Exploring distant planets

I love news like this.

A release from today:

Exploring planets in distant space and deep interiors

Washington, D.C.— In recent years researchers have found hundreds of new planets beyond our solar system, raising questions about the origins and properties of these exotic worlds—not to mention the possible presence of life. Speaking at a symposium titled “The Origin and Evolution of Planets” held at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, two Carnegie Institution scientists will present their perspectives on the new era of planetary exploration.

Alan Boss of Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and author of the new book The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets points out that evidence for all three classes of planets known in our Solar System—ice giants, gas giants, and terrestrial (rocky) planets—has been detected in extra-solar systems. “We already know enough now to say that the Universe is probably loaded with terrestrial planets similar to the Earth,” he says. “We should expect that there are going to be many planets which are habitable, so probably some are going to be inhabited as well.”

Boss expects that NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, due to launch in early March and dedicated to searching for Earthlike planets, will put his ideas to the test.

Russell Hemley, director of Carnegie’s Geophysical Laboratory, studies the fundamental physics and chemistry of materials under extreme conditions. Understanding how the chemical building blocks of planets, such as hydrogen, oxygen, silicon, iron, and other crucial elements such as carbon, respond to conditions in the deep interior of planets, where pressures can exceed those on the surface by factors of millions, is key to understanding how planets might form and evolve. High-pressure studies can also offer clues to the search for life on planets different from our own. “Our work is uncovering not only exciting new physics and chemistry, but also new findings in biology that are relevant to the prospects for life in whatever form beyond the Earth,” says Hemley. “Experiments are showing that there is viability of life as we know it now under surprisingly extreme conditions.”

 

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The AAAS symposium “Origin and Evolution of Planets” will be held on Feb. 14, 1:30-4:30 p.m. CST, at the Chicago Hyatt Regency Hotel, Ballroom C. A news briefing preceding the symposium is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. CST at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Ballroom D. For more information on this event, contact the AAAS Press Office at 312-239-4811.

The Carnegie Institution (www.CIW.edu) has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

Update 2/15/09 — Here’s a BBC News story on this release.

Everquest and social research

My previous blog post was on using the internet for social research, and here is a study using Everquest II for just that on organizing networks in communities. Interesting work in the online social research area already.

The release from yesterday:

Surprising results: Virtual games players stick close to home

In the real world, tracking a person’s social network — which could include hundreds of contacts that serve different purposes — is nearly impossible.

But in online virtual games like EverQuest II, where tens of thousands of people leave digital traces as they chat with one another, perform quests together, form groups and buy and sell goods, researchers have found a gold mine of networking data.

That’s where social scientist and engineer Noshir Contractor comes in. Contractor, the Jane S. and William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, and his collaborators are studying nearly 60 terabytes of data from EverQuest II, a fantasy massive multiplayer online role-playing game where players complete quests and socialize with each other.

The researchers analyzed this data along with a survey of 7,000 players — making it one of the largest social science research projects ever performed, Contractor said.

Contractor will discuss their surprising results in a presentation titled “Social Drivers for Organizing Networks in Communities,” which will be part of the “Analyzing Virtual Worlds: Next Step in the Evolution of Social Science Research” symposium from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Chicago. The symposium will be held in Columbus GH, Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 East Wacker Drive.

The group has mined the data logs from the game to look for “structural signatures” that indicate different kinds of social network configurations.

“We can see whom these players talked to, whom they played with, and all the other interactions and transactions they had,” Contractor said. “In many ways it’s a microcosm of our existence in the general social world.”

The researchers found that many players underestimate the amount of time they spend playing the games, and the number of players who say they are depressed is disproportionately high. They also found that women don’t like to play with other women but are generally the most dedicated and satisfied players. And players aren’t just teenagers — in fact, the average age of a player is substantially higher.

But what most surprised Contractor was that even though players could play the game with anyone, anywhere, most people played with people in their general geographic area.

“People end up playing with people nearby, often with people they already know,” Contractor said. “It’s not creating new networks. It’s reinforcing existing networks. You can talk to anyone anywhere, and yet individuals 10 kilometers away from each other are five times more likely to be partners than those who are 100 kilometers away from each other.”

Worldwide, nearly 45 million people play massive multiplayer online role-playing games like EverQuest II, and the amount of real-world money associated with virtual worlds would make it the seventh largest country in the world according to gross domestic product.

“This is not a trivial issue,” Contractor said. “Now that we have the computing power to study these networks, we can explore different theories about social processes on a scale that was never possible before.”

 

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The internet and social research

I’ve blogged on this topic in the past, and I find the idea and practice of using the World Wide Web for research purposes very interesting. It seems there would be some significant hurdles in terms of scientific rigorousness, but it’s still pretty cool and very possibly a very powerful tool in the social research toolbox.

A release from yesterday:

Internet emerges as social research tool

Panel discusses use of the Web in social science study

		IMAGE: This is Thomas Dietz, Director, Environmental Science and Policy Program and Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research, Michigan State University. Click here for more information.

CHICAGO — For the past two decades, the Internet has been used by many as an easy-to-use tool that enables the spread of information globally. Increasingly, the Web is moving beyond its use as an electronic “Yellow Pages” and online messaging platform to a virtual world where social interaction and communities can inform social science and its applications in the real world.

“Although social scientists, engineers and physical scientists have studied the World Wide Web as an entity in and of itself for some time, there is now a growing group of social scientists who are learning how to use the World Wide Web as a tool for research rather than as a subject of research,” said Thomas Dietz, Michigan State University researcher and director of the university’s Environmental Science and Policy Program.

Today, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago, a panel of scientists organized by Dietz planned to examine various aspects of using the World Wide Web as a tool for research.

University of Michigan political science professor Arthur Lupia was to kick off the session by discussing how new virtual communities are improving surveys and transforming social science.

“Lupia is one of the world’s leaders related to survey research on the Web,” Dietz said. “His focus is on learning to use the Web as a way of soliciting people’s opinions and getting factual information from them via online surveys.”

Adam Henry, a doctoral fellow in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University’s Center for International Development, was scheduled next to discuss measuring social networks using the World Wide Web.

