explosives may be used to dislodge cows frozen to death this winter in National Forest near Aspen
2012-04-17
_Billings MT Gazette_
Greg Mortenson taken to court over frauds in _3 Cups of Tea_ and _Stones Into Schools_
"list more than two dozen alleged fabrications and accusations of wrong-doing"
2012-04-17
Mike McNally _PJ Media_
Obummer still coddling dictators at Americas summit
2012-04-17
Nicole Ferraro _Internet Evolution_/_UBM_
beware dishonest/deceptive rhetoric on web freedom
2012-04-17
Phyllis Schlafly _GOP USA_
Obummer's war on women
World Net Daily
Town Hall
2012-04-17
_BBC_
study reveals extraordinarily diverse DNA of people in Scotland
Auslan Cramb: London Telegraphs
"Conti and Napoleon both share the M34 marker, which is Saracen in origin. The project found that Scotland has almost 100 different groups of male ancestry from across Europe and further afield. More than 150 different types of female DNA from Europe, Asia and Africa were discovered... Scotland's DNA also found that more than 1% of all Scotsmen are direct descendants of the Berber and Tuareg tribesmen of the Sahara, a lineage which is around 5600 years old. Royal Stewart DNA was confirmed in 15% of male participants with the Stewart surname... [Maeatae, who fought the Roman legions in 208CE...around Stirling... Cornishmen (duh, Stuart/Stewart/Steward of Dol, Brittany/Bretagne)...]"
2012-04-17 (5772 Nisan 25)
Jason Koebler _Jewish World Review_
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) allows more government privacy violations
"Jim Dempsey, vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology. 'This is about government monitoring. [SOPA] is about the First amendment, [CISPA] is about the Fourth, but they both take a legitimate problem and try to tackle it with an over-broad solution.' CISPA's main goal, according to sponsoring representatives Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, is as follows: Foreign governments and independent hackers are stealing information from American corporations all the time, costing the companies billions of dollars. The government knows how to stop these attacks and wants to help out private companies, but the current law doesn't allow them to share classified information with private companies. CISPA would open that pipe-line, but it would be a two-way street -- the way the bill is written, companies can share users' information with the government if they sense a 'cyber threat'."
2012-04-17 (5772 Nisan 25)
Ewen Callaway _Jewish World Review_
shorting sleep time linked with addictions
2012-04-17 (5772 Nisan 25)
Bernard Goldberg _Jewish World Review_
NYSlimes at it again
"My response to the look doesn't depend on how I feel about black teenagers. It depends on how I feel about anybody who looks like a thug. Besides, given the epidemic of black-on-black crime, a black kid getting on the train would also be worried if the door slides open and he sees three young black kids in saggy pants and hoodies. But let's give Mr. Staples the benefit of the doubt. Let's assume white people do have a built in concern when we see black teenagers on the street late at night, or on the subway. Why don't we have that same concern -- fear is the more precise word -- when we see a bunch of young Hassidic Jews hanging around? Could it be because there aren't a lot of violent Hassidic Jews out there -- and there are a disproportionate number of black kids involved in street crime?"
2012-04-17 (5772 Nisan 25)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Mixing and matching
American Spectator
Town Hall
"When there was a large Jewish population living on New York's lower east side, a century ago, Jews did not live at random among themselves. Polish Jews had their neighborhoods, Rumanian Jews theirs, and so on. Meanwhile German Jews lived uptown. In Chicago, when Eastern European Jews began moving into German Jewish neighborhoods, German Jews began moving out. It was much the same story in Harlem or in other urban ghettoes, where blacks did not live at random among themselves. Landmark scholarly studies by E. Franklin Frazier in the 1930s showed in detail how different neighborhoods within the ghettoes had people of different educational and income levels, with different male\female ratios and different ways of life living in different places. There was nothing random about it. Within Chicago's black community, the delinquency rate ranged from more than 40% in some black neighborhoods to less than 2% in other black neighborhoods. People sort themselves out. None of this was peculiar to blacks or Jews, or to the United States. When emigrants from Scotland went to Australia, the Scottish highlanders settled separately from the Scottish lowlanders. So did emigrants from northern Italy and southern Italy. Separate residential patterns that are visible to the naked eye, when the people are black and white, are also pervasive among people who physically all look alike. Charles Murray's eye-opening new book, _Coming Apart_, shows in detail how different segments of the white American population not only live separately from each other but have very different ways of life -- and are growing increasingly remote from one another in beliefs and behavior."
Proposed Bills 2012
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"The massive 19th-century migration from Europe to the Americas, both North and South, and to Australia and New Zealand, changed the economic and political geography of the world beyond recognition. It created an abundance of entrepreneurial opportunities. It made obsolete the geo-political concepts on which European politics and military strategies had been based for several centuries. Yet it took place in a mere 50 years, from the mid-1860s to 1914... It also took only 30 years, from 1830 to 1860, to transform both western Europe and the eastern United States from rural and farm-based societies into industry-dominated big-city civilizations... The belief that populations changed slowly in times past is pure myth. Or rather, static populations staying in one place for long periods of time have been the exception historically rather than the rule." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pg340
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2012-04-18
2012-04-18
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
At what point did I change my focus?
2012-04-18
Thomas E. Brewton
extravagant GSA blow-outs are right in line with Keynesian policy
2012-04-18
Wayne Hale
How we nearly lost shuttle Discovery in 2005 July
canonical post
2012-04-18 05:45PDT (08:45EDT) (12:45GMT) (14:45 Jerusalem)
Derek Abma _Financial Post_
Conference Board of Canada doesn't expect to see full employment in Canada until at least 2016
2012-04-18
David P. Goldman _PJ Media_
sympathy for the leftist devil
2012-04-18
Joe Guzzardi _Californians for Population Stabilization_
nutty Bill Clinton falsely claiming USA "needs" more cheap, pliant foreign labor with questionable ethics
"overwhelming evidence that what the United States needs is not more immigration but rather an immigration moratorium. Even the most casual economic observer can figure out that adding more than 100K immigrants every month, month in and month out year after year and issuing them work permits, is a disaster for the approximately 20M unemployed and under-employed Americans... Since 2001, the total numbers of H-1B visas issued to engineers has exceeded engineering job creation in every year. At the same time, American colleges and universities produce more than enough science, math, and engineering graduates to fill available jobs. Said Michael S. Teitelbaum, Vice President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: 'No one who has come to the question with an open mind has been able to find any objective data suggesting general ''shortages'' of scientists and engineers.'... The Urban Institute, a Washington DC-based non-partisan economic and social policy organization, confirmed Teitelbaum's statement. Urban Institute analyst Harold Satzman, Ph.D. found that: 'The United States' education system produces a supply of qualified [science and engineering] graduates in much greater numbers than jobs available.'"
2012-04-18 14:53PDT (17:53EDT) (21:53GMT) (23:53 Jerusalem)
_Investor's Business Daily_
Obummer admin doubles down on political grants for "green energy" boondoggles
2012-04-18
William L. Anderson
Krugman still believes geometrically increasing inflation will "save" Europe
2012-04-18 (5772 Nisan 26)
Michelle Malkin _Jewish World Review_
GSA scandals: partying at our expense and biasd project labor agreements
2012-04-18 (5772 Nisan 26)
Jonah Goldberg _Jewish World Review_
Obummer's biggest problem is his record
2012-04-18 (5772 Nisan 26)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Good Economists
"It's difficult to be a good economist and simultaneously be perceived as compassionate. To be a good economist, one has to deal with reality... Between 1787 and 1930, our nation suffered both mild and severe economic downturns. There was no intervention to stimulate the economy, but the economy always recovered. During the 1930s, there were massive interventions, starting with president Herbert Hoover and later with president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Their actions turned what would have been a sharp 3- or 4-year economic down-turn into a 10-year affair. In 1930, when Hoover began to 'fix' the economy, unemployment was 6%. FDR did even more to 'fix' the economy. As a result, unemployment remained in double digits throughout the decade and reached 20% in 1939... Americans have been miseducated into thinking that Roosevelt's New Deal saved our economy. That miseducation extends to most academics, including economists, at our universities, who are arrogant enough to believe that it's possible for a few people in Washington to have the information and knowledge necessary to manage the economic lives of 313M people. Good economists recognize our limitations, making us not nice people to be around."
Proposed Bills 2012
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"A little-known fact about the news business is that, compared to other businesses, it has been quite profitable. 20% to 22% profit margins are the norm, in an economic world where anything in the double digits is usually considered a success. When a newspaper is integrated into a larger corporation, it is often the most profitable unit in the company. Television news shows have been known to carry entire networks with their earnings." --- Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & William Damon 2001 _Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet_ pg138
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2012-04-19
Patriots' Day: 237th anniversary of the 1775-04-19 skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, MA
Battle Road
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Lexington Battle Green
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Patriots' Day
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Skirmishes at Lexington & Concord
Lexington local Patriots' Day observances schedule
letter by E. James Adkins
about Patriots' Day
wiseGeek: What is Patriots' Day?
History, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts
FreeRepublic: Jim Koch wants natonal Patriots' Day Celebrations
EyeWitness to History
Liberty Ride
Worcester Polytechnic Intitute: Battle of Lexington and Concord
U.S. History: Battle of Lexington
National Park Service
Mohican Press: Lexington Green
Boston 1775
Lexington Historical Society tours
Examiner
Doctor Samuel Prescott, William Dawes & Paul Revere
American Revolution: Midnight Ride: Paul Revere and the "mechanics"
Wikipedia on Paul Revere
Wikipedia on Samuel Prescott
Wikipedia on Longfellow's poem
Color Pro: William Dawes
BloggerHeads
US History
Rense on Samuel Prescott
Concord MA: The Love Story
captain John Parker
Wikipedia on captain John Parker
EyeWitness Account of the Skirmish
Captain Parker
American Revolutionary War
Patriot Resource
The American Revolution
Library of Congress
2012-04-19
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Sesqui'fying the day -- morning, 1862 April 19 -- the Federal advance on Luray, Page county VA (about 21 miles SW of Front Royal in the Shenandoah Valley) (with portraits)
Hotchkiss's challenge in the Page Valley (with map & portraits)
2012-04-18 17:18PDT (20:18EDT) (2012-04-19 00:18GMT) (2012-04-10 02:18 Jerusalem)
Toni Bowers _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
What recruiters see in the first 6 seconds of looking at your resume
discussion
2012-04-19 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (14:30 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 367,550 in the week ending April 14, a decrease of 22,916 from the previous week. There were 381,834 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.
The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7% during the week ending April 7, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.7%. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,432,102, a decrease of 37,981 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.1% and the volume was 3,893,218.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending March 31 was 6,765,080, a decrease of 187,807 from the previous week.
Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, CA,
CO, CT, DE, DC,
FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS,
KY, MD, MA,
MO, NV, NJ, NY,
NC, OH, OR, PA, RI,
SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and
WI during the week ending March 31.
States reported 2,775,134 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending March 31, a decrease of 19,419 from the prior week. There were 3,527,093 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;
to 127,048,587 beginning 2012-04-07, and seasonal adjustment factors were revised.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs
2012-04-19
Benjamin Carlson _Global Post_
Chinese transferring their funds out of the hands of the ruling Red Chinese thugs
"Between 2000 and 2009, according to a 2011 report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), [Red China's] citizens ranked first in the world in 'illicit' financial out-flows: $2.74T, more than five times the second-place contender, Mexico. As of last year, according to a study by China Merchants Bank and Bain & company consulting company, Chinese who possessed more than 10M yuan in investable assets -- roughly $1.6M -- had collectively parked over $550G abroad. And that's not counting the wealthy Chinese who emigrated entirely -- 27% of those who have $15M or more, according to the same report."
2012-04-19
Jack Dunphy _PJ Media_
culture drives crime
2012-04-19 09:06PDT (12:06EDT) (16:06GMT) (18:06 Jerusalem)
Christopher S. Rugaber _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Conference Board's leading economic indicators are up slightly
Ruth Mantell: MarketWatch
2012-04-19
_Changing Gears_
Do we need more unemployed engineers?
"The conventional wisdom is that more engineers will lead to more innovation and help create the so-called jobs of tomorrow. But when Hal Salzman heard that from the president, he had a very different reaction: disbelief. Salzman is a sociologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He's been looking at the job market for engineers for years now, and he says despite all the fears out there of a shortage, and falling behind other countries, the US graduates plenty of engineers each year—more than are hired. And, of course, not all of them want to work directly in the field. So, why work so hard to create more? 'What are these engineers going to do?', he said. 'If you produce more engineers, and we're only hiring now maybe 50%-60% of the engineers who graduate each year [35% by some estimates], where are they going to go? What kind of jobs? Are they supposed to sit around and wait until the economy improves?' Salzman says hoping more engineers would help the economy is kind of like saying building more cars would help the auto industry. Instead, he says, the market does a pretty good job in this field. For instance, an oil boom in recent years has increased demand for petroleum engineers. 'The response is just what you'd expect out of Econ 101, which is: salaries went up and almost immediately the number of graduates increased.', Salzman said. Salzman doesn't disagree that engineering can be a good job, and he says graduates landing lots of jobs is exactly what we want. In recent years, the unemployment rate among engineers is about half the national average [but 2-3 times the historical full-employment level for the profession]. But adding 10K more to the pool, he says, could make it harder to find work, and drive down wages. Already, many of the best and brightest students are attracted to higher-paid Wall Street or consulting careers. What about the idea that America needs more engineers to compete globally? Salzman doesn't buy that either. He says only a small percentage of engineers are involved in anything that could be classified as innovation. Most are building things like bridges or roads. 'Last I looked, those were not sectors that are booming.', he said. At the same time, much of the engineering we do need is being out-sourced [off-shore or by bringing foreign engineers here]."
Unmentioned in the article is the issue of age discrimination...jgo
Norm Matloff: "The answer to this week's puzzler" is, of course, that it was A for Age [that was not addressed].
I'll briefly explain my point in the puzzler below, and add some links I think some of you will find interesting, maybe even fun to read. Then I will get serious again, and raise a question that I've never truly asked before in such a direct, even confrontational, manner.
That Changing Gears article highlighted three new engineering graduates, reporting that they are getting great job offers. Good for them, but unfortunately the article overlooks the key point that I constantly focus on, the age issue.
The article ends with this passage:
And, back in Akron, Joseph Bersuder, Marcus Grimm, and Cameron Close, the 3 engineering students, say they and their peers found plenty of offers in engineering.
"At the end of my job search, I probably turned away 6 or 7
interviews.", Close said.
The question is, if we had more engineers, like the President and so many advocate, would that still be the case?
That last is the wrong question. The right question is, 10-15 years from now, when Bersuder, Grimm and Close reach their mid-30s, will employers be pursuing them with as much vigor? The answer is likely No; the employers will still be hiring the new graduates, just as they are now, only Bersuder et al won't be new grads anymore.
No need to rehash the age issue now, is there? During the last year, for instance, I've cited various quotes of CEOs in which they say their hiring -- amid a claimed labor "shortage" -- targets the new grads. I've also repeatedly explained why it is NOT an issue of up-to-date skill sets; it's just plain money, with the over-35 engineers being too expensive in salary and benefits.
But it is sad about the article not only fails to cover this key issue of age, but also doesn't discuss the fact that this situation is causing an Internal Brain Drain [Brain Waste] in the U.S.A. Who wants to enter a field that may well become a dead end? Many students who are aware of that are searching for alternative professions.
Charles Vest, quoted in the article as saying the nation needs more engineers, ought instead to be having nightmares about the Internal Brain Drain -- what could be more disastrous for the nation than to have its best and brightest STEM Bachelor's degree graduates shun STEM careers?
Professor Salzman, quoted extensively in the Changing Gears article, is someone whose work I've admired for quite a while now. He conducted the section of the 2001 NRC study that found that many employers admitted to paying H-1Bs less than comparable Americans. And of course he is also an author of the famous Urban Institute study, co-authored by Lindsay Lowell, that found we are producing plenty of STEM graduates, far more than we need.
Clearly there is a pressing need for Salzman and Lowell to conduct a follow-up study, investigating WHY the students abandon STEM after earning their bachelor's degrees. As many of you will recall, I have argued that this is due to low salaries (relative to other career alternatives that people with these analytical talents have), which in turn is caused largely by the H-1B influx. That influx also drives the age discrimination issue as well. [And it depresses professional ethics...jgo]
I'll return to this point, but first list a web log page commenting on the Changing Gears article.
That blog is written by Daniel Kuehn, an economics PhD student who has, among other things, been doing research with Salzman. Well, there is another interesting connection, somewhat amusing (and maybe a bit embarrassing to me) but with very important implications.
Kuehn was a participant in the Georgetown University conference last summer, titled Dynamics of the STEM Labor Market, which I reported on here.
(As noted in that link, the conference rules forbade identifying the participants, but in this case Kuehn identified himself.)
Kuehn is apparently an open borders type, who views any restriction on foreign workers as undesirable impediments to the labor market. Nothing wrong with that; though I disagree, it is certainly an intellectually consistent stance. He highlighted this divergence of view-points in his web-log review of the conference, at his link above.
In his review, the amusing/embarrassing passage is:
[I learned that] people are not their politics. One of the guys that aggravated me the most during the work-shop because of his restrictive stance on "high-skill" immigration was really a pleasure to sit across from and talk to about other stuff during dinner.
Well, that "aggravating" guy was me. :-) Thanks, Daniel, for the compliment, even if a bit back-handed.
The serious point, though, is this: As I've written before, I found that Georgetown conference to be a real eye-opener, as I was appalled to find a general consensus among most of those present that we should "get the Indians". If you recall, the consensus, which I strongly object to, is that there are Good Guys and Bad Guys among H-1B employers, with the Good Guys being the "Intels" and the Bad Guys being the "Infosyses". "Get the Indians" means to pass legislation that places extra restrictions on the Indian/Indian-American-owned rent-a-programmer firms, while actually loosening controls on the U.S. main-stream firms.
My language here, "get the Indians", is overly harsh, in the sense it wrongly conjures up an image of racism and even bullying and sadism. :-) So, let me assure readers that I don't ascribe such feelings to any of the participants of the conference.
Yet, if that phrasing has the wrong connotation, let me offer an equally-harsh but arguably accurate alternative, "Let's throw the Indians under the bus.", which I regard as equally disturbing, and based on false premises.
