Creators Syndicate – President Obama calls his latest attempt to revive the economy a "Plan to Renew and Expand America's Roads, Railways and Runways." I'm calling it "The Mother of all Big Dig Boondoggles." Like the infamous "Big Dig" highway spending project in Boston, this latest White House infrastructure spending binge guarantees only two results: Taxpayers lose; unions win.
The plan would add at least $50 billion more to the nearly $230 billion already allocated in the original trillion-dollar stimulus law for infrastructure. Less than one-third of that infrastructure stimulus money has been spent, but the urgency to pile on has increased exponentially as the midterm elections approach and unemployment hovers near 10 percent. So, the president says he wants to "put people back to work" through a new "upfront investment" in surface transportation, airports and the air-traffic control system paid for by repealing tax incentives for the oil and gas industries — followed by massive, unpaid-for expenditures on pie-in-the-sky high-speed rail, "environmental sustainability" and "livability," whatever that means.
Obama spoke emotionally at an AFL-CIO rally on Labor Day about unemployed construction workers. A "lot of those folks, they had lost their jobs in manufacturing and went into construction; now they've lost their jobs again," he said. "It doesn't do anybody any good when so many hardworking Americans have been idled for months, even years, at a time when there is so much of America that needs rebuilding."
But here's the rub: Not all workers are equal in Obama's eyes. And most of them will remain "idled" by the Democrats' own design. The key is E.O. 13502, a union-friendly executive order signed by Obama in his first weeks in office, which essentially forces contractors who bid on large-scale public construction projects worth $25 million or more to submit to union representation for its employees.
The blunt instrument used to give unions a leg up is the "project labor agreement (PLA)," which in theory sets reasonable pre-work terms and conditions — but in practice, requires contractors to hand over exclusive bargaining control; to pay inflated, above-market wages and benefits; and to fork over dues money and pension funding to corrupt, cash-starved labor organizations. These anti-competitive agreements undermine a fair bidding process on projects that locked-out, nonunion laborers are funding with their own tax dollars. And these PLAs benefit the privileged few at the expense of the vast majority: In the construction industry, 85 percent of the workforce is nonunion by choice.
We don't need to theorize about how this shakedown works in the real world. Boston's notorious Big Dig was a union-only construction project thanks to a Massachusetts government-mandated PLA. The original $2.8 billion price tag for the project skyrocketed to $22 billion in state and federal taxpayer subsidies thanks in no small part to ballooning labor costs. In February, the Bay State's Beacon Hill Institute found that PLAs added 12 percent to 18 percent to school construction costs in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In Washington, D.C., the Department of Veterans Affairs commissioned an independent study showing that PLAs would increase hospital construction costs by as much as 9 percent in some markets.
In short, Obama's new Union Infrastructure Rescue Plan is a political favoritism scheme that raises the cost of doing business and bars tens of thousands of skilled, nonunion laborers who choose to run open shops from securing work. In the name of patching up America's highways and byways, Mr. Fix It would create another gaping fiscal sinkhole to appease his special interest donors. Recovery Summer turns to Union Payback Fall. ]]>
Two asteroids will zip close by the Earth Wednesday and may be visible in telescopes as they zip between our planet and the orbit of the moon.
The asteroids, which will not be visible to the naked eye, were discovered Sunday by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Ariz. They are traveling along different orbits that, by coincidence, pass near Earth about 11 hours apart. [Photo of the asteroids' orbits near Earth.]
While scientists say neither asteroid threatens the planet, the two space rocks do provide a challenging skywatching opportunity.
"Both asteroids should be observable near closest approach to Earth with moderate-sized amateur telescopes," NASA officials said in a statement. "Neither of these objects has a chance of hitting Earth."
The larger of the two space rocks, asteroid 2010 RX30, will fly by Earth first at about 5:51 a.m. EDT (0951 GMT). It is estimated to be about 33 to 65 feet wide (10 to 20 meters) and will pass within 154,000 miles (248,000 km) of the planet. On average, the moon is about roughly 238,900 miles (384,402 km) from Earth.
The second asteroid is relatively small. Called 2010 RF12, it is estimated to be 20 to 46 feet wide (6 to 14 meters) and will pass within 49,000 miles (79,000 km) a few hours later at 5:12 pm EDT (2112 GMT), NASA asteroid trackers have said.
Other asteroids have been known to make such close passes, but it is rare for two to be spotted zooming in at the same time. Most times, these types of asteroids slip by unnoticed, NASA scientists said.
A 33-foot (10-meter) wide near-Earth object, one of the some 50 million unknown asteroids estimated to exist, would be expected to pass between the Earth and orbit of the moon every day, according to NASA asteroid trackers. Such an asteroid could hit Earth's atmosphere once every 10 years, they added.
Because of the movement of two newfound asteroids, finding and tracking them across the sky will be a challenge for even seasoned skywatchers.
"Advanced amateur astronomers may be able to track the asteroids..." the website Spaceweather.com reported. "The fast-moving space rocks will shine like stars of 15th or 16th magnitude."
Magnitude is a measure of how bright an object in the night sky is, with lower numbers corresponding to brighter objects. Anything magnitude 6.5 and above is not visible to the naked eye.
Using a network of telescopes on the ground and in space, NASA experts and other astronomers routinely track asteroids and comets that may fly uncomfortably near the Earth.
The space agency's Near-Earth Object Observations program is responsible for finding potentially dangerous asteroids and studying their orbits to determine if they pose a risk of hitting the Earth. ]]>
Mark David Chapman, 55, was denied release for the sixth time following a video interview with a parole panel.
Chapman, who has a history of mental illness, pleaded guilty to shooting the former Beatle to death on the street outside his New York City home in 1980.
He is next eligible for a parole hearing in August 2012, officials said.