“Henry is developing very innovative ways to identify networks that are actual face-to-face relationships by tracking evidence streams on the Web,” Dietz said. “In other words, it’s not simply about who’s connected to whom on Facebook or Twitter, but who’s doing research with whom in the real world. It’s using the virtual world to identify things that are going on in the real world rather than using the virtual world simply to look at the virtual world.”

William Bainbridge, program director for the National Science Foundation’s Human-Centered Computing Cluster, was to rounded out the presentation with a discussion on the role of social science in creating virtual worlds.

“Bainbridge is studying group formation and social change over time in virtual worlds such as ‘World of Warcraft’ and ‘Second Life’ to inform and build on what sociologists have studied for 150 years,”

Dietz said. “He contends that virtual worlds are excellent laboratories for observing and prototyping new social forms that can later be applied to the outside world.”

Following the presentations, National Science Foundation sociology director Patricia White was to discuss implications of this research related to the future of social science.

 

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– by Val Osowski

Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.

For MSU news on the Web, go to news.msu.edu.

Contextual analysis, content and Sphere

Sphere’s content widget on mainstream media websites has driven traffic to this blog on many occasions when I’ve posted on breaking, or hot, news. Sometimes the post of mine is peripherally related to the article that drove the traffic, but not about the exact story. That makes sense now I see where Sphere is a big proponent of contextual analysis, rather than behavioral analysis, to sort content.

Here’s an interesting post on the debate between the sorting methods on Sphere’s blog.

From the link:

For the past year, we at Sphere have been waging a polite and respectful war on our cousins in the space, powering related content using behavioral analysis.  We’ve believed and maintained that behavioral analysis (ie: forming relationships based on repeat user connections) cannot compare to contextual analysis of the content, mainly because readers don’t always group their reading so systematically by topic.  I blogged about this last year and our opinions/learnings haven’t much changed.  We think behavioral matching is a cool technology and extremely valuable in other applications – such as commerce.  I love the feature on Amazon.com where it tells me that 64% of users bought the item I’m looking at, 24% bought another one and still, 14% bought a third.  It makes my shopping experience more informed and leaves me feeling better about my purchases.  Likewise, it’s helpful, when buying an iPhone, for instance, to know that most previous purchasers also bought the charger set and plastic case.  Content, though, is a different story.

Nanny state in action — Oklahoma-style

Well, it’s really nanny city because it is just Norman, and more than nannyism this really just violates the U.S. legal stance of innocent until proven guilty. I’m betting this bit of stupidity will end up costing the city of Norman a boat-load of legal fees and a dumping of the asinine law after the first court battle.

Fools in the city council mean wasted city funds.

From the link:

A new ordinance unanimously approved Tuesday by the Norman City Council will require residents to prove, in a court of law, they did not litter, rather than having the city attempt to prove they did.

The council unanimously approved the ordinance that holds businesses and individuals accountable for unlawfully discarded trash or litter.

City of Norman Utilities Director Ken Komiske said the littering ordinance targets those who discard trash inside, or next to, common dumpsters used by several businesses. Business owners on Campus Corner asked city officials to help them find a solution to the overflow of trash surrounding shared dumpsters on Campus Corner, he said.

Peanut Corp. of America files Chapter 7

Nutsack Stewart Parnell’s company, Peanut Corp. of America, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. In case you don’t know your bankruptcy chapters, seven is total liquidation. Peanut Corp. of America is shut down and will poison no more.

I referred to Parnell as a nutsack for episodes like this:

In his hometown in central Virginia, Parnell is known as a respected businessman. But the image of a benevolent peanut tycoon contrasts markedly with what investigators said occurred inside the processing plants of Peanut Corp. of America, which filed for bankruptcy Friday. Worried about profits, they said, Parnell fired off jaw-dropping e-mails to employees amid reports that salmonella had been detected in his products: “Turn them loose.”

And from the same link, this:

For nearly five minutes before being dismissed, Parnell listened Wednesday as U.S. lawmakers described him as greedy and uncaring, indifferent to the impact his beleaguered business has had on the lives of so many. He repeatedly invoked his constitutional right not to say anything that could be used against him.

Parnell isn’t talking now, not to reporters or congressmen who pelted him with questions about whether his Georgia plant was responsible for 600 illnesses and nine deaths across the country. Nearly 200 food makers who used or sold Parnell’s products are listed on a recall of more than 1,900 items, making this one of the nation’s largest recalls.

And here’s more details on the bankruptcy filing:

The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak is going out of business. The Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Virginia Friday, the latest bad news for the company that has been accused of producing tainted peanut products that may have reached everyone from poor school children to disaster victims.

“It’s regrettable, but it’s inevitable with the events of last month,” said Andrew S. Goldstein, a bankruptcy lawyer in Roanoke, Va., who filed the petition.

The salmonella outbreak was traced to the company’s plant in Blakely, Ga., where inspectors found roaches, mold and a leaking roof. A second plant in Plainview, Texas was shuttered this week after preliminary tests came back positive for possible salmonella contamination. So far, the outbreak has been suspected of sickening more than 630 people and may have caused nine deaths. It also has led to more than 2,000 product recalls, one of the largest recalls in U.S. history.

Companies file Chapter 7 to liquidate their assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors. A trustee is automatically appointed to oversee the wind down, as opposed to a Chapter 11 filing that gives a company breathing room while it tries to reduce its debts and continue in business. The company said in the filing that its debt and assets both ranged between $1 million and $10 million.

The board had considered a Chapter 11 bankruptcy but decided on an outright liquidation. It said in a court filing that the recalls had been “extremely devastating” to the company’s financial condition.

Halliburton settles bribery charge

KBR, back when it was still part of Halliburton, bribed Nigerian officials during the construction of a natural gas plant. Halliburton recently settled with the U.S. government in the case to the tune of almost $560M. It still faces charged in the EU and Africa.

Here’s an EnerMax post of mine from this week on the settlement:

Oil and gas services company, Halliburton, settled charges that one of its divisions engaged in bribing Nigerian officials. The settlement came to a $559 million payout to the Justice Department and the SEC. This figure is the largest paid by any U.S. company facing bribery charges.

