Even a 2-year-old can shoot a gun

A mother from Idaho had a concealed weapons permit. So, she was within the law carrying a gun in her purse. She was shopping at Walmart's with her children. Somehow, the 2-year-old was able to find and pick up the gun in her purse. And somehow he was able to press the trigger. The woman died immediately when the bullet entered her body.

Be cold! Lose weight!

That's the mantra of an increasing number of scientists these days. The basic idea is that because your body uses energy to maintain a normal body temperature, exposure to cold expends calories. Ergo, you'll lose weight if you spend some time each day being cold. There is even a product to provide that daily cold. The ice vest is loaded with ice packs. The inventor of the product, a UCAL professor, claims that wearing it for an hour burns up to 250 calories. Do it twice a day and you've lost 500 calories.

The leader in this movement is Ray Cronise, a former NASA scientist, whose job was to keep astronauts healthy in sub-zero temperatures of space. Cronise's first test of his theory was to take cold showers and shirtless walks in winter, and he lost 26.7 pounds in six weeks. He points out that other animals make changes depending on the season, we don't because we live mainly in a warm environment. Note that Cronise is not saying we should try to live in very cold temperatures, the 50s are low enough for losing weight.

Should we worry about the fall in oil prices?

Pam Martens thinks so. She points out that the fall is not only in oil prices, industrial commodities in general have fallen dramatically. Where the price of domestic crude oil is down by 47% since June, iron ore is down 49% this year, copper 15%. Natural gas has dropped 30% in the past month. And wages still remain low. 

She compares the current situation to that of December 2008 and finds a lot of similarities. But the NY Times reports that consumer confidence has moved to pre-Great Recession levels. Who will be proven right? My money is on Martens as I think the economy is still in slow recovery mode

It's an ad but a good one

From our Plymouth, Mass. correspondent

Be thankful you don't abut a pig factory farm

For more on the F-35, click here.

The World's Most Admired Man and Woman

Every year Gallup publishes the results of a survey of Americans to determine the most admired man and woman in the world. Here are the results for 2014:

It certainly seems a strange list to me, particularly the last man on the list.

Next up: Climate Change

Pope Francis has spoken out on a number of issues confronting us. Now, he's telling us what he intends to speak on in 2015 - climate change. He will issue an encyclical on the subject, attend the UN Assembly in September to lobby for new anti-poverty and environmental goals and also address the body, he will call a summit of the world’s main religions. And he will try to influence a UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

He certainly is a different pope.

The Atlantic and The Military

The January/February issue of The Atlantic has a lot to say about the inadequacies of our military. James Fallows talks about the dangers inherent in the separation of the military and the people. Robert Scales criticizes our failures to provide adequate guns to infantrymen. And Joseph Epstein tells us how important being drafted was to him and can be to our country.

Fallows has a fairly long article, but definitely worth reading in its entirety. His basic point is that we are so separated from our soldiers that we no longer evaluate their successes and failures as we did for just about every 20th century war. Fallows places great emphasis on the word "chickenhawk", which describes a person who strongly supports war or other military action (i.e., a war hawk), yet who actively avoids or avoided military service when of age.

To quote Fallows: "Ours is the best-equipped fighting force in history, and it is incomparably the most expensive. By all measures, today’s professionalized military is also better trained, motivated, and disciplined than during the draft-army years. No decent person who is exposed to today’s troops can be anything but respectful of them and grateful for what they do. Yet repeatedly this force has been defeated by less modern, worse-equipped, barely funded foes. Or it has won skirmishes and battles only to lose or get bogged down in a larger war."

Leaving the question of the draft alone for now, one of the primary problems we have is that our politicians use the Pentagon budget to bring federal contracts and money to their districts. There is no attempt at analyzing the use of the money or whether the district and the nation might be better off without spending money this way. For example, much of the budget is spent on high tech weapons which may or may not work some day (vide the F-35) and we ignore such basics as providing proper guns to infantrymen.

Fallows thinks a start on rectifying the problem is to adopt three of the recommendations of a group chaired by Gary Hart which was appointed by Obama in 2011:

Appoint a commission to assess the long wars. This commission should undertake a dispassionate effort to learn lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq concerning the nature of irregular, unconventional conflict, command structures, intelligence effectiveness, indigenous cultural factors, training of local forces, and effective combat unit performance. Such a commission will greatly enhance our ability to know when, where, how, and whether to launch future interventions. Clarify the decision-making process for use of force. Such critical decisions, currently ad hoc, should instead be made in a systematic way by the appropriate authority or authorities based on the most dependable and persuasive information available and an understanding of our national interests based on 21st-century realities. Restore the civil-military relationship. The President, in his capacity as commander-in-chief, must explain the role of the soldier to the citizen and the citizen to the soldier. The traditional civil-military relationship is frayed and ill-defined. Our military and defense structures are increasingly remote from the society they protect, and each must be brought back into harmony with the other.