I think that there is a general understanding among researchers on H-1B that the age issue for engineers, especially in CS/EE is real, and that there is indeed an Internal Brain Drain. Harvard's Richard Freeman has written on the latter, and implied that there is an H-1B connection. Berkeley's Clair Brown has written on the age issue in EE, and explicitly connected it to the influx of foreign students. Eric Weinstein uncovered that internal NSF study that advocated bringing in a large influx of foreign students to hold PhD salaries down. Whether that represented official government policy or not, the resulting effects were that (a) STEM PhD wage growth did slow and (b) fewer American students were attracted to doctoral study, due to stagnant wages, just as the NSF forecast. I've shown repeatedly, including at the Georgetown conference, that the U.S. main-stream firms abuse the H-1B program too, both directly and via the age issue (go back to the Brown comment above). NONE of the phenomena cited in this paragraph are related to the Indian IT services firms (who don't hire PhDs, don't hire EEs, etc.); these troubling phenomena all relate to the U.S. main-stream firms.
I ask, then, why the willingness to "throw the Indians under the bus"? Indian employers hire only 12% of the H-1Bs, and yet the main-stream, i.e. majority, employers' abuse of the visa program is pernicious.
Is it possible that Kuehn's assessment of the conference participants was wrong, that most are just as open borders as he is? Again, that's a legitimate ideology, but I know a number of the participants personally and thus am baffled by their endorsement of the "under the bus" notion.
Isn't an Internal Brain Drain something we should all be worried about, if not even terrified by? How can anyone in good conscience support "reform" bills, such as Lofgren's, that unfairly scapegoat the Indians while unjustifiably actually making things easier for the main-stream?
As I said, the Georgetown conference, filled with the movers and shakers on H-1B policy from both the research world and the executive branch of the federal government, was a real eye-opener for me. It has both puzzled and disturbed me ever since.
Norm
---30---
2012-04-19
W. James Antle iii _American Spectator_
grid-lock is not to blame for US senate's failures to vote for a budget which cuts spending and balances
"But when senate Budget committee chairman Kent Conrad proposed holding a vote on a budget based on the Simpson-Bowles commission recommendations -- the first meaningful budget vote by senate Democrats in 3 years -- Senate Majority 'Leader' Harry Reid promptly pulled out the rug from under him. The senate will continue to flout its legal responsibility to pass a federal budget."
2012-04-19
W. James Antel iii _American Spectator_
oath-breaker Nasty Pelosi's corrupt view of the US constitution
"Nowhere in her column does Pelosi actually grapple with 2 issues: the fact that Article III, giving Congress the power to regulate the jurisdiction of federal courts, is actually in the Constitution; she does not identify the constitutionally enumerated power that gives federal government the authority mandate the purchase of health insurance or otherwise implement [Obummercare]. (Pelosi is also oddly silent on the jurisdiction-stripping in federal laws designed to combat terrorism and restrict habeus corpus appeals in death penalty cases.)"
2012-04-19
R. Emmett Tyrrell ii _American Spectator_
all the angry leftists
"You will recall how open to experience [leftists] have been when we attempted to introduce vouchers, charter schools, missile defense, and supply-side economics... as for openness may I suggest you light up a fat cigar, say in an outdoor café, or ride your bicycle without a helmet... Roger Scruton [said] 'My own view is that left-wing positions largely come about from resentment -- I agree with Nietzsche about this -- a resentment about the surrounding social order. They have privileges, I don't. Or, I have them and I can't live up to them. Things should be organized differently. And there's always some sense on the left that power is in the wrong hands.'... there is only one political value that all [leftists] through the generations continue to profess. It is not personal liberty. It is not public order. It is disturbing the peace... These [leftists] may suffer superior 'openness to experience', but it is limited to things their leaders approve of, and more fundamentally they are very angry. They are angry with anyone who presumes to seek high public office against them -- even the candidate's wife. They are angry because they are losing."
2012-04-19
Kashmir Hill _Forbes_
congress set to mandate warrantless violation of your privacy while in your vehicle
The Swash
Paul Joseph Watson: Prison Planet
Old-Thinker News
Paul Joseph Watson: InfoWars
Mountain Republic
Liz Klimas: The Blaze
Senior Magazine: Are you riding on a black box?
2010-05-20: The NewsPaper
National Motorists Association
"most Americans already have black boxes in their cars. They've been around since 1996, are found in at least 60M vehicles, and are a feature in 85% of new cars every year. 'Virtually every car that has an air bag has some kind of recording ability.', says James Casassa, of Wolf Forensics which specializes in down-loading crash information from vehicles made by GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda. The recorders capture information about how fast you were going and whether you slammed on the brakes in the seconds before and after a crash... IEEE mentions that some BMWs now have wireless event recorders that can beam their info back to a dealership..."
And it's the same people (e.g. GE, Siemens) involved in the violations of privacy WRT medical records, bodyshopping and off-shoring...jgo
2012-04-19 (5772 Nisan 27)
Jeff Jacoby _Jewish World Review_
"Victims" who persecute
2012-04-19 (5772 Nisan 27)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
Supremes rule that family of American can't sue PLO for damages under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA)
"The US Supreme Court ruled 9 to 0 on Wednesday that the 1991 antitorture law authorizes civil law-suits only against an individual who actually carried out the torture or extrajudicial killing -- not against an organization with which the alleged torturer or killer was associated... The 11-page decision in the case, Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority (11-88), was written by 'justice' Sonia Sotomayor."
2012-04-19 (5772 Nisan 27)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
liberate "zones of electronic repression": thugs should not be allowed to use Western tech to crush dissent
"there has been not just the hope but the expectation that advancing communications technologies -- personal computers, the Internet, e-mail, smart phones, satellites, and the like -- would inevitably spread freedom while constraining the power of the despots. This just in: It's not turning out that way. Instead, Iran's rulers have been using high technology to break the backs of their domestic opponents... Iranian [and Red Chinese] security forces [and corrupt government operatives within the USA] have the means to locate mobile phones...to which encrypted messages have been sent -- and to do it within minutes."
Proposed Bills 2012
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"All factual evidence shows that the last 20 years, the years since the early 1960s, have been years of unprecedented advance and improvement in the health of Americans... all indicators of physical health and functioning have been moving upward at a good clip. And yet the nation is gripped by collective hypochondria..." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pg349
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2012-04-20
2012-04-20
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Sesqui-fying 1862 April 20 -- Luray learns of Charley Wheat's fate
2012-04-20
Theodore Dalrymple _PJ Media_
Is aspirin the "elixir of life"?
2012-04-20
Howard Lovy _PJ Media_
nano-tech
"What she did know, though, is how to be a good reporter -- which means knowing the right questions to ask. It means cutting through the half-truths and spins being lobbed her way by the great many people with agendas..."
2012-04-20
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley... soon to be an e-book
2012-04-20 05:39PDT (08:39EDT) (12:39GMT) (14:39 Jerusalem)
Tricia Forbes _KSLA_
federal government refuses to deport illegal alien Palestinian arrested and charged 35 times in Alabama
"Officers in Hueytown arrested an illegal immigrant on drug charges recently. When they ran his name through the system, they learned he had previously been arrested 34 times in Alabama... When Hueytown police chief Chuck Hagler contacted ICE agents about the recent arrest, he wasn't expecting the response he got. Sofyan Eldani was not only in this country illegally, but had a criminal history that goes back 12 years. ICE wouldn't do anything according to chief Hagler... In Jefferson and Shelby counties, Eldani has been arrested 35 times for different crimes, ranging from bad checks to assault."
2012-04-20
R' Pinchas Winston
Knowing the Big Picture: _Drowning in Pshat_
"Weve been losing friends for decades now, if they were ever friends in the first place, but we are now watching what was Israel's closest ally, the United States, distance itself from supporting Israel as it once did, regardless of the rhetoric being pushed from the White House. The hard, cold facts speak for themselves, one of which is that president Obama (or the people behind him), is a master of deception... We wait because we are drowning in Pshat. Everyone can see what is happening to the Jewish people today, and where it might be heading, but few know what to make of it in a historical sense. They lack context, because Pshat, Remez, and Drush -- Torah, Mishnah, and the Talmud, together with all of their commentaries do not provide it, not without the help of Sod, or Kabbalah. Kabbalah provides context, historical and philosophical."
2012-04-20 07:00PDT (10:00EDT) (14:00GMT) (16:00 Jerusalem)
Brian Monitrovic _Forbes_
devaluation of dollar/inflation, helped drive the Great Recession
2012-04-20
Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
the illogic of climate hysteria
2012-04-20
Anthony Watts
Using data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, scientists get new insights into the origins of cosmic rays
2012-04-20
Bob Owens _PJ Media_
TARP bail-out recipient Bank of India shows further contempt for the USA in politically motivated move by dropping firearms firm
Mike Piccione: Daily Caller
"McMillan is heavily involved with U.S. national security. McMillan rifle stocks are the standard for the Marine Corps' favored M40A3 sniper rifle. McMillan products, from stocks and other accessories to complete rifles, are used by U.S. regular and special forces and by American military allies around the globe... [Bank of India] was the recipient of well over $100G in federal money. They are also one of just 2 vendors processing payments for Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign, employing a system that disables safe-guards against illegal foreign donations. [Bank of India] Stadium in Charlotte, NC, is the site of the Democratic Nation Convention in September."
2012-04-20
Caroline May _Daily Caller_
US tax-victim funded USAID being abused to train foreign workers for off-shoring work and work in USA
InformationWeek: U.S.A. Suspends Controversial Out-Sourcing Training Program: Funding stopped for USAID program that trained students in the Philippines to work in off-shore, English language call centers serving U.S. companies
"the government has been sending money to the Philippines to train foreign workers for jobs in English-speaking call centers. According to New York Democratic representative Tim Bishop and North Carolina Republican representative Walter Jones, this is unacceptable and 'shocking'. The pair are calling on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to immediately suspend what is known as the Job Enabling English Proficiency (JEEP) program. According to Jones' office, in 2010, after the two men compelled USAID to end a similar training program in Sri Lanka, the agency assured the congressmen that they would 'conduct a review to ensure the project will not take any jobs away from Americans'. In a letter to the USAID administrator, Rajiv Shah, Bishop and Jones expressed their displeasure at learning of the effort they thought the agency had explicitly promised against."