The charges stemmed from the construction of a gas plant in Nigeria. The investigation began back in 2003 and the matter is still being pursued in Europe and Nigeria so Halliburton still faces potential additional fines and possible sanctions.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. government’s case received a boost in September when former Halliburton executive Albert J. “Jack” Stanley agreed to plead guilty to orchestrating $180 million in bribes to senior Nigerian officials. Mr. Cheney promoted Mr. Stanley to run KBR in 1998.The charges against Mr. Stanley relate to work done by former Halliburton unit Kellogg, Brown & Root, which was spun off in 2007 into a separate company, KBR Inc. Halliburton agreed to pay penalties stemming from the case even after KBR was independent.

It is unclear whether the proposed settlement will affect KBR’s ability to land future government contracts. A KBR spokeswoman said it would discuss the impact of the proposed settlement in February, when it files its earnings.

News of the large settlement comes on the heels of Halliburton reporting a 43 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings. The settlement includes a payment of $382 million on behalf of KBR to the U.S. Justice Department and $177 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The charges against KBR originated during the construction of a large liquefied natural gas plant near Port Harcourt on the Nigerian Coast. This project began in 1996 and ran through the mid-2000s. The gas plant was the largest industrial investment ever made in Africa at that time.

The previous U.S. record for a bribery investigation also involved the oil and gas industry. Oil-services firm Baker Hughes was fined $44 million in 2007 for improper payments in Kazakhstan.

Obama, truth commissions, rendition and transparency

Here is a long, but interesting, roundup of opinion on how the Obama administration is handling the misdeeds, and possible criminal behavior, of the Bush 43 administration, and transparency in the DOJ and counterterrorism policy.

All of this will be points of discussion for a long while.

Bush team members will have a domestic axe over their collective heads until something definitive is worked out by the Obama administration regarding war crimes that were committed. These same officials will always have an international axe dangling loosely. I’m guessing quite a few can’t travel to a number of European countries lest they get nabbed and hauled to the Hague for trial.

Transparency, the Department of Justice and counterterrorism policy will always be a politcal football regardless which party is in power and setting policy.

If these subjects interest you it’s worth the time to hit this link and read Tobin Harshaw’s extensive roundup of bloggy goodness. Lots of opinions and good arguments, and if you’re really into the topics there are links galore to even more of the same.

Here’s Harshaw’s lede:

While President Obama has made it pretty clear he’d like to move on, the idea of prosecuting members of the Bush administration for its counterterrorism programs and other alleged misdeeds refuses to die. Rep. John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee, has been making noises about investigations and criminal charges for a while and now Patrick Leahy, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for a “truth commission” — a “a person or group of people universally recognized as fair minded, and without axes to grind” with a “straightforward mission … to find the truth.”

Well, before we set out in search of axeless Washingtonians, a rare breed indeed, let’s discuss all the options. Leahy’s idea is probably along the lines of what Jack Balkin of Yale Law School recommended in a Times Op-Ed article last month: “create presidential commissions and Congressional oversight hearings on various subjects: detention and interrogation practices, extraordinary rendition, reform of military commissions and reform of surveillance practices. These different commissions have different objects and functions; a single truth commission could not begin to address them all.”

For some on the left, this is soft stuff. Sharing the page with Balkin, Dahlia Lithwick wrote that “Some commentators have suggested that any such truth commission should promise immunity or a pardon in exchange for truthful testimony, but I believe that if it becomes clear that laws were broken, or that war crimes were committed, a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate further.”

Blackwater by any other name …

… is still Blackwater to me.

From the link:

Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name.

Blackwater officials said Friday its family of two dozen businesses will now operate under the name Xe, pronounced like the letter “z.”

The decision comes as part of a rebranding effort that grew more urgent following a September 2007 shooting in Iraq that left at least a dozen civilians dead.

Texas may allow open-carry

And it’s about time to change that law. Open-carry of handguns — a handgun clearly displayed in a holster — is a great deterrentto crime. You can get a concealed handgun license (CHL) right now, but if you are armed in public without the license you’ll get ticketed.

CHLs have their place and utility, but legal open-carry for registered weapons shouldn’t add any more danger to the public and maybe just a little more safety. I’m betting your everyday jackass isn’t going to do something stupid if someone in the vicinity is openly armed.

Hopefully this bill gets drafted and passed.

From the link:

Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas — are considering legislation that would allow people to carry handguns openly in a holster.

These generally Second Amendment-friendly states are among the last six holdouts against open carrying of guns. Openly carrying handguns is legal in most states, even those that ban concealed firearms. New York and Florida also bar openly carrying handguns.

Also from the link:

• In Texas, Ian McCarthy, a student who chairs the Texas Open Carry Work Group, started the online petition in late 2007. He says a concealed gun is uncomfortable during hot Texas summers, takes longer to draw in self-defense and won’t deter a criminal.

“If a criminal sees you’re armed, he’s not going to mess with you,” McCarthy says.

Texas Republican Rep. Debbie Riddle has asked the state’s legislative council to draft an open-carry bill. She wants to see how other gun-rights bills fare, particularly one to allow concealed weapons on college campuses.”

Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, who sponsored the college campus bill, opposes open carry. “I think that’s harkening too far back to the Wild West,” he says.

Gregg withdrawal postmortem

I’m not really sure why the GOP is excited about Gregg’s flip-flop on wanting the Commerce Secretary position in Obama’s cabinet. Pretty much every source confirms he lobbied for the job, and it’s very clear he hand was forced by the party apparatus to withdraw. And this is a victory?

I’m thinking a party disliked by a majority of Americans may be well on its way to being reviled and rejected. The base is rallied once again, but the base is tiny and dwindling.

Here’s some analysis of the situation and opinion on where both Obama and the GOP go from here:

From Politico:

Judd Gregg was all but dead to his Republican colleagues just a few days ago, another collaborator drinking the Obama Kool-Aid.

But the New Hampshire senator’s surprise decision to remove himself from consideration as President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary Thursday has provided the GOP with a new rallying cry, and a new hero against a foe who just a few weeks ago seemed almost unassailable.

