AG's Scratchin' Post

[Alex G]

LMAO!, another post deleted by the fascists at the "Your Economy" board as "off topic"



Request Deletion Review

Post Date: 1/30/2011 11:59:45 PM
Board: Your Economy Reason: Off-Topic

"In Camden, New Jersey, one per cent of patients account for a third of the city’s medical costs."

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/29/howto-make-health-ca.html
Atul Gawande's New Yorker feature "The Hot Spotters" is a fascinating look at a small group of doctors and medical practitioners who are working on reducing systemic health care costs by doing data-analysis to locate the tiny numbers of chronically ill patients who consume vastly disproportionate resources because they aren't getting the care they need and so have to visit the emergency room very often (some go to the ER more than once a day!) and often end up with long ICU stays.

The approach is marvellous because it is both data-driven (data-mining is used to identify which patients aren't getting the care they need) and extremely compassionate ("super-utilizers" are voluntarily enrolled in programs where they get 24/7 guaranteed access to doctors, nurses and social workers). The programs are successful, and even though they cost a lot to administer, they still generate system-wide savings -- one patient helped with this sort of care had previously cost $3.5 million a year because of heavy ER and ICU use. In other words, providing excellent, personalized care to the small number of patients who don't fit the system's model saves far more money than making the system more stringent, with more paperwork, higher co-pays and other punitive measures. It's a win-win.

Except that it's not really catching on. Some of the doctors pioneering this approach are frustrated because they can save Medicare or an insurer millions, but they can't get funded by Medicare or the insurers -- instead, they have to fundraise from private foundations.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_gawande#ixzz1CS8GvPZG
"As he sorts through such stories, Gunn usually finds larger patterns, too. He told me about an analysis he had recently done for a big information-technology company on the East Coast. It provided health benefits to seven thousand employees and family members, and had forty million dollars in "spend." The firm had already raised the employees' insurance co-payments considerably, hoping to give employees a reason to think twice about unnecessary medical visits, tests, and procedures--make them have some "skin in the game," as they say. Indeed, almost every category of costly medical care went down: doctor visits, emergency-room and hospital visits, drug prescriptions. Yet employee health costs continued to rise--climbing almost ten per cent each year. The company was baffled.

Gunn's team took a look at the hot spots. The outliers, it turned out, were predominantly early retirees. Most had multiple chronic conditions--in particular, coronary-artery disease, asthma, and complex mental illness. One had badly worsening heart disease and diabetes, and medical bills over two years in excess of eighty thousand dollars. The man, dealing with higher co-payments on a fixed income, had cut back to filling only half his medication prescriptions for his high cholesterol and diabetes. He made few doctor visits. He avoided the E.R.--until a heart attack necessitated emergency surgery and left him disabled with chronic heart failure.

The higher co-payments had backfired, Gunn said. While medical costs for most employees flattened out, those for early retirees jumped seventeen per cent. The sickest patients became much more expensive because they put off care and prevention until it was too late.

[Alex G]

"In Camden, New Jersey, one per cent of patients account for a third of the city’s medical costs."

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/29/howto-make-health-ca.html
Atul Gawande's New Yorker feature "The Hot Spotters" is a fascinating look at a small group of doctors and medical practitioners who are working on reducing systemic health care costs by doing data-analysis to locate the tiny numbers of chronically ill patients who consume vastly disproportionate resources because they aren't getting the care they need and so have to visit the emergency room very often (some go to the ER more than once a day!) and often end up with long ICU stays.

The approach is marvellous because it is both data-driven (data-mining is used to identify which patients aren't getting the care they need) and extremely compassionate ("super-utilizers" are voluntarily enrolled in programs where they get 24/7 guaranteed access to doctors, nurses and social workers). The programs are successful, and even though they cost a lot to administer, they still generate system-wide savings -- one patient helped with this sort of care had previously cost $3.5 million a year because of heavy ER and ICU use. In other words, providing excellent, personalized care to the small number of patients who don't fit the system's model saves far more money than making the system more stringent, with more paperwork, higher co-pays and other punitive measures. It's a win-win.

Except that it's not really catching on. Some of the doctors pioneering this approach are frustrated because they can save Medicare or an insurer millions, but they can't get funded by Medicare or the insurers -- instead, they have to fundraise from private foundations.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_gawande#ixzz1CS8GvPZG
"As he sorts through such stories, Gunn usually finds larger patterns, too. He told me about an analysis he had recently done for a big information-technology company on the East Coast. It provided health benefits to seven thousand employees and family members, and had forty million dollars in "spend." The firm had already raised the employees' insurance co-payments considerably, hoping to give employees a reason to think twice about unnecessary medical visits, tests, and procedures--make them have some "skin in the game," as they say. Indeed, almost every category of costly medical care went down: doctor visits, emergency-room and hospital visits, drug prescriptions. Yet employee health costs continued to rise--climbing almost ten per cent each year. The company was baffled.

Gunn's team took a look at the hot spots. The outliers, it turned out, were predominantly early retirees. Most had multiple chronic conditions--in particular, coronary-artery disease, asthma, and complex mental illness. One had badly worsening heart disease and diabetes, and medical bills over two years in excess of eighty thousand dollars. The man, dealing with higher co-payments on a fixed income, had cut back to filling only half his medication prescriptions for his high cholesterol and diabetes. He made few doctor visits. He avoided the E.R.--until a heart attack necessitated emergency surgery and left him disabled with chronic heart failure.

The higher co-payments had backfired, Gunn said. While medical costs for most employees flattened out, those for early retirees jumped seventeen per cent. The sickest patients became much more expensive because they put off care and prevention until it was too late.

[Alex G]

LMAO... censorship is good for me but not for thee

Re: A deleted message Post # of 57515
Take off the block and allow me to reply, or I will just say it here...

[Alex G]

this post i'm replying to was deleted by ihub as being "off topic"

per the "Your Economy Board"

iHub fascists... anti-free speech
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=1948

[Alex G]

Obama and Business May Get On Well, but When Will That Produce Jobs?

By SIMON JOHNSON

President Obama is embarked on a major charm offensive with the business sector, as seen, for example, in the appointments of William M. Daley (formerly of JPMorgan Chase, now White House chief of staff) and Jeffrey R. Immelt (chairman and chief executive of General Electric and now also the president’s top outside economic adviser).