2012-04-20
Alain Sherter _CBS_
cancer survivor jailed for erroneous $280 medical bill in IL: Have debtor prisons returned?
London Daily Mail
Harry Bradford: Huffington Post
Carla K. Johnson: Business Week
Carla K. Johnson: DeKalb IL Daily Chronicle/AP
Belleville IL News-Democrat
Your Black World
Investment Watch
Alex Jones: InfoWars
2012-04-20
Duane Lester _PJ Media_
Casting blunders in comic-book-based movies: There's still no accounting for tastes
2012-04-20 (5772 Nisan 28)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Hemorrhage of hatred
"Hatred of Jews is the central animating feature of the political and strategic reality of the Middle East. It is hatred of Jews that dictates the legal regimes, foreign policies, military aspirations, cultural mores, educational themes and even public health policies of our neighbors from Ramallah to Teheran. Despite the centrality of Jew hatred in all aspects of public life in the Arab and Muslim world, our neighbors' unrelenting and irrational abhorrence for Israel and the Jewish people remains a dirty secret that you aren't supposed to mention in polite company. From Washington to Brussels, talk of the policy implications of Arab and Muslim Jew hatred is prohibited. Omar Abu-Sneina, a convicted terrorist murderer is one of the thousand Palestinian terrorists that Israel released from prison in order to secure the release of Israeli hostage IDF sergeant Gilad Schalit. Originally from Hebron, Abu-Sneina was released to Hamas-controlled Gaza. This week the IDF announced that since his release Abu-Sneina has returned to the terror business. The Israel Security Agency intercepted a memory card he sent his family in Hebron with instructions for how his fellow terrorists should go about kidnapping and holding IDF soldiers hostage. The instructions demonstrate how for Abu-Sneina, Israelis don't even deserve to be treated like animals. Among other things, he discussed how to hide a hostage."
2012-04-20 (5772 Nisan 28)
Mona Charen _Jewish World Review_
if CAIR is saying bad things about you, you're probably a good person
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)
Proposed Bills 2012
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"Around 1910, there were up to 200 automobile companies in the United States alone. By the early 1930s, their number had shrunk to 20, and by 1960 4. In the 1920s, literally hundreds of companies were making radio sets and hundreds more were going into radio stations. by 1935, the control of broadcasting had moved into the hands of the 3 'networks' and there were only a dozen manufacturers of radio sets left. Again, there was an explosion in the number of newspapers founded between 1880 and 1900. In fact, newspapers were among the major 'growth industries' of the time. Since World War 1, the number of newspapers in every major country has been going down-hill steadily." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pg371
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2012-04-21
2012-04-21
Anthony Watts
Japan's National Astronomical Observatory reports solar activity due to fall, earth to cool
2012-04-21
Jim Brunner _Seattle Times_
dentist, candidate for WA legislature, reached settlement in H-1B pay dispute
212-04-21 05:25PDT (08:25EDT) (12:25GMT) (14:25 Jerusalem)
Gregory Bresiger _NY Post_
congress-critters eyeing extorting from 401(k) and IRA investments, eliminating mortgage interest deductions
2012-04-21
Ron Radosh _PJ Media_
3 American Professors: useful idiots of the Tehran regime
2012-04-21
Gene Epstein _View from 1776_/_Barron's_
Fiscal follies and monetary mischief: economics and common sense vs. limited and inflexible models
2012-04-21
Elizabeth Hartfield _abc_
Orrin Hatch facing primary challenge
Proposed Bills 2012
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"One cannot promote what one does not understand. But at least society should not discourage, penalize, or make difficult such innovations. Seen in this perspective, the recent trend in developed countries, and especially in the United States, to discourage the individual who tries to come up with a bright-idea innovation (by raising patent fees, for instance) and generally to discourage patents as 'anti-competitive' is short-sighted and deleterious." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pg382
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2012-04-22
2012-04-22
Donnelle Eller _Des Moines IA Register_
phony claims of "skill shortage" in Iowa
2012-04-22
Jan Falstad _Billings MT Gazette_
When seeking employment, it really is who you know
"Brown was interviewing 8 students for 2 bank trainee positions, looking for applicants with adaptability and flexibility, which he defines as the ability to multi-task. 'In one day, they may talk to a truck driver from Williston, ND, driving back from the oil fields and then talk to a CFO (chief financial officer) for a medical organization.', Brown said. Like other cities, the higher paying professional jobs in Billings get filled largely by word of mouth, employers asking friends who would be a good fit. That's why mentoring is so important to a student's career, said Justin Millet, a brokerage associate at Wells Fargo Advisors... Humphrey met one person, who introduced him around until now he greets 40 to 50 friends at the Chamber After Hours socials and through the Downtown Billings Association. 'In Billings, if they like you, they hire you.', Humphrey said. 'Today, if Justin (Millet) and I became unemployed, we could probably have a job within a week with a back-up job, easy.' After Humphrey pitched networking to a business class at Montana State University Billings, Cody Valkenburg and a friend responded. Valkenburg, who graduates this month with a business administration degree, said the social event wasn't what they anticipated. 'I was expecting very powerful people who would be very hard to approach and talk to.', he said. 'But there was just a room full of professional people who were human and were willing to talk to you.'"
2012-04-22 15:00:42PDT (18:00:42EDT) (22:00:42GMT) (2012-04-23 00:00:42 Jerusalem)
Norm Matloff _Bloomberg_
Software engineers will one day work for English majors
Arizona Daily Star
Tampa Bay FL Tribune
"Although the very term 'coding' evokes an image of tedium, it is an intellectually challenging activity, creative and even artistic. If you like puzzles and are good analytically, software development may be your cup of tea. You not only get to solve puzzles for a living, but in essence you compose them. Wages for new computer-science graduates working as software engineers are at, or near, the top of most surveys, certainly compared with new humanities grads. We hear about the gap a lot this time of year, as students compare job offers. You had better be good to get that first job in computer engineering, because you will probably be asked to code on command during job interviews; employers have been burned too often by those with high grades yet low ability. But those who are chosen are generally paid well and love the work. The down-side? Well, say you interview as a graduating college senior at FB. You may find, to your initial delight, that the place looks just like a fun-loving dorm -- and the adults seem to be missing. But that is a sign of how the profession has devolved in recent years to one lacking in longevity. Many programmers find that their employability starts to decline at about age 35. Gone by 40: Employers dismiss them as either lacking in up-to-date technical skills -- such as the latest programming-language fad -- or 'not suitable for entry level'. IOW, either under-qualified or over-qualified. That doesn't leave much, does it? Statistics show that most software developers are out of the field by age 40. Employers have admitted this in unguarded moments. Craig Barrett, a former chief executive officer of Intel Corp., famously remarked that 'the half-life of an engineer, software or hardware, is only a few years', while Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has blurted out that young programmers are superior. [Former cross-border bodyshopper] Vivek Wadhwa, a former technology executive and now a business writer and Duke University researcher, wrote that in 2008 David Vaskevitch, then the chief technology officer at MSFT, 'acknowledged that the vast majority of new MSFT employees are young, but said that this is so because older workers tend to go into more senior jobs and there are fewer of those positions to begin with'. More than a decade ago, Congress commissioned a National Research Council study of the age issue in the profession. The council found that it took 23.4% longer for the over-40 workers to find work after losing their jobs, and that they had to take an average pay cut of 13.7% on the new job. Why do the employers prefer to hire the new or recent grads? Is it really because only they have the latest skill sets? That argument doesn't jibe with the fact that young ones learned those modern skills from old guys like me. Instead, the problem is that the 35-year-old programmer has simply priced herself out of the market. As Wadhwa notes, even if the 45-year-old programmer making $120K has the right skills, 'companies would rather hire the younger workers'. Whether the employers' policy is proper or not, this is the problem facing workers in the software profession. And it's worsened by the H-1B work-visa program. Government data show that H-1B software engineers tend to be much younger than their American counterparts. Basically, when the employers run out of young Americans to hire, they turn to the young H-1Bs, bypassing the older Americans. Fewer Managerial Jobs: With talent, street smarts and keen networking skills, you might still get good work in your 50s. Moving up to management is also a possibility, but as MSFT's Vaskevitch pointed out, these jobs are limited in number. Qualifications include being 'verbally aggressive', as one manager put it to me, and often a willingness to make late- night calls to those programmers in India you have offshored the work to. Finally, those high programmer salaries are actually low, because the same talents (analytical and problem-solving ability, attention to detail) command much more money in other fields, such as law and finance. A large technology company might typically pay new law-school graduates and MBAs salaries and compensation approaching double what they give new master's degree grads in computer science. If you choose a software-engineering career, just keep in mind that you could end up working for one of those 'lowly' humanities majors someday."
Software Engineering Is a Dead-End Career
2012-04-22
David Archibald
back-testing the solar activity - sea level relationship
2012-04-22
John Haughton
Was the 1995 meeting in Madrid the tipping point in the corruption of science as related to climate
Personally, I would have put it around 1987...jgo
2012-04-22
Hope Yen _Dallas TX Morning News_/_AP_
Half of new grads are unemployed or under-employed
NE MS Daily Journal
Philadelphia PA Inquirer
Fox
San Jose CA Mercury News
USA Today/Gannett
abc
WCPO Cincinnati OH
WV State Journal
"About 1.5M, or 53.6%, of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or under-employed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41%, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields. Out of the 1.5M who languished in the job market, about half were under-employed, an increase from the previous year... In the last year, they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined (100K versus 90K). There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionist or pay-roll clerk than in all computer professional jobs (163K versus 100K). More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers (125K versus 80K)."
