EMPIRE OF THE DRONES: EPA told to come clean on feedlot flyovers.
Archive for 2012
June 2, 2012
GOING FOR A JOG WITH A HELICOPTER DRONE. Nobody tell Obama about this . . ..
WILL A DARK CHOCOLATE A DAY keep the doctor away?
ALEX NUNEZ likes the Kia Rio. “Man, if you’re in the market for a new small car, you’re in luck, because there are a slew of good options that are priced attractively, well-equipped, and don’t shortchange you on style or fuel economy. I’ve mentioned a few that resonated with me so far, and have since spent some meaningful time with a few more. The biggest and most pleasant surprise of the bunch is the one you see here: the 2012 Kia Rio SX. This one is fully loaded, and carried a sticker price of $20,545 including freight and handling charges.”
ANOTHER READER BOOK PLUG: Tom Brosz asks that I link his book, Castle Falcon.
And reader Jeff Burhans writes: “I LOVE when you plug books written by your readers – I’ve purchased several from your tips (e.g. Hegemony, Temporary Duty, etc.) and have been THRILLED with the value for each of them. I’ve enjoyed them all.” Glad to oblige.
FASTER, PLEASE: Computer-designed proteins programmed to disarm variety of flu viruses. “Computer-designed proteins are under construction to fight the flu. Researchers are demonstrating that proteins found in nature, but that do not normally bind the flu, can be engineered to act as broad-spectrum antiviral agents against a variety of flu virus strains, including H1N1 pandemic influenza.”
LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: The Broken Economics Of Legal Education.
ANN ALTHOUSE: Incredibly creepy mail today from the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund. “This is an effort to shame and pressure people about voting, and it is truly despicable. Your vote is private, you have a right not to vote, and anyone who tries to shame and an harass you about it is violating your privacy, and the assumption that I will become active in shaming and pressuring my neighbors is repugnant. . . . This may be the most disgusting thing I have ever received in the mail.” It may be disgusting, but it certainly comes across as desperate.
More here.
THE DIPLOMAT: 12 Things Missing From The Pentagon’s China Report.
Will plastic, toxic-free baby bottles made in another country be a deciding factor in who wins the California State Assembly’s District 50 race? In one of the most unabashedly liberal, environmentally conscious — and wealthiest — voter strongholds in the United States, which includes cities such as Malibu, Santa Monica and West Hollywood, which have banned plastic bags or nonrecyclable food containers, yes, they just might.
“This district is La La Land,” says Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science geographer Paul Robinson, an expert on social issues in California. “It’s divorced from the reality of what’s happening in other parts of L.A.” . . .
Known in political circles as President Barack Obama’s ATM, the new district is home to deep-pocketed contributors, who have donated many millions of dollars to his 2012 re-election campaign and tens of millions to his successful 2008 bid. It includes not only eye-popping wealth but also high-powered celebrity and political clout.
Read the whole thing, for the chuckles at least.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are. That’s because there are so many on TV.
THE MANOLO: Young Billionaires, Then And Now.
AT AMAZON, Father’s Day Gifts in Kitchen & Dining.
Also, today only: Transcend 64 GB JetFlash 500 Retractable USB Flash Drive, $36.99.
I’LL BET HE DOES: In tough fight with Romney, Obama longs for McCain.
ELIZABETH WARREN, FORECLOSURE PROFITEER?
Elizabeth Warren, who has railed against predatory banks and heartless foreclosures, took part in about a dozen Oklahoma real estate deals that netted her and her family hefty profits through maneuvers such as “flipping” properties, records show.
A Herald review has found that the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate rapidly bought and sold homes herself, loaned money at high interest rates to relatives and purchased foreclosed properties at bargain prices. . . . Herald columnist Howie Carr reported yesterday that Warren and her relatives also profited from two additional Oklahoma City foreclosures — in both cases showing triple-digit percentage gains.
Warren’s campaign issued a statement last night: “Elizabeth and (her husband) Bruce are fortunate to be in a position where they can help their family. They have been able to help relatives buy their homes and her nephew — a contractor — fix up houses.”
