Year: 2010

Another Reason for the Islamic World to Hate Us

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We are trying to poison them.

You see, Vegemite is now Halal:

VEGEMITE has gone halal in a bid by food giant Kraft to make the national “treasure” available to Muslim Australians.

The label on Australia’s most famous spread has changed in recent months to include halal certification in a move some have described as “ridiculous” political correctness.

“Islamic communities are proud Australians and they want to be able to eat our national icon as well,” Kraft spokesman Simon Talbot said.

I think that this qualifies as chemical warfare.

Why People Hate Bankers

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Because their systems are patently unfair.

Case in point, AIG, which is owned by the US government, gave retention bonuses to employees who no longer work there:

A substantial number of AIG’s Financial Products employees set to get some $195 million in retention payments no longer work with the bailed out insurer, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

It’s clear that such behavior not only does not serve society, but it does not serve the share holders or the company.

This is a crooked game, and it needs to be shut down.

I’m going long on pitchforks and torches.

Remember the Auschwitz Sign Theft

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In December, some Jamokes stole the sign over the gate of Auschwitz, the one that said “Arbeit Macht Frei,” basically saying (it was a lie) that work would set the inmates free.

I remember reading about it, and thinking that I would wait a couple of days until the full story played out.

I wasn’t sure if this was a stupid prank, something involving organized antisemitism, or something falling into the middle ground, where the history Polish anti-Semitism could be inferred from the incident, but there was no some grounds for doubt.

Well, 2 months later, and the story has played out, and Mithras has nailed what happened in just 28 words (+ title):

Turns Out, It Was Anti-Semites
The guy who commissioned the theft of the Auschwitz sign is a Swedish neo-Nazi. The Poles who stole the sign for him say They Were Just Following Orders.

(emphasis mine)

Ok, Maybe Not “Meh”

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That mound with the wiper blades is a 1996 Honda Odyssey


The lump in the center left is a trash can


Back Yard

When I wrote about the Snowpocalypse, I said, “meh”.

OK, not so much.

I managed to get the back door open by about a foot, and then had to shovel the stoop to get the door open the rest of the way, and it’s still snowing.

Also: this is not the light and fluffy snow. This is heavy and sticky.

Maybe the kids will do a snow man, but I’d give less than 50-50 that there will be school on Monday.

Again, apologies for the crappy cell phone camera pix.

We have plenty of food, and if it stretches on for weeks, a very fat cat who looks good for stewing.

(Not really, the cats are family, and besides, they are not kosher)

Snowpocalypse

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Just starting at about 3:00pm


At about 5:00pm

We’re getting somewhere between 12 and 28 inches of snow, probably more than 20 inches.

People around here are freaking, but having spent 6 years in Alaska, and about 12 years in New England during and after college, so for me, it’s just, “Meh.”

No driving for at least the first half of tomorrow, but it’s really not that big a deal.

It will be a mess for a day or so, it ain’t the end of the world

Dodd Says that Financial Reform Has Stalled

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I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

There is probably an element of truth to Chris Dodd’s claim that he cannot come to an agreement with Senate Republicans on financial reform:

The chairman of the Senate banking committee said Friday that efforts to reach a bipartisan consensus on sweeping legislation to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system had “reached an impasse,” but he said he intends to move forward even without Republican support.

For the second time since November, talks have stalled between Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said ranking Republican Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.). Both men have expressed interest in reaching a consensus on a wide-ranging bill that would revamp regulation of the financial services industry. But after months of negotiation, they have yet to overcome a key hurdle: the proposed creation of a consumer protection regulator to focus on mortgages, credit cards and other such financial products.

The part that is suspicious, and the reason that I’m inclined to believe that he has lost interest in reform now that he is no longer running for reelection, is that he is going all Claude Rains on the fact that Republicans are not negotiating in good faith.

We’ve seen this phenomenon over and over again: Republicans do not negotiate in good faith until you have something that would kill them politically to vote against.

First you jam them up, then you twist their arm, and then maybe, just maybe, they will agree to be cooperative as you move their head toward the toilet bowl.

Court Case Against the Patenting of Genes Progresses

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I originally wrote about this in May, and my position then is what it is now, that you patent inventions, not discoveries, and that the counter argument, “discovering is hard work,” is a load of crap.

