http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/bartels-alfred-wegener/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/business/31view.html?_r=1
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
New Way Men Can Transmit HIV To Women
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081216133436.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2008)
Women and female adolescents now account for 26 percent of all new HIV cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. Based on its most recent analysis of 2005 data, the CDC estimated that there were 56,300 new HIV infections that year and traced 31 percent of the total to high-risk heterosexual contact. More than half of the new cases of HIV infection worldwide are in women.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2008)
Women and female adolescents now account for 26 percent of all new HIV cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. Based on its most recent analysis of 2005 data, the CDC estimated that there were 56,300 new HIV infections that year and traced 31 percent of the total to high-risk heterosexual contact. More than half of the new cases of HIV infection worldwide are in women.
SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
You can see the breakdown for each state at the link
http://www.frac.org/data/FSPparticipation/2008_09.pdf#page=3
SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: NUMBER OF PERSONS PARTICIPATING -5 YEAR CHANGE
( Data as of November 28, 2008 )
Sept. 2003: 22,690,576 Sept. 2008: 31,586,934 Percent Change: 39.2%
http://www.frac.org/data/FSPparticipation/2008_09.pdf#page=3
SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: NUMBER OF PERSONS PARTICIPATING -5 YEAR CHANGE
( Data as of November 28, 2008 )
Sept. 2003: 22,690,576 Sept. 2008: 31,586,934 Percent Change: 39.2%
2 trillion tons of ice gone since 2003
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28249708/
Scientists say NASA satellite data on global warming 'should alarm people'
Associated Press updated 5:48 a.m. ET, Tues., Dec. 16, 2008
WASHINGTON - More than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, according to new NASA satellite data that show the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming.
More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, based on measurements of ice weight by NASA's GRACE satellite, said NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke. The water melting from Greenland in the past five years would fill up about 11 Chesapeake Bays, he said, and the Greenland melt seems to be accelerating.
...
"It's not getting better; it's continuing to show strong signs of warming and amplification," Zwally said. "There's no reversal taking place."
Scientists studying sea ice will announce that parts of the Arctic north of Alaska were 9 to 10 degrees warmer this past fall, a strong early indication of what researchers call the Arctic amplification effect. That's when the Arctic warms faster than predicted, and warming there is accelerating faster than elsewhere on the globe.
As sea ice melts, the Arctic waters absorb more heat in the summer, having lost the reflective powers of vast packs of white ice. That absorbed heat is released into the air in the fall. That has led to autumn temperatures in the last several years that are six to 10 degrees warmer than they were in the 1980s, said research scientist Julienne Stroeve at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.
That's a strong and early impact of global warming, she said.
"The pace of change is starting to outstrip our ability to keep up with it, in terms of our understanding of it," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the Arctic amplification study.
Two other studies coming out at the conference assess how Arctic thawing is releasing methane — the second most potent greenhouse gas. One study shows that the loss of sea ice warms the water, which warms the permafrost on nearby land in Alaska, thus producing methane, Stroeve says.
A second study suggests even larger amounts of frozen methane are trapped in lakebeds and sea bottoms around Siberia and they are starting to bubble to the surface in some spots in alarming amounts, said Igor Semiletov, a professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. In late summer, Semiletov found methane bubbling up from parts of the East Siberian Sea and Laptev Sea at levels that were 10 times higher than they were in the mid-1990s, he said based on a study this summer.
The amounts of methane in the region could dramatically increase global warming if they get released, he said.
That, Semiletov said, "should alarm people."
Scientists say NASA satellite data on global warming 'should alarm people'
Associated Press updated 5:48 a.m. ET, Tues., Dec. 16, 2008
WASHINGTON - More than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, according to new NASA satellite data that show the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming.
More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, based on measurements of ice weight by NASA's GRACE satellite, said NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke. The water melting from Greenland in the past five years would fill up about 11 Chesapeake Bays, he said, and the Greenland melt seems to be accelerating.
...
"It's not getting better; it's continuing to show strong signs of warming and amplification," Zwally said. "There's no reversal taking place."
Scientists studying sea ice will announce that parts of the Arctic north of Alaska were 9 to 10 degrees warmer this past fall, a strong early indication of what researchers call the Arctic amplification effect. That's when the Arctic warms faster than predicted, and warming there is accelerating faster than elsewhere on the globe.
As sea ice melts, the Arctic waters absorb more heat in the summer, having lost the reflective powers of vast packs of white ice. That absorbed heat is released into the air in the fall. That has led to autumn temperatures in the last several years that are six to 10 degrees warmer than they were in the 1980s, said research scientist Julienne Stroeve at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.
That's a strong and early impact of global warming, she said.
"The pace of change is starting to outstrip our ability to keep up with it, in terms of our understanding of it," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the Arctic amplification study.