In a written statement, the parole board acknowledged his institutional record, but cited the "disregard" he showed "for the norms of our society and the sanctity of human life" by carefully planning Lennon's murder.
"This premeditated, senseless and selfish act of tragic consequence... leads to the conclusion that your discretionary release remains inappropriate at this time and incompatible with the welfare of the community," the New York state parole board wrote. ]]>
Carys Monteath / Reuters
A police officer is seen on a street blocked by rubble from a damaged building following a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in central Christchurch, New Zealand, early Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010. (AP / NZPA, David Alexander)
By MSNBC, September 3
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand -- A strong earthquake hit near New Zealand's second-largest city, Christchurch, early Saturday. Authorities said there was extensive damage across the city and there were scores of minor injuries but that so far no major casualties were being reported.
The quake, which was recorded at 4:35 a.m. local time (1:35 p.m. Friday ET), registered 7.0 on the Richter scale, the U.S. Geological Survey said in Washington. It revised its initial forecast of a moderate impact and was projecting potentially "very heavy damage" in some areas of the city.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no immediate danger of a tsunami.
Civil Defense officials said there were numerous collapsed and damaged buildings and reported that power and water services were out across the city. Christchurch Airport was closed, and rail service was shut down across the south island. Several bridges were impassable.
The national government said numerous aftershocks had followed the earthquake, which it described as "a big one." It said more aftershocks were expected.
Hundreds of residents posted reports of damage and aftershocks on Twitter.com, and some posted pictures of damage on Web photo services.
Roger Sutton, chief executive of Orion New Zealand, the country's main power utility, told Radio New Zealand that its switchboards were jammed as residents tried to report power failures and downed lines. He said it could be "a long time" before power was restored.
All area hospitals said they were operational and were were being flooded with calls. They said they were treating dozens of minor injuries but could not immediately confirm any major casualties.
'Very, very significant' damage
Christchurch authorities reported "substantial infrastructure damage" to utilities, particularly bridges and sewer and water facilities, and said many other buildings had been damaged.
"The damage is very, very significant," Mayor Bob Parker told Radio New Zealand shortly after 7 a.m. (3 p.m. ET Friday). Because of concerns of cracked foundations and other unseen structural infirmities, "there will need to be a great deal of inspection" before many buildings could be deemed safe, he said.
Parker said Civil Defense authorities they would have a better assessment of the damage after sunrise.
Motorists abandoned their vehicles on several streets that were blocked by falling building facades, police said. Roads around the seaside suburbs of New Brighton and Sumner were choked with cars as worried residents tried to flee the city.
"It is very important that you do not panic," a Radio New Zealand announcer told residents. "Please remain calm and helpful."
Quake hits in the middle of the night
Lennon Cameron, 18, a student in Christchurch, told msnbc.com: "It was real intense. My house is older, and the best way to describe the feeling was like having jelly on a plate, and shaking the jelly.
"I woke up thinking it was a truck, but quickly realized it wasn't," said Cameron, who was interviewed through instant messages because his telephone was out. "My wardrobe door was swinging open and shut real fast. Things on my wall were falling off everywhere."
Right after the initial tremors, "a lot of people went outside to check on each other, but then there were aftershocks, so people went back inside. ... My home has a few cracks in the roof but is otherwise OK."
The Press newspaper of Christchurch reported that many residents fled into the streets in their pajamas after having being awakened in the middle of the night.
"Oh my God," said one of them, Colleen Simpson. "There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me."
Kevin O'Hanlon, another Christchurch resident, said he had "never felt anything like it.
"Just unbelievable. I was awake to go to work and then just heard this massive noise and, boom, it was like the house got hit. It just started shaking," he told the paper.
Christchurch is New Zealand's second-largest city and the largest on the nation's southern island, with a population of about 350,000. ]]>
# Alex (H2)
# Two (TD)
# Bonnie (TS)
# Colin (TS)
# Five (TD)
# Danielle (H4)
active
# Earl (H4)
Gaston (Depression)
NC and MA on HIGH ALERT Now.
Hurricane Warnings now up from Westport, MA to Cape Cod (Including MV and Nantucket)
Category 4 Hurricane Earl
11am EDT - Dangerous Hurricane Earl Heading For The Outer Banks Of North Carolina
30.9N 74.8W
Windspeed: 140 MPH - Pressure: 932mb
Movement: N at 18 MPH
HURRICANE EARL FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 33
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL072010
1500 UTC THU SEP 02 2010
CHANGES IN WATCHES AND WARNINGS WITH THIS ADVISORY...
A HURRICANE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE COAST OF MASSACHUSETTS
FROM WESTPORT EASTWARD AROUND CAPE COD TO HULL INCLUDING
MARTHAS VINEYARD AND NANTUCKET ISLAND.
A TROPICAL STORM WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FROM NEW HAVEN CONNECTICUT
TO WEST OF WESTPORT...INCLUDING BLOCK ISLAND.
SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT...
A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* BOGUE INLET NORTH CAROLINA NORTHEASTWARD TO THE NORTH
CAROLINA/VIRGINIA BORDER INCLUDING THE PAMLICO AND ALBEMARLE
SOUNDS.
* WESTPORT MASSACHUSETTS EASTWARD AROUND CAPE COD TO HULL INCLUDING
MARTHAS VINEYARD AND NANTUCKET ISLAND
A HURRICANE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* NORTH OF THE NORTH CAROLINA/VIRGINIA BORDER TO CAPE HENLOPEN
DELAWARE.
A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* CAPE FEAR TO WEST OF BOGUE INLET NORTH CAROLINA.
* NORTH OF THE NORTH CAROLINA/VIRGINIA BORDER TO SANDY HOOK NEW
JERSEY...INCLUDING DELAWARE BAY SOUTH OF SLAUGHTER BEACH AND THE
CHESAPEAKE BAY SOUTH OF NEW POINT COMFORT.