In a way, it’s all a testament to just how far the Republican Party have fallen; what passes for victory now is an embarrassing flip-flop by an admired GOP senator and the passage of a massive economic recovery bill that most Republicans on the Hill oppose bitterly. When Obama’s stimulus bill clears the House today, Republicans will celebrate by pointing to how much House Democrats did without them – and then hope against hope that voters don’t notice if the economy improves as a result.

From Ben Smith at Politico:

But Emanuel said that they recognized they had overdone their initial outreach to Republicans and had offered “a sharp message for the last week.”For now, the hard-charging chief of staff added, “He has an open hand, but he has a very firm handshake.”

Translation: Yes, the president will continue to do obligatory outreach to the GOP, but he’s not going to be burned again by an out-of-power and toothless minority for the sake of appearances.

Still, a key question emerging from this week is whether Obama will be stronger and more popular, or weaker and less popular; and whether the GOP has gained either leverage or a stronger outlook for the midterms. Neither is entirely clear yet, but it strikes me that the White House still has the strong hand, and the GOP — aside from three senators — remains a very weak minority.

Why Gregg should be embarrassed from Michael S. Roth

Reading the announcement of Senator Gregg’s embarrassing withdrawal from consideration for Secretary of Commerce, I began thinking about the temptation to maintain one’s purity by staying away from people one doesn’t always agree with. In the case of the would-be Secretary of Commerce the issue might have simply been Republican pressure to close ranks around unthinking obstructionism (the old fashioned way to avoid responsibility), or perhaps it was just that he discovered a principle “in his heart” that he just didn’t realize he had when he lobbied for the post. The tendency to avoid working with people who might not share your ideas is having catastrophic ramifications that extend far beyond Washington.

In a period of national crisis patriotism means working with people with whom you do not always agree. It means sacrificing ideological purity in order to become more effective at working toward a common purpose. Patriotism or purity? We need leaders who see the common purpose and will pragmatically work to get us out of this ever deepening crisis.

From Andrew Sullivan:

The great tragedy of the Gregg withdrawal is that this was precisely what he had been selected to achieve. The chance of real entitlement reform – the one thing that can indeed put the US back on a path to fiscal sanity – is real in the first year of an Obama presidency. But it will require bipartisanship; and if a decent fiscal conservative like Gregg is simply forced by his own party to have no role in it, then it will not happen. My sense is that this is indeed why he felt it necessary to withdraw.

The GOP is not interested in the long term fiscal health of this country. Their reckless stewardship over the last eight years proves that. They are not interested in helping this new president, who has done everything he can to create a civil atmosphere, to use this moment to prevent the worst in the short term and move to improve matters in the long term. Instead, they spin.

Friday video fun — news online circa 1981

A report from some of the earliest days of consumer computer connectivity …

(Hat tip: smartsavvy)

Twitter etiquette

Five tips from CIO.com. Man, this feels like Twitter week to me. There’s an unusual amount of Twitter news going on with the awards program and everything else, and I’m much more in tune with all the news because my tweets started being syndicated through Newstex’s NewsTwits.

I used Twitter first during the presidential debates after C-Span invited me to join in their new media coverage of the event and tweets were a major part of audience reactions. 

After that I didn’t do much with the app before this week when my NewsTwit feed went into effect and I’m sorry I’ve held out so long. In a short few days I’ve really learned to appreciate the utility of Twitter. Just a couple of days ago I blogged I couldn’t see the business use of Twitter, and now I do. The old proverbial light-bulb and all that.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/davidkonline

From the CIO.com link:

2. Be Up Front About Your Twitter Aspirations

 

As the divide between our consumer and professional lives blurs at the hands of social technologies, the content of your tweets can take on a whole new meaning, especially if you work at a traditional corporation that doesn’t acknowledge this reality.

As such, you might want to make it clear who you represent and why you’re on Twitter. Some people put messages on their Twitter background (which can be customized under the “settings” tab), noting that the opinions expressed in their tweets don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. They also might provide a link that explains with greater detail why they’re on Twitter. While this can allow you some leeway, it doesn’t necessarily mean your employer or your followers won’t call you out on some tweets.

“There’s a real difficulty there,” Boyd says. “For people who are employed by companies, to some extent, they’re always a representative of the company. It’s almost impossible to divorce yourself from that. They need to figure out where they can draw line, and for some people where that line is is different.”

In the end, the more up front you are in your profile description about who you represent and what you plan to talk about, the more you’ll allow yourself some cover, says Kirsten Dixson ( @kirstendixson), a reputation management and online identity expert. But that also means you shouldn’t get upset with people if they tweet something that’s in line with their stated Twitter goals.

“They might have things that are off-putting, that are overtly religious or political and not in your own views,” she says. “But if they’re up front about that, they’ve been fair.”

GOP sees, shoots, foot

The Grand Old Party is bereft of decent ideas, is morally bankrupt and is transparently hypocritical to an embarrassing extent. The party was soundly trounced at the polls not three and half months ago and this is the response.

Attacking a president who swept into office with a massive portion of the vote doesn’t seem like the path resurgence to me. Maybe the Republican braintrust knows something none of the rest of do, or more likely they just have head-in-the-ass syndrome.

From the Daily Dish link:

This much is now clear. Their clear and open intent is to do all they can, however they can, to sabotage the new administration (and the economy to boot). They want failure. Even now. Even after the last eight years. Even in a recession as steeply dangerous as this one. There are legitimate debates to be had; and then there is the cynicism and surrealism of total political war. We now should have even less doubt about what kind of people they are. And the mountain of partisan vitriol Obama will have to climb every day of the next four or eight years.

Dark comets …

… sound damn scary.

