARS International Placement Agency located in Quezon City, Philippines, to work in Louisiana public schools."

2012-01-20
Mark J. Perry
congressional leftists want to tax natural gas, drive up prices and make the poor poorer

2012-01-20 (5772 Tebet 25)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Around the world, anti-Semitism is now main-stream
"The prejudice based on a rejection of reason now has a new justification.   Eradicating that hatred depends on first acknowledging what's happening and why...   Mearsheimer is the co-author, together with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government's professor Stephen Walt of the infamous 2007 book _The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy_.   Since the book's publication, Mearsheimer has become one of the most high-profile anti-Semites in America.   Kaplan's article was a clear bid to rehabilitate Mearsheimer...   Morality, he claims has no place in international affairs...   Mearsheimer has actively embraced fringe elements in the US and the world in order to advance his campaign to discredit Israel and its supporters.   As Alan Dershowitz highlighted last November, Mearsheimer wrote an enthusiastic endorsement of a psychotically anti-Semitic book written by British jazz musician and prolific anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon...   It was part of an apparent decision on Mearsheimer's part to use his own celebrity to legitimize his anti-Semitic views...   Kaplan's profile of Mearsheimer is part of a larger trend in US letters, politics and culture in which anti-Semitism is becoming more and more acceptable."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-21

2012-01-21
"Just The Facts"
global earth climate complexity: a first pass at listing variables

2012-01-21
Susan Olp _Billings MT Gazette_
Genealogy buffs enjoy lending each other a hand, take advantage of tech
"The Big Sky PAF Users Group celebrated its two-decade milestone Saturday with a presentation by member Rick Davis, who talked about creating a family tree chart from a genealogy program.   PAF stands for personal ancestral file...   Family Chartmasters. He spent the next 50 minutes reviewing all the ways the web-site can help people visually display their family histories.   Some of the charts are simple, others are elaborate, some are free and others you can buy..."

2012-01-21
David Archibald
Ap index, neutrons and climate

2012-01-21
Charles Duhigg, Keith Bradsher, David Barboza, Peter Lattman & Catherine Rampell _NYTimes_
How the USA lost out on jobs making iPhones
"Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America.   Today, few are.   Almost all of the 70M iPhones, 30M iPads and 59M other products Apple sold last year were manufactured over-seas...   It isn't just that workers are cheaper abroad.   Rather, Apple's executives believe the vast scale of over-seas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so out-paced their American counterparts that 'Made in the U.S.A.' is no longer a viable option...   Apple employs 43K people in the United States and 20K over-seas...   Many more people work for Apple's contractors: an additional 700K people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple's other products.   But almost none of them work in the United States.   Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost all electronics designers rely upon to build their wares...   Apple had redesigned the iPhone's screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul.   New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.   A foreman immediately roused 8K workers inside the company's dormitories, according to the executive.   Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a work-station and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames.   Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10K iPhones a day...   'Companies [executives] once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn't the best financial choice.', said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September.   'That's disappeared.   Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.'...   Though Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, executives say...   'I won't sell a product that gets scratched.' he said tensely.   The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead.   [So, they found an orphan product, an especially tough glass, Chemcor/Gorilla glass, developed by Corning, and made in Harrodsburg, KY, that had gone unused for years.]...   Though components differ between versions, all iPhones contain hundreds of parts, an estimated 90% of which are manufactured abroad.   Advanced semiconductors have come from Germany and Taiwan, memory from Korea and Japan, display panels and circuitry from Korea and Taiwan, chip-sets from Europe and rare metals from Africa and Asia.   And all of it is put together in [Red China]...   Factories in Asia 'can scale up and down faster' and 'Asian supply chains have surpassed what's in the U.S.A.'...   Jobs demanded glass screens in 2007.   For years, cell-phone makers had avoided using glass because it required precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve.   [I find that extremely doubtful...jgo]   Apple had already selected an American company, Corning Inc., to manufacture large panes of strengthened glass.   But figuring out how to cut those panes into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant, hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of mid-level engineers.   It would cost a fortune simply to prepare.   Then a bid for the work arrived from a [Red Chinese] factory.   When an Apple team visited, the [Red Chinese] plant's owners were already constructing a new wing.   'This is in case you give us the contract.', the manager said...   The [Red Chinese] government had agreed to under-write costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory.   It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge.   The owners made 'engineers' available at almost no cost.   They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.   The [Red Chinese] plant got the job...   'You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory next door.   You need a million screws? That factory is a block away.   You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take 3 hours.'...   The facility has 230K employees, many working 6 days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant.   Over a quarter of Foxconn's work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day...   Foxconn employs nearly 300 guards to direct foot traffic so workers are not crushed in doorway bottlenecks.   The facility's central kitchen cooks an average of 3 tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day.   [No kosher/ vegan/ beef & potatoes for you!]   While factories are spotless, the air inside nearby tea-houses is hazy with the smoke and stench of cigarettes.   Foxconn Technology has dozens of facilities in Asia and Eastern Europe, and in Mexico and Brazil, and it assembles an estimated 40% of the world's consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony.   'They could hire 3K people over-night.', said Jennifer Rigoni [suggesting extremely little vetting, no 'trivial pursuit' guantlets as faced by Americans]...   In mid-2007, after a month of experimentation, Apple's engineers finally perfected a method for cutting strengthened glass so it could be used in the iPhone's screen...   [Red China] provided 'engineers' at a scale the United States could not match.   Apple's executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to over-see and guide the 200K assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones [so in reality it's probably more like 800 engineers, plus 8K mechanics]...   Martin Schmidt [said] In particular, [executives] say they need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor's degree.   Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend...   The device's software, for instance, and its innovative marketing campaigns were largely created in the United States.   Apple recently built a $500M data center in North Carolina.   Crucial semiconductors inside the iPhone 4 and 4S are manufactured in an Austin, TX, factory by Samsung, of South Korea.   But even those facilities are not enormous sources of jobs.   Apple's NC center, for instance, has only 100 full-time employees.   The Samsung plant has an estimated 2,400 workers.   'If you scale up from selling 1M phones to 30M phones, you don't really need more programmers.', said Jean-Louis Gassee, who over-saw product development and marketing for Apple until he left in 1990.   'All these new companies -- FB, Google, Twitter -- benefit from this.   They grow, but they don't really need to hire much.'...   various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone's expense.   Since Apple's profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward...   Manufacturing glass for the iPhone revived a Corning factory in Kentucky, and today, much of the glass in iPhones is still made there.   After the iPhone became a success, Corning received a flood of orders from other companies hoping to imitate Apple's designs.   Its strengthened glass sales have grown to more than $700M a year, and it has hired or continued employing about 1K Americans to support the emerging market.   But as that market has expanded, the bulk of Corning's strengthened glass manufacturing has occurred at plants in Japan and Taiwan.   'Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China.', said James B. Flaws, Corning's vice chairman and chief financial officer...   Corning was founded in America 161 years ago and its head-quarters are still in upstate New York.   Theoretically, the company could manufacture all its glass domestically.   But it would 'require a total overhaul in how the industry is structured', Mr. Flaws said.   'The consumer electronics business has become an Asian business.   As an American, I worry about that, but there's nothing I can do to stop it.   Asia has become what the U.S.A. was for the last 40 years.'...   the cost, excluding the materials, of building a $1,500 computer in Elk Grove was $22 a machine.   In Singapore, it was $6.   In Taiwan, $4.85.   Wages weren't the major reason for the disparities.   Rather it was costs like inventory and how long it took workers to finish a task...   call-centers...   $12/hour...   'What they really want are 30-year-olds without children.', said Mr. Saragoza, who today is 48, and whose family now includes 5 of his own...   $10/hour...   Last year, Apple's American work force grew by 8K people...   'We shouldn't be criticized for using Chinese workers.', a current Apple executive said.   'The U.S.A. has stopped producing people with the skills we '''need'''.'"
Ziff Davis
Slash Dot

2012-01-21
Thomas E. Brewton
Ramifications of MF Global: what happens when leftists have control of other people's money

2012-01-21
Kathleen Marquardt _News with Views_
Agenda 21: the end of Western civilization, part 1

2012-01-21
Mark J. Perry
Frack away: There's no reason not to, and it is not the government's energy

2012-01-21
Mark J. Perry
natural gas boom should keep prices low for years

2012-01-21
Mark J. Perry
Obummer and his leftist friends want the USA and Europe to be energy poor

2012-01-21
Mark J. Perry
The secret document that has been transforming China's economy with (admittedly weak) respect for private property and competition
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-22

2012-01-22
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Why would a Washington-Lincoln Day be significant to Virginia?

2012-01-22
Ned Nilolov & Karl Zeller
on-going work on "unified theory of climate"

2012-01-22
Michael A. Lewis & Anthony Watts
Leftist political activists trying to gag TV meteorologists on climate issues at American Meteorological Association meeting

2012-01-22
Laura Bauer _Kansas City Star_
Kansas is reducing food aid for illegal alien children

2012-01-22
Thomas E. Brewton
Kodak vs. Solyndra: leftist state planners are not as successful as private investors in satisfying consumers' wants

2012-01-22
Mark J. Perry
market share of US vehicle sales

2012-01-22
Mark J. Perry
Super-fracking tech advances

2012-01-22
Mark J. Perry
Obummer's choice to import oil from our worst enemies rather than our friends

2012-01-22
Mark J. Perry
government continues to ban market in bone marrow as thousands of Americans die
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-23

2012-01-23
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
more on PPIC article
 
As I mentioned earlier, I don't have time right now to post long analyses, but I did want to correct and amplify my January 13 posting of the recent Lofstrom and Hayes study at PPIC.
 
Before beginning, it's crucial that I review my frequent terms, Type I and Type II salary savings.   Type I savings are incurred when employers hire H-1Bs at lower wages than comparable Americans.   Type II savings are incurred by hiring younger, thus cheaper, H-1Bs instead of older, thus more expensive, Americans.
 
I believe that almost every reader of this e-news-letter is well aware of the Type I/II distinction that I make.   Most readers should also recall, at least when I bring it up, that I've said repeatedly that I believe that Type II, the age-related salary savings, is the more important of the 2 types, the place where the big money is to be saved.   Indeed, I've often said, "H-1B is fundamentally about AGE."   Unfortunately, that is often forgotten, and people focus on Type I savings, much to my chagrin.
 
By presenting age data regarding the H-1Bs, the PPIC paper does confirm my point about Type II.   (It was hardly the first to do so, though.   See last year's GAO study, and my earlier work, to name two earlier sources on age distribution of the H-1Bs.)   But again, the PPIC authors are completely focused on Type I, so let's discuss that.
 
The key word in my above statment, "Type I savings are incurred when employers hire H-1Bs at lower wages than comparable Americans", is COMPARABLE.   In assessing the Type I savings issue, it is crucial to correct for variables such as age, education, job type and so on, so that we compare likes to likes.
 
In my January 13 analysis, I had asserted that the PPIC student did not correct for job type within IT.   However, I had overlooked a line in their IT analysis table, showing that they did in fact have some job type variables.
 
Nevertheless, the fact remains that they still did include in their analyses ANY worker in the very broad "IT" area, including for technician types of jobs.   That point is important, as H-1Bs are generally not hired into technician jobs.   And since those pay less, there is the danger that lumping everyone together like this would artificially make the H-1Bs look like they are paid more, relative to Americans.   This should be the case even though the PPIC study does have some variables for different IT job types, because of the skills issue, for instance.
 