This should not be an uphill struggle – much of the corporate sector, particularly bigger and more global businesses, is doing well in terms of profits and presumably, at the highest levels, compensation. But when exactly will this approach deliver jobs and reduce unemployment? And does it increase risks for the future?

Republican rhetoric over the last two years was relentless in its assertion that the Obama administration was antibusiness. Supposedly, this White House attitude undermined private sector confidence and limited investment.

In reality, the opposite was the case. Relative to any postwar recession, the rebound in profits during the Obama administration has been dramatic. To be sure, the end of 2008 was shocking to many entrepreneurs and executives, as credit was disrupted in a much more dramatic fashion than they thought imaginable. Large and immediate cuts in employment followed.

But then the government saved the failing financial sector. The means were controversial, but the end was essential – without private credit, the United States economy would have fallen far and for a long time.

And profits rebounded almost at once. The financial sector recovered quickly on the back of implicit guarantees provided to our largest banks. The only bad quarter was at the end of 2008 (leading to great angst among bankers about their bonuses in 2009). The nonfinancial sector has done even better.

Profits for the private sector fell no more than 20 percent from top to bottom in the cycle, and in the third quarter of last year (the latest available data from the Bureau of Economic Affairs), profits were back at the level of 2006. After the deep recessions of the early 1980s, it took at least three times as long for profits to come back to the same extent (I went through this comparison in more detail last week for The New York Times’s Room for Debate).

Investment in plants and equipment has also recovered fast – this was the one bright part of the domestic economy in the last two years (the other being exports). Look around at the places you work, where you do business and where you shop. Is there any indication they have cut back on information technology spending recently?

Over all, the policies of late 2008 and early 2009, including the much-debated fiscal stimulus, protected corporate profits to an impressive degree. Even though this was the steepest recession of the last 70 years, profits fell only briefly and seem likely to be just as strong as they were before the crisis.

Large global American-based companies, in particular, are well positioned to take advantage of growth in such emerging markets as India, China and Brazil. But the link between corporate performance — measured in terms of profit or executive pay for American companies — and domestic employment has fundamentally changed in recent decades.

At the very least, employment responds more slowly now than in previous cycles as output and sales recover. Consider this chart from the Calculated Risk blog (and revisit it regularly). As the picture shows so vividly, we are still waiting for employment to turn back up decisively. Compared with previous recessions, the delay is simply stunning.

Ideally, in a situation like this, we’d provide more stimulus to the economy in some form. But our monetary policy is already close to exerting its maximum efforts, and the scope for using fiscal policy was undermined by high deficits during the “boom” years of the 2000s, so there is no safe fiscal space for action – even if the politicians could agree on what to do.

We are reduced to waiting for the private sector to recover enough to want to take on new employees. No one has a good answer for why this is so slow – perhaps because it is so easy and so cheap to hire workers in those emerging markets that are now booming, or perhaps because the skill mix available at prevailing wages in some parts of the United States is not what employers want.

Or perhaps companies are effectively keeping out new entrants, keeping profits artificially high and, at the sectoral level, limiting employment. The constraints on entrepreneurship in our post-credit-crisis economy need careful scrutiny.

Hopefully, the administration’s charm offensive will not prevent it from enforcing American antitrust laws, which were more than slightly neglected in the Bush years.

Listening attentively to the nonfinancial sector makes sense in this situation. In return, corporate leaders need to focus on creating jobs in the United States. But bending over backward to accommodate the wishes of the financial sector is exactly what got us into this mess to start with.

Allowing our largest banks to become even bigger and more dangerous would be a very bad mistake.
______________


Geopolitical unrest and world oil markets

Change is on the way in the Arab world, with Egypt the latest focal point. Here I review recent events and their implications for world oil markets.



I begin with a timeline, if not to connect the dots, at least to collect the dots in a single list.

• Sudan, Jan 9-15: Country holds a referendum whose apparent outcome will be a split of South Sudan into its own a separate country.

• Lebanon, Jan 12: Key cabinet ministers resign in protest against impending indictments from a U.N.-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, toppling the governing coalition. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered this assessment:

We view what happened today as a transparent effort by those forces inside Lebanon, as well as interests outside Lebanon, to subvert justice and undermine Lebanon's stability and progress.

• Tunisia, Jan 14: President Ben Ali flees the country in response to widespread protests.

• Iraq, Jan 17-27: Over 200 people killed in a spate of recent bombings, a sharp and tragic increase from the recent norm.

• Egypt, Jan 29: Cairo appears to be near anarchy as a result of an uprising against President Mubarak.

• Yemen, Jan 29: Demonstrations and rallies have resulted in clashes with police, with unclear implications at this point for the stability of the regime.

An optimist might see the common thread in many of these developments to be the realization across parts of the Arab world of the power of popular will to overthrow dictators, the first step toward democracy and a better life for the people. A pessimist might see in at least some of these situations deliberately orchestrated chaos for purposes of seizing power by a new group of would-be ruthless leaders. A realist might acknowledge the possibility of both factors in play at once, and worry that ideologically motivated uprisings have often turned out to be usurped by groups with their own highly anti-democratic agenda. In the event that some of the transitions of power prove to be more chaotic than peaceful, let me comment on their potential to disrupt world oil markets.

continued
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2011/01/geopolitical_un.html

[Alex G]

Scientists make next-generation computers with gold and DNA
http://io9.com/5745520/scientists-make-next+generation-computers-with-gold-and-dna

Researchers have fabricated a lattice out of gold and virus fragments. It could make your computer much faster. And turn it into a biological machine.

Optical computing technology, a growing field in the tech sector, involves computers that send data using beams of light. In order to expand the capabilities of optical computing, engineers are required to find materials that manipulate light very precisely. Photonic crystals are one such helpful material. A photonic crystal can block very precise wavelengths of light, making it a great optical tool. But creating such a crystal is a challenge. Now scientists have tested a new method for making them, and they have done using the coolest materials possible: Gold and virus parts.