Scales, a retired major general, speaks of the vast superiority of the AK-47 to the M-14 used by our troops. Epstein gives his personal experience as a draftee to describe the personal beenfits that the draft provided him.

The largest law enforcement agency in the U.S. and maybe the world

That would be Customs and Border Protection, or, as it is more commonly known, the Border Patrol. There are 46,000 gun-carrying Customs officers and Border Patrol agents, plus another 14,000 or so ancillary employees. Its budget of $12.4 billion annual budget is more than the combined budgets of the FBI, ATF, DEA, Secret Service and U.S. Marshals—plus the entire NYPD annual budget. To protect our borders the agency uses cars, trucks, boats, helicopters, planes, drones, and a blimp. Since 9/11, we have spent more than $100 billion in border and immigration control.

What is wrong with us?

Another job automated

What's with airplanes in Indonesia?

In March a Malaysia Airlines plane was lost and has yet to be found. Yesterday, an Air Asia plane traveling from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 on board was lost forty minutes after take-off. Apparently most carriers from Indonesia have been barred from Europe by the European Union.

A brief look at the Gardner Gardens

The Judge Rotenberg Center is still active

I wrote fairly often about the center from 2007 to 2011. In 2011 the founder of the center retired when he was facing criminal charges stemming from the center's champining of “aversive” therapy, using pain or other negative stimuli to change behavior. Its signature approach is to apply a two-second electric shock to students’ skin. The center has received a number of negative reports from federal and state authorities as well as the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on torture.

Although the center is located in Massachusetts, its primary market is New York City; 90% of the center's students are from the city. including 29 who enrolled this year. It costs the city's taxpayers $30 million a year. The city and the state have tried various means to prevent its students from going to the center, but they have been unsuccessful. 

Hawk vs. Drone

Get a job

The street is filled with money in Hong Kong

A Russian 3-year Old Plays

From our Plymouth, Ma. correspondent

Another bubble?

Car Title loans have become big business. The car's title is the collateral. The loans can be made for a month up to 2 years. Not only are the loans short-term, the interest rate is astronomical, ranging from 80 percent to more than 500 percent. Many borrowers have to renew the loan; one company is able to renew many loans eight times. The amount of the loan is a function of the car's resale value. Yet, more than 1.1 million households used auto title loans in 2013. About one in every six borrowers who take out title loans have their cars repossessed.

Try something different

With regard to the opening to Cuba, Mr. Obama has been quoted as saying "if you've done the same thing for 50 years and nothing has changed, you should try something different," It may seem strange but maybe he could also try something different with North Korea, as I recently suggested. Back in 1953 we, as representatives of the UN, signed a temporary cease-fire agreement with a promise to sign a peace treaty. Well, 61 years later the treaty has not been signed or even broached. Some have suggested that that is the main reason North Korea has invested so much of its meager capital in militarization.

Irrational Fear

The bee problem is not solved

A non-human person

An Argentinian court ruled that Sandra, the orangutan above, should be recognized as a non-human person with some basic rights, including a right to freedom. She will be released to a sanctuary after having spent 20 years in a zoo.

Courtesy of the Boston Globe

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Snowflakes

The Long Moon on Martha's Vineyard

From the Martha's Vineyard Times

Oliver on the Redskins

How good a regulator is the OCC?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issues a Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities. The OCC's mission is "To ensure that national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe and sound manner, provide fair access to financial services, treat customers fairly, and comply with applicable laws and regulations".  Pam Martens does not think it is doing a very good job ensuring that "national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe and sound manner".

And when you read the press release on its latest report, you have to agree with her. The first thing you notice is that "credit exposures from derivatives increased during the third quarter" by 10%. Weren't derivatives one of the primary causes of the Great Recession? Yet, "the notional amount of derivatives held by insured U.S. commercial banks increased $2.6 trillion, or 1 percent, from the third quarter to $239 trillion. To make matters worse 93% of this amount is held by just four banks; the entire 100% is held by just 25 banks.

Is the OCC actually "ensur(ing) that national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe and sound manner"?

The Curia has to change

The Pope has set his sights in 2015 on reforming the Curia, the Vatican's administrative side. Some quotes and paraphrases describing the 15 "ailments", which he wants cured in the New Year:

"those who look obsessively at their own image"
power-hungry clerics guilty of "cold-bloodedly killing the reputation of their own colleagues and brothers"
an orchestra playing out of tune because they fail to collaborate and have no team spirit.

What do you want for Christmas?

Let's not forget Vietnam

With all this talk about normalizing relations with Cuba, we should look at our relations with Vietnam, with whom we were at war for several years. We normalized relations with Vietnam in the 1990s and it has definitely been a good move for Vietnam. 

This year so far they have exported $25.1 billion in goods to the U.S, we have exported about $5 billion to them. Vietnam is among the world’s leading exporters of rice, coffee and fish products. In addition to garments, textiles and footwear, its workers make electronics for Intel, Samsung and Nokia. In 2006 the country was admitted into the World Trade Organization. 17,000 Vietnamese students are enrolled in our colleges and high schools.