As most of you know, the industry lobbyists claim that employers hire H-1Bs because they have special skill sets, which in my experience is largely true.   (Though I've also written extensively that the employers are misguided in emphasizing skill sets so much.)   These skill sets command a premium wage in the open market.   Today, for instance, a hot skill is Android programming, and employers pay a salary premium for it.   A quick check of the web just now, for instance, turned up [this Start-Up Cafe article] which quoted a 20% premium at the new grad level.   Having several hot skills in combination -- seen commonly in job ads -- commands an even greater premium.
 
The problem is that data on skill sets is not available, and thus such variables are not included in anyone's H-1B analysis.   For those who find that H-1Bs are under-paid, such as me, this means that the problem is even worse than what their findings indicate; wrong magnitude, but correct algebraic sign.   But for those whose analysis actually finds that the H-1Bs are paid slightly more than Americans, say 5-6% more as found by PPIC, their findings would actually indicate that the H-1Bs are paid LESS than COMPARABLE Americans, once the skill set premium is accounted for.
 
Again, I've made this point before, e.g. in my analysis of the Mithas and Lucas paper,
 
It should be noted that although Mithas and Lucas repeatedly say that their data measures skill sets, it definitely does not.   What they are actually referring to is the number of years of IT experience.   This is a key point, because real skill sets command much more of a salary premium than the 2 or 3% ML found.   Remember, the industry claims that the H-1Bs are hired primarily because they have special "hot" skill sets.   (ML say this too.)   These skills generally command a salary premium of 15%-25% (see data in University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform article (pdf)), so even if one were to take Mithas and Lucas' 2%-3% as accurate, that would indicate that H-1Bs are subject to net UNDER-PAYMENT relative to Americans.
 
(See my article on Mithas & Lucas.   Of course, the ML posting had myriad other serious problems, as I pointed out there.)
 
In closing, I must reiterate a point I made in my original posting on the PPIC study:
 
After they're hired, the H-1Bs have limited mobility in the labor market, and if they're being sponsored for a green card, they have essentially NO mobility.   If you can't move around in the labor market, then you can't have employers bid against each other for your services.   IOW, you can't swing as good a deal for yourself as you would if you were a citizen or permanent resident -- so the H-1Bs are on average underpaid.
 
The point is that fundamental economic theory (or common sense, if you will) shows that Type I salary savings is real.   The H-1Bs ARE paid less than comparable Americans.   If you want to know how MUCH they're under-paid, then you can try regression analyses and the like, which is fine, but you MUST understand the effects of the missing variables.
 
Norm
---30---

2012-01-23
Bishop Hill
Freedom of Info victory against warmists

2012-01-23 07:14PST (10:14EST) (15:14GMT) (17:14Jerusalem)
Jack Wallen _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Apple's iBook license rankles many

2012-01-23
Adam Silverman _Burlington VT Free Press_
Tim Thomas, Stanley-winning goalee, objects to Obummer and other federal government functionary abuses
abc WPVI-TV Philadelphia PA
Sporting News
Sports Illustrated
Michigan Life/AP

Detroit MI Free Press
WCVB-TV Boston MA
"The former University of VT stand-out and last year's NHL play-offs MVP, Thomas said he avoided the event to protest big government.   he chose not to attend in response to what he considers dangerous over-reach by Washington.   'I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.   This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level.   This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.   Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House.   This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country.   This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.'...   The 37-year-old Thomas, a native of Flint, MI, and a 1997 graduate of UVM, was 1 of only 2 American-born players on the Bruins' Cup-winning team, according to Boston's official roster."

2012-01-23
Anthony Watts
Pew poll: 86% say that strengthening the economy should be a top priority; warmism is at the bottom

2012-01-23
Joe Guzzardi _Californians for Population Stabilization_
US congress-critters traveled to India, promise them the moon while turning their backs on US citizens

2012-01-23
Steve Tobak _CBS_
10 stupid mistakes executives and managers repeatedly make

2012-01-23
Allison M. Vaillancourt _Chronicle of Higher Education_
modern black-listing: stabbed in the back by references

2012-01-23
Mark J. Perry
more on Minnesota's anti-consumer embalming laws

2012-01-23
Mark J. Perry
MITx could revolutionize higher education... for better or worse
"It's not [always] enough to learn something—you have to be able to prove to other people that you've learned it."

2012-01-23
Mark J. Perry
shale gas is off-setting declines in other US natural gas production

2012-01-23
Mark J. Perry
Bakken oil is having a major impact on Western ND
"Rents in Williston currently range from $2K for a one-bedroom apartment to $3,400 for a 3-bed-room apartment.   Williams county allows 3 campers per farmstead, the farmers almost all have 3 campers on their property and are charging $800 per camper per month for rent...   The Williston McDonalds just announced that they will pay new workers $15 an hour, a $500 immediate signing bonus and full medical benefits...   Trinity Hospital in Minot has just hired 115 nurses from the Philippines, because they cannot get enough local nurses to apply."

2012-01-23
Tommy Cornelis _STEM connector_
STEM-ing Unemployment
STEM web log, a project of STEM connector

2012-01-23 (5772 Tebet 28)
Melissa Dribben _Jewish World Review_
Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary

2012-01-23 (5772 Tebet 28)
Stephanie Hanes _Jewish World Review_
Toddlers to tweens: Re-learning how to play

2012-01-23 (5772 Tebet 28)
Jack Kelly _Jewish World Review_
Too many people are still ignoring history
"Everything that was important to know about him was laid out in his memoir/manifesto: his virulent racism; his contempt for Christianity, democracy and all things Western; his murderous hatred of the Jews...   [Leftists] today delude themselves about the Muslim Brotherhood...   The Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, an Egyptian school-teacher.   He sought a world wide caliphate governed by Islamic law (Sharia).   'Allah is our objective.', says the Ikhwan's motto.   'The Prophet is our leader.   Jihad is our way.   Dying in the way of Allah is our greatest hope.'   Al Banna admired Hitler.   He had _Mein Kampf_ translated into Arabic.   The Nazis subsidized the Muslim Brotherhood.   The ranks of the SS Handjar Division were filled mostly by the Ikhwan.   The Muslim Brotherhood is today the world's largest and best financed Islamist organization.   It's in 70 countries, including ours.   The Ikhwan's goals haven't changed, the current supreme leader said Dec. 29.   'The Brotherhood is getting closer to achieving its greatest goal as envisioned by its founder, Imam Hassan al-Banna.', said Dr. Muhammad Badi.   'A government evolving into a rightly guided caliphate and mastership of the world.'   _Mein Kampf_ is still, after the Koran, the Ikhwan's favorite book.   'This stuff we now see in the Islamic world looks like Nazism because it comes from the Nazis.', wrote journalist Claire Berlinski on her blog Ricochet.   In a 2009 sermon, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's leading jurist, said: 'Thoughout history, Allah has imposed upon (the Jews) people who would punish them for their corruption.   The last punishment was carried out by Adolf Hitler...   Oh Allah, count their numbers and kill them, down to the very last one.'"
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

2012-01-23 (5772 Tebet 28)
Jordan Rau _Jewish World Review_
In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church

2012-01-23 (5772 Tebet 28)
Ali Safi _Jewish World Review_
U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks: a terrorist group's promise to stop terrorizing cannot be believed

2012-01-23 (5772 Tebet 28)
Ali Safi _Jewish World Review_
Obummer admin objecting to sale of bone marrow
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

2012-01-24

2012-01-23 16:04:38PST (2012-01-23 19:04:38EST) (2012-01-24 00:04:38GMT) (2012-01-24 02:04:38Jerusalem)
Eve Mitchell _San Jose CA Mercury News_/_Contra Costa CA Times_
Radio Shack tries to reconnect with electronics hobbyists
Radio Shack do-it-yourself

2012-01-24 03:11PST (06:11EST) (11:11GMT) (13:11Jerusalem)
Ellen Berry _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
What to do with the under-utilized genius on your staff
"Highly perceptive people are likely more aware than most of us of all the things that can go wrong in our world, and carry the weight on their shoulders.   They may feel that they can see the solution to global problems, yet be acutely aware that they haven't been able to articulate their vision in such a way that has allowed others to join in to help, or they haven't been able to implement their ideas due to limited time, interest, ability or funds.   They may hold themselves to impossibly high standards, paralyzing themselves with a fear of failure, or using the potential for failure as an excuse for not trying...   They may be able to access it readily, or only in moments of inspiration that cannot be forced, no matter the deadline.   In IT, roles such as engineer, programmer, analyst, web designer, help desk rep and manager can all attract geniuses with specific abilities.   In order for them to excel in their work, though, they must have some self-enlightenment about the potential and limitations of their gift... "

2012-01-24 05:16PST (08:16EST) (13:16GMT) (15:16Jerusalem)
Toni Fitzgerald _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
Harrisburg PA Science and Engineering Fair
"The more Dr. Thomas Bowman looked, the less satisfied he was with the options...   And so he began to form an organization that eventually became the Capital Area Science and Engineering Fair, explains CASEF fair director Timothy Ritter...   This year marks the 55th edition of CASEF, which takes place Feb. 29 to March 3 at Harrisburg's Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts.   [The fair was originally held at Dickinson college.]   The fair has grown from a handful of participants during those early years to roughly 300 per year.   It is open to students in seventh through 12th grade, and for many of them it's become an annual event...   As a scientist himself, Breen says it's good to learn early on that experiments won't always go as planned.   Something that you thought was true based on initial data may not turn out that way.   'Things don't always go the way you think they'll go.', he says.   'The fair teaches them to be a little resilient and not make their conclusions too early.'...   Ritter says that he's spoken with fair participants who said their projects were almost like test runs for later research endeavors...   The ability to conduct research on one's own can be an advantage for the kids who are also applying to college."

2012-01-24 05:38PST (08:38EST) (13:38GMT) (15:38Jerusalem)
Charlie Osborne _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Students have launched U of AK employee salary data-base site

2012-01-24
Robert G. Brown
Refutation of stable thermal equilibrium lapse rates

2012-01-24
Jeremy Barousse _Mountain View CA Patch_
White House, government officials throw "Hispanic Community Action Summit" at Evergreen State college as part of lobbying effort

2012-01-24 David Middleton
Obummer's very dishonest campaign ad regarding energy

2012-01-24 08:10PST (11:10EST) (16:10GMT) (18:10Jerusalem)
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_/_AP_
PA House committee proposes reducing representation
"from 203 to 153... [currently only 1 representative for] about 63K people [would change to only 1 representative per] 80K..."

2012-01-24
Tom Blumer _PJ Media_
Obummer is the food stamp president

2012-01-24
Roger Morse _PJ Media_
Obummer's thousand days of destruction and failure

2012-01-24
Carly Harrington _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_Scripps_
teknovation to focus on technology, innovation and entrepreneurship
teknovation dot biz

2012-01-24
_Dice_
even the Federal Reserve abuses H-1B visas
"even the Federal Reserve is an extensive [abuser] of the H-1B visa for individuals with relatively commodity skills commonly found amongst US college graduates."