Tiny gold nanospheres and pieces of virus were hooked together using strands of DNA. The DNA pieces were created specifically for the experiment. Small spheres of gold attach to certain base pairs and form part of the lattice. Gold, while malleable for a metal, is relatively heavy and rigid for such a small structure. The lattice is made more bendable by its organic component, capsids, which are what make up the protein shells of viruses. These bits of virus 'skin' string together the tough gold spheres.

A mix of all of these components - DNA, capsids, and gold spheres - self-assembles into a lattice. The structure of that lattice can, with certain materials, be made into a photonic crystal. No one would have to build a crystal to use in optical computing, mixing together the right ingredients could make it build itself.

Sung Yong Park, one of the scientists who worked on the project, was excited by the jump from mechanical to organic assembly:

Organic materials interact in ways very different from metal nanoparticles. The fact that we were able to make such different materials work together and be compatible in a single structure demonstrates some new opportunities for building nano-sized devices.

No word on what happens when the virus bits and the DNA combine to make self-reproducing computers. It will probably be the end of the world. Who knew it would come in the form of crystalline gold viruses?

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v9/n11/full/nmat2877.html
DNA-controlled assembly of a NaTl lattice structure from gold nanoparticles and protein nanoparticles

[Alex G]

A Talented Father-Daughter Duo!

[Alex G]

Extreme oversold condition in the Vix ?

http://gicharts.blogspot.com/2011/01/extreme-oversold-condition-in-vix.html
Just pay attention to the "extreme oversold condition" in the VIX.
Raise your stop on the SP 500 to 1260
Posted by Moise Levi

[Alex G]

Gold and Silver warning

http://gicharts.blogspot.com/2011/01/gold-and-silver-warning.html
SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) and iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) chart analysis ;
1) Using on both charts the support level (light grey) and their simple 50 days MA.
2) If you decided to go short on both, focus on the stop loss level
3) GLD shows a triple top ....
4) SLV shows a head and shoulder ?
5) Target on both ? 200 days simple MA ?
Not jumping to conclusions yet, but we do have a first real sign of a potential bearish reversal.
Posted by Moise Levi

[Alex G]

“The Frontier is Everywhere” — breathtaking fan-made NASA promo video,
lovingly compiled by YouTuber damewse, and “narrated” by Carl Sagan.

[Alex G]

President Obama's Speech At Tuscon Memorial Service

"...If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit." -- President Obama

[Alex G]

Muslim and Christian, Egyptians stand together against violence

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/09/muslim-and-christian.html
On New Year's Eve, a Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt was attacked by suicide bombers. For those Coptic Christians, the bombing came with a lot of added tension. Their Christmas, like that of several other Christian sects outside the Western Catholic/Protestant divide, falls after the New Year. Many expected further bombings on that holiday. Here's what happened, instead ...

Egypt's majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as "human shields" for last night's mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

"We either live together, or we die together," was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the "human shield" idea.

"This is not about us and them," said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. "We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together."

[Alex G]

The Incredible Story of Vivian Maier
http://www.petapixel.com/2011/01/03/the-incredible-story-of-vivian-maier/
In 2007, 26-year-old real estate agent John Maloof purchased a box filled with 30,000 negatives from an estate sale for $400. After being stunned by the quality of the street photographs, Maloof began digging and discovered that they were created by a nanny and street photographer named Vivian Maier. He then decided to purchase the other boxes of negatives, bringing his collection of Maier photos up to about 100,000 images. Now some are saying he might have discovered one of the greatest (and previously unknown) street photographers of the 20th century. You can view some of Maier’s photographs here.

Next time you’re at an estate sale, you might want to take a closer look at any boxes of negatives you come across.

[Alex G]

North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns
http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

[Alex G]

The Beauty of Pixar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD1NfCjHpag&feature=player_embedded#!

[Alex G]

"Queens-resident Jamie Stuart’s Blizzageddon mini-doc
'Idiot With A Tripod' pays homage to Dziga Vertov’s classic silent-era
documentary Man with a Movie Camera."
http://thedailywh.at/post/2516517357/short-film-of-the-day-queens-resident-jamie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kD_M50-V6s&feature=player_embedded

[properlynumb]

Round and round on the carrosel of tax---
Just an opinion:
When times are good and employment/economy is sending more tax dollars into polititions' hands,
they spend more.
And then, when the bad times hit us the State and local taxes go up,
the Fed needs a loan. Prints dollars. More debt.
And we go around and around until ride just comes to an end.

[Alex G]

nahh, we can't afford it because billionaires must have their tax breaks


Budget-crunched states prepare for reduced aid under GOP House
By Peter Schroeder - 12/14/10 09:18 PM ET

State and local governments that relied on federal aid to stay afloat during the recession are not counting on as much help from Congress once the era of divided government begins next year.

Nationwide, states are grappling with a total budget gap of $110 billion for fiscal 2010 and $82 billion for fiscal 2011, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/133677-states-prepare-for-reduced-aid-under-gop-led-house

[properlynumb]

Washington’s Next Big Decision: Bail Out the States or Not?.

http://blogs.wsj.com/capitaljournal/2010/12/08/washingtons-next-big-decision-bailout-the-states-or-not/

One commentor posted:

Anonymous wrote:
.In 2005 the state of California paid over $47 billion more in federal taxes than they received in benefits. Illinois has given tens of billions more than it has received from the federal government over the last 30 years. Now these states are in trouble, admittedly due to some poor planning, but to a much larger extent because they have had their money taken and redistributed to states who couldn’t have afforded their budgets without this windfall.

In 2005 these states received more federal dollars than taxes paid, the difference in parenthesis: Alabama (17.5 bil), Alaska (4.4 bil), Arizona (8.7 bil), Arkansas (6.4 bil), Georgia (3.9 bil), Hawaii (4.3 bil), Idaho (1.8 bil), Indiana (4.2 bil), Iowa (2.5 bil), Kansas (3 bil), Kentucky (12.4 bil), Louisiana (19.1 bil), Maine (3.1 bil), Maryland (6.6 bil), Mississippi (13.7 bil), Missouri (13.1 bil), Montana (2.5 bil), Nenraska (1.5 bil), New Mexico (10.8 bil), North Carolina (6.6 bil), North Dakota (2.8 bil), Oklahoma (8.1 bil), South Carolina (9.3 bil), South Dakota (2.6 bil), Tennessee (12.4 bil), Virginia (35 bil), West Virginia (7.2 bil), Wyoming (500 million),

The most important item is that these numbers are not 1 year discrepancies but in fact had been occurring for at least the previous 25 years!!!! So now, when the states who have been footing the bills for these moochers are in trouble, there is a whole lot of self-righteous indignation. The green states (states who give more in taxes than benefits received)have been a life line to the red states (the opposite of green states)for decades because their economies were able to generate revenues that could be shared. These green states, in general, still are the main economic engines of our economy. To think we could just let Illinois, California, New York … to fail is to be ignorant of the fact that if they did fail the pain would be felt well outside of those states.
.