As for human rights in Vietnam, that has also improved but still faces challenges. We have met with them a number of times over the years and it appears that there is more freedom for journalists, bloggers and the religious community.

Tepco actually did one job well

Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) safely removed the radioactive fuel from the most vulnerable of the four heavily damaged reactor buildings at Fukushima. They were able to successfully remove 1,500 fuel rods from the reactor No. 4 building, which was gutted in the March 2011 disaster. There was a great degree of risk in doing so. The company's clean-up record prior to the removal has been poor. Now they will soon start on the rods in the other three reactor buildings; it is expected this will take decades and is as risk prone as No. 4. 

An interesting quote from HG Wells

Dragging out life to the last possible second isn't living to the best effect. The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat. The best of life...lies nearest to the edge of death.

Orion comes home

A Surprising Response

North Korea has proposed that we enter into a joint investigation to identify the Sony hackers. The investigation, they feel, will prove their innocence. Of course, if we don't agree and, in fact, retaliate as Mr. Obama said yesterday, there will be “serious consequences”.  To me, this proposal makes sense assuming we can agree on the investigators.

The NY Times thinks that the Obama administration will not take the offer from the North seriously. Although some computer experts express doubts whether the North was actually behind the attack, American officials said it was similar to what was believed to be a North Korean cyberattack last year on South Korean banks and broadcasters. One key similarity was the fact that the hackers erased data from the computers.

I can't see how an attempt to create an investigative panel will be a bad thing for us and, possibly, for North Korea. Being in the same room with some North Koreans may be a good thing. If, in fact, the attack was not made by North Korea, I suspect that the perpetrators would wage another attack while we are talking with the North.

Volcker speaks

One of the concessions made to the finance industry in the just-passed budget is the postponement of the Volcker rule until 2017. The rule, which is named after a former Fed chief, Paul Volcker, tries to reduce banks' risks through limitations on fund ownership and proprietary trading.  Dodd Frank was passed in 2010 and the rule has yet to be implemented. Volcker's comment: “It is striking, that the world's leading investment bankers, noted for their cleverness and agility in advising clients on how to restructure companies and even industries, however complicated, apparently can't manage the orderly reorganization of their own activities in more than five years.”

Runners-up in National Geographics Magazine photo contest

A study of recommendations made by Dr.Oz

Dr. Oz has been in the news lately with challenges to some of his recommendations. These challenges have hammered Oz for months. He's so popular that he was hauled before Congress in June. In October a study on coffee beans and weight loss was retracted; it made the national news because Oz had recommended it. Now the British Medical Journal has published a study which furthers questions the value of Oz's recommendations.

The researchers selected 40 episodes from last year, identifying 479 separate medical recommendations. They found that only 46 percent of his recommendations were supported by research. 15 percent were plain wrong and 39 percent could not be checked. In the words of the report, “Consumers should be skeptical about any recommendations provided on television medical talk shows, as details are limited and only a third to one half of recommendations are based on believable or somewhat believable evidence.”

Young Musicians

From our Arlington, Ma. correspondent

Is she worth $7,000,000?

The president of RPI, Shirley Ann Jackson, was paid over $7,000,000 in 2012. Plus, she was housed in a large mansion, traveled first class and had a chauffeured luxury car to transport her around the campus. She must be fairly talented as she is on the board of IBM, Marathon Oil and a few other companies. So, financially she seems to be well set even though RPI is not a football power.

But under her, RPI's debt ran up to $828 million―over six times its level when she took office. Moody’s has downgraded RPI’s credit rating twice, and describes the financial outlook for RPI as “negative.” She seems to be against labor; she abolished the Faculty Senate and stymied attempts to unionize. For whatever reason, RPI's tuition is far above the average of New York's four year colleges: $45,100 versus $25,608.

What really intrigued me was a set of rules she has established:
1) Only she is authorized to set the temperature in conference rooms; 
2) Cabinet members all rise when she enters the room; 
3) If food is served at a meeting, vice presidents clear her plate; and 
4) She is always to be publicly introduced as “The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson.”

The Power of the Pope

Apparently, the Obama administration has been working to normalize relations with Cuba for a few years. They recognized the importance of the Roman Catholic religion in Cuba and sought the help of the pope, first Benedict and now Francis. The administration saw the pope as a “guarantor” that both sides would live up to the terms of a deal. The pope hosted at least one meeting at the Vatican and wrote a personal letter to Obama and Castro.

3D Prosthetics

Violation of the Nuremburg Code?

The Nazis were certainly experimenters when it came to medicine. Their doctors and scientists tried all sorts of nefarious things on Jews and other prisoners. Naturally, the subjects of these experiments did not give their consent. So, after the war the Nuremberg Code, which declared medical experiments were a crime against humanity, was promulgated. In 1998 the International Criminal Court stated that medical experiments conducted on detainees captured in international or internal conflicts were war crimes.