2012-01-24 13:30PST (16:30EST) (21:30GMT) (23:30Jerusalem)
Mike Swift _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Google over-hauls privacy policies: Declares intention to integrate, intensify privacy violations across services
Larry Dignan: Ziff Davis/CBS
Kevin Purdy: Tech Republic/Ziff Davis/CBS
"Google believes social networks give their algorithms more insight into exactly what people mean when they search for something... [and that's one of the problems with it]"

2012-01-24
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
leftist AZ state senator Gallardo decries effectiveness of SB1070
"SB1070... has actually [had] a very positive [effect on tourism]...   other states (Georgia, Alabama, Utah, South Carolina and Indiana) have passed similar laws on illegal immigration, while many others are simply waiting to see the Supreme Court's final ruling on Arizona's SB1070 before they pass their own measures.   The real reason [La Racists] dropped their boycott is simple...it did not work.   In fact, after the boycott was announced, tourism in Arizona began to thrive, despite the sluggish economy.   According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, the number of visitors who came to the state and stayed overnight increased by 4.5% in 2010 over the previous year, generating $17.7G in direct spending across the state.   That trend continued in 2011 as well.   For the 5 months of 2011, Arizona hotels reported an occupancy rate of 62.9%, compared with 59.9% for the same period in 2010 and 57.2% in 2009."

2012-01-24
Anthony Watts
Death Valley's Ubehebe volcano crater only 800 years old
"Up to now, geologists were vague on the age of the 600-foot deep crater, which formed when a rising plume of magma hit a pocket of under-ground water, creating an explosion.   The most common estimate was about 6K years, based partly on Native American artifacts found under debris.   Now, a team based at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has used isotopes in rocks blown out of the crater to show that it formed just 800 years ago, around the year 1200.   That geologic youth means it probably still has some vigor; moreover, the scientists think there is still enough groundwater and magma around for another eventual reaction.   The study appears in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.   Ubehebe (YOU-bee-HEE-bee) is the largest of a dozen such craters, or maars, clustered over about 3 square kilometers of Death Valley National Park.   The violent mixing of magma and water, resulting in a so-called phreatomagmatic explosion, blew a hole in the overlying sedimentary rock, sending out superheated steam, volcanic ash and deadly gases such as sulfur dioxide...   Lamont-Doherty tree-ring researchers have already shown that the region was even hotter and drier during Medieval times, when the blowup took place.   If there was sufficient water then, there is certainly enough now..."

2012-01-24
Nicole Ferraro _Internet Evolution_/_UBM_
10 web tools for following the 2012 elections
"Chris Poey: 3 sites are sponsored or published by the NY Times (Obama endorsement 2008); 2 sites are products of Google (5th largest Obama donation contributor 2008 campaign); 3 sites from Apple iStore ($1.6M lobbying contribution 2010); 1 The Economist Group (London based appears to be objective in both data and opinion)."

2012-01-24
David Wheeler _Chronicle of Higher Education_
a global view of the idea of academic mastery badges
"A badge-centered education might make educational content accessible to those students who don't have access to the high-powered language tutors and college consultants who foreign students often need to reach Australia, Britain, Germany, or the United States."

2012-01-24
David P. Goldman _PJ Media_
Forget about economic recovery, Obummer is toast (with graphs)
"People are hurting, and badly.   The official unemployment rate may have fallen, slightly, but the real unemployment rate -- the number of working-age Americans who aren't working -- rose from about 12% before the 2008 crisis, to about 23%, and hasn't come down.   That includes people who have retired early because they can't find work, spouses who used to earn a second income but have gone back to home-making because work isn't available, self-employed people whose businesses have collapsed, young people who live in their parents' basement because they can't afford tuition and can't find work."

2012-01-24
Steve Southerand ii
response to Obummer
"After having the privilege to sit in the House chamber and listen to president Obama deliver the state of the union address to the nation, I am less optimistic about our country heading in the right direction over the next year.   I was hopeful the President would seize the opportunity of a new year to jump-start the job-creating Keystone pipe-line project, encourage Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats to act on 27 House-passed jobs bills, and reduce the regulations that are stifling job creation.   Unfortunately, the President called for even more spending by creating three brand new federal agencies, which will inevitably lead to more rules, regulations and restrictions that inhibit much needed private sector job growth.   Ironically, the President instructed the Senate to have a straight up or down vote on judicial nominations within 90 days [as he rushes to pack federal courts with leftists before the door, or the citizenry's boot, hits his rear], but never once called for the Senate to fulfill their constitutional duty to pass a budget—something that our friends on the other side of the Capitol have failed to do for the last 1K days...   I am still hopeful that Congress can find common ground this year, as we did in 2011 with the 1099 health care repeal, free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, and negotiating to extend the pay-roll tax.   Under this administration, our nation has lost 2M jobs; food stamp dependency has increased by 45%; federal government spending has exploded at historic rates; the national debt has increased by 43% to over $15T and now exceeds our nation's [claptrap]."

2012-01-24
Donald A. Collins _V Dare_
Can US CEOs be persuaded to stop importing un-needed aliens?

2012-01-24
_FAIR US_
Leading US senate leftists push expansion of back-door amnesty program for illegal aliens

2012-01-24
Mark J. Perry
Obummer SoTU bingo and glossary

2012-01-24
Mark J. Perry
Bakken shale oil stimulating employment in ND

2012-01-24 (5772 Tebet 29)
Carol Clark _Jewish World Review_
The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to "sell out"
"personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold...   whether it's a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics -- is a distinct cognitive process...   Berns headed a team that included economists and information scientists from Emory University, a psychologist from the New School for Social Research and anthropologists from the Institute Jean Nicod in Paris, France.   The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation [NSF]...   'As culture changes, it affects our brains, and as our brains change, that affects our culture.   You can't separate the 2.', Berns says.   'We now have the means to start understanding this relationship, and that's putting the relatively new field of cultural neuroscience onto the global stage.'   Future conflicts over politics and religion will likely play out biologically, Berns says.   Some cultures will choose to change their biology, and in the process, change their culture, he notes.   He cites the battles over women's reproductive rights and gay marriage as ongoing examples."

2012-01-24 (5772 Tebet 29)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
USA lost the most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp how much

2012-01-24 (5772 Tebet 29)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
Supremes give thumbs-down on warrantless GPS transponder tracking

2012-01-24 (5772 Tebet 29)
Jason Koebler _Jewish World Review_
Who should have access to information about students?
"Since 'No Child Left Behind' was passed 10 years ago, states have been required to ramp up the amount of data they collect about individual students, teachers, and schools.   Personal information, including test scores, economic status, grades, and even disciplinary problems and student pregnancies, are tracked and stored in a kind of virtual 'permanent record' for each student.   But parents and students have very little access to that data, according to a report released Wednesday by the Data Quality Campaign, an organization that advocates for expanded data use.   All 50 states and Washington, DC collect long term, individualized data on students performance, but just 8 states allow parents to access their child's permanent record.   40 allow principals to access the data and 28 provide student-level info to teachers...   the problem is that states collect far more information than parents expect, and it can be shared with more than just a student's teacher or principal.   'When you have a system that's secret [from parents] and you can put whatever you want into it, you can have things going in that'll be very damaging.', says Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center [EPIC].   'When you put something into digital form, you can't control where that'll end up.'...   In December, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA, a.k.a. the Buckey Amendment] was revised to give parents more control over their children's records.   According to a parent information sheet released by the government, the revisions give parents 'certain rights with regard to their children's education records, such as the right to inspect and review [their] child's education records'.   But it also allows student information to be shared without parental consent."

2012-01-24 (5772 Tebet 29)
Erika Bolstad _Jewish World Review_
Black GOP liberals gather to talk about gaining strength

2012-01-24 (5772 Tebet 29)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
South Carolina message
"The more fundamental message is that the Republican primary voters do not want Mitt Romney, even if the Republican establishment does -- and it is just a question of which particular conservative alternative the voters prefer...   Whomever the Republicans choose as their candidate is going to have to run against both Barack Obama and the pro-Obama media...   When the Super Bowl is on the line, you don't go with the quarterback who is least likely to throw an interception.   You go with the one most likely to throw a touchdown pass."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

 
 

2012-01-25

2012-01-25
David Middleton
Looking at the status of the Julian Simon-Paul Ehrlich wager as earth's population passes 7G

2012-01-25
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
3 state agences seek to stop brine-treatment plant
"He's had not one, but 3 opponents -- the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Natural Resources and the Governor's Office -- that since May have tried to shutter his 8-month-old business.   They are the same entities, however, that granted Blocksom and the city of Warren permission to operate the state's first brine-wastewater treatment plant.   Patriot and Warren then undertook a 1.5-year permitting process that included an 8-week environmental study.   After permits were issued, Patriot invested $3M in infrastructure and hired 25 employees...   Brine, under Ohio law, can be disposed of by injection well, on roads as dust and ice control, and any method approved by the ODNR chief.   However, those in the brine industry say there is a fundamental difference between brine and another fluid -- 'flow-back water'.   Brine is salty -- sometimes 10 times saltier than sea-water -- and high in total dissolved solids, or TDS.   TDS is like mixing a tea-spoon of salt into a cup of water; the salt will dissolve.   Flow-back water is much less salty -- sometimes as salty as sea-water -- but higher in total suspended solids, or TSS.   TSS is like mixing a tea-spoon of sand into a cup of water; the sand will not dissolve.   Patriot's seeks to take flow-back water, press out the TSS, filter and dilute the water, and then send it to Warren's waste-water treatment plant."

2012-01-25
Jack Dunphy _PJ Media_
Los Angeles government shielding of illegal aliens

2012-01-25
Claudia Rosett _PJ Media_
Obummer glosses over the difference between successful end to war and mere withdrawal

2012-01-25
Rand Simberg _PJ Media_
Left's perverted view toward rights

2012-01-25
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_
CenturyLink to dump 81 workers

2012-01-25 01:00PST (04:00EST) (09:00GMT) (11:00Jerusalem)
Erica Molina Johnson _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Veterans search for opportunities at annual job fair
"Williams said he expected about 1K job seekers at the event.   The jobs available Tuesday ranged from entry-level positions requiring no advance training to high-tech jobs at companies in Oak Ridge."

2012-01-25 05:46PST (08:46EST) (13:46GMT) (15:46Jerusalem)
Scott Lowe _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
iLegislate on iPad
"Granicus exists to assist the public sector entities in creating more transparency by automating the legislative process by helping entities bundle the plethora of documents that are used at public meetings and consume them in a paperless way.   In addition, Granicus has worked with all levels of government to answer this question: How can we build automation into the public-facing government process to make it easier to make transparency happen in the eyes of the citizens?...   iLegislate is targeted at staffers and elected officials in customer accounts.   The tool enables an elected official to get all of their documents before the meeting, to take any notes that are necessary, send questions/comments to people from whom information is required, research items, and more.   Next, the person goes to the meeting with the iPad, which is loaded with everything they need to be successful.   The goal is to further streamline the meeting process."

2012-01-25 07:54PST (10:54EST) (15:54GMT) (17:54Jerusalem)
Josh Flory _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Mexican/Indian bodyshops Efficience and Blue Media Boutique conspire
"engine for web sites and Internet applications, from customer portals to data-bases... web development... web site aesthetics...   either firm could have out-sourced the work they need...   Prior to the merger, Blue Media had 8 employees, including 5 designer/developers based in Mexico.   Efficience had 50 employees, including 42 who are based in India...   Efficience is ranked as the second-largest software design firm in the area by the Greater Knoxville Business Journal Book of Lists...based on total number of software designers and employees...   [clients] include Renaissance Property Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Bennett Galleries, The District in Bearden."

