The Lone Star Secret | The Big Money

The Lone Star Secret | The Big Money: "But not in Texas. There, cash-outs and home-equity loans can’t total more than 80 percent of a home’s appraised value. There’s a 12-day cooling-off period after an application, during which the borrower can pull out. And when a borrower refinances a mortgage, it’s illegal to get even $1 back. Texas really means it: All these protections, and more, are in the state constitution."

Keynes for Today | The Progressive

Keynes for Today | The Progressive: "From the smoking rubble of Wall Street and its market fundamentalism in the 1930s, a genteel English economist clambered, brushed the dust from his suit, and totally remade the way we understand economics. John Maynard Keynes discarded the old myth that the market is pure and rational and operates best when government does least. In its place, he built the intellectual foundations for a very different world—one where democratic governments intervene every day to regulate big business, prevent extreme inequality, ensure full employment, and stimulate the economy when it sags"

Forbes.com - Magazine Article

Forbes.com - Magazine Article: "Tea Partyers were asked how much the federal government gets in taxes as a percentage of the gross domestic product. According to Congressional Budget Office data, acceptable answers would be 6.4%, which is the percentage for federal income taxes; 12.7%, which would be for both income taxes and Social Security payroll taxes; or 14.8%, which would represent all federal taxes as a share of GDP in 2009."

Breaking the chain: The antitrust case against Wal-Mart, By Barry C. Lynn (Harper's Magazine)

Breaking the chain: The antitrust case against Wal-Mart, By Barry C. Lynn (Harper's Magazine): "the tendency within most of the systems we rely on for manufactured goods, processed commodities, and basic services has been toward ever more extreme consolidation. Consider raw materials: three firms control almost 75 percent of the global market in iron ore. Consider manufacturing services: Owens Illinois has rolled up roughly half the global capacity to supply glass containers. We see extreme consolidation in heavy equipment; General Electric builds 60 percent of large gas turbines as well as 60 percent of large wind turbines. In processed materials; Corning produces 60 percent of the glass for flat-screen televisions. Even in sneakers; Nike and Adidas split a 60-percent share of the global market. Consolidation reigns in banking, meatpacking, oil refining, and grains. It holds even in eyeglasses, a field in which the Italian firm Luxottica has captured control over five of the six national outlets in the U.S. market."

Going down in the downturn - Pinched: Tales from an Economic Downturn - Salon.com

Going down in the downturn - Pinched: Tales from an Economic Downturn - Salon.com: "'A blow job is better than no job.'"

Our Founding Father's Socialized Healthcare System - Paul J. O'Rourke - Open Salon

Our Founding Father's Socialized Healthcare System - Paul J. O'Rourke - Open Salon: "Our Founders realized that a healthy work force was essential to our economic health and growth. It was for this reason that, in July of 1798, Congress passed, and President John Adams signed into law an act “For the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen,” establishing the Marine Hospital Service.

This Federal government socialized healthcare insurance was funded by a tax that was withheld from the sailor’s pay, and then turned over to the government by the ship’s owner. This first payroll tax amounted to slightly over 1% of the sailor’s wages. An injured or sick sailor would make a claim, his record of payments would be confirmed, and he would be given a “chit” for admission to the local hospital. Some of these healthcare facilities were private, but in the larger ports Federal maritime hospitals were built."

Op-Ed Columnist - The Rage Is Not About Health Care - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - The Rage Is Not About Health Care - NYTimes.com: "No less curious is how disproportionate this red-hot anger is to its proximate cause. The historic Obama-Pelosi health care victory is a big deal, all right, so much so it doesn’t need Joe Biden’s adjective to hype it. But the bill does not erect a huge New Deal-Great Society-style government program. In lieu of a public option, it delivers 32 million newly insured Americans to private insurers. As no less a conservative authority than The Wall Street Journal editorial page observed last week, the bill’s prototype is the health care legislation Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts. It contains what used to be considered Republican ideas"

More Texas Humor...

Dear Texas: Please shut up. Sincerely, History - SFGate

VaccineEthics.org: The Arrival of the Salk Polio Vaccine: Documents from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

VaccineEthics.org: The Arrival of the Salk Polio Vaccine: Documents from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library: "By the late 1940s, researchers around the country were supported by the National Foundation, studying the virus and testing strategies that might lead to a safe and effective vaccine against polio. Among these researchers were Drs. John Enders, Frederick Robbins and Thomas Weller at Harvard University, who would share the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work growing polio in culture. Also studying the virus were Dr. Albert Sabin at the University of Cincinnati and Dr. Jonas Salk at the University of Pittsburgh."