[Alex G]

Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

BY Ariel SchwartzFri Dec 10, 2010

The world honey bee population has plunged in recent years, worrying beekeepers and farmers who know how critical bee pollination is for many crops. A number of theories have popped up as to why the North American honey bee population has declined--electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, and climate change have all been pinpointed. Now a leaked EPA document reveals that the agency allowed the widespread use of a bee-toxic pesticide, despite warnings from EPA scientists.

The document, which was leaked to a Colorado beekeeper, shows that the EPA has ignored warnings about the use of clothianidin, a pesticide produced by Bayer that mainly is used to pre-treat corn seeds. The pesticide scooped up $262 million in sales in 2009 by farmers, who also use the substance on canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers, and wheat, according to Grist. http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-12-10-leaked-documents-show-epa-allowed-bee-toxic-pesticide-

The leaked document (PDF) was put out in response to Bayer's request to approve use of the pesticide on cotton and mustard. The document invalidates a prior Bayer study that justified the registration of clothianidin on the basis of its safety to honeybees:

Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

The entire 101-page memo is damning (and worth a read). But the opinion of EPA scientists apparently isn't enough for the agency, which is allowing clothianidin to keep its registration.

Suspicions about clothianidin aren't new; the EPA's Environmental Fate and Effects Division (EFAD) first expressed concern when the pesticide was introduced, in 2003, about the "possibility of toxic exposure to nontarget pollinators [e.g., honeybees] through the translocation of clothianidin residues that result from seed treatment." Clothianidin was still allowed on the market while Bayer worked on a botched toxicity study [PDF], in which test and control fields were planted as close as 968 feet apart.

Clothianidin has already been banned by Germany, France, Italy, and Slovenia for its toxic effects. So why won't the EPA follow? The answer probably has something to do with the American affinity for corn products. But without honey bees, our entire food supply is in trouble.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1708896/wiki-bee-leaks-epa-document-reveals-agency-knowingly-allowed-use-of-bee-toxic-pesticide

[properlynumb]

Fantastic goats! And a great board you have here, AG.
"I'll Be Bock"

[Alex G]

Italy's Garbage Crisis Worsens
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/895402--naples-trash-crisis-highlights-berlusconi-weakness

Garbage hasn't been collected for weeks in Naples and blame is being directed towards Italy's prime minister.

The rotting garbage piled up on the streets of Naples has become an enduring symbol to Italians of the many problems facing Silvio Berlusconi’s crumbling conservative government. The prime minister came to power as a “Mr. Fix It” less than three years ago vowing to clean up a mess that his centre-left predecessor had failed to sort out, and often cites the clearing of Naples’ streets as one of his biggest successes. He even held his first cabinet meeting there, promising a break with past administrations that had failed to solve the chronic rubbish problem in Campania—the poor, southern region of which Naples is the capital. Halfway into his term, facing the prospect of early elections due to the implosion of his centre-right coalition and a string of sex and graft scandals, Berlusconi is seeing Naples’ trash back on the front pages of newspapers and TV bulletins. “Naples garbage? It’s just like two years ago,” read the headline of the daily La Stampa on Tuesday.



9 Photos Of The Garbage Crisis In Italy
http://www.buzzfeed.com/provincialelitist/9-photos-of-the-garbage-crisis-on-italy-4t5

[Alex G]

Most Want to Keep or Expand Health Care Law
http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2010/11/51_percent_of_americans_want_t.html

STEVEN THOMMA, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Americans want Congress to keep the new health care law or actually expand it, despite Republican claims that they have a mandate from the people to kill it, according to a new McClatchy Newspapers-Marist poll.

The post-election survey showed that 51 percent of registered voters want to keep the law or change it to do more, while 44 percent want to change it to do less or repeal it altogether.

Driving support for the law: Voters by margins of 2-1 or greater want to keep some of its best-known benefits, such as barring insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. One thing they don't like: the mandate that everyone must buy insurance.

At the same time, the survey showed that a majority of voters side with the Democrats on another hot-button issue, extending the Bush era tax cuts that are set to expire Dec. 31 only for families making less than $250,000.

The poll also showed the country split over ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibiting gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, with 47 percent favoring its repeal and 48 percent opposing it.

The results signal a more complicated and challenging political landscape for Republicans in Congress than their sweeping midterm wins suggested. Party leaders call the election a mandate, and vow votes to repeal the health care law and to block an extension of middle-class tax cuts unless tax cuts for the wealthy also are extended.

"The political give-and-take is very different than public opinion," said Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., which conducted the poll. "On health care, there is a wide gap between public opinion and the political community."

Far from the all-or-nothing positions staked out by politicians and pundits, Americans are more divided about the health care law.

On the side favoring it, 16 percent of registered voters want to let it stand as is.

Another 35 percent want to change it to do more. Among groups with pluralities who want to expand it: women, minorities, people younger than 45, Democrats, liberals, Northeasterners and those making less than $50,000 a year.

Lining up against the law, 11 percent want to amend it to rein it in.

Another 33 percent want to repeal it.

Among groups with pluralities favoring repeal: men, whites, those older than 45, those making more than $50,000 annually, conservatives, Republicans and tea party supporters.

Independents, who swung to the Republicans in the Nov. 2 elections, are evenly divided on how to handle the health care law, with 36 percent for repealing it and 12 percent for restraining it -- a total of 48 percent negative -- while 34 percent want to expand it and 14 percent want to leave it as is -- also totaling 48 percent.