2012-01-25 08:12PST (11:12EST) (16:12GMT) (18:12Jerusalem)
Joe McKendrick _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
CGC: tech job cuts at lowest level since 1997, when STEM job markets were merely increasingly dysfunctional and on their knees rather than stabbed and crushed
"Challenger measured lay-off trends at technology firms, including those in the computer, electronics and telecommunications industries.   A total of 37,038 planned job cuts were announced in 2011, down 21% from 46,825 in 2010.   The year-end total was down 79% from the recent peak of 174,629 recorded in 2009, when the recession was at its worst.   Actually, Challenger found that the decline in technology job cuts occurred as overall job cuts increased.   The number of job cuts announced across all industries rose 14% from 529,973 in 2010 to 606,082 in 2011.   The technology sector accounted for 6.1% of the 2011 total.   That is the lowest percentage of tech-sector cuts on record, falling from last year's record low of 8.8%.   However, Challenger adds, technology job cuts did surge in the second half of 2011, raising concerns about whether the upward trend will continue into 2012.   From January through June, tech-sector job cuts totaled 14,308.   Job cuts jumped 59% to 22,730 between July and December.   That was up 99% from the 11,450 tech-sector job cuts announced during the same period in 2010.   Most of the second-half surge in the technology sector came from firms in the computer industry.   After announcing just 3,178 job cuts in the first half of 2011, computer firms announced planned lay-offs totaling 11,499 in the second half of the year; a 262%...   According to the latest data from the US BLS, pay-rolls at of computer and electronics manufacturing firms saw a net gain of 13,100 jobs in 2011, bringing total employment to 1.124M.   Meanwhile, employment at companies providing computer systems design and related services increased by 60,200 to 1,525,100...   data processing, hosting and related services shrank by 2,100 to 238,900."

2012-01-25
Michael Blanding _Harvard Bidness School_
A few executives have out-sized influence in DC
"William R. Kerr... the researchers looked at a representative cross section of 3,260 firms between 1998 and 2006 that are publicly traded and have their headquarters in the United States.   Their first finding was that—contrary to the image of hordes of companies fielding teams of lobbyists in the halls of the Capitol—relatively few firms lobby.   In fact, they found that only 10% of firms in the sample lobbied in any given year, and in some years that number was closer to 5%.   Secondly, the researchers found that the probability of lobbying was heavily correlated with company size, with larger firms more likely to lobby than smaller ones.   And lastly, they found that the firms that did lobby were consistent over time.   For a company that lobbied in one year, for example, there was a 92% chance it had lobbied in the previous year.   Applying a complicated statistical model to the data, the researchers determined that all of the findings can be explained in part by high fixed costs to enter the lobbying club—both in the costs of hiring well-paid lobbyists and in complying with reporting requirements.   Furthermore, Kerr speculates that lobbying depends on building up relationships over time to be effective...   the percentage of firms in the sample lobbying on the H-1B issue doubled from 6% to 12% between 2003 and 2004."

2012-01-25
Thomas E. Brewton
Fed drives distortion of world economies
"People living on fixed incomes have had their rates of income on saving chopped around 75% since the Fed first cut interest rates [while prices continue to rise]...   the 31% increase in business long-term investment over recent months has been largely concentrated in labor-saving equipment, which ironically adds to unemployment or postpones new hiring."

2012-01-25
David Skolnick _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Jay Williams of the Obummer admin, engages in dishonest "talent shortage" whining

2012-01-25
Anthony Watts
Another GISS miss, this time in Iceland

2012-01-25
David P. Goldman _PJ Media_
the melt-down of Obummer's Islamophile foreign policy has to hurt

2012-01-25
William L. Anderson
Krugman changes tune to shill for Obummer
"Paul Krugman is much more a political operative than an economist...   He claims that he was abused when he pointed out the housing bubble, and I find it interesting that in his blog posts and elsewhere, he has attacked Peter Schiff, yet it was Schiff who was the most vocal about the bubble and its meaning.   Furthermore, Mark Thornton in 2004 had made the point about the bubble, and Ron Paul was playing Paul Revere on the subject in 2003.   However, since Krugman thinks Austrians are idiots and don't know any economics, he throws the Austrian warnings down the Orwellian Memory Hole.   (Now, don't forget that Krugman's good friend Ben Bernanke also missed the bubble, but Krugman isn't about to jump on his ally for being wrong.   No, Krugman is much too smart a political operative to do that.)"

2012-01-25
Mark J. Perry
Will US oil and gas producers be included in "high-tech manufacturer" incentives touted by Obummer?

2012-01-25
Mark J. Perry
Oil and gas production on private vs. government land

2012-01-25
Mark J. Perry
revolution in higher education

2012-01-25
Mark J. Perry
Women are less politically ambitious than men. So?

2012-01-25
Donald J. Boudreaux _Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review_
Spending other people's money
"just because something is worthwhile doesn't mean it's costless. Real resources are used up..."

2012-01-25 (5772 Shebat 01)
Andrew Silow-Carroll _Jewish World Review_
Speak politics the Jewish way!

2012-01-25 (5772 Shebat 01)
Richard Simon _Jewish World Review_
US House passes 2 bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials

2012-01-25 (5772 Shebat 01)
Fred Weir _Jewish World Review_
Putin says multi-ethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style "melting pot"; must find its own way
"In the article, Mr. Putin warns that nationalist agitators, both those representing the ethnic Russian majority and those speaking for the country's multitude of small minorities, are growing voices of destruction that threaten to drive Russia down the path of a Soviet-style break-up."

2012-01-25 (5772 Shebat 01)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
a brass age?
Town Hall
"This may be the golden age of presumptuous ignorance...   If this is not a golden age of presumptuous ignorance, perhaps it should be called a brass age...   What in the world would qualify him to know what are the industries of the future?   Why would people who have spent their careers in politics know more about investing than people who have spent their careers as investors?   Presumptuous ignorance is not confined to politicians or rowdy political activists, by any means...   Politicians may be crooks but they are not fools.   Easily observed direct subsidies can create a political problem.   Far better to set up an arrangement that will allow government-sponsored enterprises -- whether the Postal Service, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, [Sallie Mae] or the Tennessee Valley Authority -- to operate in such a way that they can claim to be self-supporting and not costing the taxpayers anything, no matter how much indirect subsidy they get.   As just one example, the Postal Service has a multi-billion dollar line of credit at the U.S. Department of the Treasury...   Exemption from taxes, and from other requirements that apply to other businesses, are also not called subsidies...   Loan guarantees are a favorite form of hidden subsidies for all sorts of special interests.   At a given point in time, it can be said that these guarantees cost the [tax-victims] nothing.   But when they suddenly do cost something -- as with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- they can cost billions.   One of the reasons for so much presumptuous ignorance flourishing in our time may be the emphasis on 'self-esteem' in our schools and colleges.   Children not yet a decade old have been encouraged, or even required, to write letters to public figures, sounding off on issues ranging from taxes to nuclear missiles.   Our schools begin promoting presumptuous ignorance early on.   It is apparently one of the few things they teach well.   The end result is people without much knowledge, but with a lot of brass."

2012-01-25 (5772 Shebat 01)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Schools of educationism
Town Hall
"Larry Sand's article 'No Wonder Johnny (Still) Can't Read' -- written for The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, based in Raleigh, NC -- blames schools of education for the decline in America's education.   Education professors drum into students that they should not 'drill and kill' or be the 'sage on the stage' but instead be the 'guide on the side' who 'facilitates student discovery'.   This kind of hare-brained thinking, coupled with multicultural nonsense, explains today's education.   During his teacher education, Sand says, 'teachers-to-be were forced to learn about this ethnic group, that impoverished group, this sexually anomalous group, that under-represented group, etc.   -- all under the rubric of Culturally Responsive Education'.   Education majors are woefully lacking in academic skills...   According to the Chicago Sun-Times (2001/09/06), 5,243 Illinois teachers failed their teacher certification tests.   The Chicago Sun-Times also reported, 'One teacher failed 24 of 25 teacher tests -- including 11 of 12 Basic Skills tests and all 12 tests on teaching learning-disabled children.'   Yet that teacher was assigned to teach learning-disabled children in Chicago.   Departments of education have solved the problem of teacher test failure.   According to a New York Post story (2011/11/14) titled 'City teacher tests turn into E-ZPass', more than 99% of teachers pass.   Text-books used in schools of education advocate sheer nonsense."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

"As every society from a great nation to a club has the right of declaring the conditions on which new members should be admitted, there could be no room for complaint." --- Gouverneur Morris 1787-08-09

 
 

2012-01-26

2012-01-26
Anthony Watts
Frequency of strong hurricanes hitting Apalachee Bay, FL decreased in last 600 years

2012-01-26 04:00PST (07:00EST) (12:00GMT) (14:00Jerusalem)
Lauren McLane _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
PA supremes -- divided on political lines -- reject gerrymandering map
"In its 4-3 decision, the court said the current district lines 'shall remain in effect until a revised final 2011 Legislative Reapportionment Plan having the force of law is approved'.   That opinion was signed by justices Ronald Castille, a Republican, and Seamus McCaffery, Max Baer and Debra McCloskey Todd, all Democrats.   Justice Thomas Saylor, in his one-paragraph dissent, wrote, 'Based on the petitions, briefs, and argument, I am not persuaded that the 2011 legislative reapportionment plan is contrary to law as reflected in the existing precedent.'   He was joined by justices J. Michael Eakin and Joan Orie Melvin.   All 3 are Republicans...   The Pennsylvania Constitution says the 50 Senate and 203 House districts need to be "of compact and contiguous territory as nearly equal in population as practicable," and that only 'absolutely necessary' divisions should be made to counties, cities, towns, boroughs, townships or wards.   In Grell's district, the current map has one municipal split and the proposed map would have one municipal split, he said.   Although he was speculating, Grell said that his guess, based on what he had heard, was that the court was displeased with the number and location of municipal splits.   If that is the case, it would be a reversal of precedent.   The proposed maps have 'fewer splits on municipalities, fewer splits on precinct boundaries, than any previous redistricting maps', Bloom said."

2012-01-26 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 414,122 in the week ending January 21, a decrease of 112,817 from the previous week.   There were 485,950 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.2% during the week ending January 14, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's revised rate.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,054,631, a decrease of 62,545 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.7% and the volume was 4,614,149.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending January 7 was 7,638,233, a decrease of 188,612 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending January 07.   States reported 2,882,033 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending January 7, a decrease of 144,822 from the prior week.   There were 3,783,493 claimants in the comparable week in 2011.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity. [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02;
to 126,188,733 beginning 2011-10-01;
to 126,579,970 beginning 2012-01-01.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2012-01-26
Ari J. Kaufman _PJ Media_
Getting the pulse via street interviews with primary voters in Forida
"Floridians are truly a blur of American diversity: old and young, rural and urban, white and black, Jewish and Christian, Jill the Boca Raton barista and Jim the Apalachicola carpenter.   Ethnically, Florida is nearly two-thirds white; the U.S.A. is 69% white.   Floridians are 17% Hispanic; Americans are 13% Hispanic.   Floridians are 15% black; the country is 12% black...   Older folks are prevalent, and as in any state, they vote.   Florida has the largest Jewish population outside of New York and California, including many elderly Jews with various priorities and backgrounds.   Growing rapidly every decade since statehood, transplants came not only from the North and Midwest but also from outside the country -- including from Cuba.   Florida's Cubans are known to vote more conservatively than other Hispanic groups due to their first- and second-hand knowledge of Fidel Castro's regime.   Included among Cuban Republicans are former U.S. senator and GOP chair Mel Martinez and current senator Marco Rubio, a possible vice presidential nominee.   Florida is also home to outspoken representatives like [right-wing] colonel Allen West, controversial radicals like Alcee Hastings, and staunch partisans like [leftist] DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz.   Former recent governors include the polarizing independent Charlie Crist and the popular Jeb Bush."