* THE EASTERN PORTION OF LONG ISLAND NEW YORK FROM FIRE ISLAND INLET
TO PORT JEFFERSON HARBOR.
* NEW HAVEN CONNECTICUT TO WEST OF WESTPORT MASSACHUSETTS...
INCLUDING BLOCK ISLAND.
A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* NORTH OF HULL MASSACHUSETTS TO EASTPORT MAINE.
* THE COAST OF NOVA SCOTIA FROM PORT MAITLAND TO MEDWAY HARBOUR.
* THE COAST OF LONG ISLAND WEST OF FIRE ISLAND INLET AND PORT
JEFFERSON HARBOR.
HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 30.9N 74.8W AT 02/1500Z
POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 15 NM
PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE NORTH OR 355 DEGREES AT 16 KT
ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 932 MB
EYE DIAMETER 25 NM
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 120 KT WITH GUSTS TO 145 KT.
64 KT....... 80NE 70SE 40SW 40NW.
50 KT.......120NE 120SE 90SW 75NW.
34 KT.......200NE 180SE 120SW 180NW.
12 FT SEAS..420NE 300SE 300SW 320NW.
WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL
MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT.
REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 30.9N 74.8W AT 02/1500Z
AT 02/1200Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 30.1N 74.8W
FORECAST VALID 03/0000Z 33.5N 75.0W
MAX WIND 115 KT...GUSTS 140 KT.
64 KT... 80NE 70SE 40SW 40NW.
50 KT...120NE 120SE 90SW 75NW.
34 KT...200NE 180SE 120SW 180NW.
FORECAST VALID 03/1200Z 36.5N 73.5W
MAX WIND 100 KT...GUSTS 120 KT.
64 KT... 80NE 70SE 40SW 50NW.
50 KT...120NE 120SE 90SW 75NW.
34 KT...200NE 180SE 120SW 150NW.
FORECAST VALID 04/0000Z 40.0N 70.8W
MAX WIND 85 KT...GUSTS 105 KT.
64 KT... 80NE 80SE 40SW 50NW.
50 KT...120NE 120SE 90SW 75NW.
34 KT...200NE 200SE 140SW 100NW.
FORECAST VALID 04/1200Z 44.0N 67.0W
MAX WIND 65 KT...GUSTS 80 KT.
50 KT...120NE 120SE 90SW 60NW.
34 KT...200NE 200SE 140SW 100NW.
FORECAST VALID 05/1200Z 53.5N 62.0W...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP
MAX WIND 40 KT...GUSTS 50 KT.
34 KT...240NE 240SE 180SW 100NW.
EXTENDED OUTLOOK. NOTE...ERRORS FOR TRACK HAVE AVERAGED NEAR 250 NM
ON DAY 4 AND 325 NM ON DAY 5...AND FOR INTENSITY NEAR 20 KT EACH DAY
OUTLOOK VALID 06/1200Z...DISSIPATED
OUTLOOK VALID 07/1200Z...DISSIPATED
REQUEST FOR 3 HOURLY SHIP REPORTS WITHIN 300 MILES OF 30.9N 74.8W
NEXT ADVISORY AT 02/2100Z
Thanks to
FORECASTER AVILA
Earl
Data Time:2010-Sep-02 1100 EDT
Lat/Lng:Lat: 30.9 Lng: 74.800
Wind Speed:139 (sustained) 167 (gusts) mph
Pressure:932 mb
Category:H4
Heading:North
Bearing:-3.7 degrees
Forward Speed:18 mph
Nearest Cities
Southport, North Carolina
281 miles to the Northwest
Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina
288 miles to the Northwest
Wilmington, North Carolina
289 miles to the Northwest
North Topsail Beach, North Carolina
291 miles to the Northwest
Jacksonville, North Carolina
303 miles to the Northwest
Havelock, North Carolina
304 miles to the Northwest
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
304 miles to the Northwest
Northwest, North Carolina
306 miles to the Northwest
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
307 miles to the Northwest
Georgetown, South Carolina
313 miles to the Northwest
New Bern, North Carolina
316 miles to the Northwest
Conway, South Carolina
318 miles to the Northwest
Isle of Palms, South Carolina
319 miles to the Northwest
Loris, South Carolina
323 miles to the Northwest
Folly Beach, South Carolina
326 miles to the Northwest
Whiteville, North Carolina
328 miles to the Northwest
Charleston, South Carolina
331 miles to the Northwest
Hanahan, South Carolina
335 miles to the Northwest
Goose Creek, South Carolina
336 miles to the Northwest
North Charleston, South Carolina
337 miles to the Northwest
NC will encounter him by 8pm ET tonight
__________________ ]]>
EDT - Fiona Turns To The North-northwest
24.4N 65.8W
Windspeed: 50 MPH - Pressure: 1002mb
Movement: Nnw at 17 MPH
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM FIONA ADVISORY NUMBER 12
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL082010
1100 AM AST THU SEP 02 2010
...FIONA TURNS TO THE NORTH-NORTHWEST...TROPICAL STORM WARNING
ISSUED FOR BERMUDA...
SUMMARY OF 1100 AM AST...1500 UTC...INFORMATION
-----------------------------------------------
LOCATION...24.4N 65.8W
ABOUT 550 MI...885 KM S OF BERMUDA
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...50 MPH...85 KM/HR
PRESENT MOVEMENT...NNW OR 330 DEGREES AT 17 MPH...28 KM/HR
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1002 MB...29.59 INCHES
WATCHES AND WARNINGS
--------------------
CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY...
THE BERMUDA WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR
THE ISLAND OF BERMUDA.
SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT...
A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* BERMUDA.
A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN 36 HOURS.
FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE MONITOR
PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR NATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE.
DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK
------------------------------
AT 1100 AM AST...1500 UTC...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM FIONA WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 24.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 65.8 WEST. FIONA IS
MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST NEAR 17 MPH...28 KM/HR.. A TURN
TOWARD THE NORTH IS EXPECTED TONIGHT...WITH A MOTION TOWARD THE
NORTH AND THEN NORTH-NORTHEAST FORECAST BY LATE FRIDAY. ON THE
FORECAST TRACK THE CENTER OF FIONA IS EXPECTED TO PASS NEAR BERMUDA
LATE FRIDAY OR EARLY SATURDAY.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS REMAIN NEAR 50 MPH...85 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. SLOW WEAKENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.
TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES...185 KM
FROM THE CENTER...MAINLY TO THE EAST.
ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1002 MB...29.59 INCHES.
HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND
----------------------
WIND...TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS ARE EXPECTED IN BERMUDA BY LATE
FRIDAY.
RAINFALL...STORM TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE
POSSIBLE IN BERMUDA.
NEXT ADVISORY
-------------
NEXT INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY...200 PM AST.
NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY...500 PM AST.
Thanks to;
FORECASTERS BLAKE/PASCH ]]>
[Updated at 1:05 p.m.] Mariner Energy, owner of the production platform, said in a press release that no hydrocarbon spill has been reported after an initial flyover of the incident.
"Mariner has notified and is working with regulatory authorities in response to this incident," the statement said. "The cause is not known, and an investigation will be undertaken. During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate."
The company also said no injuries have been reported.
[Updated at 12:48 p.m.] David Reed, a paramedic on board the Rowan Gorilla II oil rig located 14 miles from the platform that exploded told submitted an iReport saying he saw all thirteen workers rescued from the water.
“We were up here in the radio room and all of sudden we saw a whole bunch of smoke coming from the platform," Reed said. "Shortly after all the radios started lighting up like a Christmas tree. They called any helicopters in the area, any boats in the area to respond, they were saying there were people in the water. There were multiple people in the water.”
[Updated at 12:32 p.m.] White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the federal government has "assets ready" to respond to any environmental problems resulting from the explosion of an oil platform off the coast of Louisiana.
[Updated at 12:31 p.m.] All thirteen people aboard a production platform that exploded in the Gulf are accounted for and safely on a commercial vessel according to initial information, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.
"We continue to gather information as we respond with full force, and have oil spill response assets ready for immediate deployment should we receive any reports of pollution," the statement said.
[Updated at 11:53 a.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that 12 people from the production platform are in water immersion suits as they await rescue.
Colclough told CNN there are reports the production platform, which is for both oil and natural gas, is still on fire.
"We don't know what caused the rig to catch on fire," he told CNN, noting the incident is under investigation.
Asked about concerns regarding oil leaks or pollution, Colclough said "there are reports the rig was not actively producing any product, so we don't know if there's any risk of pollution."
Mariner Energy is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company in the Gulf of Mexico. About 85 percent of the company's production comes from offshore assets, with a growing share of that coming from deepwater developments.
The explosion comes nearly five months after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 people and causing oil to gush into
the Gulf of Mexico, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
[Updated at 11:43 a.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that all 13 workers involved in the production platform explosion are accounted for, but one person is injured.
Coast Guard Choppers are on the way to the site 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay.
[Posted at 11:33 a.m.] An oil production platform has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, with 12 people overboard and one missing, the Coast Guard said Thursday morning.
Rescue attempts are under way for at least 12 people, Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards told CNN. 13 people were on board the production platform total, Edwards said, noting 12 have been accounted for, but one person was missing.
The accident took place 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil production platform 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy.
The Coast Guard has multiple helicopters, an airplane and several Coast Guard cutters en route. It's unknown if there are any injuries. ]]>
Government in Action
Though volunteers got the project started in May, Ventnor City, N.J., continued through the summer to seek financial donations to finish the new restrooms that provide relief for those visiting the town's Atlantic shore. Said Commissioner Stephen Weintrob, "How would someone like to have a toilet named after themselves, or a urinal or sink?" [Shore News Today (Seaville, N.J.), 5-13-10]
A Treasury Department inspector general reported in June that, out of 2.6 million applicants for federal mortgage relief, 14,000 "home buyers" wrongly received tax credits and that in fact, 1,300 of them were living in prison at the time of filing, including 241 serving life sentences. Sixty-seven of the 14,000 received tax credits for the same house, and 87 more potentially fraudulent tax-credit applications were filed by Internal Revenue Service employees. [ABC News-AP, 6-23-10]
Things That Shouldn't Get Backlogged:
California requires that if a sex offender's GPS tagging device signals that he's in a prohibited area, parole agents must immediately respond, but that law was easier to pass than to implement. As of June, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune investigation, the state had fallen about 31,000 responses behind. [San Diego Union-Tribune, 6-16-10]
A July Illinois law requires that all hospital "rape kits" on victims be tested for blood and DNA (in that finding a rapist, and certainly convicting him, without such evidence is often hopelessly difficult). Until now, 80 percent of the rape kits taken in the state had sat, untested. (As TV police dramas emphasize, many rape victims are reluctant to submit to the indignity of swabbing and photographing so soon after being violated and comply only because detectives assure them of the rape kit's importance.) [New York Times, 7-8-10]
It is common knowledge that American corporations avoid taxes by running U.S. profits through offshore "tax havens" like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, but a May Bloomberg Business Week investigation traced the specific steps that the pharmaceutical company Forest Labs takes to short the U.S. Treasury. Although Forest's anti-depressant Lexapro is sold only in the U.S., the company's patent is held by an Irish subsidiary (and since 2005, shared with a Bermuda subsidiary in a tax-code hocus-pocus that insiders call the "Double Irish"), which allows the vast majority of the $2 billion Forest earns a year on Lexapro to be taxed at Ireland's low rate (and at Bermuda's rate of zero). Bloomberg estimates that the U.S. Treasury loses at least $60 billion annually by corporations' "transfer pricing" -- enough to pay for the entire Department of Homeland Security for a year. [Bloomberg Business Week, 5-13-10]
Great Art!