[Alex G]

How Ireland's Bank Bailout Shook The World
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/11/23/131538931/how-the-irish-bank-bailout-shook-the-world#more

When the Irish government decided in 2008 to bail out the nation's banks, the country started down the slope to fiscal ruin.

But the decision also had a much broader effect: It wound up inspiring bank bailouts throughout Europe and the U.S.

Ireland was the first country to bail out its banks during the 2008 crisis. The move prompted investors to begin moving their money out of other European banks and into Irish banks.

So, less than a month after Ireland guaranteed its banks, the U.K. followed suit. Germany was next.

"Funds were moving from countries like Germany or France to Ireland because depositors were thinking, 'Well, there my funds are safe,' " says Sebastian Dullien, economics professor from University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. "The German government was thinking, 'What can we do now?' And what they did was promise to guarantee all private bank deposits in German banks.' "


Those moves, in turn, prompted the European Union to raise bank guarantees for all E.U. countries, and to put more capital into the banks.

Soon after that, for a variety of reasons, the U.S. got into the bailout business, too. MIT economist Simon Johnson explains the link:

When the Europeans made these moves and when the European Union put more capital into their banks or said they would provide capital as needed I think there was an 'aha moment' for the U.S. Treasury. They said, "OK this is what the Europeans are doing. We can see this could get out of control here. We need to put more capital into our big banks."

But, Johnson says, there was a key difference between the Irish bailout and the bailouts in the U.S. and other countries. The Irish basically guaranteed everything — not only savings and checking accounts, but also the bonds that banks sold to investors.

"The United States did not extend a blanket guarantee," Johnson says. "That was smart."

What’s more, the Irish banks were much bigger relative to the nation's overall economy than banks in the U.S.

"They were too big to save," Johnson says.

[Alex G]

Deletion

Post Date: 11/15/2010 10:07:26 PM in reply to 56738598 by benzdealeror2
Board: Tornado Alley (PROG) Reason: Off-Topic

Massive fire that makes building #7 look like a firecracker yet it stands tall tonight. Guess "made in China" has some merit.

congratulations

42 people just died because of China's lax building regulation codes

but you want to spin it as proof that the U.S. Government, including many first responders and family members were complicit in the 9/11 al Qaeda attacks on their own cities

you are one sick dumb motherfucker

[Alex G]

Weekend Chart Show: November 7, 2010
http://www.kirkreport.com/10/wcs_11_7_10.pdf

Last week’s scenarios: The most bullish first scenario continues to work and
was exceeded

What Did We Learn This Week?
- Big week for the markets and the market performed really well (key
technical hurdles cleared)

- Everything is coming up roses: good economic data and earnings, an easy
Fed, gridlock in Washington, and on top of that plenty of skepticism and
concern

- What is the best sentiment indicator of all? The market - performance
anxiety trumps everything - disbelief remains and the good news wasn't
"already priced in"

- Financials finally caught a bid, finally woke up from the dead & Dow
Theory confirmations (* XLB has not overcome all time highs, just set new
two-year highs which I said incorrectly in the presentation)

Things To Watch Next Week

- Market will be on the hunt for fresh catalysts (it will be important for
M&A deals, good bonuses or other positives to surface)

- November has a strong positive seasonal bias BUT tends to chop around midmonth
bookended with strong rallies (most risk for a correction will occur
during options expiration)

- Respect the buy programs - another POMO on Monday - watch for the gap
opens to continue and strong late day closes when the market is soft

Bulls need to see...
- Russell to take out April highs
- Russell to generate weekly ATR buy signal
- S&P clear & hold above key Fibo level 1,230
- Number of stocks making new highs jump

Bears need to see...
- Failed breakout - a 110% give back of last week's gains and then some
taking out the 10/20

[Alex G]

The mother of all bull markets thanks to Shanghai
Posted by Moise Levi
http://gicharts.blogspot.com/2010/11/mother-of-all-bull-markets-thanks-to.html

Just type "Shanghai" in my blog search (see top left), and you'll notice that I use it as my leading indicator. Was able to call the bottom of the bear market thanks to the bullish break out Shanghai did in Feb 09.

You'll notice that I am also quite bullish on crude oil and copper.
I am expecting a MEGA HUGE bull market, driven by China.
Once the Shanghai index gets above the 3400 level, all markets will be on fire ..... until the next bubble ..... (I'll keep you informed if I see a parabolic rise).
A while ago I called this bear market the mother of all buy on the dip :)

[Alex G]

Edison takes his motion picture camera across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, c. 1899.

[Alex G]

Haunting and beautiful video of the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans.

Six Flags New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
It has been abandoned ever since.
This film was made in October 2010.
The park is scheduled to be demolished in January 2011.

[Alex G]

Canadian couple who won $11.2m in the lottery give it ALL away to charity

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326473/Canadian-couple-Allen-Violet-Large-away-entire-11-2m-lottery-win.html#ixzz14TIIZqUU

[Alex G]

Request Deletion Review

Post Date: 11/6/2010 1:40:42 PM in reply to 56374406 by dickmilde
Board: Tornado Alley (PROG) Reason: Off-Topic

i could only stomach a few seconds of that tirade from your hero Beck

why are Beck-Tards and Fox junkies so gullible to believe the lies?

"$200M per day 34 warships, blah blah blah

are you really gullible to believe such obvious crap, or do you just enjoy the lies of Glenn Beck and the tea-tards?

which is it dick,, are you that dumb or just a pathological liar?

or both?

[Alex G]

Massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in Gulf of Mexico
Published: Friday, October 22, 2010, 10:30 PM Updated: Friday, October 22, 2010, 10:57 PM
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/10/massive_stretches_of_weathered.html

Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.

A boat travels through oil that was spotted in West Bay just west of the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River Friday October 22, 2010.


The discovery, which comes as millions of birds begin moving toward the region in the fall migration, gave ammunition to groups that have insisted the government has overstated clean-up progress, and could force reclosure of key fishing areas only recently reopened.

The oil was sighted in West Bay, which covers approximately 35 square miles of open water between Southwest Pass, the main shipping channel of the river, and Tiger Pass near Venice. Boat captains working the BP clean-up effort said they have been reporting large areas of surface oil off the delta for more than a week but have seen little response from BP or the Coast Guard, which is in charge of the clean-up. The captains said most of their sightings have occurred during stretches of calm weather, similar to what the area has experienced most of this week.