From KurzweilAI.net –

‘Dark’ comets may pose threat to Earth

New Scientist Space, Feb. 11, 2009 Dark comets may be prowling the solar system, posing a deadly threat to Earth. They are formed when reflective water ice has evaporated away, leaving behind an organic crust that only reflects a small fraction of light.   Read Original Article>>

MedTech Investing Conference — VC for medical devices

A release from today:

MedTech Investing Conference (8th Annual) May 6-7, 2009

Uniting Venture Capitalists to Identify Investment Opportunities in the Multi-Billion Dollar Medical Device Market

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. and MASSAPEQUA, N.Y., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ — The equity markets and the global economy have been turned upside down, leaving many young medical device companies and private equity investors to ponder how to ensure success in a down market.  For venture capitalists, the “New Economy” is having a severe impact on the viability of today’s medical device startups, as traditional portfolio company management tactics have to be adjusted to accommodate changing market conditions.  For the startup, raising capital in a stagnant market and having a longer time to exit is at the forefront of CEOs minds.

Building device companies in the current environment can only occur if the community as a whole gathers to address these issues with strategies to carry startups through this unstable period.  Presented by International Business Forum (IBF) and LifeScience Alley, the 8th Annual MedTech Investing Conference May 6-7th at the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis, MN, provides a unique opportunity to facilitate deals, share information, and address concerns; as this is the premier event for medical device investors and entrepreneurs from around the nation.

2009 Risk Reduction Strategies for Medical Device Companies

The role that venture capitalists play in preserving success for young companies in a volatile market is critical, as limited cash flow and burn rates directly affect the performance.  How will today’s VCs continue to nurture and build emerging growth companies in a down economy?  The panel entitled “The Lightning Round” will highlight William Harrington of Three Arch Partners, Nathan Every of Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Richard Ferrari of De Novo Ventures, Peter McNerney of Thomas McNerney Partners, and Thomas D. Weldon of Accuitive Medical Venture Partners.  They will address a variety of candid questions surrounding the current investing landscape and issues relevant to portfolio management.  This panel is scheduled for 4:30pm on Wednesday, May 6th.  To learn more about the event and to register, visit the newly launched website www.medtechconference.com.

Event Sponsors & Exhibitors Include: Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Capital Advisors Group, RBC Capital Markets, Minnetronix and RCRI, Inc.

About LifeScience Alley(TM)

LifeScience Alley(TM) is the largest trade association serving the life sciences in the Upper Midwest. It represents more than 600 member companies, organizations and institutions of all sizes that devote their efforts to the research, development and commercialization of the life sciences. LifeScience Alley acts as the industry’s central resource for fostering innovation, offering education and creating consensus. It offers members unique opportunities to network and collaborate and provides them with a strong, unified voice at the state and federal level. Members hail from all life science industry sectors, including medical device, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, health care providers and insurers, agricultural and industrial biotechnology, and renewable energy.  For more information, visit: www.lifesciencealley.org

About IBF*International Business Forum, Inc.

IBF*International Business Forum, Inc. is a leading presenter of venture capital, technology innovation and private equity conferences in the United States. For 20 years, IBF has been presenting conferences which unite investors, emerging growth companies and corporations. IBF produces conferences on the following venture capital subjects: Venture Capital Investing, Early Stage Investing, Cleantech Investing, Corporate Venturing & Strategic Partnering, Biotech & Life Sciences Investing, Medical Devices and Healthcare Technologies Investing, Consumer Medicine, Tech Transfer Investing, and Nanotechnology Investing.  To see a full listing of IBF’s conferences please visit: www.IBFConferences.com

Source: International Business Forum, Inc.
   
Web Site:  http://www.ibfconferences.com/

Arrests in Phelps case

This is among the worst use of police resources possible. Nothing more than moron sheriff jerking off and seeking cheap publicity.

All this does is provide yet another “exhibit A” on why US drug laws are asinine, illustrate how the scare tactics used against drugs are largely bullshit and expose just how much taxpayer money is wasted fighting a non-crime due to stupid politics and worse enforcement of the bad laws on the books.

From the link:

Authorities in the South Carolina county where Michael Phelps was photographed smoking from a marijuana pipe have been arresting people as they seek to make a case against the superstar swimmer, lawyers for two arrested people said Thursday.

Attorneys Joseph McCulloch and Dick Harpootlian told The Associated Press they each represent a client charged with possession of marijuana who was questioned about the party Phelps attended near the University of South Carolina campus in November.

The lawyers said the two clients were renters at the house where the party apparently took place. Harpootlian said his client was at the party, but didn’t see Phelps smoke marijuana, while McCulloch said his client wasn’t there. The two have since moved and were arrested after police executed a search warrant at their new home and accused them of having a small amount of marijuana there.

“After they arrested him, they didn’t ask him, ‘Where did you get the marijuana?’ or ‘Who sold it to you?’ Almost all the questions they asked him were about Michael Phelps,” Harpootlian said.

I think an easy summation on this whole situation is Sheriff Leon Lott=douchebag extraordinaire.

Also from the link:

Lott has said Phelps should not get a break because of his fame. Harpootlian said that he believes police are being overzealous.

“I find it amazing the justification is they don’t want to treat him any differently just because he is a celebrity, and he is being treated far differently than any other Joe Blow who might have smoked marijuana four or five months ago.”

Gen G — the latest generation brand

Generation G isn’t about an age group to market to, it’s about an attitude.

From the link:

There’s a brand new generation for online marketers to adapt to.

This time, however, the generation is not defined by date of birth. This generation is defined by repulsion at the corporate and political greed that has plummeted much of the world into economic doldrums.

In other words, Generation “G” is all about generosity and sickened by greed.

TrendWatching.com did a giant report on Generation G, because they see it as the most vital business and marketing trend given the current economic climate. And given the emerging social media culture, I don’t see us going back in the other direction when things get better.

GENERATION G captures the growing importance of ‘generosity’ as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy—and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care—the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers. ~ TrendWatching.com

(Hat tip — smartsavvy)

DC to get a representative?

Looks likely. This is something the GOP has long fought under the assumption any elected official from Washington D.C. will be a Democrat. Of course D.C. residents have long — rightly — claimed they toiled under a taxation without representation condition.

I’m guessing with Democrats in charge of Pennsylvania Avenue and Congress this gets approved.

From the link:

A Senate committee voted 11-1 Wednesday to give the District a full voting seat in Congress, adding momentum to legislation that would end decades of frustration for residents of the nation’s capital. Backers declared that they have enough support pass the measure, while critics expressed concern about its constitutionality.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, said he is confident that the measure granting the District a House seat will win the 60 votes necessary to override a filibuster.