Now the Physicians for Human Rights organization wants the government to establish a commission of inquiry to examine the participation of CIA and private medical personnel in the interrogation program to determine whether we have breached domestic and international laws.

Enough is enough

Echocardiograms can be very profitable.

Echocardiagrams, which take ultrasound pictures of the heart, have become quite popular. Although they have been in use since the 1970s, the number ordered by cardiologists increased by 90% from 1999 to 2008. The price can vary all over the lot. In NJ, the price averages about $5,500; in Boston area hospitals the average is $1,300. In Philadelphia, prices range from $700 to $12,000.

Of course comparisons with other countries are mind-boggling: Belgium $80, Germany $115 Japan $88.

The nuns are let off

In fact, the investigation praised nuns rather than excoriate them as was expected when the investigation began in 2012. Was the change due to the replacement of Pope Benedict by Pope Francis? Here is the conclusion of the report:

Our times need the credible and attractive witness of consecrated religious who demonstrate the redemptive and transformative power of the Gospel. Convinced of the sublime dignity and beauty of consecrated life, may we all pray for and support our women religious and actively promote vocations to the religious life.

Outsourcing for the military

Outsourcing some military operations is not new to us; we did it in the last century. But in the 21st century the scale of outsourcing has dramatically increased, both in scale and in time. Lieutenant Colonel Katherine E. White asserts that our management of this outsourcing has not improved, so that outsourcing has become an inefficient, wasteful process. She thinks a culture change is needed. 

First of all, those who use contractors have to acknowledge that they are an integral and essential part of contingency operations personnel. Those agencies that use contractors have to make the contractors an integral part of the agency and a part that does the job required. Acquisition experts who administer contracts, allocate resources, and demand accountability are needed. Thus, agency contracting must be seen as a viable career option; otherwise, the best and the brightest will go elsewhere. 

I guess having a directorate is a big deal in the military. White thinks it vital that a contracting directorate be created. Doing so will make outsource management less likely to be vulnerable to budget cuts and potentially lose acquisition personnel in key areas. Furthermore, establishing a directorate means opportunity for career advancement for personnel, which translates to expertise in acquisition management. 

We've had a fair amount of screw-ups with outsourcing. Maybe White has a point.

Mark Bittman has hope

I've always thought of Mark Bittman as simply a food writer. Thus, I have seldom read his columns. However, in today's NY Times he has a column entitled "Is it bad enough yet?". It begins:

THE police killing unarmed civilians. Horrifying income inequality. Rotting infrastructure and an unsafe “safety net.” An inability to respond to climate, public health and environmental threats. A food system that causes disease. An occasionally dysfunctional and even cruel government. A sizable segment of the population excluded from work and subject to near-random incarceration.

You get it: This is the United States, which, with the incoming Congress, might actually get worse.

This in part explains why we’re seeing spontaneous protests nationwide, protests that, in their scale, racial diversity, anger and largely nonviolent nature, are unusual if not unique.

Clearly, this is not a column about food. Bittman is talking about the current state of the U.S., which he acknowledges as terrible. He thinks the basic cause of our problems is inequality and therefore our problems are interrelated.

Everything affects everything. It’s all tied together, and the starting place hardly matters: A just and righteous system will have a positive impact on everything we care about, just as an unjust, exploitative system makes everything worse.

Bittman thinks that the various protest movements - be it the Moral Mondays in NC, the marches re Brown and Garner, the walkouts by fast food workers, etc. - can bring about "a just and righteous system" in this country.

I wish I had his faith. I had hopes for the Occupy movement, but that failed. Looting and violence when protesting does not help the cause. Ineffective and uncaring political leaders don't want the change that is needed.

Uruguay may be doing the right thing

A few days ago I told you that I was impressed by Jose Mujica, the president of Uruguay. Now I've learned a little more about the country and am even more impressed.

It is South America's second smallest country yet has seen annual economic growth of 5.6% since 2004. Its per capita environmental footprint is low. The Happy Planet Index gives a high rating to the country. 

You'd have to say it's fairly liberal. It was the first nation to legalize marijuana.  It has also legalized gay marriage and prostitution. Naturally, it provides universal health care. And it has challenged the legitimacy of the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) and TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) trade agreements.

It is a welcoming nation. I spoke of its accepting Syrian refugees. Now it has also accepted the first six US prisoners resettled to South America from Guantánamo. 

Are we all God's children?

Pope Francis said, “Paradise is open to all of God’s creatures” as he was consoling a boy whose dog had recently died. Some, such as the Humane Society and PETA, think his comment means that dogs will also be admitted to heaven.

Swapping us for the financiers

Dodd-Frank included a "Prohibition Against Federal Government Bailout of Swaps Entities". It was addressed to the problem with derivatives, a major cause of the Great Recession. The section requires that some of the riskiest derivative transactions be "pushed-out" from the big banks, so that taxpayers would not be on the hook via the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for bad "swaps" deals gone awry. But, the House has decided to get rid of the protection we have against bailing out banks for gambling; they would allow derivative failures to be paid for by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, namely us.