Depleted Cranium » Words Of Wisdom

Depleted Cranium » Words Of Wisdom: "“Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training.”
~Michael Shermer"

PolitiFact | Dewhurst says state's health care tab is $2.4 billion per year

PolitiFact | Dewhurst says state's health care tab is $2.4 billion per year: "There is a cost to extending health coverage to as many as 32 million uninsured Americans — and with 6.1 million people lacking health insurance, Texas has the nation's largest share (25.1 percent) of uninsured residents."

Texas state budget - Sunshine Review

Texas state budget - Sunshine Review: "'The state is likely to face severe budget constraints, not just today, but for a long time into tomorrow,' said Dale Craymer, chief economist for the business-backed Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. Stimulus money 'allowed us to buy time and to push the problem a little farther out,' said Craymer, who served as budget chief for the late Gov. Ann Richards. 'Next session (2011), we're going to have severe challenges.' Indeed, lawmakers are spending slightly less in state money than they did in the budget they wrote two years ago, but the federal money staved off drastic cuts"

New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea - Yahoo! News

New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea - Yahoo! News: "'The idea of an individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer was a Republican idea,' said health economist Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. In 1991, he published a paper that explained how a mandate could be combined with tax credits — two ideas that are now part of Obama's law. Pauly's paper was well-received — by the George H.W. Bush administration."

Texas state budget (2008-2009) - Sunshine Review

Texas state budget (2008-2009) - Sunshine Review: "However, on February 3, 2009, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus signaled the need to reduce stated spending by $500 million by the end of the fiscal year citing “uncertain economic conditions” and the need to leave a “reasonable reserve in the rainy day fund” to avoid facing a deficit in 2011.[22] Anticipated incoming revenues included in the $80.1 billion budget for the year included federal funds, which the state has not yet received and could depend on the outcome of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act being currently debated in Congress.[23] The 2008-9 budget was also burdened by $2 billion in expenses related to hurricanes Ike, Dolly and Gustav.[24] The federal government is expected to reimburse the state for 75% of its costs related to the hurricane, but Governor Perry is seeking an 100% reimbursement.[25]"

Lantana camara.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Lantana camara.pdf (application/pdf Object)
In herbal medicine, infusions of the
leaves and other plant parts are used as an
antiinflammatory (Oyedapo and others 1999), a
tonic and expectorant, and added to baths as an
antirhumatic. Lantana extracts have also been
shown to be a powerful febrifuge (Liogier 1990).
Because the leaves and some other parts of lantana
are poisonous, care must be taken when it is used
medicinally. The ripe fruit is benign and heavily
consumed by birds and frequently eaten by
humans in some countries (Herzog and others
1994). Extracts of lantana leaves have shown
strong insecticidal and antimicrobial activity in
numerous experiments. Storing potatoes with
lantana leaves nearly eliminates damage by
Phthorimaea operculella Zeller, the potato tuber
moth (Lal 1987)

But: http://www.floridata.com/ref/l/lant_c.cfm
WARNING: Pets have reportedly become ill after ingesting lantana. The unripe berries are known to be very toxic and the foliage toxic to livestock.

Malaria in the Ohio Valley

Chapter 5.1: Elias Samuel Cooper and 19th Century Medicine: "Although present as a devastating pestilence throughout Eurasia and Africa from the earliest historic times, the New World was free of malaria until around 1500. At about this time it was brought to the Americas from Europe and Africa by the Spaniards and their slaves whose red blood cells, infected with the malarial parasite, were taken up by the bite of the ubiquitous Anopheles mosquitoes and transmitted thereby to an endless chain of human carriers. [13] The disease was unknown among the Indians in the Ohio Valley and the Northwest until after the arrival there of European immigrants. In Illinois, the incidence of malaria was at a low level from the first settlements in about 1700 until 1760 when it rose within a decade to epidemico-endemic proportions and held that position for about 80 years. It then began a slow decline in the 1850's, and virtually disappeared from the state by 1900."

Official Google Blog: A new approach to China: an update

Official Google Blog: A new approach to China: an update
earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong....We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.
-- David Drummond, Google, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

So Now Google Thinks Everyone Should Care About Chinese Censorship?