“This year, the 111th Congress has the opportunity to make history… by passing this legislation,” Mr. Lieberman said.

Major Mojave Desert solar project

From KurzweilAI.net – Looks like Southern California Edison is going solar in a big way with this Mojave Desert installation.

California Utility Looks to Mojave Desert Project for Solar Power

New York Times, Feb. 11, 2009 Southern California Edison, the largest utility in California, has signed a deal to buy 1,300 megawatts of electricity (enough to power about 845,000 homes) starting in 2013, using solar power from seven immense arrays of mirrors, towers and turbines to be installed in the Mojave Desert.   Read Original Article>>

Satellite collision over Siberia

Wow. I bet we see more of this as space becomes more cluttered. We may end up cutting ourselves off from space travel simply by filling the geoorbit with inert space trash.

From the link:

Two big communications satellites collided in the first-ever crash of two intact spacecraft in orbit, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds and posing a slight risk to the international space station.

NASA said it will take weeks to determine the full magnitude of the crash, which occurred nearly 500 miles over Siberia on Tuesday.

“We knew this was going to happen eventually,” said Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA believes any risk to the space station and its three astronauts is low. It orbits about 270 miles below the collision course. There also should be no danger to the space shuttle set to launch with seven astronauts on Feb. 22, officials said, but that will be re-evaluated in the coming days.

The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be nonfunctioning. The Russian satellite was out of control, Matney said.

The Iridium craft weighed 1,235 pounds, and the Russian craft nearly a ton.

Here’s a few space junk facts from the article:

• At the beginning of this year there were roughly 17,000 pieces of manmade debris orbiting Earth
• From this collision — As for pieces the size of micrometers, the count will likely be in the thousands
• Litter in orbit has increased in recent years, in part because of the deliberate breakups of old satellites.
• Iridium satellites are unusual because their orbit is so low and they move so fast.

Stimulus vote and the GOP

Whatever else you might want to say about the stimulus — and there’s plenty to say — the Republicans completely blew it with an idiotic “hard line” stand against the Obama administration’s plan.

A quick sample from the WSJ:

Many of the business tax provisions were added to the stimulus legislation in the Senate in an effort to attract Republican votes. President Barack Obama wants bipartisan support for the plan and was dealt a setback when no Republicans voted for the House version of the plan two weeks ago.

But when only three Republican senators voted for the Senate version of the bill Tuesday, Democrats slashed the business tax proposals in an effort to bring the total cost of the bill under $789 billion.

See what happened there? When the GOP thumbed its collective nose at the entire process and decided now is the time to take that long, long overdue fiscal stand, it found its ideas left in the bag. When you don’t participate in the conversation, it’s hard to complain when your input gets dumped.

This is not a winning strategy.

Here’s David Frum at NewMajority on the topic.

From the link:

The stimulus bill has passed Congress with almost no Republican votes: 3 in the Senate, 0 in the House.

Republicans hung tough, and the result is a bill that reflects Democratic goals – and pays off Democratic constituencies.

Probably that was the way the bill was going to turn out no matter what. If so, Republicans did not pay a big price for shunning the process.

But there’s a difference between “not paying a big price” and “winning an actual victory.”

These kinds of party line fights may energize Republicans in Congress and mobilize the dwindling Republican base. But in the aftermath, there is nothing but loss.

Between the changes to unemployment compensation – and Medicaid – and welfare – this bill adds up to the most important reshaping of the American welfare state since the middle 1960s. Republican views were not represented, Republican voices went unheard.

In consequence, some of the changes turned out worse than they had to (especially welfare) – and those changes that were positive (a federal subsidy to help laid-off workers continue to buy private-sector health insurance) are received by voters as purely Democratic achievements.

Twelve job searching tips …

… from CIO.com.

The job market is tough right now. There’s a financial crisis and unemployment is high and rising. This means going beyond the usual steps when looking for work.

Here’s an infomative article from Mark Cummuta at CIO.com with twelve secrets for job hunting in a recession.

From the link:

I’ve previously summarized the key secrets I use in my own job search in an article I wrote last year, 10 Secrets for Searching for a Job During A Recession. This article has been seeing a significant increase in traffic lately, and I would imagine that is because more and more people are being impacted by the continued downward spiral of our global economy.

Since writing that article, I have made two more observations about the job market – making that “12 Secrets” now – and have adjusted my own job search strategies to improve my odds.  Specifically, I have increased my “time-to-delivery requirements” (how fast I respond to an opportunity), and I have expanded my marketing efforts.

 

11. Improve your time-to-delivery.

Job opportunities have been pulled off the market for many reasons over the past year. My personal experience shows that when faced with making the final decision on even their ideal candidate, most employers have not been willing to pull the hiring trigger.

But the market has shifted in 2009. Now, I am amazed not by how many jobs are being pulled off the market, but rather how quickly they are disappearing once posted. For the past several weeks hiring firms are posting positions again and are willing to make a hiring decision again. However, they have so many candidates available, and so many applicants applying, that opportunities disappear before I even get a chance to apply. I’ve spoken with recruiters who have apologized that a position was still online, even a mere 48 hours after posting, and that they were not taking any more resumes.

Nanotech improving concrete

The latest in nanotechnology improving our lives.

The release:

 

Viscosity-enhancing nanomaterials may double service life of concrete

		IMAGE: The barely visible blue-green area at the top of this X-ray image of concrete with the NIST nanoadditive shows that very few chloride ions (in green) penetrate into the concrete…. Click here for more information.

Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are patenting a method that is expected to double the service life of concrete. The key, according to a new paper*, is a nano-sized additive that slows down penetration of chloride and sulfate ions from road salt, sea water and soils into the concrete. A reduction in ion transport translates to reductions in both maintenance costs and the catastrophic failure of concrete structures. The new technology could save billions of dollars and many lives.