2012-01-26
Joe d'Aleo
What in the world is going on with global temperatures this month?: Multiple indicators show global temperatures headed down this month, and fast

2012-01-26
Frank Munger _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
USEC lay-offs, work-hour cuts at Oak Ridge

2012-01-26
David Gewirtz _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Apple keeps some profits off-shore to keep them untaxed
"About two-thirds of Apple's $97.6G cash pile is off-shore.   That's a lot of money for an American company to keep outside of America...   Partisanship aside, certainly Apple has created a lot of jobs over the years.   But today, most of the jobs created by Apple are not American jobs, they're sweat-shop-style jobs for miserable, over-worked workers in [Red China].   According to the New York Times, Apple employs 43K people in the United States.   That's not an inconsiderable number of people.   However, Apple no longer builds its own devices.   There was a time when Apple computers were actually manufactured in the United States.   Today, Apple products are built in [Red China].   Foxconn City has 230K people working to make iPhones and iPads -- and Presidential candidate Rick Santorum claims more than 500K people build Apple products in [Red China].   IOW, Apple provides jobs to more than 10 times more employees outside the United States than in the United States...   the company had a whopping $97.6G (yes, billion) dollars in cash at the end of December.   Unfortunately, about two-thirds of that money, about $64G, was off-shore at the end of December, according to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer...   In fact, MG Siegler of TechCrunch raises a rather disturbing allegation.   He says, '$64G of that is off-shore, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer stated during the call -- meaning, it would cost money (taxes) to bring it back into the U.S.A.'...   Ed Bott reminded me that there was a great deal of discussion of the same issue when MSFT was purchasing Skype.   MSFT has $42G over-seas...   James Kendrick pointed out another logistical challenge that makes it hard to bring cash home, 'Don't forget that multi-national companies have a big cost in currency exchange when they move big funds around.   This alone is cause for leaving funds where they live for as long as possible, too.'...   Larry Dignan [said], 'This isn't an Apple issue.   It's a govt-corporate issue.'...   I am also painfully aware of how many jobs America needs to create simply to keep up with our birth-rate, not to mention all the jobs lost over the last decade...   I'd recommend to our politicians 2 courses of action: (1) don't use companies that outsource nine-tenths of their workers as examples of American innovation.   It's just poor taste.   And (2) consider looking -- for real -- at what we need to do to get those jobs (and that cash) back here to the U.S.A., so it'll be put to good work for the American people.   After all, by my estimate, the citizens of the United States gave Apple at least a few million dollars worth of free publicity from the State of the Union events, alone.   Update: I'm seeing where the comments are going already, and I want to nip some misconceptions in the bud.   I'm not demanding that Apple be taxed extra or forced to bring jobs or money back home.   I'm demanding that our politicians create the situation where companies like Apple want to bring that money and those jobs back home.   Second, I'm demanding that our politicians stop glorifying companies that are not operating according to America's active needs and goals.   This week, the President and the GOP did just that, and it wasn't right."

2012-01-26
Anthony Watts
400 jammed Oregon Museum of Science and Industry to learn about climate

2012-01-26
CJ Jacobs
200 companies you may neve have heard about that have a history of abusing H-1B and E-3 visass

2012-01-26 13:42PST (16:42EST) (21:42GMT) (23:42Jerusalem)
Benjamin Pimentel _MarketWatch_
telecomm equipment-maker Juniper
"one analyst cited the ongoing impact of weak telecommunications spending"

2012-01-26
Victor Davis Hanson _Town Hall_
Fidelity and the presidency

2012-01-26
Mike Shedlock _Town Hall_
Obummer proposed mortgage bail-outs, hand-outs, cop-outs

2012-01-26
_Town Hall_
by his own definition, Obummer fails on jobs record

2012-01-26
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
U of Hawaii settled law-suit over data breaches affecting 98K people
press UH press release

2012-01-26
William L. Anderson
Jobs, jobs and wealth creation
"to Krugman and others like him, a hundred jobs 'created' by government borrowing would be equivalent (and probably superior) to jobs created by a profitable business firm...   he really cannot see beyond the number of employees a company might have employed in this country to see the value of what a firm produces...   Firms do not exist to employ people; people are employed in the process of creating goods that are useful to others, and if one were to gain a sense of the real economic contribution of Apple, it would be safe to say that the company has created hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth, and Apple products and the technologies they have spun off have impacted the lives of billions of people.   That's right, billions.   As for the point about 'clusters', Krugman is correct at that point."

2012-01-26
Mark J. Perry
shares of world primary energy

2012-01-26
Mark J. Perry
Conference Board leading economic indicators

2012-01-26
Mark J. Perry
US manufacturing has record profits

2012-01-26 (5772 Shebat 02)
Martin Peretz _Jewish World Review_
one year later: the failure of the Arab Spring

2012-01-26 (5772 Shebat 02)
Jeannine Stein _Jewish World Review_
feral federal guberment CDCP claims that "mental illness" struck 5% of American adults

2012-01-26 (5772 Shebat 02)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Is anybody serious?
Town Hall
"With the economy still faltering and Iran on its way to getting nuclear bombs, surely we can get serious about the issues facing this nation.   Or can we?...   As a consultant, I have offered advice to people in government and in private organizations, both businesses and non-profit organizations.   But I have never gone to a government official to urge that official to make a decision favorable to those who were paying me, or to those for whom I did free consulting.   It takes 2 to tango, and lobbying requires not only a lobbyist but also someone who is being lobbied.   With more than 500 people in Congress alone who could have been lobbied, and additional officials in the bureaucracies...   Poisoning the well of political discourse may be one of the reasons why we see such unsatisfactory sets of candidates for political office in both parties, not only this year but in previous election years as well.   Many able and decent people are understandably reluctant to subject themselves and their families to a mud-slinging contest or to media 'gotcha' questions.   The creeping acceptance of such practices is hardly a justification, but is itself part of the degeneration of our times.   The time is long over-due to get serious."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

"The judiciary of the US is so constructed & extended, as to absorb & destroy the judiciaries of the several states; thereby rendering law as tedious, intricate & expensive, & justice as unattainable, by a great part of the community, as in England, & enabling the rich to oppress & ruin the poor." --- George Mason 1787-09-15

 
 

2012-01-27

2012-01-27
Mike McConnell, Michael Chertoff & William Lynn _Wall Street Journal_
Red China's cyber-thievery is national policy and must be countered

2012-01-27
Anthony Watts
prominent scientists, engineers: no need for warmist panic

2012-01-27
Denise Dick _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Youngstown schools break through students' language barriers
"Each year, about 250 city school children are part of the district's English language learners program, according to Alida Treharn, supervisor of state and federally funded programs for the district.   When they enroll in the district, students with limited English skills take a test to determine their English language proficiency.   The results of that test determine how students are instructed."

2012-01-27 02:53PST (05:53EST) (10:53GMT) (12:53Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau & Sharon Machlis _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Top 10 H-1B visa user/abusers
"Cognizant... Infosys... Wipro... Tata... Larsen & Toubro... MSFT... Accenture... HCL... IBM... Google"

2012-01-27 03:04PST (06:04EST) (11:04GMT) (13:04Jerusalem)
Larry Dignan _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
consumer electronics supply chain is about Larry Dignan and CBS
"every tech item -- and thing you own -- goes through the same manufacturing paces...   HP also uses Foxconn heavily...   Every electronic you have on you right now goes through [Red China].   The data center that powers the cloud behind those devices were also made by folks stacked in tech dorms in [Red China].   The minerals in the battery were mined somewhere.   Deep down do you really give a rat's ass about the working conditions that created those relatively inexpensive devices? [Of course!]   ...from what I can tell you're still buying as much tech gear as you can.   [Well, sort of; none!]"

2012-01-27 03:26PST (06:26EST) (11:26GMT) (13:26Jerusalem)
Michelle Chapman _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Eastman Chemical buying Solutia for about $3.38G to increase presence in Asia and othe emerging markets
Eastman employs about 10K and Solutia about 3,400.   Citi and Barclays Capital are backing the deal. Eastman broke ground on a facility in Heifei, Red China, just last month.

2012-01-27 06:15PST (09:15EST) (14:15GMT) (16:15Jerusalem)
Toni Bowers _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
"social media" leave me alone

2012-01-27 07:15PST (10:15EST) (15:15GMT) (17:15Jerusalem)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index up from 69.9 in late December to 74.0 in early January to 75.0 in late January
Bloomberg
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis

2012-01-27 09:40PST (12:40EST) (17:40GMT) (19:40Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
of grads of special Austin Peay State U program to prepare students for work at Hemlock Semiconductor, less than half land jobs
"university has received a $6.4M state grant...   The plant, which would produce polycrystalline silicon for solar cells and semiconductor chips...   of 84 students who have graduated the program...only 35 have been hired by Hemlock...   10 graduates have gotten jobs at other companies... [leaving 39 -- over 46% -- unemployed or under-employed]"

2012-01-27
"Just the Facts"/_National Geographic_
Giant veil of "cold plasma" discovered high above earth

2012-01-27
Anthony Watts
major x-class solar flare

2012-01-27
Joe Guzzardi _Cagle Post_
in Florida, more NIGHTMAREs as tuitions soar
"The [NIGHTMARE Act] argument in Florida has taken a particularly absurd twist.   Next year for the third year in a row, under-graduate students at Florida universities will pay 15% higher tuition rates.   Various student fees will also increase.   In June, the [Florida] State University System's governing board approved a 7% tuition increase which came on top of an 8% bump which the legislature authorized earlier in 2011.   Over the last decade, Florida tuitions have risen by 130%.   The increases come during a period when financial aid programs, such as Florida's popular Bright Futures scholarship, have been cut.   The combination of higher tuition and less aid leaves many middle class students ineligible for financial assistance but also unable to pay the full freight, out of luck.   Florida's legal maximum tuition increase is 15% per year, a total many administrators think is inadequate.   University of Florida President Bernie Machen, for example, wants the ceiling lifted...   Over-seas enrollment is up about 10% in the last several years."

2012-01-27
Mark J. Perry
UMich has 53% more executives, administrators and staff than faculty

2012-01-27
Jim Kouri _Family Security Matters_
Lamar Smith notes that "deadly violent illegal aliens deserve no favors"

2012-01-27 (5772 Shebet 03)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_

Obummer says: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust... maybe starting in a few months

2012-01-27 (5772 Shebet 03)
Yochonon Donn _Jewish World Review_
In leftist NY, NY, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting representation in the state legislature
"A revised New York State Senate map released yesterday would, if approved, put the Orthodox and Chassidic neighborhoods of Boro Park and Flatbush into a single exclusive district, guaranteeing to shake up the political landscape.   The map, which must still overcome a gubernatorial veto threat and critique from both good government groups and the Democratic minority, would almost certainly lead to an Orthodox Jewish Republican getting elected in the district.   It would also wrest control from the 5 state senators who currently represent the area, 4 of whom are Democrats...   The maps, released yesterday afternoon by the bipartisan Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, is mandated following the changes in population revealed in the 2010 Census count.   It will be valid for a decade, until the next census...   As the primary season draws near, and ballots must be printed and candidates must be able to begin campaigning, there will be a pressure on the governor [Andrew Cuomo] to either sign the map or veto it."