So Now Google Thinks Everyone Should Care About Chinese Censorship?
Brin’s comments came in an interview with the Guardian. On the US government, as well as businesses in general, he said:
Human rights issues deserve equal time to the trade issues that are high priority now … I hope this gets taken seriously.
As for Microsoft, which has a tiny search presence in China, Brin’s “disappointed” that Microsoft oddly suggested that if you operate in a country, you should obey its laws. Oddly given that’s exactly what Google itself was doing for the past four years. He also said:
As I understand, they have effectively no market share – so they essentially spoke against freedom of speech and human rights simply in order to contradict Google.

JazzOasis.com - Pat Metheny on Kenny G

JazzOasis.com - Pat Metheny on Kenny G: "He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music."

Odds Are, It's Wrong - Science News

Odds Are, It's Wrong - Science News: "Correctly phrased, experimental data yielding a P value of .05 means that there is only a 5 percent chance of obtaining the observed (or more extreme) result if no real effect exists (that is, if the no-difference hypothesis is correct)."

Op-Ed Contributor - P.S.A. prostate screening is inaccurate and a waste of money. - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributor - P.S.A. prostate screening is inaccurate and a waste of money. - NYTimes.com: "In approving the procedure, the Food and Drug Administration relied heavily on a study that showed testing could detect 3.8 percent of prostate cancers, which was a better rate than the standard method, a digital rectal exam."

Think Progress » Rockefeller: ‘The health insurance industry is the shark that sits right below the water.’

Think Progress » Rockefeller: ‘The health insurance industry is the shark that sits right below the water.’: "The health insurance industry is the shark that swims just below the water and you don’t see that shark until you feel the teeth of that shark."

Alice in Wonderland Review | Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People

Alice in Wonderland Review | Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People: "That’s Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland: Pretty on the outside, but soulless on the inside. Like Ann Coulter, if Anne Coulter was pretty on the outside."

Dell Rolls Out High-Performance, 'Alternative' PCs - Reviews by PC Magazine

Dell Rolls Out High-Performance, 'Alternative' PCs - Reviews by PC Magazine
The new Dell Flexible Computing Solution uses the FX100 as a terminal to a VMware View 4.0 environment running on a server. The VMware View environment hosts virtual desktops on a centralized server, which clients can access from any IP-connected client running on a desktop, laptop, or on Dell's FX100 Zero Client. VMWare View gives the IT manager a centrally managed system, yet it looks and feels like a traditional "desktop" to the end user. The FX100 does this using the PC over IP protocol, so 3D graphics, video, and audio are supported.

SiliconRepublic.com: In three years desktops will be irrelevant - Google sales chief - Business

SiliconRepublic.com: In three years desktops will be irrelevant - Google sales chief - Business
Google believes that in three years or so desktops will give way to mobile as the primary screen from which most people will consume information and entertainment. That’s according to Google Europe boss John Herlihy who said that smart phones enhance Google’s mission to make information universal.

Quick Fact: Wall Street Journal editorial ignores effective tax rate to claim U.S. corporate tax rate "is among the highest in the world" | Media Matters for America

Quick Fact: Wall Street Journal editorial ignores effective tax rate to claim U.S. corporate tax rate "is among the highest in the world" Media Matters for America

Fact: World Bank study found U.S. effective corporate lower than those of several industrialized nations, including China
In its Paying Taxes 2009 publication, based on its 2009 Doing Business report, the World Bank-International Finance Corporation estimated that the United States has a lower effective rate of current corporate tax than that of several other nations, including Germany, Canada, India, China, Brazil, Japan, and Italy. The publication also included a figure that compared effective and statutory corporate tax rates for several G8 and BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] countries

Intel Updates Fourth-Quarter Financial Expectations

Intel Updates Fourth-Quarter Financial Expectations
In addition, the effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 20 percent, down from 26 percent.

Op-Ed Columnist - A Word From the Wise - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - A Word From the Wise - NYTimes.com
“The things that are not conducive to investments here are [corporate] taxes and capital equipment credits,” he said. “A new semiconductor factory at world scale built from scratch is about $4.5 billion — in the United States. If I build that factory in almost any other country in the world, where they have significant incentive programs, I could save $1 billion,” because of all the tax breaks these governments throw in.