Time magazine reported in August that among the entrants in this year's "Detroit Hair Wars" (showcasing 34 stylists working with 300 models) were The Hummer (stylist: "Little Willie"), in which a mass of extensions is shaped to resemble the vehicle, including four large tires -- with "metal" wheels and front grid added -- sitting upon the styled hair of model Sharv Bailey; and Beautiful Butterfly (stylist: Niecy Hayes), featuring extensions thinned, teased and stretched into four artistic "wings" arising from the styled hair of model Taja Hiu. Both stylings appear to be at least 2 feet long, dwarfing the models' heads, and take at least 10 hours to prepare. [Time, 8-2-10]
Featured at London's Royal College of Art in June was Hiromi Ozaki's "Menstruation Machine" -- a wearable contraption that enables men to experience the two primary symptoms of the "curse." It periodically generates abdominal pain, and its reservoir permits liquid ("blood") to be stored and released over several days' time. [Wired.com, 6-28-10]
Police Report
In July, Manuel "Lefty" Hernandez, 28, was charged in Springfield, Mass., with snatching a man's wallet (which he probably did with his left hand, which is his only hand). (If he had had a weapon, police could have charged him with a felony, but it was only a misdemeanor because Hernandez was unarmed.) [The Republican (Springfield), 7-14-10]
A frightening August headline in The Union (Grass Valley, Calif.): "S.W.A.T. Team Requested for Violent Midgets." In fact, they were steroid-using, bodybuilder midgets, headed by an apparently particularly dangerous "lead female." [The Union, 8-5-10]
Least Competent Police
In March, four NYPD officers, acting on department intelligence, went to the home of Walter and Rose Martin in Brooklyn, N.Y., looking for a suspect, and broke a window as they worked their way inside. The Martins, retired and in their 80s, were clean, and a police spokesman later admitted that officers had wrongly visited or raided the Martins' home more than 50 times since 2002 because of a stubborn computer glitch. When the software was originally installed, an operator tested it by mindlessly typing in a random address, but that happened to be the Martins' house, and thus the visits and raids began. The Martins say they have been assured several times that the problem had been corrected, but evidently their address has wormed its way too deep into the system. [New York Post, 3-19-10]
Least Competent Criminals
Recurring Themes: Eugene Palmer, 40, wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun, was arrested in Brunswick, Ga., in March as he tried to rush into a SunTrust bank during business hours but became frustrated by the locked doors -- in that it was a drive-thru-only branch. [Florida Times-Union, 3-7-10]
Danny Spencer, 31, and a partner were arrested in Bridgeport, Conn., in December as they called attention to themselves by driving through the city dragging a half-ton safe they could not crack open at the Madison Auto store they had just burglarized. [Connecticut Post, 12-22-09]
Ethan Ayers, 18, and a partner were arrested in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in March after an alleged mugging. Police found them easily, as their transportation that night was a relative's van advertising in large lettering, "Big Earl's Gold Mine," a Des Moines strip club. [WCRG-TV (Cedar Rapids), 3-19-10]
Thank Goodness for Researchers
After surveying 374 waitresses, professor Michael Lynn, who teaches marketing and tourism at Cornell University, concluded that customers left larger tips to those with certain physical characteristics such as being slender, being blond or having big breasts. Lynn told the Cornell Daily Sun in May that his study was important in helping potential waitresses gauge their "prospects in the industry." [Cornell Daily Sun, 5-7-10]
Perhaps more usefully, University of Central Lancashire (England) researchers writing in a recent Archives of Sexual Behavior reported that women achieve orgasm more often during foreplay than intercourse but that they more frequently emit orgasm-signaling "vocalizations" just before, or simultaneously with, male ejaculation. [PubMed (National Institutes of Health), 5-18-10]
A News of the Weird Classic (May 1996)
In May (1996), Minneapolis artist Judy Olausen's hardcover photographic essay "Mother" went on sale, featuring her 70-year-old mom as a series of passive, subordinate characters. Included were her mother kneeling on all fours with a pane of glass on her back ("Mother as Coffee Table"), lying alongside a highway ("Mother as Road Kill"), and sprawled at an entrance ("Mother as Doormat"). Said Olausen, "My brothers think I'm torturing my mother," but actually, "I'm immortalizing her." [U. S. News & World Report, 5-6-96] ]]>
New York – It's now can be as cheap to run customer-service call centers in the U.S. as it is to outsource them to India.
Getting phone-based customer service from operators in India may seem an inevitable part of life in America, but the next call-center voice you hear might be much closer to home. With high U.S. unemployment dragging down wages here as Indian wages continue to rise, it's becoming as cheap to hire operators in the U.S. workers as it is overseas, India's largest outsourcing firm tells the Financial Times.
Does this mean that India will be outsourcing jobs to the U.S. now? And should the U.S. welcome these jobs?
These aren't the jobs America needs: "To unemployed Americans," the real possibility of outsourced Indian call centers coming back to the U.S. "may be welcome news," says Drew Sandholm at CNBC. But it isn't great news for America. We're still shipping the good jobs to places like India — the low-paying jobs being sent back here "because of cost advantage" won't bring any "sustainable boost to U.S. employment."
"Outsourcing to the U.S.?"
Americans welcome the work: This trend could benefit a wide range of unemployed Americans, says Ann All in IT Business Edge. Indian companies aren't just exporting call center jobs — some are finding they can save money by hiring seasoned executives in the U.S., too. And these days many Americans are open to working at home, and ready to accept lower salaries, so they'll likely welcome the work.