Two other studies coming out at the conference assess how Arctic thawing is releasing methane — the second most potent greenhouse gas. One study shows that the loss of sea ice warms the water, which warms the permafrost on nearby land in Alaska, thus producing methane, Stroeve says.
A second study suggests even larger amounts of frozen methane are trapped in lakebeds and sea bottoms around Siberia and they are starting to bubble to the surface in some spots in alarming amounts, said Igor Semiletov, a professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. In late summer, Semiletov found methane bubbling up from parts of the East Siberian Sea and Laptev Sea at levels that were 10 times higher than they were in the mid-1990s, he said based on a study this summer.
The amounts of methane in the region could dramatically increase global warming if they get released, he said.
That, Semiletov said, "should alarm people."
The reason the release of methane is particularly alarming is that it has a much stronger greenhouse effect than the more common carbon dioxide.
Monday, December 15, 2008
The Shades of Life
I was reminded of this poem by the article I referenced earlier today : Effects Of Unconscious Exposure To Advertisements
The Shades of Life
copyright 2000 Patricia M. Shannon
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
but the shades of life are closing,
it gets more painful everyday.
When I was just a kid, smoking seemed the thing to do;
it made me feel real grownup, sophisticated and so cool.
But that was just a trick the advertisers pulled on me;
they didn't mention the addiction, which is a form of slavery.
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
I wish I'd never started smoking,
now the price I have to pay.
It seemed so very glamorous, 'cause in the movies that I saw,
all the stars were smoking cigarettes, pipes, or cigars.
I didn't know tobacco companies had paid them well;
a secret form of advertising for which many of us fell.
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
please learn from my example, and from smoking stay away.
My face is full of wrinkles, and my teeth are stained all brown,
nobody wants to kiss me, my breath makes people frown.
I lost two little babies before they were even born;
I killed them with my smoking, still for them I mourn.
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
now the shades of life are closing,
and the world is growing gray.
The Shades of Life
copyright 2000 Patricia M. Shannon
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
but the shades of life are closing,
it gets more painful everyday.
When I was just a kid, smoking seemed the thing to do;
it made me feel real grownup, sophisticated and so cool.
But that was just a trick the advertisers pulled on me;
they didn't mention the addiction, which is a form of slavery.
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
I wish I'd never started smoking,
now the price I have to pay.
It seemed so very glamorous, 'cause in the movies that I saw,
all the stars were smoking cigarettes, pipes, or cigars.
I didn't know tobacco companies had paid them well;
a secret form of advertising for which many of us fell.
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
please learn from my example, and from smoking stay away.
My face is full of wrinkles, and my teeth are stained all brown,
nobody wants to kiss me, my breath makes people frown.
I lost two little babies before they were even born;
I killed them with my smoking, still for them I mourn.
(chorus)
I am so sad that I must leave you,
I love you more than words can say;
now the shades of life are closing,
and the world is growing gray.
Haiti food crisis
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28239467/displaymode/1176/rstry/28243156/
At right, Venecia Louis, 4, who suffers from severe malnutrition is weighed at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Port-au-Prince, Nov. 19, 2008. At left, Venecia Louis walks while recovering from malnutrition in Baie D'orange, Haiti, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008. Four tropical storms that killed 793 people in August and September and caused $1 billion in damage made Haiti's ongoing food crisis even worse. Medical aid organizations Doctors Without Borders and Medicins du Monde are setting up nutrition and screening clinics and scouring the area and other parts of the country for more pockets of hunger.
Death Rates In Hospital Are Higher For Children Without Insurance
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081210103043.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2008)
death rates are higher for hospitalized children without insurance compared to those with insurance,
...
Among children without insurance, the mortality rate was 0.58 percent in 2002, compared with 0.45 percent of children on Medicaid, and 0.33 percent of children with private insurance
ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2008)
death rates are higher for hospitalized children without insurance compared to those with insurance,
...
Among children without insurance, the mortality rate was 0.58 percent in 2002, compared with 0.45 percent of children on Medicaid, and 0.33 percent of children with private insurance
Slippery Slope: One Tiny Truffle Can Trigger Desire For More Treats
No surprise to me!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215111431.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Indulging in just one small chocolate truffle can induce cravings for more sugary and fatty foods—and even awaken a desire for high-end status products, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215111431.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Indulging in just one small chocolate truffle can induce cravings for more sugary and fatty foods—and even awaken a desire for high-end status products, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Does A Younger Dad Mean A Healthier Child?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215121603.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — New studies from Tel Aviv University suggest that waiting until a man can give his son “all the advantages” may have a disadvantage, too.
Tel Aviv University researchers found in several consecutive studies that older dads are more likely to have boys with autism and lower IQs. Most recently, they found that the older a father’s age, the greater the chance that his son will display poor social abilities as a teen.
...
“There is a growing body of data showing that an advanced age of parents puts their kids at risk for various illnesses,” says Dr. Weiser. “Some illnesses, such as schizophrenia, appear to be more common the older parents get.