On Friday reports included accounts of strips of the heavily weathered orange oil that became a signature image of the spill during the summer. One captain said some strips were as much as 400 feet wide and a mile long.

The captains did not want to be named for fear of losing their clean-up jobs with BP.

Coast Guard officials Friday said a boat had been dispatched to investigate the sightings, but that a report would not be available until Saturday morning.

However, Times-Picayune photojournalist Matt Hinton confirmed the sightings in an over-flight of West Bay.

Robert Barham, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said if the sightings are confirmed by his agency, the area will be reclosed to fishing until it is confirmed oil-free again.

Just Tuesday, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft, in charge of the federal response, and his top science adviser, Steve Lehmann, said that little of the 210 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf remained on the surface or even on the Gulf's floor. Lehmann pointed to extensive tests conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that included taking samples of water from various depths, as well as collections of bottom sediments both far offshore and close to the coast.

Those claims, announced on the six-month anniversary of the spill, brought quick rebuttals from a variety of environmental and fishermen's groups who insist their members have been reporting sightings of surface oil all along.

LSU environmental sciences professor Ed Overton, who has been involved in oil spill response for 30 years, said he believes both claims could be accurate. The Louisiana sweet crude from the Deepwater Horizon is very light and has almost neutral buoyancy, Overton said, which means that when it picks up any particles from the water column, it will sink to the bottom.

"It's quite possible that when the weather calms and the water temperatures changes, the oil particles that have spread along the bottom will recoagulate, then float to the surface again and form these large mats.

"I say this is a possibility, because I know that the (Coast Guard) has sent boats out to investigate these reports, but by the time they get to the scenes, the weather has changed and they don't see any oil."

"I think the reports are credible, but I also think the incident responders are trying to find the oil, too,'' Overton said. "This is unusual, but nothing about this bloody spill has been normal since the beginning."

Overton said it is important for the state to discover the mechanism that is causing the oil to reappear because even this highly weathered oil poses a serious threat to the coastal ecology.

"If this was tar balls floating around, that would be one thing, but these reports are of mats of weathered oil, and that can cause serious problems if it gets into the marsh," he said

The reports are a great concern to wildlife officials. The Mississippi delta is a primary wintering ground for hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese, some of which already have begun arriving. The West Bay area leads into several shallower interior bays that attract ducks, geese and myriad species of shore and wading birds each winter.

Earlier this month state wildlife officials were expressing optimism the spill would have minimal impact on most waterfowl visitors because little oil had penetrated the sensitive wintering grounds.

[Alex G]

I never knew goats had such gonads... wowzers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1320804/Mountain-goats-climb-160ft-near-vertical-Cingino-dam.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
These incredible pictures show Alpine Ibex goats wandering across the face of the near-vertical dam in Northern Italy without a care in the world.

The gravity-defying goats typically live in very steep and rocky terrain at altitudes of up to to 4,600m and have no fear of falling whether climbing up or down the 160ft dam wall.

And they aren't doing it just to show off.

It is thought the goats are actually grazing, licking the stones for their salts.

http://www.ruralramblings.com/alpine-ibex-on-cingino-dam
Apparently the ibex like to eat the moss and lichen off the stone, and to lick the salt off the dam wall.

[Alex G]

Councilman Joel Burns, Ft Worth City Council
October 12, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax96cghOnY4&feature=player_embedded#!

[Alex G]

Request Deletion Review

Post Date: 10/13/2010 12:24:33 PM in reply to 55484514 by sideeki
Board: Tornado Alley (PROG) Reason: Off-Topic

the mindless stupidity of 911 truthers ranks right up there with birthers and Glenn Beck chalk board enthusiasts

[Alex G]

Request Deletion Review

Post Date: 10/12/2010 10:44:38 AM in reply to a deleted post by Paula
Board: Tornado Alley (PROG) Reason: Off-Topic

are you talking about this POS?

[Alex G]

Request Deletion Review

Post Date: 10/12/2010 10:39:55 AM in reply to a deleted post by StephanieVanbryce
Board: Tornado Alley (PROG) Reason: Off-Topic

Glenn Beck would be proud of the penny stock scammers on Ihub

they are all right wingers

they don't know how or are too lazy to make an honest living so they have to cheat

[Alex G]

Bill Maher on rich people who feel vilified about their tax stance

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/24/bill-mahers-rant-abo.html

"... And let's be clear: that's 3.6% only on income above 250 grand -- your first 250, that's still on the house. Now, this week we got some horrible news: that one in seven Americans are now living below the poverty line. But I want to point you to an American who is truly suffering: Ben Stein. You know Ben Stein, the guy who got rich because when he talks it sounds so boring it's actually funny. He had a game show on Comedy Central, does eye drop commercials, doesn't believe in evolution? Yeah, that asshole. I kid Ben -- so, the other day Ben wrote an article about his struggle. His struggle as a wealthy person facing the prospect of a slightly higher marginal tax rate. Specifically, Ben said that when he was finished paying taxes and his agents, he was left with only 35 cents for every dollar he earned. Which is shocking, Ben Stein has an agent? I didn't know Broadway Danny Rose was still working.

Ben whines in his article about how he's worked for every dollar he has -- if by work you mean saying the word "Bueller" in a movie 25 years ago. Which doesn't bother me in the slightest, it's just that at a time when people in America are desperate and you're raking in the bucks promoting some sleazy Free Credit Score dot-com... maybe you shouldn't be asking us for sympathy. Instead, you should be down on your knees thanking God and/or Ronald Reagan that you were lucky enough to be born in a country where a useless schmuck who contributes absolutely nothing to society can somehow manage to find himself in the top marginal tax bracket.

[Alex G]

Studio recording of The Axis of Awesome's "4 Chords". The song that proves that all you need to be a pop star is four simple chords.