Concrete has been around since the Romans, and it is time for a makeover. The nation’s infrastructure uses concrete for millions of miles of roadways and 600,000 bridges, many of which are in disrepair. In 2007, 25 percent of U.S. bridges were rated as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Damaged infrastructure also directly affects large numbers of Americans’ own budgets. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that Americans spend $54 billion each year to repair damages caused by poor road conditions.

Infiltrating chloride and sulfate ions cause internal structural damage over time that leads to cracks and weakens the concrete.

Past attempts to improve the lifetime of concrete have focused on producing denser, less porous concretes, but unfortunately these formulations have a greater tendency to crack. NIST engineers took a different approach, setting out to double the material’s lifetime with a project called viscosity enhancers reducing diffusion in concrete technology (VERDICT). Rather than change the size and density of the pores in concrete, they reasoned, it would be better to change the viscosity of the solution in the concrete at the microscale to reduce the speed at which chlorides and sulfates enter the concrete. “Swimming through a pool of honey takes longer than making it through a pool of water,” engineer Dale Bentz says.

They were inspired by additives the food processing industry uses to thicken food and even tested out a popular additive called xanthum gum that thickens salad dressings and sauces and gives ice cream its texture.

Studying a variety of additives, engineers determined that the size of the additive’s molecule was critical to serving as a diffusion barrier. Larger molecules such as cellulose ether and xanthum gum increased viscosity, but did not cut diffusion rates. Smaller molecules—less than 100 nanometers—slowed ion diffusion. Bentz explains, “When additive molecules are large but present in a low concentration, it is easy for the chloride ions to go around them, but when you have a higher concentration of smaller molecules increasing the solution viscosity, it is more effective in impeding diffusion of the ions.”

The NIST researchers have demonstrated that the additives can be blended directly into the concrete with current chemical admixtures, but that even better performance is achieved when the additives are mixed into the concrete by saturating absorbant, lightweight sand. Research continues on other materials as engineers seek to improve this finding by reducing the concentration and cost of the additive necessary to double the concrete’s service life.

 

###

 

A non-provisional patent application was filed in September, and the technology is now available for licensing from the U.S. government; the NIST Office of Technology Partnerships can be contacted for further details.

* D.P. Bentz, M.A. Peltz, K.A. Snyder and J.M. Davis. VERDICT: Viscosity Enhancers Reducing Diffusion in Concrete Technology. Concrete International. 31 (1), 31-36, January 2009.

February 2009 media tips from Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The release:

February 2009 Story Tips

(Story Tips Archive)

Story ideas from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. To arrange for an interview with a researcher, please contact the Communications and External Relations staff member identified at the end of each tip.

MICROSCOPY—-STEM in liquid . . . . . .

Researchers at ORNL and Vanderbilt University have unveiled a new technique for imaging whole cells in liquid using a scanning transmission electron microscope. Electron microscopy is the most important tool for imaging objects at the nano-scale–the size of molecules and objects in cells. But electron microscopy requires a high vacuum, which has prevented imaging of samples in liquid, such as biological cells.” The new technique – liquid STEM – uses a micro-fluidic device with electron transparent windows to enable the imaging of cells in liquid. A team led by Niels de Jonge imaged individual molecules in a cell, with significantly improved resolution and speed compared with existing imaging methods. “Liquid STEM has the potential to become a versatile tool for imaging cellular processes on the nanometer scale,” said de Jonge. “It will potentially be of great relevance for the development of molecular probes and for the understanding of the interaction of viruses with cells.” The work was recently described in the on-line Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

BIOLOGY—-Time-saving tool . . . . . .

Scientists studying human health, agriculture and the environment have a powerful new tool to help them better understand microbial processes and how they relate to ecosystems. The GeoChip consolidates into one analysis something that using traditional methods would require dozens of tests and take possibly years to complete, according to co-developer Chris Schadt of ORNL’s Biosciences Division. This lab on a chip features more than 24,000 gene probes that target more than 150 functional gene groups involved in biochemical, ecological and environmental processes. The GeoChip is especially useful for bioremediation of sediments and soils, determining the role of microbes in soil and learning how microbial processes are connected to ecosystem responses to human-induced environmental changes such as temperature, moisture and carbon dioxide. This research was funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research.

 

CYBERSPACE—-Thwarting threats . . . . . .

Colonies of cyber robots with unique missions can in near real time detect network intruders on computers that support U.S. infrastructure. These “cybots” created for an ORNL software program called UNTAME (Ubiquitous Network Transient Autonomous Mission Entities) may be especially useful for helping government agencies deter, defend, protect against and defeat cyber-attacks. “What scares us the most isn’t what we can see, but rather what we can’t see,” said Joe Trien of the lab’s Computational Sciences & Engineering Division. “A coordinated cyber attack could disrupt one or more of U.S. critical infrastructures, and these attacks can reach across the world at the speed of light.” Trien led a team of researchers that developed UNTAME.

 

COMPUTING—-First petascale projects . . . . . .

The National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has granted early access to a number of projects to test Jaguar, which has peak performance of 1.6 petaflops and is the most powerful computer in the world for open science. The “Petascale Early Science” period will run approximately 6 months and consist initially of 20 projects, said NCCS Director of Science Doug Kothe. The early phase period seeks to deliver high-impact science results and advancements; harden the system for production; and embrace a broad user community to use the system, Kothe said. Proposals include: modeling to better understand climate change; energy storage and battery technology; cellulose conversion to ethanol; combustion research for more efficient automobile engines; and high-temperature superconductors for more efficient transmission of electricity. Fusion, nuclear energy, materials science, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and carbon sequestration also will be explored. “These early simulations on Jaguar will also help us harden the system for a broader collection of projects later in the year,” said Kothe.

A brilliant bank bailout plan …

… from Andy Kessler. Andrew Sullivan called this idea “wacky,” but I like it. Certainly not all that wacky — just a way outside the box.

From the link:

Now with TARP 2.0, renamed a friendly Financial Stability Plan, the idea is to entice private capital to buy these bad loans and derivatives in an effort to set the “market price.” But Mr. Geithner hasn’t solved the dilemma of banks not wanting to sell and become insolvent. Moreover, no one is going to buy these securities ahead of Mr. Geithner’s action with the “full resources of the government” to bring down mortgage payments and reduce mortgage interest rates. Lower mortgage payments means mortgage-backed securities would be worth even less. Six months to a year from now, big banks may still be weak and the ugly “n” word of nationalization will be back.