2012-04-22
Victor Davis Hanson _PJ Hanson_
Leftism and Obummer were always about the Power
2012-04-22
Ed Driscoll _PJ Media_
Questioning the voice of "authority"
"Then: [Leftist] journalists in the 1960s told us all to 'Question Authority'. Now: Journalists on the Left reminisce about the days when they were 'The Voice of Authority'."
2012-04-22
Janice Fiamengo _PJ Media_
Can the Humanities be saved?
2012-04-22
Aaron Goldstein _American Spectator_
Another 60 Minutes hatchet job on Israel
Proposed Bills 2012
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"In 1947... Robert Maynard Hutchins... _A Free and Responsible Press_... The report noted that, from 1910 to 1947, daily newspapers in the United States had dwindled from about 2,600 to 1,750, and weeklies from about 16K to 10,500. Hutchins envisioned -- and feared -- the day when every community might be left with only a single major paper, creating a virtual monopoly on local coverage. He worried about the nationwide chains of newspapers that were growing in size and power: in 1947, 76 chains owned 375 dailies, almost 25% of the country's total." --- Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & William Damon 2001 _Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet_ pg158
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2012-04-23
2012-04-23
Sean Barron _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
STEM projects were show-cased at YSU: Future Homeless of America
2012-04-23
Willis Eschenbach
an ocean of over-confidence
2012-04-23
_Washington Examiner_/_AP_
DHS investigating Infosys for suspected visa abuses
NY Daily News
Erika Kinetz: Victoria Advocate
Dhanya Ann Thoppil: Wall Street Journal
Patrick Thibodeau: ComputerWorld/IDG
Patrick Thibodeau: CIO/IDG
"The US Department of Homeland Security has found a 'significant percentage' of errors in the company's verifications of US work visa applications, Infosys said in a US regulatory filing last week."
2012-04-23
Benny Peiser
the "ungreening" of Germany
"German utilities and private investors have plans to construct or modernise some 84 power stations, energy and water industry association BDEW said on Monday. Of the total number counted 29 units were gas-fired and 17 coal-fired generation plants, it said."
2012-04-23
Matthew McLaughlin _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
celebrating a century of 4-H
"4-H, the iconic organization named for its values of head, heart, hand and health, is celebrating 100 years in Pennsylvania this year as well as its growth in that 100 years into an organization with successful and diverse programming... During the late 19th century, after finding farmers were resistant to change, researchers and universities discovered their children were much more willing to try new agricultural practices and technology. As a result, youth programs became a means of introducing new technology and practices to farming communities. One such program in Ohio was started by A.B. Graham in 1902, which is considered by 4-H to be the time and place the organization was born. It was not until 1910, however, that the iconic 4-H logo -- a clover with an H on each leaf -- was designed, and programs were not widely known as 4-H clubs until 1912, according to 4-H's web-site."
2012-04-23
W. James Antle iii _American Spectator_
The first federal government spending cuts are the deepest... but if only the planned cuts were deep enough
2012-04-23
Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
Why there cannot be a global warming consensus: That's just not how science works
2012-04-23
Beryl Lieff Benderly _AAAS Science_
What a difference age makes
"Matloff has been arguing for years that the dirty secret of the so-called shortage of technically trained American workers is age discrimination, specifically that many employers prefer young workers, who are energetic and cheap, to older workers who have years of experience and expect their paychecks to reflect that. The argument often made that only young workers have the up-to-date skills that employers need 'doesn't jibe with the fact that young ones learned those modern skills from old guys like me', he writes. (Matloff is a professor of computer science at University of California-Davis.) 'Basically, when employers run out of [cheap] young Americans to hire, they turn to [cheap] young H-1Bs, bypassing older Americans.'"
2012-04-23
_Fox_/_AP_
Numbers of illegal aliens in USA from Mexico has dropped a little
2012-04-23
Neil McAllister _InfoWorld_/_
7 programming myths busted!
"What Brooks actually says is that, in one study, the very best programmers were 10 times more productive than the very worst programmers, not the average ones. Most developers fall somewhere in the middle. If you really see a 10-fold productivity differential in your own staff, chances are you've made some very poor hiring choices in the past (along with some very good ones). What's more, the study Brooks cites was from 1966. Modern software project managers know better than to place too much faith in developer productivity metrics, which are seldom reliable. For one thing, code output doesn't tell the whole story. Brooks himself admits that even the best programmers spend only about 50% of the work-week actually coding and debugging."
"The best programmers on the team may be so much better than the rest that just a few of [them] can put out more than all the rest combined." --- Alistair Cockburn 2002 _Agile Software Development_ pg 61
2012-04-23
William L. Anderson
Krugman is the amnesiac economist
"I make this lengthy point about the NYT because this is a paper that openly and arrogantly contradicts nature itself, as the people who write for the paper, including the vast majority of its columnists, believe that laws of time and space do not apply to them. That makes them free to rewrite history and declare themselves to be akin to the Masters of the Universe."
2012-04-23 (5772 Ayyr 01)
Sheera Frenkel _Jewish World Review_
Egypt begins to curtail relations with Israel
2012-04-23 (5772 Ayyr 01)
John Thorne _Jewish World Review_
political debate in Tunisia between violent Islamics and secularists
2012-04-23 (5772 Ayyr 01)
Eryn Brown _Jewish World Review_
researchers develop DNA- and RNA-like molecules
"Researchers at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England, demonstrated that six synthetic molecules that are similar to -- but not exactly like -- DNA and RNA have the potential to exhibit 'hallmarks of life' such as storing genetic information, passing it along and under-going evolution. The man-made molecules are called 'XNAs'... Steven Benner, a bio-chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, FL... scientists believe life on Earth probably was RNA-based before it became DNA-based -- and could have been based on an even simpler XNA, such as TNA (made with a sugar called threose), before that."
Proposed Bills 2012
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"The number of independently owned dailies dropped from 1,750 (a number that, in 1947 Hutchins worried about) to 700 in 1980, and to approximately 300 by the 1990s. By the beginning of the 21st century, Westinghouse owned CBS, GE owned NBC, AOL Time/Warner owned Turner Broadcasting (including CNN), Disney owned abc, and Rupert Murdoch or Bill Gates seemed to own just about everything else." --- Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & William Damon 2001 _Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet_ pp162-163
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2012-04-24
2012-04-24 03:11PDT (06:11EDT) (10:11GMT) (12:11 Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
U of FL plan to "decimate" computer science programs is drawing protests
Market Ticker
Michael Stratford: Chronicle of Higher Education
"The university runs a large computer science program, with about 600 under-graduates and 400 students pursuing master's degrees. It is also a research university that is now training about 130 PhD students... About $1.7M is set to be cut from the budget of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) department. That cut would eliminate money to pay for teaching assistants -- compensation that PhD students count on to finance their educations. The CISE support staff is being cut as well, and that includes people who provide tech support, said Sitharam... Faculty members who remain in CISE will see their job descriptions changed from teaching and research to just teaching. And while the university points out that this doesn't preclude them from conducting research... The university said cutting teaching assistant funding will save $1.4M. Despite these cuts and shifts in work-load, the university says that the computer science program will 'maintain its brain-power and research capacity'... the university claims in its statement that there will be no layoffs of tenure-track faculty... Another controversial aspect of this plan involves moving CISE students to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering."
Save UF CISE
CISE
engineering
ICTA
2012-04-24
Nigel Calder
Svensmark's cosmic jackpot: "Evidence of nearby super-novae affecting life on earth"
2012-04-24 06:25PDT (09:25EDT) (13:25GMT) (15:25 Jerusalem)
Toni Bowers _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
employees and employers should both be wary of inflated, deflated and obscure job titles
2012-04-24
Michael Cutler on USA Talk Radio Network
Michael Cutler
AND magazine on Michaael Cutler
2012-04-24
Chuck Norris _Town Hall_
Soros + Obummer + Holder vs. sheriff Joe Arpaio + US citizens
2012-04-24
John Kehr
Warmism: Science vs. Political Power-Play
2012-04-24
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_/_AP_
35-year PA legislator, House Democrat leader, resigned Monday, after February conviction on 5 felony counts of corruption
"He had said he would resign from the Legislature before he is sentenced for illegally using state employees and other public resources for political campaigns between 2001 and 2006. A jury convicted DeWeese in February on 3 counts of theft and 1 count each of conspiracy and conflict of interest. The state constitution bars felons from serving in the General Assembly, but that ban is not triggered until the sentence is imposed. [Part of 25 arrests of Dem and Rep caucuses in the PA House.]"
2012-04-24
Anthony Watts
Columbia US Earf Institute declares that trees do 8 times as well in the NY, NY urban heat island than outside of it
"The study, just published in the journal Tree Physiology, shows that common native red oak seedlings grow as much as 8 times [as fast] in New York's Central Park than in more rural, cooler settings in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. "
2012-04-24
Paul Driessen
E15 -- 15% ethanol -- won't work in many cars
"Bowing to pressure from ADM, Cargill, Growth Energy and other Big Ethanol lobbyists, Lisa Jackson's EPA has decided to allow ethanol manufacturers to register as suppliers of E15 gasoline. E15 contains 15% ethanol, rather than currently mandated 10% blends... [The Obummer admin] already plans to provide [tax-victim]-financed grants, loans and loan guarantees to 'help station owners install 10K blender pumps over the next 5 years' and promote the use of 'bio-fuels'."