[Alex G]

A Toothy Bird With a 17-Foot Wingspan Once Ruled the Air
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/09/16/a-toothy-bird-with-a-17-foot-wingspan-once-ruled-the-air/

Here’s a new creature for the record books. In Chile, paleontologists have found the fossilized remains of a huge, toothy bird whose wingspan stretched 17 feet across. That means the bird, Pelagornis chilensis or “huge pseudoteeth,” had the longest wingspan ever recorded–a wingspan that was about as long as a giraffe is high.



This newly named species belongs to a group known as pelagornithids, birds that had bony tooth-like projections and long beaks. The well-preserved fossil that researchers turned up belonged to a bird that weighed about 64 pounds and had relatively light, thin-walled bones, according to the description published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. It cruised the skies between 5 and 10 million years ago.



The enormous wingspan gave P. chilensis certain advantages, like the ability to travel long distances and reach areas of the open ocean thick with potential prey. The researchers think it feasted on fish and squid, and may have trolled its hunting grounds with its lower beak skimming the water until its teeth could clamp down on a wriggling meal. But lead researcher Gerald Mayr says that a 17-foot wingspan is probably close to the maximum for a flying bird.

“There are a number of drawbacks if you become so large,” he added. Chicks would have to be raised over a long period of time, making them more prone to predation. “Moreover,” he added, “bird feathers are quite heavy, so very large birds may have become too heavy.” [Discovery News]

Mayr notes that these giants of the sky were “true birds,” not winged reptiles like the pterosaurs of the Jurassic era. He also seems a bit jealous of our early hominid ancestors, who may have caught a glimpse of P. chilensis in the flesh. Says Mayr:

“Their last representatives may have coexisted with the earliest humans in North Africa…. Bird watching in Chile would be thrilling if birds with more than 5-meter wingspans and huge pseudo-teeth were still alive.” [press release]

[Alex G]

Well This Is Something You Don’t See Every Day:

On September 11, 10,000 Migratory birds got stuck inside the World Trade Center’s memorial lights after becoming disoriented on their way from Canada to warmer climates.

The Municipal Arts Society ordered the lights be shut off for 20 minutes at a time to allow the birds to regain their composure

http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2010/09/10000-birds-trapped-in-twin-towers.html

[Alex G]

PSA of the DAY

[fuagf]

Thanks for the introduction .. Charity

White is a pet enthusiast and animal health advocate who works with a number of animal organizations, including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals. Her interest in animal rights and welfare began in the early 1970s, while she was both producing and hosting the syndicated series, The Pet Set, which spotlighted celebrities and their pets.

As of 2009, White is the president emerita of the Morris Animal Foundation, where she has served as a trustee of the organization since 1971. She has been a member of the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association since 1974. Additionally, White served the zoo association as a Zoo Commissioner for eight years.

According to the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Garden's "ZooScape" Member Newsletter, White hosted "History on Film" from 2000 to 2002. White donated nearly $100,000 to the Zoo in the month of April 2008 alone. ...[...]

When asked about her real-life heroes, Betty White told Vanity Fair, "Charles Darwin .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_White
............................................
Betty White Not Pleased with Jesse James .. http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/45112571.html
............................................
hoodiebuddie .. http://www.hoodiebuddie.com/
............................................
Betty White Scores Emmy For 'SNL' Host Gig
Award Is White's 5th Prime-Time Emmy
Tim Lammers, Staff Writer
UPDATED: 6:34 am CDT August 23, 2010

LOS ANGELES -- The Betty White phenomenon keeps getting bigger.
http://www.ksat.com/entertainment/24715323/detail.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc7wEztP4hY

Heh, actually now she looks a bit familiar .. i think i saw Golden Girls once .. yonks ago .. lol ..

[Alex G]

Betty Fucking White promotes Made by Betty — her new line of clothing from HoodieBuddie

[fuagf]

tissue please .. Alec, thanks .. wonderful birthday video ..

there is a crack in everything .. http://howthelightgetsin.net/

how the light gets in .. Kristian Anderson, courageous, open and warm in his sharing ..

I wish… •September 7, 2010 • 110 Comments

Yesterday I went back in for new CT scans. It’s been 5 months since my last set of scans were done and the surgeon who is looking after me ordered something more current. I don’t know the results of these scans yet but based on the last set of scans it’s not possible to operate on my liver due to the placement of the tumours. Something about ‘bi-lateral metastasis’.

On top of that, my CEA and CA markers have come back from my most recent blood test 50% higher again. My CEA’s have come in around 1,500 and my CA’s have come back at 75. For anyone who understands these numbers you will know that these figures are high and not a good sign. It’s not necessarily an indicator of aggression from the cancer, but it does show tumour activity… multiplication and division. I guess one good sign is that all blood tests show healthy and normal liver function. Surprising to me but welcome… very welcome.

When I finally got home from the hospital I was wasted. Physically… drained, nauseated and sleepy. Emotionally… empty, unsure and afraid.

I want so desperately for this journey to end.

I want my life back.

Cancer has taken so much from us this past year… I want it back. All of it.

God? Please?

If it be your will, if there is a choice
Let the rivers fill, let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill, on this burning heart in hell
If it be your will to make me well

And draw me near and bind me tight
Your child here in his rags of light
In my rags of light all dressed to kill
And end this night…. If it be your will

I wish for a body free of disease.

I wish for the chance to have another child with Rachel.

I wish for the chance to comfort my boys when they get their hearts broken by a girl for the first time.

I wish for the chance to take them to their first U2 concert.

I wish for the chance to see them become men… to tell them how my heart swells with pride when I see what they have become.

I wish for the chance to hold Rachel’s hand… to offer her my arm… to steady her in her old age. To tell her she’s still beautiful when a lifetime of smiles are visible on her face.

I wish I understood why I have cancer.

I wish for many things…. but most of all…. I wish for life.

Overwhelmed .. •September 7, 2010 • 57 Comments

The past week has been like nothing I have ever experienced.

The only thing I can liken this to is… a tsunami… of care and kind words… from people I have never met… from all over the planet. A lot of you don’t even speak my language. (Thank goodness for online translators!) Nonetheless, you have taken the time to comment or send an email and, in all honesty, most of you have had me in tears. Such kindness from total strangers.

I only ever put Rachel’s video on the web in order to share it with our friends and family. They live so far away and I wanted them to be able to share in Rachel’s birthday in some small way. But then it got a little crazy and, well, here we are.