"Indian outsourcers looking to capitalize on U.S. unemployment"
At least U.S. customers will be happy: Call centers aren't like manufacturing jobs, since "logistical issues are irrelevant" and location doesn't matter, says Yves Smith in Naked Capitalism. So it makes sense for them to flow back to the U.S. when wages are low. And since many "U.S. customers resent dealing with foreign operators," it makes sense Page Ranking-wise, too.
"So much for workers in India being cheaper"
Don't get your hopes up: Outsourcing firms may move jobs out of India as wages there rise, says Jared Mondschein in Foreign Policy, but Americans won't necessarily get the work. Indian companies are looking for cheap labor wherever they can find it, so many of these call center jobs will go to Africa, the Middle East, and even Europe.
"Call centers coming home to America?" ]]>
Disney Watching? According to a lawsuit filed last week, some very big companies are watching you (and your kids) on the web. Illegally, of course. Among those named are Disney, Warner Bros. Records and Demand Media all of whom allegedly used software developed by Clearspring Technologies to follow users wherever they went across the web. This is hardly the first such suit involving software firms and media companies and the news is likely to get bigger and nastier as new technologies – such as those used to "respawn" deleted cookies – come to light. ]]>
The Continuing Crisis
We Have Rules! A team of anglers from Hatteras, N.C., had first place wrapped up in the prestigious Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament in June, salivating over their $1,231,575 prize money (including a bonus for single-largest catch), when judges discovered that one member of the Hatteras crew, Peter Wann, had not gotten a $30 North Carolina coastal recreational fishing license before their boat pushed off that day. Under the rules, the entire team was disqualified, and the runner-up, from Cape Carteret, N.C., got the money. [Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), 6-26-10]
They Don't Make "Drug Lords" Like They Used To:
Widely feared Jamaican drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke was arrested in June and extradited to New York City after being picked up wearing women's clothes and a 1970s-style Afro wig too small for his head (with a pink wig on standby). The Jamaica Observer reported that Coke wet his pants as he was arrested. [Daily Mail, 6-24-10; Jamaica Observer, 6-27-10]
Longtime South African drug lord Fadwaan "Fat" Murphy, speaking at a bail hearing in January in Cape Town, disclosed that he was born a hermaphrodite and has a separate identity ("Hilary"), which became relevant when arresting officers discovered that Murphy was wearing a strap-on penis. Nonetheless, he insists he is a man: "I look like a man. I talk like a man. I am a man." [Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 1-10-10]
"(A) new high point" in electoral politics in Philadelphia occurred this spring, according to the publisher of Philadelphia Gay News, when openly gay state Rep. Babette Josephs "outed" her primary opponent Gregg Kravitz as straight. According to Josephs, the heterosexual Kravitz was posing in Josephs' gay-friendly 182nd District as bi-sexual. Kravitz said he is "attracted" to both men and women and found Josephs' comments offensive. [Philadelphia Inquirer, 4-22-10]
Charmed Lives:
Recently while visiting her childhood home of Bishop, Texas, Joan Ginther won a Texas lottery drawing for the fourth time, taking home a $10 million first prize to lift her career Texas lottery winnings to $20.4 million. (By then, she had already moved to Las Vegas.) [WMAR-TV (Baltimore)-Scripps Howard News Service, 7-2-10]
At the other end of luck, British farm worker Mick Wilary, 58, was hospitalized in April after machinery crushed both his legs. According to the Daily Telegraph, Wilary has also had his ankles broken (twice), ribs cracked, finger cut off, head split open, collarbone broken and fingers broken, and been stabbed, and been frequently kicked by livestock. [Daily Telegraph, 4-12-10]
Thinking Large:
Northern Ireland farmer William Taylor introduced his prototype Livestock Power Mill recently and claimed that the world's 1.3 billion cattle, using treadmills for eight hours a day, could produce 6 percent of the world's electricity requirement. (The cow must keep walking to avoid sliding down an incline.) [Popular Science, 4-16-10]
California gubernatorial candidate Douglas Hughes proposed this year to solve the state's child-molestation problem by developing an island 30 miles off the Santa Barbara coast to contain the state's pedophiles, who would, according to The Daily Caller, "write their own constitution, build their own infrastructure and maintain a society." [Daily Caller, 5-21-10]
Avoiding Marriage, the Hard Way: A female lawyer from Puri, India, in her mid-30s told The Times of India in July that she recently underwent gender-reassignment surgery in part to avoid the male-female marriage that her parents were arranging for her: "I did not want a family life which is being forced on girls in our society." [The Times of India, 7-4-10]
The Power of Books: Speaking to the city council of Crestview, Fla., in July, the founder of the local "Protect Our Children" citizens' group said her son (whose age was not revealed) had "lost his mind" when he looked through the violent Japanese "manga" graphic novel he found on open stacks in the Crestview Public Library. "Now," she said, "he's in a home for extensive therapy." [Northwest Florida Daily News, 7-6-10]
It's Never Sunny in North Korea
North Korea's World Cup adventure began auspiciously with a hard-fought 2-1 loss to a superior Brazil team, leading the government to release photographs of the North Korean coach supposedly receiving long-distance telepathic strategy signals during the game from Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il. With the country's hopes up, the team was embarrassed in two subsequent games and dispatched from the tournament. Back home in July, the players were paraded into the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang, where for six hours, they were publicly denounced and taunted. Coach Kim Jong-huh is said to fear an eventual violent end. [United Press International, 6-23-10; Toronto Star, 7-30-10]
Just before the World Cup matches, North Korea issued a public demand for compensation, blaming the United States for almost every single misfortune suffered by the country in the last 65 years. Its official news agency assigned the U.S. responsibility for 5 million people injured, kidnapped, missing or killed -- as well as for economic damages resulting from U.S.-led trade sanctions. According to the news agency, America can atone for the losses by sending North Korea $65 trillion. [Agence France-Presse, 6-25-10]
