Archive for 2011
May 19, 2011
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: TSA Drill Almost Results In A Law Enforcement Shooting.
THEY’RE THE ENEMY: RIAA Backs Warrantless Search Bill in California.
FAVORITE BLOGS, BOOKS, AND PRODUCTS from M.D. Creekmore.
AT AMAZON, 50% or more off heart rate monitors.
CHANGE: Amputee Patrick demonstrates his new bionic hand. On Facebook, Alex Lightman comments: “I respect Patrick’s choice. I would have done the same. And I question again why the majority of people aren’t Transhumanists. Religious fervor can leade someone to take limbs or blow them off, but has it ever, in the history of the world, replaced a limb? Transhumanism includes bionics, life extension, cognitive enhancement, AI – real miracles happening every day. “
BAJA ARIZONA. “Washington’s power to punish enemies and boost friends divides America.”
UNEXPECTEDLY! Existing-Home Sales In U.S. Unexpectedly Fall. “As of March 31, about 5.6 million houses were either in foreclosure or their owners were more than 30 days late in making mortgage payments, according to Bloomberg calculations, raising the risk that property values will keep falling. That would make any sustained recovery difficult to achieve. About 37 percent of all transactions last month were of distressed properties.”
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Obama Embraces His Inner Bush. “President Obama has deep-sixed the ‘realism’ that marked the first two years of his approach to the Middle East. He has returned to the foreign policy of George W. Bush. . . . The President is nailing his colors to the mast of the Anglo-American revolutionary tradition.” I guess all that “realism” turned out to be unrealistic. They told me if I voted for McCain we’d be getting a reluctant clone of Bush’s policies. And they were right!
UPDATE: A different take from Ron Radosh: President Obama’s Speech to the State Department Means New Dangers for Israel.
INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? You might want to check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum if you haven’t already. And here’s a list of disaster-survival gear.
GUT FEELINGS: Gut Bacteria Linked to Behavior: That Anxiety May Be in Your Gut, Not in Your Head. “The findings are important because several common types of gastrointestinal disease, including irritable bowel syndrome, are frequently associated with anxiety or depression. In addition there has been speculation that some psychiatric disorders, such as late onset autism, may be associated with an abnormal bacterial content in the gut.”
51 DAYS LOST AT SEA. “It began, in the grand tradition of ill-considered ideas, with a group of boys and a bottle of booze—the most common of circumstances in the least common of places. The boys were gathered in their clubhouse—broken sofas, graffitied walls—near the end of the only road in the only village on the Pacific island of Atafu. . . . Etueni later admitted to me that as he sat in the boat, he’d thought that this was a dangerous and stupid idea.”
WELCOME TO THE ENEMIES LIST. “The last time we had a president this paranoid about his enemies, Woody Allen was still making movies that were actually funny.”
What’s next, a tax audit?
IN THE MAIL: From John Scalzi, Fuzzy Nation.
HAROLD KOH: The Lawfulness of the U.S. Operation Against Osama bin Laden. “Given bin Laden’s unquestioned leadership position within al Qaeda and his clear continuing operational role, there can be no question that he was the leader of an enemy force and a legitimate target in our armed conflict with al Qaeda.”
THE KEY TO IMPROVING SOCIETY: Economic freedom. You don’t say. Funny, it’s easy for some people to accept that artistic freedom is good for art, but they still have trouble accepting that economic freedom is good for the economy.
IT’S $100,000: The Power Line Prize.
THE GREAT RECESSION’S LOST GENERATION: “The brutal job market brought on by the recession has been hard on everyone, but especially devastating on the youngest members of the labor force. About 60% of recent graduates have not been able to find a full-time job in their chosen profession, according to job placement firm Adecco.” And note that an expensive Ivy League degree is no guarantee of a job. Can you say “higher education bubble?”
UPDATE: Reader Chris Low emails:
Three observations:
1. No doubt about the higher education bubble. The return on investment for education lately is awful;
2. It’s partly what kids choose to study. When I recently hired a research assistant, I looked for people who had taken writing courses. I run an economics department, but the best finance majors/economists are useless if they cannot communicate, and most of the people we interviewed could not even write a resume without a dozen cringe-worthy grammatical errors. The person I hired was a business/finance major, English minor. Most of the applicants we interviewed chose minors like gender studies or human sexuality, which would be fine if colleges emphasized writing in all courses, but they don’t, and these young men and women cannot write;
3. Things are starting to get a little better. One reason younger people couldn’t find jobs during the recession and first two years of ‘recovery’ is that they are competing with an unprecedented number of people over 65 who are either staying in the labor force or reentering it because their retirement savings – mostly in the form of home equity appreciation – were wiped out by the Great Recession. Ask the typical McDonalds manager if she would rather hire a 20 year old or a 65 year old to work the fryer and she’ll take the 65 year old almost every time. Older people are simply more reliable. But as the economy improves, job growth is picking up and there are more opportunities for everyone. Hiring of people under 30 is – finally – growing again.
Of course, none of the improvement will last if gas stays at $4+, but that’s another story.
Indeed.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader A.J. Smith writes:
I just wanted to share my own experiences with the Higher Education Bubble, especially regarding the story you linked on recent grads being unable to find jobs.
I graduated last May with a BA in History (from a small college in West Michigan with a good reputation in our area). Before I started on the BA, I earned an Associates in Mechanical Drafting from a community college. After I graduated, I started to look for jobs in both drafting fields and history-related fields, and after a few months found one doing drafting work. While I’d love a job related to the BA, it was the community college degree that got me a good job and a paycheck- without ever having to take out a loan.
Who kows, maybe someday I’ll go to grad school or do something else in a history-related field. For now, I’m glad I have another skill set.
Indeed.
WAIVERGATE isn’t going away.
THOUGHTS ON THE DECLINING NUMBER OF WOMEN LAW SCHOOL GRADUATES: “As tuitions have gone up and law school debt has increased, young women might be making the decision on the front end that the cost of legal education is not worth it over the long run, in relation to career benefits. The issue is not the profession — it is, rather, whether the long tail of law school debt repayments justifies the upfront expenditure. If it is the case that many young women looking at the law school decision are also thinking about marriage, family, and children, if law school tuition and attached debts rise high enough, they might conclude that despite the professional opportunities (which have shrunk considerably since 2002), the debt is not worth it in terms of family cost.” This is exactly the kind of thought that’s going to lead to the higher education bubble bursting in general. But it makes sense that if you expect to take time off from your career, you’d reach your payoff decision threshold earlier.
THE MIDDLE EAST: Five Questions For Barack Obama To Answer Today.