2012-04-24
Kenneth Corbin _PC Advisor_/_CIO_/_IDG_
head of unconstitutional Dept. of Educationism Arne Duncan plans idiotic, misdirected, inefficient career and tech training scheme
IDG Norway
CIO Australia
HR1325: Joe Donnelly of IN: unconstitutional waste of tax-victims' earnings on misdirected, ineffective training
S1243: Kay Hagan of NC: unconstitutional waste of tax-victims' earnings on misdirected, ineffective training
2012-04-24
Alejandra Cancino _Chicago Tribune_/_McClatchy_
WEF and cross-border bodyshopper and off-shorer Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu claims "shortage of skilled workers" without any evidence of such
Orlando FL Sentinel
Job Market Monitor/UBM
2012-04-24
_CBNC_
Indian firms got 72,429 H-1B visas in FY2011, Red China 10,849
"Sources at the US Consulate told CNBC-TV18 that Indian companies got 72,429 H1-B visas in FY2011 compared with 51,664 in FY2010. Compare this [Red China] which received 10,849 H1-B visas in FY2011 and 11,242 in FY2010. Regarding the receipt of L-1 visas, in FY2011 the US issued India 26,919 in FY2011 as compared to 36,821 in FY2010. [Red China] got 3,241 in FY2011 versus 2,437 in FY2010."
2012-04-24 (5772 Ayyr 02)
Philip Moeller _Jewish World Review_
families are changing but are still key to happiness
"family really matters in shaping happiness and well-being. People are directly influenced by the quantity and quality of family interactions -- phone calls between mothers and daughters, extended family vacations, visits with in-laws, and perhaps later, time with Grams and Gramps. Beyond the time and emotional bonding between individual family members, relatives also form a powerful support and approval network. The way we interact with that network can make our lives much easier and healthful, or much harder and stressful... Pew looked at changes in the living arrangements of adults between 1960 and 2008. The percentage of married adults dropped during this period from 72% to 52%. The percentage of widowed people also declined, from 9% of all adults in 1960 to 7% in 2008. The percentage of people who were separated or divorced nearly tripled over this time, however, from 5% to 14%. And the percentage of adults who had never been married nearly doubled, from 14% in 1960 to 27% in 2008."
2012-04-24 (5772 Ayyr 02)
Frank J. Gaffney ii _Jewish World Review_
losing the jihadists' war on America: Violent Muslims' propaganda is slowly blinding us to the enemy within
"the prospect of victory is becoming more remote by the day. No one seems able to explain the reason. In an effort to provide the missing answer, on Tuesday , the Center for Security Policy is making available via the Internet a new, free 10-part video course titled 'The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within'. This course connects the proverbial dots, drawing on a wealth of publicly available data and firsthand accounts to present a picture that has, for more than a decade, been obscured, denied and suppressed. In addition to the threat of violent jihad, America faces another, even more toxic danger -- a stealthy and pre-violent form of warfare aimed at destroying our constitutional form of democratic government and free society. The Muslim Brotherhood is the prime mover behind this seditious campaign, which it calls 'civilization jihad'. The Muslim Brotherhood? Yes, that would be the same organization to which President Obama recently transferred $1.5G of our tax dollars in a lump-sum payment. For him to do so, secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had to waive congressionally imposed restrictions born of fully justified concerns about the nature and direction of the Shariah-adherent government the Brotherhood is birthing in Egypt... During [William Jefferson Blythe Clinton's] presidency, a top Muslim Brother, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was put in charge of recruiting, training and credentialing Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military and prison system. Incredibly, some of them are believed to be in place still, even though Alamoudi turns out to have been a top al Qaeda financier and is doing hard time at Colorado's Supermax on terrorism charges... the [Brotherhood's] access to and influence with senior officials in the [George W. Bush admin] induced the federal government to...reach out to the Muslim community in this country using virtually exclusively Brotherhood front organizations as liaisons; and provide support to and participation in Shariah-compliant finance - an industry engaged in what one of its leaders, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, calls 'jihad with money'... On April 25, Glenn Beck will release an important new hour-long documentary that addresses many of these same points, titled 'Rumors of War III'."
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)
2012-04-24 (5772 Ayyr 02)
Julie Deardorff _Jewish World Review_
Doubts cast on much food intolerance testing
"allergists and gastroenterologists say that although food intolerance does occur -- most of it involving specific food sugars like lactose or fructose -- the tests being marketed to consumers have no scientific basis... In an allergic reaction, the immune system overreacts to a food by producing an antibody called Immunoglobulin E that causes hives, vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory problems, among other symptoms. To diagnose an allergy, allergists use a blood test that checks for IgE, skin prick testing and other methods. The gold standard is an oral food challenge, which involves eating small doses of the suspect food under medical supervision. Food intolerances are unpleasant reactions that do not involve the immune system, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. They can be caused by enzyme deficiencies, sensitivities to food additives such as sulfites and monosodium glutamate, or reactions to naturally occurring chemicals. For example, people who lack an enzyme needed to digest sugar in milk have lactose intolerance. Sulfites used to preserve dried fruit, canned goods and wine trigger asthma attacks in sensitive people. Adverse reactions to wheat or the protein gluten come in several forms. Celiac disease is an immune system reaction to gluten that causes inflammation in the small intestine. A wheat allergy is an allergic reaction to wheat, almost always caused by the gluten. And gluten sensitivity means a person has symptoms after ingesting gluten but doesn't have either of the other conditions, said Stefano Guandalini, founder and medical director of the University of Chicago's Celiac Disease Center... Blood tests are a common way to test for sensitivity or intolerance; many of these also involve an antibody, this one called Immunoglobulin G, or IgG. The tests often purport to check for sensitivities to hundreds of common foods, many of which rarely trigger food allergies, such as sugar or yeast. Blood is exposed to a panel of food proteins, and the labs measure the degree of IgG antibody that binds to each food. But while IgE can indicate the presence of an allergen, IgG hasn't been shown to be a similar marker for intolerance. Instead, IgG is believed to indicate exposure to food and possibly even tolerance, Lavine wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal."
2012-04-24 (5772 Ayyr 02)
Menachem Wecker _Jewish World Review_
Why more MBAs pursue education-related jobs
"Though the education industry's not known for doling out high salaries, business students seem to be increasingly seeking jobs in the policy, technology, and management of education, say education professionals and business students."
2012-04-24 (5772 Ayyr 02)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Who is "racist"? part 1 of 2
American Spectator
"too many people in the media see their role as filtering and slanting the news to fit their own vision of the world."
Proposed Bills 2012
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"We do not know whether privatization [A word that I (Peter F. Drucker) coined in 1969 in _The Age of Discontinuity_, but which others credit to Robert Poole ii], that is, turning activities back from government to non-governmental operation (albeit not necessarily to operation by a business enterprise, as most people have interpreted the term) will work or will go very far." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pg395
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2012-04-25
2012-04-25
Matthew McLaughlin _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
it will be Lou Barletta vs. Gene Stilp, Marc A. Scaringi vs. Bob Casey in general election
2012 PA primary results
2012-04-25
Roger L. Simon
Walter Duranty award for Journalistic Mendacity
PJ Media
2012-03-25
Abraham H. Miller _PJ Media_
Jew-bashing at universities is the new normal
2012-04-25
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
H-1B program grace notes
2012-04-25
Anthony Watts
US Snail + wind warms + electric vehicles: What could possibly go wrong?
"Take the 3 most inefficient and subsidized things in government today, add them together, and there's no way that spells SUCCESS. It does spell FAIL though."
2012-04-25
Mark Parry _Chronicle of Higher Education_
students seek additional educational content on-line, dissatisfied with profs'
"they generally shop around for content in places educators would endorse. Students seem most favorably inclined to materials from other universities. They mention lecture videos from Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... they prefer recognized 'brands' like the Mayo Clinic. Students often seek this outside content due to dissatisfaction with their own professors... Ms. Morgan confesses to some concerns about her own data. She wonders how much students are 'telling me what I want to hear'. She also worries that she's tapping into a disproportionate slice of successful students."
2012-04-25
Jason Koebler _US News & World Report_
Ill-conceived legislation would increase unconstitutional federal spending on STEM education to encourage "minorities" to enter devastated fields
2012-04-25
Quin Hillyer _American Spectator_
Holder's outrages continue
2012-04-25
Aaron Goldstein _American Spectator_
Obummer vs. Arizona: administrative, not constitutional
transcripts of arguments
2012-04-25
Peter Ferrara _American Spectator_
Obummer and Holder stealing our elections
2012-04-25
Eric Peters _American Spectator_
If the feral federal government and protection rackets have their way your car won't be your car after 2014
S1813: Barbara Boxer of CA: mandates black-boxes in "private" vehicles
2012-04-25
Suzanne Lucas _CBS_
Sloppy writing may be undermining your job search
"There are some people out there who can get a job despite bad grammar and the lack of a shift key, but you are not one of them. Those people are the geniuses who have such unique skill sets that it is a job seekers' market for them. This is not you. You are normal. You need all the help you can get."
