The Ravich-Volker report on the states' budget crisis--a federal worry, if you can believe it--points to a number of problems, including the fact that state budget pension commitments are usually constitutionally guaranteed and can not be defaulted on. Another surprising result: While Medicaid costs have been increasing at a 7.2% annual rate, the increase is the result of increased benefits and enrollments, not medical costs. One in four New Yorkers are covered by Medicaid and 70% of those are not mandated by federal law. The states are volunteering, volunteering, for these unmeetable responsibilities.
A study by the Center for Immigration, based on 2010 and 2011 census data, found that 43 percent of immigrants who have been in the U.S. at least 20 years were using welfare benefits, a rate that is nearly twice as high as native-born Americans and nearly 50 percent higher than recent immigrants. Immigrants made up more than half of all farm-workers, 41 percent of taxi drivers and 48 percent of maids and house-cleaners, but they also represented about one-third of all computer programmers and 27 percent of doctors. This discrepancy seemed to disturb the study's authors as it made generalizations harder but there was one consistency: a key dividing line is educational attainment. Interestingly, that can be screened somewhat before immigration but apparently is not.
A123 Systems agreed to a non-binding MoU with Wanxiang for strategic investment of up to $450M; Wanxiang would own up to 80% of A123 common stock. This is another American company, created with taxpayer dollars and American investment, being sold to the Chinese. In essence, the Americans are doing the early funding to establish proof-of-concept and then relinquishing control to China.
Barry Soetoro? The President of the United States has an alias? Wonder why he changed it?
There are some interesting studies that show that cultures without numbers and preschool children do not see numbers as linear but as logarithmic. So the higher the numbers are, the closer together they feel. There are reasons for this, one can suppose. With small numbers in a culture, like money, the difference can be important, therefore large, but in larger numbers, like buffalo or cavalry, there is not much difference between "a lot" and "really, really a lot." So there's more difference between 1 and 3 than 11 and 13. That's the reason we are doing badly in school, it's that our technique is counter-intuitive! I can't wait for the new, new math. (There may be a business here--or at least an academic chair.)
The natural gas debate/assassination continues. PennEnvironment published a photo last year of a "flooded Marcellus drilling rig" that turns out to have been shot in Pakistan. As with so many of these political "discussions", the creed comes first followed by whatever information fits. But it is difficult to call overt lying and falsification of "evidence" confirmation bias.
Golden Oldie: http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2009/04/ultimate-outsource.html
"Sean Penn joined his friend Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at an election rally in the city of Valencia over the weekend." (Reuters) Penn is campaigning for Hugo Chavez? With all the possible causes in the world, what would make him do that?
An interesting graph arrived, copied from Lott, the guy who analyzes violence statistics, particularly gun stats. He has numbers that show declines in murder rates after the adoption of concealed carry laws across a number of states.This is how we think as we look for any correlation. Unfortunately these numbers also correlate with the rise in cell phone use, the adoption of the three-four defensive line and outsourcing. Part confirmation bias, part imitative magic. It is as meaningless as identifying the Sikh shooter as former military.
As unconvincing as these gun stats are, there is no question about the targets of these loonies. Every time there is an uprising in Africa, the killers run to the local school or church and kill everyone in the monastery or nunnery. Gun free campuses. Gun free theaters. Now a Sikh temple. That might be a coincidence but...
Astonishing numbers on America's growth: by 1868, the United States had already become the world's largest economy, and by 1914 -- the dawn of World War I -- the US economy was larger than the economies of Britain, France, and Germany combined. Imagine the internal changes this growth required, especially labor. Now try to imagine that being managed from the top down.
A new book on killer whales ("Death at Sea World" by David Kirby) argues obviously that orcas are better off free than caged and so are the people around them. But there are some interesting things as well. Hunting behavior is learned, not instinctive; orcas from different groups hunt in unique ways. Orcas are responsible for 70% of Sea World revenues. They exhibit group parenting in the wild. 75% of males' lives is spent within one body length of his mother.
The results of the "collision of values" between Chic-fil-A and various municipalities has been less than nuclear. The world has got a lot more pretentious since the advent of the "mission statement."
From "Gravity's Engines" by Caleb Scharf: There are 10 billion stars in the universe for every human being who has ever walked the earth.
The Sands is being investigated for possible involvement in money laundering. A Vegas casino? Money laundering? I am shocked. Shocked.
Aaaanndd....a graph:
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