Senator Warren has a strong argument for the Senate not approving this removal of our protection.

A very long walk

Paul Salopek is walking from the Great Rift Valley of Africa, across the Middle East, through Central Asia to the tundra of Siberia, eventually hopping a boat across the Bering Strait to North America, and trudging from there down the entire length of the New World. It's 22,000 miles and it will take him, he estimates, seven years. He is recreating the early days and travels of man from what is considered our birthplace - Ethiopia - to the southern tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego.

He is documenting his trip. Every 100 miles (160 km) he pauses to record a narrative consisting of photographs of the ground and sky, ambient sound at that location, and a brief, standardized interview with the nearest person.

He does have a lot of help from a number of sponsors including National Geographic and KickStarter. They supply more than funds for Paul alone. He is not traveling alone. Guides and translators are to be hired every so often. Transportation includes pack mules and camels. Then, there is, shelter, food, water and the wear and tear on solar-powered equipment used to transmit print stories, photos and videos. His trip is being documented on-line; here is the primary site.

Bloomberg's view of the Senate report.

Per Bloomberg, these are the hot items going around the web:

1. CIA lied about effectiveness of torture to keep budget, power

2. CIA wanted to give detainees a 'burden too great' to withstand

3. Some were fed through their rectum

4. CIA general counsel 'surprised' by President Bush’s support for ending torture

5. Office of Legal Counsel relied on inaccurate CIA information to defend torture

6. CIA officials involved in torture weren’t vetted

7. CIA psychologists had little relevant experience, paid $81 million

8. CIA officers weren’t punished for wrongful detention, death of detainees

9. Detainees were hosed down with cold water while naked

10. The CIA wrongfully detained at least 26 individuals

Summary of the Senate Report on Torture by Us

1. The C.I.A.’s interrogation techniques were more brutal and employed more extensively than the agency portrayed.

2. The C.I.A. interrogation program was mismanaged and was not subject to adequate oversight.

3. The C.I.A. misled members of Congress and the White House about the effectiveness and extent of its brutal interrogation techniques.

4. Interrogators in the field who tried to stop the brutal techniques were repeatedly overruled by senior C.I.A. officials.

5. The C.I.A. repeatedly underreported the number of people it detained and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques under the program.

6. At least 26 detainees were wrongfully held and did not meet the government’s standard for detention.

7. The C.I.A. leaked classified information to journalists, exaggerating the success of interrogation methods in an effort to gain public support.

From the NY Times

Where did the ice go?

If you want to get depressed, read Dahr Jamail's latest essay.

People make the presidency

One of GW's big failures as president was his inability to hire capable people. Obama has a similar problem in that he relies too much on Wall Street 'experts'. The latest one is Antonio Weiss, who has been nominated for Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. There have been a number of economists who don't think Weiss is qualified for the job, despite his being pushed by the Dealbook editor for the NY Times.

The duties of the Under Secretary are “advises and assists in areas of domestic finance, banking, and other related economic matters. It develops policies and guidance for Treasury Department activities in the areas of financial institutions, federal debt finance, financial regulation, and capital markets.” He is the third most senior official in the executive branch with regard to fiscal decision-making.

Mr. Weiss knows the merger business, especially international mergers but he does not appear to know anything about regulation and the Dodd Frank focus on regulation. But he is a Wall Street insider.

Police Officers Can Break Windows

The "broken windows" theory of crime prevention has become quite popular and effective. Ken White thinks that the theory should also include broken people.

Apparently we've decided that we won't tolerate broken windows any more. But we haven't found the fortitude to do something about broken people. To put it plainly: just as neighborhood thugs could once break windows with impunity, police officers can generally kill with impunity. They can shoot unarmed men and lie about it. They can roll up and execute a child with a toy as casually as one might in Grand Theft Auto. They can bumble around opening doors with their gun hand and kill bystanders, like a character in a dark farce, with little fear of serious consequences. They can choke you to death for getting a little mouthy about selling loose cigarettes. They can shoot you because they aren't clear on who the bad guy is, and they can shoot you because they're terrible shots, and they can shoot you because they saw something that might be a weapon in your hand — something that can be, frankly, any fucking thing at all, including nothing.

The President of Uruguay...

...seems to be more of a radical than a typical politician. José Mujica opted for a small farm over Uruguay’s presidential palace, donates about 90 percent of his income to charity, and legalized marijuana. He has also inveighed against showy, do-nothing United Nations summits. And he has started a program to harbor Syrian refugees.

Now it's 10,800 troops

Last month Obama announced that we would keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan in 2015. Well, we'll be sending another 1,000 there, as apparently NATO will not be keeping their promise to send 1,000 troops; of course, this is a temporary commitment for us and NATO.