2012-01-27 (5772 Shebet 03)
Jeannine Stein _Jewish World Review_
narcissists may have inherently higher levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol even when they're not under pressure
"Cortisol, which is released by the body during intense activity or stress, can have some benefits -- lending an energy surge, helping the body burn fat, and boosting memory.   But too much cortisol from chronic stress can cause such problems as higher blood pressure, lower immunity and higher levels of abdominal fat.   Researchers tested the saliva of 106 under-graduate students (79 women, 27 men) twice in a laboratory setting to check their cortisol levels.   At those times the students were not under stress."

2012-01-27 (5772 Shebet 03)
Katy Hopkins _Jewish World Review_
New federal financial aid rules
"New financial aid rules and restrictions in the legislation will affect how much federal aid some students will receive, how long they'll be able to receive it, and how soon they'll start to rack up interest on student loans after college...   some notable eligibility changes were made that could particularly affect students ages 24 and older.   In years past, eligible students could receive a Pell grant for 9 years of [education]...   Effective immediately and retroactively, students are only eligible for 6 full-time years of the grant...   the national average is getting close to 6 years...   In addition, students who have only passed an Ability to Benefit test (those who don't have a GED or high school diploma, or who weren't 'home-schooled') will no longer be eligible for federal aid."
 
Proposed Bills 2012

2012-01-27

DJIA	12,660.46
S&P 500(SPX)	1,316.33
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,816.55
Nikkei	8,841.22
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	1.9
crude oil(CL2G)	$99.56/barrel
natgas(NG12G)	$2.68/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB2G)	$2.93/gal
heatingoil(HO2G)	$3.07/gal
gold(GC2G)	$1,732.20/ounce
silver(S12H)	$33.79/ounce
platinum(PL2J)	$1,623.00/ounce
palladium(PA2H)	$690.15/ounce
copper(HG2H)	$0.243125/ounce
soybeans	$12.19/bushel
maize	$6.4175/bushel
wheat	$6.4725/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)	78.854
yenperdollar (USDYEN)	76.70
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)	$1.3216
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)	$1.5726
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF)	0.9525
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR)	49.225
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN)	12.916
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	643.14

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

"Between 1949 and 1971,... urban renewal razed 5 times as many low-income housing units as it created and evicted over 1M people from their homes." --- James Bovard _Lost Rights_ pg 41

 
 

2012-01-28

2012-01-27 19:48PST (2012-01-27 22:48EST) (2012-01-28 03:48GMT) (2012-01-28 05:48Jerusalem)
Laura Wides-Munoz _Lakeland FL Ledger_/_AP_
Marco Rubio tries to find the middle ground on immigration law reform

2012-01-28 15:32:30PST (18:32:30EST) (23:32:30GMT) (2012-01-29 01:32:30Jerusalem)
Marcus Wohlsen _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Law-suit challenges long-standing anti-poaching scheme among Sili Valley tech firms
Toni Bowers: Tech Republic/Ziff Davis/CBS
2009-06-17: Toni Bowers: tech firms investigated for hiring practices
Lee Cowan: CBS
"Riley told judge Lucy Koh that such [corrupt] arrangements were common."

2012-01-28
Anthony Watts & Burt Rutan
re-examining the data

2012-01-28
Mark J. Perry
Sugar tariffs cost Americans $3.86G in 2011
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

"The welfare state reduces a citizen to a client, subordinates them to a bureaucrat, and subjects them to rules that are anti- work, anti-family, anti-opportunity and anti-property...   Humans forced to suffer under such anti-human rules naturally develop pathologies.   The evening news is the natural result of the welfare state." --- Newt Gingrich

 
 

2012-01-29

2012-01-29
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
New flurry of activity hits Heath oil field in central Montana
"Central Montanans from Lewistown to Jordan also have a seemingly played-out oil field.   'The Heath' as it's called in these parts, is a shale formation 250 miles wide from east to west and 150 miles from north to south...   In 1922, oilmen punctured the Heath shale after drilling 1,950 feet and began pumping the first of more than 35M barrels of oil.   The last productive barrels reached the surface in the last months of 1990, according to records, at which point engineers dismissed the Heath shale as a geological turnip, its remaining oil hopelessly trapped in minerals too tight for extraction.   Modern oilmen stumbled onto the Heath not even realizing it was there, according to Darcey Matthews, of Endeavour Corp.   A rural ranch couple struck up a conversation with Endeavour team members at a café, and tipped them off about the Heath.   Soon after, engineers were studying geological data and landmen were crowding clerk and recorder offices to see who owned what.   Five companies have since bored into Heath shale with vertical wells to collect samples and determine whether the formation is significant enough to be drilled horizontally and cracked, using explosives and extreme hydraulic pressure, to set once-trapped oil seeping into horizontal drill holes.   It's still early in the process, said Matthews, whose company last year launched vertical well projects in four areas between Jordan and Ingomar.   The company's next move is establishing horizontal bores this year.   At the earliest, Endeavour's [sites] might begin producing oil in 2013 if all the work up to that point proves worthwhile."

2012-01-29
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
OK, strike Washington-Lincoln day... what about just "Lincoln day" in Virginia?

2012-01-29
Viv Forbes
Making things people value matters

2012-01-29
Ottmar Endenhofer and IPCC
we redistribute the world's wealth... This has almost nothing to do with environment

2012-01-29
Willis Eschenbach
Hansen's prognosticator variant of the shell game: sea levels

2012-01-29
Sean Barron _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Cut Scouts learn rescue techniques and first aid at annual "Freeze-Out" event

2012-01-29
Anthony Watts
head-lines over solar cycle 25 and global cooling
David Rose: Daily Mail: it's cycle 25, we need to worry about the Thames freezing over as it did in 1684

2012-01-29
Carly Harrington _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
job of new Regal CEO, Amy Miles, is to keep 'em coming into the theaters

2012-01-29
Mark J. Perry
employment vs. claptrap: divergence

2012-01-29
Mark J. Perry
US oil production and consumption

2012-01-29
Mark J. Perry
Want to save endangered species? Implement property rights
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

"After the recent excitements, & the struggle over the adoption of the Constitution, the townsmen watched their representatives with keen & suspicious attention.   A particularly bad impression was created by the Act of the new Congress establishing the salaries of members.   The husbandmen... were not prepared to acquiesce in letting politics become a remunerative career...   'The idea of making money out of the public at this time ought to be expunged.'" --- J.R. Pole _Political Representation in England & the Origins of the American Republic_ 1966 (quoting Henry Van Schaack writing to Theodore Sedgwick 1790-07-13)

 
 

2012-01-30

2012-01-30
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
suit filed last April by 28 Lordstown workers against GM And the union will finally be heard beginning Wednesday

2012-01-30
Tom Blumer _PJ Media_
GOP-governed and right-to-work states had best economies in 2011

2012-01-30
Anthony Watts
New NCAR paper speculates on solar-magnetic affects on volcanism during Little Ice Age

2012-01-30
Don Boudreaux
Krugman's "austere" "science"

2012-01-30 11:29:26PST (14:29:26EST) (19:29:26GMT) (21:29:26Jerusalem)
Ann d'Innocenzio _San Jose CA Mercury News_/_AP_
JC Penney CEO, Ron Johnson: and the AP proves they have no low standards and expectations regarding creativity
"For 15 years, Johnson worked at Target, where he pioneered the retailer's cheap chic image.   Then, he spent about a decade changing the way Americans shop for electronic gadgets at Apple (AAPL).   Now, the question is whether Johnson will strike creative genius a third time as CEO of J.C. Penney."

2012-01-30
Anthony Watts
bitter cold in Alaska and Canada
"Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80℉ set in 1971, which is not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States of America.   Unfortunately, it seems the battery died in the weather station just at the critical moment."

2012-01-30
Michael Ledeen _PJ Media_
When did the war between the USA and Iran begin?
"Serious thinking, and a serious strategy, must begin with the fact that the war is on.   To repeat: the war is on.   It's been on for 3 decades.   Ayatollah Khomeini declared war on the United States in 1979 February, and the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been killing Americans ever since.   When they demonstrate in the streets and chant 'Death to America!', what do you think they mean?"

2012-01-30
Bob Owens _PJ Media_
Newly released e-mail messages suggest Eric Holder perjured himself

2012-01-30
_KGO San Francisco CA_
900 attend Emeryville CA job fair: next East Bay HIREvent will be Feb. 28 in Concord

2012-01-30
Kaustuv Basu _Inside Higher Education_
adjuncts demand fairer treatment

2012-01-30
Mark J. Perry
heavy metal coming back in the midwest

2012-01-30
Mark J. Perry
Lincoln Furniture brings furniture-making back to USA

2012-01-30
Mark J. Perry
U of ND cranks up petroleum engineering degree programs

2012-01-30
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
Texas woman confronts Obummer on H-1B issue -- sea change?
 
Something that happened this evening is one of the most remarkable events I've seen in all the years I've been writing about the H-1B work visa and age discrimination.
 
I was originally going to report on an article on the age problem in the tech industry that ran in over the weekend.   Nice piece, in the Bay Area edition of the New York Times, sourced from the Bay Citizen.   I will indeed discuss this article later in this posting, but let me lead with this evening's case in point:
 
President Obama held a live video chat this evening, and one J. Wedel of Fort Worth, TX, managed to get in a question: "Why does the government continue to extend H-1B visas when there are tons of Americans just like my [engineer] husband with no job?"
 
Mr. D. Wedel is a semiconductor engineer, now out of work for 3 years.   This of course is diametrically opposite to what Obama has been telling the country, that we have a SHORTAGE of engineers.   He's called for producing 10K more engineers, and emphasized in his State of the Union address last week liberalizing H-1B and/or green cards to keep foreign tech workers in the U.S.A., to remedy that "shortage".
 
Obama's answer to Mrs. Wedel was that, well, there are engineers and then there are engineers, and talked about specialization.   He pointed out that, what with the housing bust and all, civil engineers are not in high demand these days.   He then asked Mrs. Wedel what kind of engineer her husband is, and she replied that he a semiconductor engineer -- exactly the kind of worker Obama thinks is in short supply!
 
Obama looked a bit caught off balance by that, and said he'd like to know the details, because "the word we're getting is that somebody like that should be getting work right away".   He asked Wedel to send him her husband's CV.
 
Some of the engineers and programmers who oppose the H-1B program might be saying now, as they read this, "Yes!   The President will finally hear the truth about the H-1B visa!   He'll discover it's a sham, and he fix the problem!"
 
Well, let's think about that, reason out some scenarios of what might happen now, assuming that Obama does indeed ask his staff to follow up on this.
 
I would guess that Obama's staff's industry contacts will make sure that Mr. Wedel will get a job out of all this.   For him NOT to get a job would risk having the truth come out -- which is that H-1B is about AGE, a way for employers to avoid hiring older (35+) Americans.   When they run out of young Americans to hire, they have a large pool of young H-1Bs to turn to.
 