However, Warren and her family’s private investments don’t seem to square with her public statements about the latest real estate boom and bust.
Nobody tell the Occupy Movement. Er, wherever that is, now.
NEW YORK SUN: BLOOMBERG’S NEUROSIS. At least this latest bit of idiocy should ensure that he has no shot at a VP slot.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Richard Posner: Is Student Debt Excessive?
The change in the financing of college from the 1950s, when I was growing up, is dramatic. In those days your family paid for your tuition and living expenses, or you received a scholarship from the college (and perhaps in partial exchange for it had to work part time for the college, for example by waiting on tables in the college dining room), or you worked your way through college, or college was free—or you didn’t go. But you didn’t borrow, and you didn’t graduate with any debt, and your career choices, and your marital plans, were not influenced by your having to pay off a substantial debt. This system of financing college education was feasible because a much smaller percentage of young people went to college in those days, in part because the financial returns to college were smaller than they are today. Student loans enable many students to go to college who couldn’t afford college without them yet would benefit from a college education, though student loans also enable colleges to jack up tuition, for which the students pay in the end unless they default on their student loans.
A complication for high school students trying to assess the value of a college education is the nation’s current economic situation. True, as in the 1930s, so now, the unemployment rate of college graduates is well below that of other workers. But it is more than 5 percent, which is twice what it was five years ago. And it is about twice that high—10 percent, at least—for young college graduates. If one adds in underemployment, that is, employment in a job for which a college education is not a qualification—for example, a college graduate employed as a waiter—the combined rate of unemployment and underemployment is almost 33 percent for all college graduates under the age of 25. (College graduates who are in graduate or professional school rather than have on average better job prospects than those seeking work with just a B.A. or B.S. under their belt.) Wages for young college graduates in the work force have also fallen.
No guarantees — which is why you don’t want to take on too much debt. If only there were a short, readable book on this subject out there somewhere. . . .
I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: The Green Energy Bubble Is Bursting Fast Everywhere.
So the tech bubble burst a decade ago, and the housing bubble five years ago. The higher education bubble is swelling to the bursting point, but it is the green energy bubble that is bursting loudest at the moment, and as usual environmentalists are slow to see that they’re about to get run over by a revival of the hydrocarbon economy. Those old dinosaurs may have been big lumbering animals, but the nimble fossil fuels they threw off are crushing the so-called green “fuels of the future” beloved of fruit-juice drinkers and vegans everywhere.
I’d prefer a space-solar/nuclear/hydrogen economy myself, but the greens don’t seem to favor that and I’m not sure the tech is ready yet anyway.
THE HILL: Jobs Report Upends 2012 Race.
A dismal May jobs report is being perceived as a possible game-changer in the presidential battle between President Obama and Mitt Romney, with Republicans saying the numbers provide further proof that the economy isn’t improving.
The report showing unemployment increasing to 8.2 percent and the creation of only 69,000 jobs shook some Democrats, crystallizing their fears that the economy could tip the election in Romney’s favor in November.
It also threatened to turn Obama’s argument that the economy is improving on its head and provided flashbacks to the spring economic slowdown of last year.
“It is a little scary,” said one former White House official. “There’s no sugarcoating this one.”
Another former administration official called it an “ ‘Oh, s–t’ moment.”
“It’s not good,” the former official said. “I’ll say this, I’m glad it’s June and not October.”
Well, you take your comfort where you can find it, I guess.
CHANGE: Handful of genetic changes led to huge changes to human brain. “Changes to just three genetic letters among billions led to evolution and development of the mammalian motor sensory network, and laid the groundwork for the defining characteristics of the human brain, Yale University researchers report.”
JIM TREACHER: Obama doesn’t have to write “I will not call them Polish death camps” on the blackboard 100 times. “But close enough. The Smartest President Ever, the living, breathing deity who restored America’s standing in the world after the evils of the Bush era — Predator drones? What Predator drones? — seriously ticked off the Poles the other day. The issue hasn’t gone away just because he wants it to, and now, in an undoubtedly ego-bruising development, he’s been forced to publicly apologize.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Wesleyan University Abandons Need-Blind Admission.