Visual Representation of Famous Quotes

There are lots more here

Autumn in East Aurora, NY

Courtesy of the homeowner

UN concern re Garner and Brown

Several UN specialists in human rights have criticized the U.S. for our treatment of minorities. A couple of comments from them:

“The decisions leave many with legitimate concerns relating to a pattern of impunity when the victims of excessive use of force come from African-American or other minority communities.”
“The laws of many of the states in the U.S. are much more permissive, creating an atmosphere where there are not enough constraints on the use of force,”

Quoting Eric Garner

Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia

New York City Police and Chokeholds

In 1993 the Police Department banned chokeholds. Yet from 2006-2010, there were over 200 chokehold complaints per year. More recently, the Civilian Complaint Review Board released a report stating that between July 2013 and June 2014 it received 219 chokehold complaints, a number previously unseen since 2010.

Is there a problem?

More than the death of a man

Death comes to dogs

Many years ago I noticed a rise in people's sorrow at their dog's death and gave some fleeting consideration as to possible ways of capitalizing on this. Now, the attention paid to a dog's passing has increased considerably. You can buy a Hallmark card that offers condolences on the death of Spot. If your grief is quite severe, you can join a pet loss circle and meet periodically to assuage your grief. If you can't find a circle, you can always call the Tufts University Pet Loss Support Hotline. 

One surprising fact I learned from this article was that there has been a pet cemetery in Dedham, Mass. since 1907. Pine Ridge Pet Cemetery houses about 20,000 dogs.

A Leading Global Thinker

Every year Foreign Policy issues a list of the 100 most important global thinkers. This year they have grouped them into categories: agitators, decision makers, challengers, naturals, innovators, advocates, chroniclers, healers, artists and moguls. Many of those listed I have never heard of. Two I and, very likely you if you read this blog, have heard of are Putin (an agitator) and John Oliver (a chronicler).

Oliver is cited as being a modern day raconteur telling people what they need to know. He does it through what Foreign Policy calls investigative comedy. But Oliver says, "It's comedy first, and it's comedy second

Flying to work

Patient Safety: Better or Worse?

The federal government release a study yesterday which concluded that 50,000 fewer hospital patients nationwide died in the past three years, largely from decreases in medication errors and pressure sores, compared with the rates in 2010. 

Things don't appear to be as good in Massachusetts. It released a survey that showed nearly one-quarter of Massachusetts residents say they, or someone close to them, experienced a mistake in their medical care during the past five years, according to a survey released Tuesday. Furthermore, the Harvard School of Public Health researchers found that many people did not report the medical mistakes, often because they did not believe it would do any good, or they did not know how to report it.

This is the century of studies and surveys. It so happens that only 26 states have systems that monitor adverse medical events. So, I ask where did the federal government get its numbers from. 

Some interesting statistics

From the BBC:

2 black billionaires in he U.S., 500 white 

Black students appear to do well in High School - just over 30% of over-25s have a diploma, compared with 27% of white over-25s. But less than 10% of black over-25s completed a bachelor's degree, compared with 14.4% of whites.

65% of black Americans reported only having black friends, 75% of white Americans said they had only whites in their social circle.

10.9% black unemployment, 4.8% white

The birth of the universe?

The European Space Agency has been active in studying the big bang and thinks they have made some progress recently. Since I can't comprehend much, if any, of this science, here are some excerpts from a NY Times article:

A map of a patch of sky showing the temperature and polarization of cosmic microwaves from the end of the Big Bang, as reflected by dust swirling in the magnetic field of the Milky Way.

The subject of Planck 2014, as the meeting is called, is a new baby picture — and all of the accompanying vital statistics — of the universe when it was 380,000 years old and space was as hot as the surface of the sun. The portrait taker was the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, which spent three years surveying a haze of microwave radiation left over from the last moments of the Big Bang with a bevy of sensitive radio receivers.

Its microwave portrait reveals a universe 13.8 billion years old that is precisely mysterious, composed of 4.9 percent atomic matter, 26.6 percent mysterious dark matter that is not atomic, and 68.5 percent of even more mysterious dark energy, the glib name for whatever it is that seems to be blowing the universe apart.

Get your seats now

For the past two years two apparently high-end restaurants in Chicago have been taking reservations only if the customer will pay for his dinner online in advance. The customer pays not only for food but also for the tip, these charges are not refundable. A New York restaurant will be adopting this system this month. 

The goal of the system is to solve a major problem of restaurants, the no-show reservation. About 10% of reservations don't show.

Pope Francis and Muslims

I've been wondering for quite a while whether there are any moderate Muslims. So, it was refreshing to hear that Pope Francis has urged Muslim leaders around the world to condemn terrorism carried out in the name of Islam. He also denounced those who say that "all Muslims are terrorists. As we cannot say that all Christians are fundamentalists".

The drought in California....

..has been a major story for much of the year. There is a real difference in the use of water between some wealthy communities and others not so wealthy. For example, Rancho Santa Fe used an average of 584 gallons a day in September, nearly five times the average for coastal Southern California. There is some rationale for this as the properties in Rancho Santa Fe are much larger than those in Southern California. And the town has started doing something; outdoor watering has been restricted to three days a week, and rebates are available for those willing to rip out their grass. But still water use in Rancho Santa Fe was down only 1.5 percent from September 2013, compared with 10.3 percent statewide.