Now, assuming Mr. Wedel does get a job, what will Obama's staff do about the question his earlier predicament raised? Will they say, "Well, maybe the industry hasn't been fully truthful to us in their claims of an engineering shortage"?   And if they do say that, will they relay that concern to Obama, and if so, will he in turn start to question his doing the industry's bidding on the H-1B issue?
 
A lot of ifs there, and my guess is No to all of the above.   They'll simply report to Obama, "Good news, Mr. President -- Wedel's husband has found a job." and he'll say "Great, next issue."   He'll simply assume that the guy was an anomaly, had somehow fallen through the cracks.
 
Of course, that's not what SHOULD happen.   Obama and his staff should ask, "Now, wait a minute...how could this guy be unemployed for 3 years in Texas, one of the biggest tech states in America?"   But they won't ask it, either because they are so mesmerized by the industry lobbyists or because they are so financially beholden to those same lobbyists, or a combination of both.   Cognitive dissonance ought to be at work here, but I doubt that it will.
 
In addition, there is the possibility that Obama and/or his staff are already skeptical of the industry's claims, but simply cannot afford to relinquish the industry's campaign donations.   An internal document unearthed last year from the papers of the Clinton White House talks of "call[ing the] industry's bluff re: their shortage of really highly skilled and desirable workers".   If that were the case with the Obama folks, Obama's surprised reaction to Wedel may have been somewhat feigned.
 
The worst possibility in my mind is that the Obama people take the classic Democratic Party approach and decide that what Mr. Wedel needs is...TRAINING!   (Whenever I trash the Democrats like this I feel compelled to remind everyone that I'm a lifelong Democrat myself, no ulterior motive here.)
 
The reason training doesn't work is that older workers are expensive.   After training (which many don't need anyway), they are STILL expensive.   So training does nothing.
 
Which brings me to the New York Times/Bay Citizen article ([linked] at the end of this message).   The piece does a good job of getting the point across that Mr. Wedel is definitely not alone.   On the contrary, he's pretty much the norm.   However, the article drops the ball in not identifying the central issue -- MONEY, in the sense, once again, that the older workers are perceived as simply being too expensive.
 
I tried to get this point across in the reporter's interview of me last week, but I got the sense, correctly as it turns out, that his mind was already made up: The problem these older engineers have is that the technology has simply passed them by; they just don't have the latest skill sets.   I pointed out that many older engineers are exact matches for jobs listed on companies' web sites, yet never get so much as a phone call in response to their application.   But by that time he'd already heard too much from others that the problem was skill sets.   (More on his interviewees below.)
 
Ms. Wedel said she'd been married about 10 years, and she looked about 30 or so to me, which would likely put her husband in or near the danger zone I've been warning about: age 35.   The industry may tell Obama that Mr. Wedel lacks some particular new technological skill, but that'll probably be just a pretext.   The REAL reason engineers like Mr. Wedel have trouble finding work was well illustrated in a rare slip by MSFT I've cited before:
 
MSFT...Senior Vice-President and Chief Technical Officer David Vaskevitch...acknowledges that the vast majority of MSFT hires are young, but that is because older workers tend to go into more senior jobs and there are fewer of those positions to begin with.
 
(Emphasis added.)
 
It's like the old General Motors notion of "planned obsolescence", only for people rather than cars.   And the H-1B program, made up overwhelming of young workers, is what fuels all this.   In pre-H-1B days, it was assumed that engineers and programmers would learn new technological skills on their own, as part of their jobs; now, they often are not given that chance.
 
Reporter Glantz has written an engaging piece, certainly recommended reading, but as mentioned, it misses the boat on the central issue, that older engineers are just too expensive.   Moreover, it's a pity that he restricted his research (he did tell me he was on short deadline) in employment counseling to government-financed agencies such as NOVA, and industry-tied statistics gatherers such as Hancock.   Glantz would have gotten a much more accurate picture had he talked to private employment agencies, i.e. "headhunters", who would have told him that, in MSFT's succinct words, "there are fewer [senior] positions to begin with".
 
As I said, Mr. Wedel is, if anything, typical.   I just talked yesterday to a new PhD in a tech field.   He had worked in industry for some years before returning to grad school, and did a dissertation which uses state-of-the-art technology, on a very practical topic.   He had spent about 10 years at two brand-name firms, working on key projects.   He's articulate and well-liked.   So, he's just what Obama claims to want.   Yet he told me all his fellow students doing research in that field are gettting showered with job offers, but nothing for him so far.   He is also in his mid-30s.
 
Mr. President, how many Mr. Wedels will it take to convince you that something is terribly wrong with the H-1B program -- and not just with the Indian "bodyshops"?
 
Aaron Glantz's article follows below.
 
Norm
 

Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can't Get Hired
Neil Munro: Daily Caller: Obummer still touting H-1B visas after being informed of the devastation they wreak
Wedel video

2012-01-30 (5772 Shebet 06)
Danielle Kurtzleben _Jewish World Review_
Misreading Iranian regime's limits: Can rulers be targeted without harming populace?

2012-01-30 (5772 Shebet 06)
Suzanne Bohan _Jewish World Review_
nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep
"A lack of afternoon shut-eye could also increase the odds of emotional problems later in life...   Lack of sleep disrupts their ability to build skills for managing emotions, she explained.   That puts them at risk for lifelong mood-related problems such as anxiety and depression, LeBourgeois said, citing long-term studies...   15% to 20% of toddlers aren't getting the requisite minimum of 10 hours of sleep at night, LeBourgeois said, making afternoon naps critical for them to meet their total sleep needs of 12 to 14 hours a day.   LeBourgeois and her colleagues tested the effect of nap deprivation on 2.5- to 3-year-olds.   The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, will be published later this year in the Journal of Sleep Research...   The researchers looked for such facial expressions as joy, interest, excitement, sadness, anger, anxiety, disgust, shame and confusion in kids working with puzzles who missed their usual mid-day sleep.   Even skipping one day of nap time for these children led to heightened frustration while working on a challenging puzzle, with the napless children showing 31% more negative emotions than their rested counterparts.   But even solving an easy puzzle didn't bring them as much happiness; the nap-deprived kids were one-third less likely to display positive emotions.   In an important nuance, the toddlers who missed their daily nap also showed less confusion -- by 39% -- when working on the challenging puzzle.   Signs of confusion are actually healthy, LeBourgeois explained.   'Confusion is not bad.   It's a complex emotion showing a child knows something does not add up.'...   A number of large, long-term studies linked lack of sleep in early childhood to anxiety, depression and other mood-related disorders later in life, LeBourgeois said."

2012-01-30 (5772 Shebet 06)
Menachem Wecker _Jewish World Review_
3 tips for healthy studying in college
"Only about 35% of students graduate 'on time'; nearly 65% take 6 years or longer."

2012-01-30 (5772 Shebet 06)
Chandra Johnson Greene _Weston-Redding-Easton CT Patch_
66% of Connecticut residents believe illegal immigration is hurting the Nutmeg State
ALIPAC
"67% of Connecticut voters oppose in-state tuition aid for illegal aliens looking to attend public universities.   68% believe the state should be involved in immigration enforcement.   39% believe illegal immigrants take jobs from American citizens...   51% support reducing overall immigration to the U.S.A."
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

"We may add, that if revenue is here the only object, taxes that are moderate are confessedly the most productive." --- anonymous 1788 _New & Old Principles of Trade Compared; or a Treatise on the Principles of Commerce between Nations_ (quoted in John R. McCulloch 1859 _A Selected Collection of Scarce & Valuable Tracts on Commerce_ quoted in Charles Adams 1933 _For Good & Evil_)

 
 

2012-01-31

2012-01-31: Republican Primary in Florida: Early voting begins in Ohio (results)

2012-01-31 08:20PST (11:20EST) (16:20GMT) (18:20Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
Conference Board: Consumer confidence dipped in January
"The confidence index fell from 64.8 in December to 61.1 in January...   Regarding employment, those saying jobs are 'plentiful' declined from 6.6% to 6.1%, while those saying jobs are 'hard to get' rose from 41.6% to 43.5%.   The rest said jobs are 'not so plentiful'.   The expectations gauge declined from 77 in December to 76.2 in January.   Those expecting an increase of income in 6 months fell from 16.3% in December to 13.8% in January, while those expecting a decrease rose from 14.3% to 14.7%.   The rest expect the same income.   Meanwhile, those expecting 'better' business conditions fell from 16.8% to 16.6%, while those expecting 'worse' conditions rose from 13.4% to 15.1%.   The rest expect the same conditions.   The December reading for confidence was revised from a prior estimate of 64.5 to 64.8.   Generally when the economy is growing at a good clip, confidence readings are at least 90."

2012-01-31
Willis Eschenbach
Japanese sea-level data

2012-01-31 14:08:31PST (17:08:31EST) (22:08:31GMT) (2012-02-01 00:08:31Jerusalem)
Jasmin Melvin _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Google execs and PR flacks attempt to defend worsening of privacy violation policies

2012-01-31
Tom Howard _Billings MT Gazette_
Bakken oil boom not going away any time soon
"The Bakken, the focus of so much worldwide attention, is a formation that encompasses 200K square miles within the Williston Basin, in western North Dakota, Eastern Montana and into Canada.   During his presentation for the 2012 Economic Outlook seminar in Billings, Richmond painted a picture in which the oil and gas industry continues to be a bright spot that generates billions of dollars for the state's economy and employs more than 4,600 people."

2012-01-31
Mark J. Perry
"green" energy policies harm the poor: gasoline purchases as percentage of personal income 1950-2011

2012-01-31
Mark J. Perry
home "ownership" rate at lowest level since 1997, and bubble is still deflating

2012-01-31
Mark J. Perry
restaurant index reached 6-year high

2012-01-31
Mark J. Perry
US manufacturing profits vs. jobs, 1995 vs. 2011

2012-01-31
Mark J. Perry
$460M stimulus to Florida from oil and shale boom

2012-01-31
Melissa Korn _Wall Street Journal_
move over MBAs, here come the engineers
"according to a new Harvard Business School working paper that analyzes data from more than 300 Fortune 500 companies...   According to a new 'study' of 36M FB profiles, 3,337 company founders and CEOs across all industries hold an advanced degree in engineering, while 1,016 have advanced business degrees."

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Paul Greenberg _Jewish World Review_
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
"The words are old, the First Amendment having been adopted in 1791 along with the rest of the Bill of Rights.   But even today, whenever they're read, the effect is the same.   The heart beats just a little faster.   There is a majesty about those words, not just in their grand sweep, but in the fine judgment one can sense behind them.   Note the carefully chosen phrases, the balance and comprehension of its language, broad yet focused.   It was as if the founders knew they were writing not just for their time but ours, as if they realized they were founding.   A new order of the ages, as it still says on the dollar bill...   The constitution they crafted was, and is, about more than law.   A mix of the mundane and visionary, it expressed great principles while dealing with practical details -- like terms of office and tax policy.   Complex and simple, general and precise at the same time.   What a mix of idealism and practicality the founders bequeathed in the Constitution, much like the country and society it was meant for.   William Ewart Gladstone...once described the U.S. Constitution as 'the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man'...   This welcome decision is but the latest round in a continuing case that might rightly be styled Obama v. Constitution."