Perverts on Parade
James Burden, 55, was convicted of indecent exposure in Scotland's Falkirk Sheriff Court in June based on a March incident when a neighbor looked out her window before dawn and saw Burden, naked, smoking a cigarette and masturbating while bouncing on her family's outdoor trampoline. Burden said he did not know anyone would be watching at that hour. [STV (Glasgow), 6-2-10]
In New Zealand's Auckland District Court in June, Judge Mary Beth Sharp dismissed an elderly male juror from a trial involving sexual abuse because the man disclosed, under questioning, that he had worn a condom under his clothes in the jury box because the testimony was making him aroused. [New Zealand Herald, 6-4-10]
Least Competent Criminals
Justin Johnson, 21, was arrested in Bloomfield, Ind., in July after failing to get a Bloomfield State Bank branch to cash his bogus check for $1 million, which he presented to a teller in the bank's drive-through window. Optimistic, he had handed over his driver's license for ID along with the check. [Greene County Daily World (Linton, Ind.), 7-27-10]
Scot Davis, 52, was charged with robbing the All in the Family bar in Des Moines, Iowa, in March. Davis, a contractor who is friends with bartender Gladys York, had spent the evening at the bar passing out business cards before leaving. Said York, when Davis re-appeared carrying a .22-caliber rifle and demanding money, "Scot, What the (expletive)?" Said an officer, "This is not the hardest case our detectives have ever had to investigate." [Des Moines Register, 3-20-10]
A News of the Weird Classic (October 1989)
Ron Kravitz, 22, filed a lawsuit in June (1989) against Mickey Mantle Sports Productions Inc., for injuries he suffered the previous September while watching a company baseball video in his den to improve his base-stealing technique. While attempting to "beat" Tom Seaver's pickoff throw to "first base," he crashed into a table, resulting in torn ligaments and a severed tendon, which he thought somehow was the production company's fault. [Baltimore Sun, 6-5-89] ]]>
Worldwide, the average temperature in July was 61.6 degrees Fahrenheit (16.5 Celsius), the National Climatic Data Center reported Friday. Only July 1998 was hotter since recordkeeping began more than a century ago.
And the January-July period was the warmest first seven months of any year on record, averaging 58.1 F (14.5 C). In second place was January-July of 1998.
The report comes after a month of worldwide extremes including floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat. Atmospheric scientists have grown increasingly concerned about human-induced global warming in recent years, though political pressures and fierce arguments about climate change have slowed efforts to develop solutions.
The climate center noted that a condition called La Nina developed during July as the waters of the central Pacific Ocean cooled. This is expected to last through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2010-2011.
That could be bad news for the Gulf of Mexico as La Nina years tend to have more hurricanes, and such storms could interfere with the clean up of the oil spilled in that region.
For the United States the center noted that "intense heat either tied, or shattered, July monthly temperature records in several East Coast cities, including Washington, Atlantic City, N.J. and Hartford, Conn."
It was the hottest July on record for Delaware and Rhode Island and every East Coast state from Maine to Florida ranked in its top ten warmest.
Only Montana, Idaho, and Texas had average temperatures that were below-normal for the month.
Rainfall, averaged across the country, was much-above-normal in July, ranking in the 10 ten percent in the 1895-2010 period.
Much of the Plains and Upper Midwest experienced above normal wetness, the climate center noted. "Wisconsin had its second wettest July, while Texas had its fourth, Iowa its fifth and Missouri its eighth" wettest. ]]>
The 2010 Perseid meteor shower lived up to its promise of a meteor per minute just before dawn today, providing an excellent celestial spectacle for people around the globe who had dark and clear skies.
"In Iran, the Perseid meteor shower was great," Mohammad Reza Zaman Sani told Spaceweather.com.
Another observer, Anthony in Florida, was one of several who noticed that the meteors sometimes came in bursts. "There would be a few minutes of nothing, then 1, 2, 3 in a row," he said, writing (without his last name) on Meteorobs, a website that tracks meteor observations.
"We had a nice show in Norway even though the sky was still not completely dark," said Runar Sandnes on Spaceweather.com. "Meteors came sometimes in showers of 2 or 3."
The Perseid meteor shower is caused by ancient debris left by multiple orbits around the sun of the comet Swift-Tuttle. They name comes from the fact that the meteors appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, which was high overhead just before dawn. The meteors all streaked away from that point of origin, called the radiant. A few non-Perseids, called sporadic meteors, were also observed on totally different trajectories.
"I counted 20 Perseids in a 20-minute period starting at 4:10 a.m," said Robert Roy Britt, SPACE.com editor in chief. "Most were faint, but two were as bright as Jupiter, leaving brief vapor trails that marked their path."
Jupiter presided over the annual event, hovering high in the southern sky as the brightest object in the early morning sky.
Britt observed the shooting stars from reasonably dark skies at the north edge of Phoenix. There were bursts of up to a half dozen meteors in a two-minute period and lulls that lasted up to four minutes, he said.
Though never the grandest of events, like the 2001 Leonid meteor storm, the Perseid shower is known for being reliable, and also for the occasional bright fireball, or bolide -- an exploding meteor. Other observers reported fireballs in recent days. The Perseids began in late July, peaked last night and this morning, and will continue but tail off over the next several days.
If you missed the peak of the shower, late tonight into early Saturday morning offers another opportunity, experts say. While the number of meteors will drop off significantly, a patient observer with dark skies could see several meteors per hour in the predawn Saturday. Those in urban or suburban areas will see far fewer. ]]>
The crate, recovered from the Antarctic hut of renowned explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton after it was found there in 2006, has been thawed very slowly in recent weeks at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.