Taking chances

A lot more oil is being produced by us. That oil has to be moved to a refinery. Some is moved via pipelines, some is moved by rail. Researchers estimate that trains are three and a half times as likely as pipelines to suffer safety lapses.The oil being produced in North Dakota is now our largest source and it is being shipped by rail; this year carloads of crude are up 50 percent from last.

Since 2012, there have been eight major accidents involving trains carrying crude in North America. The worst killed 47 people and burnt down a quarter of a town in Canada. There have been a lot more safety incidents, most of them minor. The data shows such incidents in more than 250 municipalities over the last four years.

One of the major risk factors in shipping by rail is the vulnerability of the DOT-111 tank cars in which much of the oil is moved. The government has known of this vulnerability for years, but has really not done anything truly serious and effective about it. You can't blame the railroads themselves for the problem, as most of the shipping is done by a separate company focused on shipping.

Some interesting laws

1. It is illegal to inhale bus fumes with the intent of inducing euphoria. (New Hampshire) 
 2. It is illegal to operate a surfboard while on a hallucinogen. (Washington, DC) 
 3. It is illegal to sip your beer more than three consecutive times while standing.  (Texas) 
 4. People in possession of illegal substances must pay taxes on them. (North Carolina) 
 5. It is illegal to give lighted cigars to dogs, cats and other domesticated animals. (Zion, Illinois) 
 6. No man may purchase alcohol without written permission from his wife. (Newtown, Pennsylvania) 
 7. It is illegal to sell laughing gas with the intent to induce laughter. (Indiana) 
 8. Beer at more than 3.2% ABV must be sold at room temperature. (Oklahoma)  
9.It is illegal to force a monkey to smoke a cigarette. (South Bend, Indiana) 
10. Riding a horse under the influence is punishable with a DUI. (Colorado)

from Substance.com

The recession is still here

Dean Baker writes:

It would still take another 7-8 million jobs to bring the percentage of the population employed back to its pre-recession level. The 5.8 percent unemployment rate (compared to 4.5 percent before the recession) doesn't reflect the true weakness of the labor force since so many people have dropped out of the labor force. 

Furthermore, more than 7 million people are working part-time who would like full-time jobs. This is an increase of almost 3 million from the pre-recession level. It's not just the labor market that shows the economy's slack. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the economy is still operating close to 4.0 percentage points below its potential.

Demand is still weak. Problems still abound: our infrastructure, our education, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. Attacking the problems can increase demand. We just need a government that tries to solve problems.

"Structurally deficient" Infrastructure

Source: 60 Minutes

sorry for the ads

Five Bedrock Washington Assumptions That Are Hot Air

That's the subtitle of an article by Andrew Basevich. Here are the assumptions:

* The presence of U.S. forces in the Islamic world contributes to regional stability and enhances American influence. 
 * The Persian Gulf constitutes a vital U.S. national security interest. 
 * Egypt and Saudi Arabia are valued and valuable American allies. 
 * The interests of the United States and Israel align. 
 * Terrorism poses an existential threat that the United States must defeat.

Do you have to read the article to agree with him? When will we start living in the real world and forget "American exceptionalism?

Printing a gown

Unlocking your car

Tapeworm in the brain

For four years a man in England was having problems with his head: headaches, memory problems, strange olfactory hallucinations and seizures. After many scans the doctors found an unidentified mass in the patient’s brain that appeared — after repeated scans — to be moving from one side of his head to the other. When they removed the mass, they found a 10 cm long parasitic tapeworm, known as Spirometra erinaceieuropaei. It is very rare; only 300 human patients have been identified as victims since 1953, and only two of those victims were in Europe.

They really don't know how the tapeworm entered the man's brain but think it came from contaminated food or water or burrowed in through the skin.

The Fed's role

Yesterday, William Dudley, the president of the NY Fed appeared before the Senate Banking Committee. Naturally, many of the senators did a fair amount of grandstanding. But I thought the following comment from Dudley about the Fed's role said a lot, “It is not like a cop on the beat. It’s more like a fire warden.” 

Most cops on the beat would know more about what's going on than the fire warden who appears after the fire has started.

Operation Resolute Support

That will be the official name of our work in Afghanistan next year. And there will be work. It seems that Obama is escalating our role in Afghanistan, at least through next year. 

In May, Obama said that we would have no combat role in Afghanistan next year, and that the missions for the 9,800 troops remaining in the country would be limited to training Afghan forces and to hunting the “remnants of Al Qaeda.”

I guess he's changed his mind and now our troops will also carry out missions against the Taliban and other groups. Plus, our air force will not be quiet; it will be able to use our jets, bombers and drones to support Afghan troops on combat missions.

Knowing the important things

From a Duncaster correspondent

True or False

Kinda cute

Hot enough for you?