The case law is clear that, “a product of nature is unpatentable unless it is sufficiently different to become a patentable ‘composition of matter.'”

In any case, the litigation, put forward by a number of civil liberties and scientific organizations, is now making arguments before the judge:

Federal court hearings continued Tuesday on a lawsuit that could transform biotechnology in the United States by eliminating gene patents.

The case hinges around the claims of Utah-based Myriad Genetics on BRCA1 and BRCA2, a pair of genes closely linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad “owns” the genes, and says its patents make it possible to profit on diagnostic tests. The company argues that if you remove the patents, the tests — indeed, commercial biotechnology as we know it — will vanish.

Myriad is, from the perspective of an engineer, not a patent attorney, dammit,* full of crap.

Their tests for the gene are still protected, it’s just that alternative, and better test methods for the gene that they discovered will be able to compete.

Fundamentally, IP law is about the public good, as it says in the Constitution, “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries,” [where “discoveries” means “invention”, hence the reference to “inventors”, it gets complex],

My guess is that if Myriad had been a bit less hard assed about their patents, they have absolutely refused to license to anyone for any purpose, this case would probably have never come up.

As it stands now, they are literally killing people, and this makes them a thoroughly unsympathetic defendant.

I can’t imagine this not ending up at the Supreme Court though.

*I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!

Blankfein Buys a Clue

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Well, it appears that he is a bit less arrogant than his ilk, as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein year bonus was just $9 million, with none of it in cash, a far cry from the reports of $100 million:

Goldman Sachs stunned many in the Wall Street community Friday by awarding chief executive Lloyd Blankfein $9 million as his year-end bonus, far less than many were anticipating, and none of it in cash.

It was in restricted stock.

My guess is that there are some back channel deals, and the whole idea of a “just $9 million” being an exercise in frugality is odd, but he recognizes that there is a very real problem, and he is taking actions to immunize himself, as well as the vampire squid,* from some of the treats of regulatory and legislative action, so credit where is due.

My guess would be is that he got some security and buy-out guarantees that are worth a lot more, in exchange, but those are crafted so as not to show up headline.

Additionally, this may be a big “f%$# you” to his competitors, who now have to explain why they got bigger bonuses with less performance.

*Alas, I cannot claim credit for this bon mot, it was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.

Insert South Carolina Joke Here

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No, this is not The Onion.

You have a Lt. Governor who thinks that nutritious lunches for poor children is like feeding strays, a governor who has forever ruined the idea of hiking the Appalachian trail, and is now asking for the stimulus money that he refused, and now the South Carolina lege has passed a law requiring that people who wish to overthrow the United States government pay a fee and get a license for the privilege:

Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina’s Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

The state’s “Subversive Activities Registration Act,” passed last year and now officially on the books, states that “every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States … shall register with the Secretary of State.”

There’s even a $5 filing fee.

By “subversive organization,” the law means “every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State.”

The interesting thing here is that it appears to me that this definition might very well apply to any number of the more rabid Confederate heritage groups.

The members of the South Carolina legislature had better find someone to cut their meat, because if we allow them to handle knives, it will get very ugly.

[on edit]
It appears that the definitive word on the state was made in 1860, following the vote for secession, by Congressman James Petigru, “South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.”

Bipartisanship This!

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Richard Shelby is now placing holds on all Obama nominations he doesn’t think that the Obama administration is being friendly enough to Airbus/Northrop-Grumman on the tanker deal, and because they have not started constructed an FBI lab that he cut an earmark for in his district:

According to the report, Shelby is holding Obama’s nominees hostage until a pair of lucrative programs that would send billions in taxpayer dollars to his home state get back on track. The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:

– A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: “Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals.” Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.

– An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: “[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won’t build” the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based “at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.”

(emphasis mine)

Seriously, you cannot negotiate with these clowns.

Bipartisanship needs a plan B.

I would suggest stress positions, waterboarding, extreme sleep deprivation, and enforced nudity.