2012-04-25 (5772 Ayyr 03)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
devious government extortion
"The Washington, DC-based Tax Foundation does a yeoman's job of keeping track of how much we're paying in taxes and who's paying what. It turns out that American taxpayers worked this year from Jan. 1 to April 17, 107 days, to earn enough money to pay their federal, state and local tax bills. That statistic requires some clarification, and I ask my readers to help me examine it. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Congress will spend $3.8T this year, about 24% of our $15T gross domestic product. But federal tax revenue will be much less, only $2.5T, or 16% of the GDP. That means there's a shortfall of $1.3T. Some people, including economists, say there's a deficit. That's true, but only in an accounting sense, not in any meaningful economic sense. Let's look at it. If Congress spends $3.8T out of this year's $15T GDP, what must it do to accomplish that goal? If you said it must "find a way to force us not to spend $3.8T privately," go to the head of the class. One way to force us to spend $3.8T less is to tax us that amount, but we're being taxed only $2.5T. Where does the extra $1.3T come from? It surely doesn't come from the tooth fairy, Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. The fact of business is that if Congress spends $3.8T of what we produce this year, it necessarily must force us to spend $3.8 trillion less privately this year. The most honest way to force us to do that is through taxation. Another way is to enter the bond market and make interest rates higher than they otherwise would be, thereby forcing us to spend less on private investment in homes and businesses. Then there is debasement of the currency through inflation, which is taxation by stealth."
Proposed Bills 2012
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"To be sure, some innovation efforts will do better than anyone expects, but others will do much less well. And everything takes longer than we hope or estimate; everything also requires more effort... to demand innovative efforts which, if everything goes acording to plan, yield 3 times the minimum results needed is only elementary precaution." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pg404
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2012-04-26
2012-04-26 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (14:30 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 366,743 in the week ending April 21, a decrease of 3,484 from the previous week. There were 387,867 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.
The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7% during the week ending April 14, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,410,877, a decrease of 36,897 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.0% and the volume was 3,783,787.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 7 was 6,677,959, a decrease of 87,160 from the previous week.
Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, CA,
CO, CT, DE, DC,
FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS,
KY, MD, MA,
MO, NV, NJ, NY,
NC, OH, OR, PA, RI,
SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and
WI during the week ending April 7.
States reported 2,729,204 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending April 7, a decrease of 45,930 from the prior week. There were 3,448,260 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;
to 127,048,587 beginning 2012-04-07, and seasonal adjustment factors were revised.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs
2012-04-26
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
The war from within -- contemporary southerners reflecting on the Civil War... sans lost cause
2012-04-26
Ian Wishart
century-old map of NZ in new history book throws doubt on claims of sea level change
2012-04-26
Quin Hillyer _American Spectator_
fire this man, immediately
"This EPA official who said his strategy is to 'crucify' oil and gas companies ought be fired before week's end. Period. This isn't regulatory enforcement, it's criminal prosecutorial abuse. Then again, the Obama administration is rather good at such regulatory abuses."
2012-04-26
Ross Kaminsky _American Spectator_
solicitor general Donald Verrilli's latest losing hand
"It seems to me that the Federal Government just doesn't want to know who is here illegally or not." --- chief justice John Roberts
2012-04-26
Aaron Goldstein _American Spectator_
Obummer is no Jimmy Carter
2012-04-26
Ross Kaminsky _American Spectator_
Paul Ryan on government extortion, polls and America's future
2012-04-26
Rand Simberg _PJ Media_
Asymmetry of ideology: Leftists are unable to understand the moral universe
"University of Virginia psychology professor Jonathan Haidt has been doing some interesting research on what makes 'liberals' (that is to say, Leftists, since they're not really liberal at all) and conservatives tick... It explains a remarkable amount about current (and not-so-current) events. It is all the more interesting because he seems to be a recovering [leftist] himself."
2012-04-26
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
U of FL dropped college of engineering dean's plan to shift CS focus from research to teaching
university president Bernie Machen's statement on budget
2012-04-26 14:02PDT (17:02EDT) (21:02GMT) (23:02 Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Mean-spirited Zoe Lofgren drives toxic environment by pushing for even more excessive visas
2012-04-26
Jerry Bowyer _Forbes_
Glenn Beck, national decline and the story of the Roman empire
"the left really does have a strong totalitarian bent. No nation is guaranteed eternal life, let alone eternal prosperity and hegemony. And the United States is, indeed, aggressively moving in the wrong direction... All of this was transacted with the Roman Denarius. It didn't matter that it was hated. It mattered that it was universally accepted for commercial purposes and held its value better than the alternatives. When the leaders of Jerusalem revolted against Rome the first time in 66CE, they threw out the hated Roman silver coins and minted patriotic shekels, out of the baser bronze. The coinage, of course traded at much lower values against the Roman coins despite strong political pressure for its use... The point of all of this is that as shaky as Rome's coinage was and as much as it was hated by captive people of the empire, it would last another 200 years due chiefly to a lack of alternatives. Reserve currencies do not generally crash quickly, though they do crash. Great nations are generally granted many reprieves, many amnesties, many second chances. I'm not saying that we've got another 200 years, if we continue down our current path of debt and debasement. I don't know how much time we have for course corrections. All this amounts to the following: I'm not ready to give up on us yet, but I'm definitely read to hedge my bets."
2012-04-26 (5772 Ayyr 04)
Scott Peterson _Jewish World Review_
Iran's cyber prowess: Could it really have cracked codes for controlling UAVs?
"aviation and cyber experts explain why it's possible and what damage could be done by America's enemies... captured during a spy mission over Iran in December, signaling to Washington that the data was not destroyed and that Iran can crack the encryption codes. The bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel... Hajizadeh said he provided '4 cues... to let the Americans know how deep we could penetrate into [the intelligence systems and devices of] this drone', according to Fars News, which is linked to the Revolutionary Guard. The Iranian general laid out specific details of the drone's maintenance and mission history: Work was done in California on 2010 Oct. 16, and the drone flew a mission from Kandahar, Afghanistan, on 2010 Nov. 18, he said. Technical problems brought the drone back in 2010 December to Los Angeles -- close to the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works location at Palmdale, CA, where the drone was made. Hajizadeh also stated that two weeks prior to the assassination raid on the bin Laden compound in 2011 May 2, the drone had flown a mission 'right on top of his hiding spot', and had made other flights into Pakistani air-space... 'It's much safer to assume that Iran is at least as capable as some of its hackers, and some of its hackers have proven to be very capable.', says Mr. Carr, author of the book _Inside Cyber Warfare_... Iran had exploited a navigational weakness to jam and confuse the drone, causing it to land in Iran... Iranian officials in recent days stated that Beijing and Moscow 'have been most aggressive in their pursuit of details'..."
2012-04-26 (5772 Ayyr 04)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
Law games: Regressive/Leftist activists are corrupting the laws of war and putting free nations at increased risk
2012-04-26 (5772 Ayyr 04)
Danielle Kurtzleben _Jewish World Review_
6 unusual economic indicators
2012-04-26 (5772 Ayyr 04)
Jessica Harper _Jewish World Review_
6 supposedly "hottest" tech careers of 2012: bodyshop bodyshop bodyshop bodyshop
2012-04-26 (5772 Ayyr 04)
Charlie Kirk _Breitbart_
much leftist bias begins in HS economics text-books
Proposed Bills 2012
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"The new venture therefore needs to start out with the assumption that its product or service may find customers in markets no one thought of, for uses no one envisaged with the product or service was designed, and that it will be bought by customers outside its field of vision and even unknown to the new venture. If the new venture does not have such a market focus from the very beginning, all it is likely to create is the market for a competitor." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pp441-442
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2012-04-27
2012-04-26 20:34PDT (2012-04-27 00:34EDT) (2012-04-27 04:34GMT) (2012-04-27 06:34 Jerusalem)
Michael Kozuchowski _Daily Illini_
U of IL students protest working conditions at local Flex-N-Gate factory owned by Shahid Khan
"Owned by local billionaire Shahid Khan -- a University alumnus, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars... failed to provide proper health and safety conditions for their workers, protestors say... Veer Kothari, member of the UGA and senior in Business, said that the rally's main goal was to spread awareness... Beginning in 2011 December, local Flex-N-Gate employees started to file complaints with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA], according to members of the GEO. Since then, employees have made accusations of more than 30 violations, members say. Kothari said one main concern is the carcinogenic compound used to coat bumpers, the chemical hexavalent chromium, which comes from chromium. She said Flex-N-Gate workers have objected to the lack of training and protective equipment..."
2012-04-27 06:04PDT (09:04EDT) (13:04GMT) (15:04 Jerusalem)
Scott Thurm _Wall Street Journal_
35 US-based multi-nationals add most jobs over-seas, not in USA
"boosted their employment at home by 3.1%, or 113K jobs, between 2009 and 2011, the same rate of increase as the nation's other employers. But they also added more than 333K jobs in their far-flung—and faster-growing— foreign operations."
2012-04-27 07:27PDT (10:27EDT) (14:27GMT) (16:27 Jerusalem)
Paul Ivice _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Florida "WorkForce Solutions" helped over 30K find jobs in March
"For the third consecutive month, the work-force boards helped more than 30K unemployed Floridians find jobs, including placements for more than 7K who had been receiving unemployment compensation. In the Treasure Coast, Workforce Solutions helped 1,170 people find jobs in March, of which 306 had been receiving unemployment compensation."
2012-04-27 07:51PDT (10:51EDT) (14:51GMT) (16:51 Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index rose from 76.2 in late March to 76.4 at the end of April
St. Louis Fed
2012-04-27
Paul Ryan _American Spectator_
Empowering individuals or bureaubums?