Give thanks you're not in Buffalo

Terrorism numbers

I don't know much about the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) other than it has offices in Australia, England the U.S.; it has been producing the Global Peace Index for eight years. This year they have also produced the Global Terrorism Index. There is no universally accepted definition of terrorism; IEP uses the definition agreed upon by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland: "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation."

As we all know, terrorism is on the upswing. 2013 saw a 61 percent increase in deaths from terrorism globally. Since 2000, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of deaths caused by terrorism. Last year the index recorded 17,958 deaths from terrorism in 60 countries, the leaders being: 

• Iraq — where 2,492 incidents in 2013 left 6,362 dead. 
• Afghanistan — where 1,148 incidents left 3,111 dead. 
• Pakistan — where 1,933 incidents left 2,345 dead. 
• Nigeria — where 303 incidents left 1,826 dead. 
• Syria — where 217 incidents left 1,078 dead.

The U.S. had nine attacks and six deaths. The United Kingdom had a high number of attacks (131), but most of these were small-scale attacks in Northern Ireland and left only three dead. The IEP finds that only four terrorist organizations — the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qaeda — had asserted responsibility for more than 66 percent of the deaths.

Goodbye, Doctor. Hello, Insurance Company

Drs. Hartzband and Groopman have a very challenging op-ed in today's NY Times. The title is How Medical Care Is Being Corrupted. They argue that insurance companies have created incentives and disincentives that might cause a physician to override the needs of an individual patient by doing what is best for the general population.

One example they use: "doctors are rewarded for keeping their patients’ cholesterol and blood pressure below certain target levels. For some patients, this is good medicine, but for others the benefits may not outweigh the risks. Treatment with drugs such as statins can cause significant side effects, including muscle pain and increased risk of diabetes. Blood-pressure therapy to meet an imposed target may lead to increased falls and fractures in older patients". If doctor's don't comply, they will receive less compensation and, perhaps, a lower rating on various web sites.

Doctors are also beginning to be told what medicines to prescribe, as more and more insurance companies are offering their recommendations to doctors. Are you aware of many drugs which do not specify side effects or recommend conditions which should not be using the drug?

The companies are assuming that we are at a point in time when we have mastered the ills of man. Merck assumed that Vioxx would take care of many types of pain; at least, they held that assumption until the product was taken off the market.

I think Hatrzband and Groopman make a good case. But, are they just upset that the doctor is no longer in control?

Where did the $2.5 billion go?

The recent GAO audit of the SEC found “In fiscal year 2014, SEC recorded approximately $3.7 billion of new disgorgement and penalty accounts receivables. As of September 30, 2014, SEC’s disgorgement and penalties accounts receivable balance, net of an allowance for uncollectible amounts, was $381 million. SEC’s custodial revenue collected from disgorgement and penalties and transferred to the general fund of the Treasury during fiscal year 2014 was $825 million.” Adding the $825 and $381 one gets $1,206,000 billion. Yet the SEC collected $3.7 billion. So, where did the $2,494,000 go? Was it all uncollectible? 

This 'missing money' is not a new phenomenon. Almost every year the GAO reports that the SEC needs to clean up its act when it comes to the proper handling, collection, disbursement and financial reporting of penalties and disgorgements it is supposed to be collecting from violators of securities laws.

Say it isn't so

Two major manufacturers of chocolate, Mars and Barry Callebaut, think we will run out of chocolate by 2020, only six years away. Last year we ate about 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than were produced. The two manufacturers guesstimate that by 2020 the gap will be 1 million metric tons (a fourteen-fold bump). 

But are they trying to justify price increases, smaller sizes or lower quality? Or, are they right? Chocolate production has been negatively affected by drought and disease over the past few years. And it does take years to develop a chocolate tree.

Improve your memory. Meditate

A young Jain monk pulled off quite a memory feat before 6,000 people in India. Over six hours people spoke to him with the express purpose that, at the end of the six hours, he would be able to recite back everything they said in sequence. He had 500 phrases or numbers to remember. And he did remember all 500 items in sequence. 

He attributed his skill to meditation, something Jain monks are really proficient in.  His leader claims that the young monk has committed more than 20,000 verses of Jain scripture to memory, and he has also been able to retain as many as 800 random items in order.

Ask your doctor

I don't know how many times I've heard that in the past few days when I have been watching more television than normal. It is just amazing how many ads there are for drugs, many of which I've never heard of. The ads all feature attractive people doing a wide variety of activities. They also do comply with the FDC rule to list the side effects. However, it's really hard to understand what those effects are as there is so much else going on in the ad at the same time. 

I assume that these ads are effective, as the pharmaceutical industry spends $3 billion a year on them. Some doctors are complaining that people insist that they’re suffering from a disorder. One doctor's comment: “I could not convince many of my patients that the marketing they were hearing about Vioxx was maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks.” Vioxx is no longer on the market as it was proven dangerous to one's health.