It’s Been a Weird Year for the Auto Industry

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Play them off, Jon Stewart

With the recall of more than 6½ million to repair a sticky accelerator pedal, Toyota’s sales fell by 47% from December, and 16% year over year, which was enough for both Ford and GM outsell to outsell the Japanese car firm.

Of course, we now know that it’s not just accelerator pedals, but also the brakes on its Prius hybrid, where it appears to be a software issue that creates unsteady breaking in the interplay between regenerative and mechanical braking.

It may not be any consolation to the Toyoda family, but Ford just rolled out a software update for its hybrid vehicles:

Ford Motor Co. announced Thursday that it will ask owners of its Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrids sedan to bring their car into their Ford dealer to replace software that operates the car’s braking system.

While the cars maintain full braking ability, Ford said, drivers may occasionally experience a strange feeling in the brakes under certain circumstances.

So the latest problems may be an artifact of the move to “drive by wire” technologies for hybrid vehicles, you pretty much have to, because managing the battery/engine balance cannot be done manually by the driver.

In any case, the juxtaposxition of glitches in software and automotive hardware, it seems appropriate to invoke the proven to be false by Snopes joke:

At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: “If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release (by Mr. Welch himself) stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

  1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.
  2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.
  3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuver such as a left-turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, and you would have to reinstall the engine.
  4. When your car died on the freeway for no reason, you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
  5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought ‘Car95’ or ‘CarNT’, and then added more seats.
  6. Apple would make a car powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five per cent of the roads.
  7. Oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single ‘general car default’ warning light.
  8. New seats would force every-one to have the same size butt.
  9. The airbag would say ‘Are you sure?’ before going off.
  10. Occasionally, for no reason, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.
  11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of road maps from Rand-McNally (a subsidiary of GM), even though they neither need them nor want them. Trying to delete this option would immediately cause the car’s performance to diminish by 50 per cent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
  12. Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
  13. You would press the ‘start’ button to shut off the engine.

Everything old is weird again.

The Employment Numbers

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H/t Calculated Risk


Employment Population Ration, h/t Calculated Risk


Part time involuntarily, h/t Calculated Risk


Worst recession since WWII, h/t Calculated Risk


Temp hiring, which is a leading indicator, is improving, h/t Calculated Risk


Birth/death model, h/t Daily Reckoning

Well, the good news is that the unemployment rate fell to 9.7%. The bad news is that non farm payroll fell by 20,000, while analysts had forecast an increase of 5,000.

Unemployment falling is therefore entirely the result of people, most notably white women, having stopped looking for work, so I would not call it a good thing.

The fact is that long term unemployment, people who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks,* has hit 4.1% of the civilian workforce, an all time record.

Barry Ritholtz digs a bit deeper, and finds positive data points:

  • The household survey shows an increase, and the household survey covers small business missed by the business survey.
  • Temp employment increased, and temp hiring leads full time hiring, assuming that companies don’t go “permatemp”.
    • I would note that I have anecdotally observed this when I call “job shops” about contract work. Things to seem to be picking up, hence 2 interviews (1 in person and 1 phone) in the past 2 weeks, as versus 1 (phone) interview in the prior 6 months.
  • Part-time for economic reasons (underemployed) fell sharply (3rd graph from top)

As I noted yesterday, there was a big change in the “birth/death” adjustment, (bottom graph) and the adjustment appears to me to be more of an exercise in political number manipulation than a reasonably applied statistical technique.

In any case, if you scroll down on the full BLS report, they talk about the adjustment:

Table A presents revised total nonfarm employment data on a seasonally adjust-
ed basis for January through December 2009. The revised data for April 2009
forward incorporate the effect of applying the rate of change measured by the
sample to the new benchmark level, as well as updated net business birth/death
model adjustments and new seasonal adjustment factors. The November and
December 2009 revisions also reflect the routine incorporation of additional
sample receipts into the November final and December second preliminary
estimates. The total nonfarm employment level for March 2009 was revised down-
ward by 902,000 (930,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis), or 0.7 percent. The
previously published level for December 2009 was revised downward 1,390,000
(1,363,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis).

So they were off by over 1 million in December … Oopsie.

You can see Bloomberg’s interactive page on the effects here.

*Full disclosure, this set includes yours truly, who has been out of work for about 30½ weeks.