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Hamas and the DC establishment
"For the US to secure its interests in the Middle East, it requires leaders who are willing to reassess what passes for common wisdom on both sides of the aisle...   Last month, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich became the first major political figure in more than a generation to pour cold water over the Palestinian myth of indigenous peoplehood by stating the truth, that the Palestinians are an 'invented people'.   As Gingrich explained, their invention came in response to Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement.   Since they were created somewhere around 1920, the Palestinians' main purpose has not been the establishment of a Palestinian state but the obliteration of the Jewish state...   When asked about Turkey, Perry said that country 'is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists'.   He went on to say that the US ought to be having a debate about whether Turkey should continue to serve as a member of NATO...   After Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 January, Turkey was the first country to invite Hamas's terror master Khaled Mashal to Ankara.   Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan's move provoked criticism from the Bush administration.   But Erdogan just shrugged it off...   The fact that Erdogan embraced Hamas could not get in the way of Rice's optimistic assessment.   So, too, the fact that Erdogan embarked on a systematic campaign to stifle press freedom, curb judicial independence and imprison his political critics in the media and the military could not move Rice from her view that Erdogan personified her belief that moderate jihadists exist and ought to be embraced by the USA.   Rice's starry-eyed view of Erdogan set the stage of US president Barack Obama's even stronger embrace of the increasingly tyrannical Turkish Islamist...   Over the past few weeks, Turkey has emerged as Hamas's largest financier.   During an official visit in Turkey, Hamas's terror master in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh received a hero's welcome.   Erdogan pledged to finance the jihadist movement to the tune of $300M per year."

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Frank J. Gaffney ii _Jewish World Review_
Obummer regime trying to muzzle critics of violence inciting and initiating Islam
"According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), there is a grave threat to America that must be suppressed at all costs.   The threat is that lieutenant-general William G. 'Jerry' Boykin might be allowed to exercise his constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech...   Gen. Boykin is also an ordained minister.   The sorts of events CAIR has insisted that he must not address include prayer sessions convened by the mayor of Ocean City, MD, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.   What makes the suppression of general Boykin's right to express himself -- and, for that matter, to enjoy freedom of religion -- all the more outrageous is the nature of the organization demanding that he be silenced.   Four federal judges have affirmed that CAIR is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and was spawned by one of its American affiliates, the Islamic Association for Palestine.   Indeed, we know from wiretapped conversations at the time of its founding that CAIR was established by Muslim Brotherhood operatives as a political arm and fundraising mechanism for Hamas, a designated terrorist organization and the Brotherhood's franchise in 'Palestine'...   They have gone after a number of other truth-tellers about the doctrine the Brothers seek to insinuate into this country -- the totalitarian, supremacist politico-military-legal program the Islamists call Shariah.   For example, another colleague, former representative Fred Grandy, was removed from his position as one of Washington's most popular talk-radio-show hosts when he refused to allow Muslim critics to dictate who could appear on his program and what they could say.   In the Fall, Stephen Coughlin, one of the nation's foremost non-Muslim experts on Shariah, similarly was subjected to a CAIR-led effort to deny his ability to speak.   In that case, he was denied by the Obama administration the opportunity to provide training to CIA personnel about what impels our enemies to engage in murderous and stealthy forms of jihad, namely Shariah.   More recently, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been subjected to a campaign of vilification by CAIR and its friends.   His offense? Mr. Kelly gave an interview to the makers of a superb documentary, 'The Third Jihad', and allowed that film to be used in training his officers.   CAIR's desire to suppress this film is not hard to understand.   After all, 'The Third Jihad' brilliantly exposes what it and other Muslim Brotherhood fronts are up to in this country.   In the words of the Brotherhood's own strategic plan, that is 'a kind of grand jihad...in destroying and eliminating the Western civilization from within' by our own hands.   The movie's narrator and central figure is Zuhdi Jasser.   Dr. Jasser, a physician, happens to be one of the most prominent and courageous of American Muslims who oppose political Islam and its use of Shariah to justify the subversion and destruction of our Constitution, form of government and society."
Clarion Project: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
anti-CAIR
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Danielle Kurtzleben _Jewish World Review_
10 worst cities with 200K or more population, for finding a job

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Laura McMullen _Jewish World Review_
3 tips to overcome a bad grade in college

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Obummer's racial politics
"Obama's presidency represents the first time in our history that a person could have been elected to that office who had long-standing close associations with people who hate our nation.   I'm speaking of the reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for 20 years, who preached that blacks should sing not 'God Bless America', but 'God damn America'.   Then there's William Ayers, now professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago but formerly a member of the Weather Underground, an anti-U.S. group that bombed the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and other government buildings.   Although Ayers was never convicted of any crime, he told a New York Times reporter, in [an article published the morning of 2011-09-11, just hours before the terrorist attacks], 'I don't regret setting bombs...   I feel we didn't do enough.'   Obama has served on a foundation board, appeared on panels, and even held campaign events in Ayers' home, joined by Ayers' former-fugitive wife, Bernardine Dohrn.   Bill Ayers' close association with Obama is reflected by his admission that he helped write Obama's memoirs, _Dreams from My Father_...   Obama's racial politics are aided and abetted by a dishonest news media...   All of this places a heavy burden on people who care about our nation.   We must ensure that the 2012 elections are the most open and honest elections in U.S. history.   Should Obama lose, I wouldn't put it past leftists,...the news media and their race-hustling allies, as well as the president, to fan the fires of hate and dissension by charging that racists somehow stole the election, thereby giving support and excuses for...violence and lawlessness..."

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Getting nowhere, very fast
"Most of us might be a little skittish about spending money if we were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.   But the beauty of politics is that it is all other people's money, including among those other people generations yet unborn...   Spain is about the same size as California, and has a similar population density -- and population density is the key to the economic viability of mass transportation, from subways to high-speed rail.   It so happens that I have ridden on Spain's high-speed rail system.   It was very nice, especially since I did not have to pay the full costs, which were subsidized by the Spanish [tax-victims].   While the Spanish government has been subsidizing the passengers on its high-speed rail system, the European Union has been subsidizing the Spanish government.   Someone once said that government is the illusion that we can all live off somebody else...   The most famous high-speed rail system is that in Japan, one of the most densely [over-populated] countries in the world.   The 'bullet train' between Tokyo and Osaka has 130M riders a year.   Tokyo alone has more than 3 times the population of San Francisco and Los Angeles put together...   You can bet the rent money that high-speed rail traffic between Fresno and Bakersfield will never come within shouting distance of covering the operating costs.   Some people have analogized putting such a rail line between these 2 towns to the infamous 'bridge to nowhere' in Alaska.   Why are they doing it? Because they can.   If they began this project where they want it to go -- between San Francisco and Los Angeles -- they would run into so much opposition from the environmentalists, and from local politicians influenced by the environmentalists, that the delays could take the high-speed rail advocates beyond the time limit for using the federal subsidy money.   But the green fanatics have not yet taken over politically out in the San Joaquin Valley.   The only reason for even thinking about building a high-speed rail line between Fresno and Bakersfield is just to get the project underway with federal money, making it politically more difficult to stop the larger project for a similar rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles.   In other words, they are going to start wasting money out in the valley, so that they will be able to waste more money later on, along the coast.   This may not make any sense economically, but it can make sense politically for Jerry Brown and Barack Obama."

2012-01-31 (5772 Shebet 07)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
The Republican establishment is smearing Gingrich
Town Hall
Natonal Review
"Although Speaker Gingrich decided not to take on the task of fighting the charge from his political enemies in 1997, the Internal Revenue Service conducted its own investigation which, two years later, exonerated Gingrich from the charges.   His resignation was not due to those charges and occurred much later...   There are also charges made about what Congressman Gingrich said about Ronald Reagan on 1986 March 21.   But this too is a matter of public record, since his remarks are available in the Congressional Record of that date, so it is remarkable that there should be any controversy about it at this late date.   On that date, Gingrich praised Reagan's grasp of the foreign policy issues of the day but later questioned whether the way the actual policies of the Reagan administration were being carried out was likely to succeed.   Gingrich was not alone in making this point which such conservative stalwarts as George Will, Charles Krauthammer and others made at the time.   Since a column of my own back in the 1980s suggested that the administration's policies seemed to be to 'speak loudly and carry a little stick', I can well understand the misgivings of others.   But that is wholly different from saying that all who expressed misgivings were enemies of Ronald Reagan...   There have long been reports of people who decline to be nominated for federal judicial appointments because that means going before the Senate Judiciary Committee to have lies about their past spread nationwide, and the good reputation built up over a lifetime destroyed by politicians who could not care less about the truth.   The same practices may well have something to do with the public's dissatisfaction with the current crop of candidates in this year's primaries -- and in previous years' primaries.   Character assassination is just another form of voter fraud.   There is no law against it, so it is up to the voters, not only in Florida but in other states, to punish it at the ballot box -- the only place where punishment is likely to stop the practice."

2012 January/February
Beryl Lieff Benderly _Columbia Journalism Review_
what scientist shortage? myth damages USA research, & job markets... as jobs dearth continues to worsen
 
Proposed Bills 2012
 
 

"Part of this strategy...is to reclaim the language...and, by so doing, rename their opponents according to what they truly promote...   to adopt the language used by the opposition, infusing it with new meaning that will ultimately lead people to start thinking [in the way desired]...   That the language & logic of rights... resonate with the majority of Americans comes as no surprise.   It plays to both the best & worst aspects of American individualism.   But to conclude that this message should form the principle argument... is... a bit too desperate.   The cultural impulse that animates many secular modernists... is derived from precisely this libertarian ideal...   It is not, as Charles Krauthammer argued..., a consensus among the 3 branches of gov't that would have brought about a... victory, but rather a co-opting of their opponents by having the latter accept the[ir] moral vocabulary." --- James Davison Hunter & Carl Bowman 1994 _Before the Shooting Begins_ pp 118-119

 
 

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K	kilo-	thousand		10^3	1,000
M	mega-	million	one thousand thousand	10^6	1,000,000
G	giga-	billion	one thousand million	10^9	1,000,000,000
T	tera-	trillion	one million million	10^12	1,000,000,000,000
P	peta-	quadrillion	one million billion	10^15	1,000,000,000,000,000
E	exa-	quintillion	one billion billion	10^18	1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Z	zetta-	sextillion	one billion trillion	10^21	1,000,000,000,000,000,000

Except that computer people use 2 as a base raised to multiples of powers of 10, instead of 10 raised to multiples of powers of 3 because powers of 2 are handier for them, but they also want to stay somewhat close to the values of 10 most folks are used to.

1,024	K	kilo- (kibi-)	2^10
1,048,576	M	mega- (mebi-)	2^20
1,073,741,824	G	giga- (gibi-)	2^30
1,099,511,627,776	T	tera- (tebi-)	2^40
1,125,899,906,842,624	P	peta- (pebi-)	2^50
1,152,921,504,606,846,976	E	exa- (exbi-)	2^60
1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424	Z	zetta- (zebi-)	2^70

An alternate set of prefixes has been proposed.

 

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Proposed Bills 2012

Congressional candidate fund-raising, expenditures, and debt
 

USA Over-Population Clock
World + USA Over-Population Clocks
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on World Over-Population
 

"Well, I wish you hadn't written that, but we certainly can't argue with you.   We've loved having the media's support, but we've been wondering when someone would finally blow the whistle." --- ACLU activist to David Shaw in response to his article "Abortion Bias Seeps into News" 1990-07-01 _LA Times_ (quoted in James Davison Hunter & Carl Bowman 1994 _Before the Shooting Begins_)

Movies Coming Soon
 

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