2012-04-27
Stephen Moore & Peter Ferrara _American Spectator_
The road from serfdom
2012-04-27
_CBS_
Cray shares soar nearly 22% on strong 2012Q1 results
2012-04-27
Bill diPuccio
HS science video pilot: "The GreenHouse Effect"
2012-04-27
Gary Shapiro _American Spectator_
50 of the ways the Obummer admin has hurt the economy and job markets
"Since President Obama has taken office we have at least 2M more employable Americans, yet after trillions of dollars of stimulus and deficit spending, we actually have fewer non-government jobs than we did the day he took the oath of office."
2012-04-27
Trevor Williams _Anti-American Atlanta GA_
Infosys bodyshop opened new Atlanta office
LCA applications showing under-mining local market compensation
2012-04-27
John Williams _King World News_
"recovery" is an illusion from phony government numbers
2012-04-27
Michael Pollaro _Forbes_
increases in currency supply inevitably result in eonomic busts
2012-04-27 (5772 Ayyr 05)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
It's taken decades, but Israel is finally learning not to hate itself
2012-04-27 (5772 Ayyr 05)
Suzanne Fields _Jewish World Review_
Obummer does not "know best"
Proposed Bills 2012
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"Businesses are not paid to reform customers. They are paid to satisfy customers." --- Peter F. Drucker 1996 _The Executive in Action_ pg443
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2012-04-28
2012-04-28
USA Science & Engineering Festival at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in DC
2012-04-28
Robert X. Cringely _Beta News_
Sneaky Ill-Begotten Monstrosities off-shoring
"IBM's public position is they are creating jobs in smaller towns when in fact they are displacing workers from other parts of the United States by moving jobs to these GDFs or to off-shore locations... In the case of Dubuque and Columbia, IBM secured heavy incentives from state and local governments to minimize their costs in these locations and are achieving further savings by paying the technical team members, most of whom are new hires or fresh college grads with no experience, a fraction of what experienced support personnel would require... When IBM opened the Dubuque center the people of Iowa expected great things. The center was staffed by a small number of US IBMers in management positions. Big Blue then brought over people from India for 'training', then sent them back. Few H-1B visas were even required. Every time IBM sent a batch of trainees back to India from Iowa they laid off US workers. While Dubuque was led to believe they'd get an influx of highly-paid new residents, what the city actually received was a transient work-force of under-paid people... With hundreds of thousands of laid-off IT workers in the USA, why can't American workers be hired for these positions? Because IBM doesn't want US employees. Or, for that matter, European employees, though these are harder to jettison. Lay-offs at IBM are rarely due to job performance, though complaining will get you sacked. Big Blue tends to position these actions as job eliminations, but jobs aren't usually eliminated, they are just relocated to GDF or GR locations staffed by cheaper workers... These draconian tactics might be justified if survival of the company or the best interests of the customer were involved, but they aren't. It's mainly about executive compensation. Meanwhile IBM's work for customers is becoming increasingly shoddy."
2012-04-28 12:00PDT (15:00EDT) (19:00GMT) (21:00 Jerusalem)
Kate Tulenko _Salon_
foreign invasion of health-care workers
"Approximately 15% of all health-care workers and 25% of all physicians in the United States were born and educated elsewhere. This means that 1.5M health-care jobs are 'in-sourced', occupied by foreign-born, foreign-trained workers brought into the United States on special visas earmarked for healthcare jobs. This number is 150% [of] the total number of jobs in the U.S. auto-manufacturing industry. It's amazing to consider that in 2008 and 2009, the auto industry, which makes up just 3.6% of the U.S. economy, received a $97G bail-out. If we estimate that each of these 1.5M in-sourced health-care jobs has an average wage of $60K, that's $90G a year in wages going to people brought into the United States to work rather than training Americans to do the same jobs."
2012-04-28
Bryan Preston _PJ Media_
True the Vote
Proposed Bills 2012
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"low marks on its 'production values', including its slow pacing and its paucity of local community color... Creative success requires trial and error, time to make mistakes and correct them -- in short, an incubation period during which the new ideas can be safely nurtured. Progress within domains requires fields that are willing and able to provide such incubation periods. The failure of [Carol Marin's] 22:00 News [in Chicago] was a field failure, an incapacity to make enough of a commitment to the show to see it to fruition. Happily, the failure did not take Marin's career along with it..." --- Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & William Damon 2001 _Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet_ pp184, 185
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2012-04-29
2012-04-29
Florida History Fair
2012-04-29
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
My great-grand-mother's wood cook-stove
2012-04-29
Gene A. Nelson _Social Contract_
How record immigration levels robbed American high-tech workers of $10T
"policies that began in 1965 with the passage of the [Hart-Celler-Kennedy Immigration & Nationality act, IANA1965]. The changes were dramatically accelerated by the unprecedented increases in immigration that followed the [Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Reform & Control act, IRCA1986, and Kennedy-d'Amato-Dodd-Moynihan-Simpson Immigration] act of 1990 [IMMACT1990]. Currently, there are a record 39.96M [legal] immigrants, comprising 12.92% of the U.S. population. The economic law of supply and demand predicts that the work-force gluts resulting from the immigrant glut will drive down wages and worsen working conditions."
2012-04-29
William F. McClenney
On fracking
2012-04-29
Victor Davis Hanson _PJ Media_
leftist reactionarians: Our new regressivism
2012-04-29
J. Christian Adams _PJ Media_
widespread contempt in Obummer DoJ for citizens of states trying to reduce voting fraud (and illegal immigration)
2012-04-29
Kyle Smith _PJ Media_
England: It was fun while it lasted
2012-04-29
_Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Jensen Beach HS team won world Robotics Competition in St. Louis, MO
Robert Guttersohn: Youngstown OH Vindicator: WGHarding HS robotics team placed 8th in USA
2012-04-29
Francine Berman _Chronicle of Higher Education_
academia and government are catching on that information is valuable and expensive: but few wish to pay
Proposed Bills 2012
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"Western countries are supposed to be democracies, accountable to voter assessments and preferences, and all Western publics believe they have too much immigration... Certain influential Europeans believed after WW2 that it should be possible to bring immigrants from the 3rd World to the 1st. But once immigration was possible in some circumstances, it became irresistible in most circumstances." --- Christopher Caldwell 2009 _Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West_ pp328-329
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2012-04-30
2012-04-30
professor Gerald L. Boerner
Anne Frank
2012-04-30
Anthony Watts
wind farms causing atmospheric warming?!
2012-04-30
Anthony Watts
Al Armendariz, who talked about "crucifying" US energy industry, has resigned from EPA
2012-04-30
Marlene Taylor _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
bees seeking new digs
Cumberland PA Sentinel/AP
2012-04-30 08:51PDT (11:51EDT) (15:51GMT) (17:51 Jerusalem)
Saritha Rai _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Indian bodyshops are levelling, equal-opportunity abusers: quest for cheap, pliant labor with flexible/questionable ethics giving Indian women a more even chance
2012-04-30
John Kehr
how stratospheric temperature is de-coupled from surface temperature: Arrhenius vs. Ångström
2012-04-30
Bridget Johnson _PJ Media_
judiciary chair Lamar Smith unleashes on Holder for willfully ignoring the US constitution
Lamar Smith: National Review
"'All government officials are bound by the limits of the Constitution and the rule of law, including the president and the attorney general.', the chairman added."
2012-04-30
Patrick Poole _PJ Media_
Ohio colleges partner with terrorist Hamas & CAIR
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)
2012-04-30
Kathy Shaidle _PJ Media_
Talent is not everything: 5 "secrets" to free-lance success
"today, 'fitting in' with the company 'culture' is prioritized over competence and intelligence. Yet somehow, even a curmudgeon like me can manage to remain polite, helpful, and engaged for the length of that email or phone call with a client."
2012-04-30
David P. Goldman _PJ Media_
persistence, culture, and success
2012-04-30
"Mike the mad biologist"
Bruni gets the college problem complete backwards
"The problem with a college education is not that it is 'useless', but that it costs too much for what you're getting. If it didn't saddle many graduates with massive debt, it would be a good thing. Unlike 50 years ago (and the model hasn't changed much), working a minimum wage job in the summer and part-time can't put you through school anymore. So it's not the education that's at issue, it's the debt... But a surplus liberal arts degrees aren't why companies are importing computer scientists and the like. They are doing this because it's cheaper and younger labor. Employers don't want older technology workers, in part due to age bias (30 year olds don't want to hire 55 year olds). They also think older workers will want (or need) higher wages. And older workers, unlike those who residency status depends on their employment, will be more 'troublesome'. That is, refuse to be [abused]. Finally, we're not limited by technology workers."
2012-04-30
Dominic Gates _Seattle WA Times_
Grassley looks into Boeing's abuse of B-1 visas for Russian engineers
2012-04-30
_KRDO_/_Reuters_
10 most-hated companies in USA
2012-04-30
William L. Anderson
Paul Krugman and Ron Paul debate economics
2012-04-30 (5772 Ayyr 08)
Ibrahim Garba _Jewish World Review_
At least Nigerian Christians at prayer were butchered as violent Islamics made good on threats
2012-04-30 (5772 Ayyr 08)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Who is "racist"? part 2 of 2
Proposed Bills 2012
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"Scale matters. America has about 2M Muslims (excluding black Muslims) scattered about the country. If its Muslim population were proportionate to that of France and similarly dispersec, it would have close to 40M, concentrated in a handful of major cities and poised to take political control of them... The jury is still out on whether the US melting pot will work on Muslims as it has worked on other immigrants." --- Christopher Caldwell 2009 _Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West_ pp340-341
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