Mr. Geithner should instead use his “stress test” and nationalize the dead banks via the FDIC — but only for a day or so.

First, strip out all the toxic assets and put them into a holding tank inside the Treasury. Then inject $300 billion in fresh equity for both Citi and Bank of America. Create 10 billion new shares of each of the companies to replace the old ones. The book value of each share could be $30. Very quickly, a new board of directors should be created and a new management team hired. Here’s the tricky part: Who owns the shares? Politics will kill a nationalized bank. So spin them out immediately.

Some $6 trillion in income taxes were paid by individuals in 2006, 2007 and 2008. On a pro-forma basis, send out those 10 billion shares of each bank to taxpayers. They paid for the recapitalization.

Each taxpayer would get about $100 worth of stock for each $1,000 of taxes paid. Of course, each taxpayer has the ability to sell these shares on the open market, maybe at $40, maybe $20, maybe $80. It depends on management, their vision, how much additional capital they are willing to raise, the dividend they declare, etc. Meanwhile, the toxic assets sitting inside the Treasury will have residual value and the proceeds from their eventual sale, I believe, will more than offset the capital injected. That would benefit all citizens, not the managements and shareholders who blew up the banking system in the first place.

Watch out for fake virus warnings

I’m betting most readers of this blog know about fake virus warnings, and worse fake pop-up windows — quick hint, don’t zap them with the “x” on the window itself, drop down to the taskbar, right click and choose “close” — and how they can lead to malware or even betray that you already have a malware infection.

If you’re not aware of this insidious Windows problem, take the time to check this article out.

From the link:

Michael Vana knew something was up when he saw the pop-up from “Antivirus 2009″ in the middle of his screen. The former Northwest Airlines avionics technician guessed that the dire warning of a system infection was fake, but when he clicked on the X to close the window, it expanded to fill his screen. To get rid of it, he had to shut down his PC.

Sound familiar? Dirty tricks like these, designed to get you to install and buy fake antivirus products, are more common than ever. (For advice on how to proceed if you’ve installed a phony antivirus on your PC, see “Antivirus 2009: How to Remove Fake AV Software.”) But while you might recognize such warnings as bogus, you might not know that the fake warning could be a red alert about an underlying bot malware infection. Knowing the difference is key.

“It’s not something you even blink at anymore,” says Christopher Boyd, senior director of malware research for communications security company FaceTime Communications, of requests for help in dealing with these warning pop-ups.

Text of Geithner’s remarks

If you’re interested in the text of Tim Geithner’s remarks on stimulus part two yesterday, here you go:

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced the government’s plan to revitalize the financial sector. Here are his prepared remarks, as released by the Treasury.

As President Obama said in his inaugural address, our economic strength is derived from “the doers, the makers of things.”

The innovators who create and expand enterprises; the workers who provide life to companies; this is what drives economic growth.

The financial system is central to this process. Banks and the credit markets transform the earnings and savings of American workers into the loans that finance a first home, a new car or a college education. And this system provides the capital and credit necessary to build a company around a new idea.

Without credit, economies cannot grow at their potential, and right now, critical parts of our financial system are damaged. The credit markets that are essential for small businesses and consumers are not working. Borrowing costs have risen sharply for state and local governments, for students trying to pay for college, and for businesses large and small. Many banks are reducing lending, and across the country they are tightening the terms of loans.

Oil and gas windfall profit taxes might backfire

This study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute sees problems with the idea of a windfall tax on the oil and gas industry. I’m all for seeking out and implementing alternative sources of energy.

I blog often on solar, wind and other alternative power breakthroughs, but at the same time I’m realistic. We need a strong domestic petroleum industry for many reasons. Not the least of which that is the way our nation is powered for the time being and no single alternative energy innovation, or wishful thinking, is going to change the fact.

Realistic thinking, many innovations and a nation running on all cylinders, so to speak, will make a difference in the long run. And like it or not, the oil and gas industry is integral to the effort.

From the link:

The imposition of new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry likely could kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, slow economic growth and make Americans more dependent on foreign sources of energy, according to a study released today.

The CRA International study, commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute, underscores how ill-advised tax policy would likely result in less domestic oil and natural gas production – which would likely undermine both the nation’s economic and energy security. While there is no specific windfall profits tax proposal being considered by the Congress, the CRA analysis focuses on the windfall profits tax to illustrate that a similar tax or combination of taxes could have negative consequences for the U.S. economy.

“U.S. dependence on foreign oil could be magnified over the next 20 years if the oil and gas companies face the prospect of higher taxes that reduce returns on new investments,” said W. David Montgomery, a vice president at CRA, who conducted the study. “Although this study has specifically assessed the impact of a proposed windfall profits tax, similar forms of increased taxation or other policies that reduce incentives for new investment would be expected to have similar negative consequences.”

The study also found that a windfall profits tax likely would:

• Cause a net loss of up to 490,000 U.S. jobs by 2030. 

• Reduce U.S. gross domestic product by roughly 1 percent, or $240 billion by 2030.  

• Increase U.S. imports of crude oil by up to 18 percent in 2030 and reduce U.S. domestic production of crude oil by up to 26 percent in the same year. 

 

 

 

Update 2/17/09 — Here’s my EnerMax post on the study.

Banks want backsies

Oh, now they see the light since Bush’s blindly giving team is gone and Obama’s group demanding oversight with teeth is in place.

I hope these banks are able to repay the taxpayer’s money very quickly. I predicted some of the oversight rules put into place by the new economic team might cause some executives to see the capitalist light and decide the public dole of corporate socialism wasn’t so great after all.

Heh.

From the link:

Even before the government announced its latest efforts to fix the troubled banking industry on Tuesday, executives at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said they wanted to repay the money quickly. Both banks received $10 billion under the first rescue plan last fall.

Paying back all those funds would be difficult in this tough economic environment. But banking executives worry that the government may intrude further into their businesses as long as they are beholden to Washington.