I have no words to thank you for your support. I’m really at a loss.

Please know that from here on out, the encouragement you have all sent is going to be sorely needed. Things look like they are going to get a lot worse before they start to get better. I’m sorry.

Please keep me in your prayers. Rachel and the boys too. We’re going to need every ounce of strength we can find in the coming months.

Days that matter .. •August 22, 2010 • 352 Comments

Today is Rachel’s birthday.

She’s heading out the door to church with the boys and I’m staying at home…. supposedly to do some house work and also because it’s only been a week since chemo and I’m *cough*cough* not feeling too good *cough*cough*.

Truth be told the last 4 weeks I have been on a marathon planning crusade to organise a surprise party as well as a few other bits and pieces. Rachel is a very social creature, not like me at all in that regard, and thrives on the company of her friends. While a good number of them can’t be here for the surprise due to the fact they live in New Zealand, there’s enough people that love her on their way to make it worthwhile. She doesn’t know it yet but in 3 hours there’s going to be 25 adults and kids running around, playing on a cool little bouncy castle, eating fully catered food all served to them by wait staff, a selection of imported beers (don’t worry, I don’t drink) and of course, excellent New Zealand wines to toast the birthday girl.

I’ve got to go and organise the last few little things. In the meantime, here’s a video I made for Rachel as a birthday present. Kiwi people, keep an eye out for a special guest…. and some guy that calls himself ‘Wolverine’?

http://howthelightgetsin.net/

[Alex G]

heart-warming story of the day

35-year-old Sydneysider Kristian Anderson was recently diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Despite his illness, he wanted to express his gratitude for all the support he’s received from his wife Rachel, so he made her this special birthday video, complete with cameos by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and actor Hugh Jackman.

video:
http://vimeo.com/14325334

[Alex G]

Giant underwater plume in Gulf challenges optimism

19 Aug 2010 12:32 PM
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-08-19-giant-underwater-plume-in-gulf-challenges-optimism/

WASHINGTON -- Experts said Thursday they have mapped a 22-mile-long underwater plume of oil that spewed from BP's ruptured Gulf of Mexico well, seeming to challenge U.S. government assertions that most of the oil has disappeared.

The oily underwater cloud measured two kilometers wide and 200 meters (650 feet) thick and was drifting through the Gulf at a depth of at least 2,952 feet, according to the paper by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine biologists, published in the journal Science.

The plume was not dissipating as rapidly as experts had expected, the researchers said, despite widespread use of dispersants, which the government has insisted have been vital to the breakdown of vast amounts of oil.

The observations were made in late June, several weeks before the ruptured wellhead was capped, and about two months after an explosion sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, triggering the largest ever maritime oil spill.

The new report raises questions about U.S. government estimates, which are based on the belief that natural processes are rapidly dissipating the toxic crude. The authors said deep-sea microbes were degrading the plume only slowly and predicted the oil would endure for some time.

"We've shown conclusively not only that a plume exists, but also defined its origin and near-field structure," said lead author Richard Camilli.

The oil already "is persisting for longer periods than we would have expected," he added. "Many people speculated that the sub-surface oil droplets were being easily downgraded. Well, we didn't find that. We found that it was still there."

U.S. and BP officials earlier this month proclaimed that about three-quarters of the oil that gushed into the Gulf had been cleaned up or dispersed through natural processes.

Around 4.9 million barrels of oil are believed to have spewed from the fractured wellhead before it was capped last month. U.S. officials say that of that amount, 800,000 barrels were contained and funneled up to ships on the surface.

The leak not only threatened livelihoods of fishermen and tourism businesses along the U.S. Gulf coast, but also stoked fears of long-term ecological damage.

On August 4, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the "vast majority" of oil had been evaporated, removed by cleanup teams or was dispersing naturally. The remaining 26 percent -- or about 1.3 million barrels of oil -- was classified as "residual oil" and "is either on or just below the surface as residue and weathered tar balls, has washed ashore or been collected from the shore, or is buried in sand and sediments," NOAA said.

The Woods Hole team used a robotic submarine equipped with an underwater mass spectrometer to detect and analyze the plume, making repeated horizontal sweeps to ascertain its size and chemical composition.

They followed the "neutrally buoyant" cloud as it migrated slowly, at 0.17 miles per hour, southwest of the leaking well.

The plume was then tracked for a distance of about 22 miles before the approach of Hurricane Alex forced the scientists to turn back.

The spectrometer found petroleum hydrocarbons at concentrations of more than 50 micrograms per liter, a level that meant the samples had no smell of oil and were clear. The impacts on biodiversity remain uncertain, though.

"The plume was not a river of Hershey's Syrup," said Christopher Reddy, a marine biochemist. "But that's not to say it isn't harmful for the environment."

The damaged well was capped on July 15. Earlier this month, BP engineers plugged the site with heavy drilling fluid and then sealed it with cement.

The company aims to permanently seal the well in the second week of September, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

[Alex G]

Now that the oil well is capped...

August 18, 2010
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/now_that_the_oil_well_is_cappe.html

Between April 20 and July 15, 2010, a generally accepted estimate of nearly 5 million barrels (200 million gallons) of crude oil emerged from the wellhead drilled into the seafloor by BP from the now-destroyed Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Now that the flow of oil has been stopped, the impact of all the spilled oil and natural gas is still being measured. The current moratorium on deep water remains in place as reports from varying scientific groups are at odds about the extent of the remaining oil, and some fishing restrictions have already been lifted. As BP finalizes its work in killing the well, here is a collection of photos from around the Gulf of Mexico over the past couple of months, as all of those affected enter the next phase of this event. (42 photos total)

[Alex G]

Child Prodigy of the Day

10-year-old Jackie Evancho (AKA Lil’ Susan Boyle) performs Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” on last night’s episode of America’s Got Talent.

[Alex G]

Jon Stewart on the 911 Responders Bill

"There's people stranded on the 89th floor, but before I rush in
you gotta promise me, McClusky -- you gotta promise me and my
family that this will not effect the Swiss pharmaceutical
companies' offshore tax status."

http://www.americablog.com/2010/08/jon-stewart-on-911-responders-bill.html