...
He also suggests that older men shouldn’t change their minds about having children since the statistical risk is relatively minor. “The effects of a father’s age on the health of his son are quite small, and many of the most dramatic effects in this study are driven by dads in their 50s,” says Dr. Weiser. “The difference in risk between someone who is 35 or 45 is so small that it’s irrelevant.”
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — New studies from Tel Aviv University suggest that waiting until a man can give his son “all the advantages” may have a disadvantage, too.
Tel Aviv University researchers found in several consecutive studies that older dads are more likely to have boys with autism and lower IQs. Most recently, they found that the older a father’s age, the greater the chance that his son will display poor social abilities as a teen.
...
“There is a growing body of data showing that an advanced age of parents puts their kids at risk for various illnesses,” says Dr. Weiser. “Some illnesses, such as schizophrenia, appear to be more common the older parents get.
...
He also suggests that older men shouldn’t change their minds about having children since the statistical risk is relatively minor. “The effects of a father’s age on the health of his son are quite small, and many of the most dramatic effects in this study are driven by dads in their 50s,” says Dr. Weiser. “The difference in risk between someone who is 35 or 45 is so small that it’s irrelevant.”
Time Running Out On Coral Reefs As Climate Change Becomes Increasing Threat
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081210112808.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Increasing pressures from climate change will reach a tipping point in less than a decade triggering a significant decline in the health of the planet's coral reef ecosystems according to the findings in an international report.
Coral reefs continue to be threatened from direct human activities of pollution and over-fishing, but now the threat of climate change is being recognized as the major threat to the future of reefs around the world. One fifth of the Earth's coral reefs have disappeared since 1950, and a NOAA authored report issued in July states that more that that nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in "poor" or "fair" condition.
"Unless the world gets serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years, it is likely there will be massive bleaching and deaths of corals around the world," notes the report's lead editor and global coral authority Clive Wilkinson who coordinates the Global Coral Monitoring Network in Australia. "This will have significant impacts on the lives of the people in developing countries who are dependent on reefs for food, for tourism, and for protecting the land they live on."
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Increasing pressures from climate change will reach a tipping point in less than a decade triggering a significant decline in the health of the planet's coral reef ecosystems according to the findings in an international report.
Coral reefs continue to be threatened from direct human activities of pollution and over-fishing, but now the threat of climate change is being recognized as the major threat to the future of reefs around the world. One fifth of the Earth's coral reefs have disappeared since 1950, and a NOAA authored report issued in July states that more that that nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in "poor" or "fair" condition.
"Unless the world gets serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years, it is likely there will be massive bleaching and deaths of corals around the world," notes the report's lead editor and global coral authority Clive Wilkinson who coordinates the Global Coral Monitoring Network in Australia. "This will have significant impacts on the lives of the people in developing countries who are dependent on reefs for food, for tourism, and for protecting the land they live on."
Low-carb Diets Can Damage Dieters' Cognition Skills
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211112014.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — A new study from the psychology department at Tufts University shows that when dieters eliminate carbohydrates from their meals, they performed more poorly on memory-based tasks than when they reduce calories, but maintain carbohydrates. When carbohydrates were reintroduced, cognition skills returned to normal.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — A new study from the psychology department at Tufts University shows that when dieters eliminate carbohydrates from their meals, they performed more poorly on memory-based tasks than when they reduce calories, but maintain carbohydrates. When carbohydrates were reintroduced, cognition skills returned to normal.
Effects Of Unconscious Exposure To Advertisements
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081209125828.htm
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Fads have been a staple of American pop culture for decades, from spandex in the 1980s to skinny jeans today. But while going from fad to flop may seem like the result of fickle consumers, a new study suggests that this is exactly what should be expected for a highly efficient, rationally evolved animal.
The new research, led by cognitive scientist Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, shows why direct exposure to repeated ads initially increases a consumer’s preference for promoted products, and why the most effective advertisements are the ones consumers don’t even realize they have seen.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Fads have been a staple of American pop culture for decades, from spandex in the 1980s to skinny jeans today. But while going from fad to flop may seem like the result of fickle consumers, a new study suggests that this is exactly what should be expected for a highly efficient, rationally evolved animal.
The new research, led by cognitive scientist Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, shows why direct exposure to repeated ads initially increases a consumer’s preference for promoted products, and why the most effective advertisements are the ones consumers don’t even realize they have seen.
Bankruptcy law change and foreclosures
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr358.pdf
We argue that the 2005 bankruptcy abuse reform (BAR) contributed to the surge in
subprime foreclosures that followed its passage. Before BAR, distressed mortgagors
could free up income by filing bankruptcy and having their unsecured debts discharged.
BAR blocks that maneuver for better-off filers by way of a means test.
==========================================================
I found this at
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/12/bankruptcy-refo.html#comments
MLK quotes
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
“We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.”
“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
“We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.”
“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