The crate was painstakingly opened to reveal 11 bottles of Mackinlay's Scotch whisky, wrapped in paper and straw to protect them from the rigors of a rough trip to Antarctica for Shackleton's 1907 Nimrod expedition.
Though the crate was frozen solid when it was retrieved earlier this year, the whisky inside could be heard sloshing around in the bottles. Antarctica's minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor, dating from 1896 or 1897 and described as being in remarkably good condition.
This Scotch is unlikely ever to be tasted, but master blenders will examine samples of it to see if they can replicate the brew. The original recipe for the Scotch no longer exists.
Once samples have been extracted and sent to Scottish distiller Whyte and Mackay, which took over Mackinlay's distillery many years ago, the 11 bottles will be returned to their home — under the floorboards of Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island, near Antarctica's McMurdo Sound.
Whisky lover Michael Milne, a Scot who runs the Whisky Galore liquor outlet in Christchurch, described the rare event as a great experience.
"I just looked at this (crate) and honestly, my heartbeat went up about three paces. It was amazing," he said. "The box was like a pioneer's box with the wood and nails coming out," he said.
Although Milne said he'd give anything to have a taste of the whisky. "It is not going to happen and I am not going to get excited about it," he said. "But if there was ever an opportunity, it could be a wonderful one to have."
Nigel Watson, executive director of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, which is restoring the explorer's hut, said opening the crate was a delicate process.
The crate will remain in cold storage and each of the 11 bottles will be carefully assessed and conserved over the next few weeks. Some samples will be extracted, possibly using a syringe through the bottles' cork stoppers. ]]>
Tonight, just lie back and look at the stars.
If you want company, the David Dunlap Observatoryin Richmond Hill is throwing a party to see the celestial light show – as many as 100 meteors per hour as the Perseid shower hits its stride.
For southern and central Ontario, just after sunset this evening, weather permitting, should provide the most spectacular cosmic alignment of planets sprinkled with shooting stars.
Astronomers expect Venus, Saturn and Mars to squeeze together in the western sky near the last sliver of the moon. As the skies darken, starting around 10:30 p.m., the Perseid shower should kick into full flight.
“A very good shower will produce about one meteor per minute under a dark country sky,” observatory astronomers say. The annual August Perseid is among the strongest cascades of the year, and tonight it’s at its height.
Stargazers planning a trek to the observatory should bring lawn chairs and blankets for the open house from 9:30 p.m. to midnight. DDO promises to post a forecast at 6 p.m. with weather conditions. The best way to watch, says National Geographic, is simply lying back on the ground or in a chair with the naked eye.
Earth moving through a cloud of dust and debris left by the Swift-Tuttle comet sets off the Perseids each mid-August. As the debris hits the atmosphere at 160,000 kilometres an hour, it burns up in streaks of light.
Environment Canada is predicting mostly clear skies tonight.
The meteor shower should be visible across North America. ]]>
5 crimes solved using Google Earth
New York –
The town of Riverhead, Long Island, announced last week that it had found a new way to raise revenue — by using Google Earth to find and tax undeclared backyard pools. This "enterprising Google Earth scouring" has apparently netted the town $75,000 in licensing fees. But this isn’t the first time the software has been used by law enforcement to catch criminals, nor even the first time it has been used to find illegal pools. From pot growers to boat dumpers, a list of five legal cases cracked by Google's innovative satellite mapping website:
1. Secret swimming in Greece
Until recently, the Greek government was aware of only 300 swimming pools in the wealthy suburbs of Athens. But in the wake of the country's recent financial meltdown, a newly created enforcement agency began using Google Earth to peek into backyards — and found that the real number was close to 17,000. The site also revealed many undeclared vacation villas and home extensions. “Maybe if the Greek government had been a little more tech savvy the past six years, they wouldn't be in such a mess?” notes Seth Weintraub at Fortune.
2. Pot growing in Wisconsin
When police officers in Racine, Wisc., arrested Dean Brown for possession of 18 pounds of marijuana in 2007, they also found a GPS unit around his neck that held coordinates to all his other marijuana plants in the area. Officers plugged the coordinates into Google Earth and immediately discovered the plants. “Dude," says Ryan Singel at Wired. "If you can’t remember where your own stashes are, you should think of that as a sign.”
3. Cutting down the Brazilian rainforest
A Brazilian Indian tribe teamed up with Google Earth in 2007 to keep loggers and miners out of the Surui tribe’s 6,000-acre Amazon reservation. Deforestation in the area has since decreased to the lowest figures in decades. "We feel an obligation to help groups like this when it is so clear that our tools can make an important positive impact," said Google spokeswoman Megan Quinn.
4. Evading taxes in Italy
An Italian businessman told Italy's Guardia di Finanza — their equivalent of the I.R.S. — that he sold a villa in Sardinia last year for 280,000 euros ($367,000). Suspecting fraud, the Guardia looked it up on Google Earth and realized the actual value of the villa would have been far higher, given its size and prominent waterfront location. In the end, the unlucky fraudster was found to owe 7 million euros ($9.2 million) in back taxes. The taxmen identified the villa from one distinctive detail, says Italy Magazine: Its "phallic-shaped swimming pool."
5. Dumping trash in Florida
After a sheriff’s deputy found an abandoned boat about 15 miles south of Pensacola, Fla., he consulted satellite pictures taken earlier by Google Earth to see if he could spot the vessel in a nearby berth. He quickly found it moored at Dwight Foster's dock, and promptly arrested him for illegally dumping the boat — a crime that carries a $5,000 fine and five year jail term. It would have cost Foster $18 to properly dispose of it, notes Edecio Martinez at CBS News. ]]>