patrick.net

Most people who claim to be “saving the planet” are really trying to save themselves from lifestyle changes.

Well that doesn't make the effort automatically suspect, particularly if the lifestyle change in question is "death"!

Like I said, I can't tell if it's happening, if we're causing it, if we can reverse it or even if it is definitely a bad thing. I also kinda see a bit of a contradiction in a scientific theory which requires "belief", especially belief in models. Haven't we just learned models suck in modeling the real world? :-)

However, if someone can plausibly claim they'll "save the planet", without limiting (technological) growth, I'll agree to let them try.

Well that doesn’t make the effort automatically suspect, particularly if the lifestyle change in question is “death”!

I doubt that...

Haven’t we just learned models suck in modeling the real world?

Models, "peer-reviewed" studies, whatever. They can be be constructed to "prove" anything.

something about a virus at JavaOne Peter P - watch out!

I never eat anything there. But thanks! :)

Oh, try out Lark Creek Steak. It has the best sauteed calamari!

thanks for the recommendation Peter P. I Love steak. and calamari too!

gotta run now

The English do hate everyone on the “wrong” side of the channel.

The old British expression was "the wogs begin at Calais". :lol:

Best traditional Italian Calamari (squid steak) I’ve had thus far - Rappa’s on Monterey’s warf. Worth the walk.

Thanks! I will try that next time.

Walking was / is / and always should be free (in America, in public places).

Perhaps we should privatize the sidewalks. :)

So, if you want free and green - Walk

I have been walking to work for a couple of weeks now. Haven't felt this good since my time in the Airborne. If I had the time, I would walk home.

Let’s at least start with being financially conservative.

The only fiscally responsible people left are in the middle. We have "Deficits don't matter" on one end and unlimited government entitlement on the other.

Heaven help us when the only sensible politicians are people like Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwartzenegger.

As prices near — or in some places top — $4 a gallon, most Americans say they are cutting back on other household spending, seriously considering buying more fuel-efficient cars and consolidating their daily errands to save fuel.

Gas prices have risen well above the $4 a gallon mark, in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Record high gas prices are prompting Americans to drive less for the first time in nearly three decades, squeezing family budgets and causing major shifts in driving habits.

There are certain numbers that are typically off-limits, particularly in the workplace: age, weight and salary. But if you're young and just beginning to build your career, you're more likely to readily divulge that information. Sharing paycheck details with friends, peers and even colleagues is empowering, according to create salary reports based on very specific criteria to help determine real-time market value.

By Age:
Age 61+ $184,800
Ages 25-40 $184,900
Ages 51-60 $203,900
Ages 41-50 $207,500

By Function:
HR $185,300
Marketing $186,400
Consulting $190,600
Sales & Marketing $193,500
MIS/IT $201,000
Sales $204,000
General $216,700
Finance $235,900

By Industry:
Business Services $187,300
Healthcare $194,200
High Tech/Defense/Aerospace $206,000
Financial Services/Banking/Insurance $225,700
Life Sciences (Pharma/Med/Biotech) $230,800
Energy/Utilities $233,600
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additionally, according to ExecuNet's research from CareerBuilder.com and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania reveals a lot more detail about why and what jobs are at risk and where they are likely to go.

Based on a survey of more than 3,000 hiring managers/HR professionals and 6,700+ workers across the U.S., the research identifies the high-wage, high-skill jobs being offshored that were previously thought to be impervious to risk, and 69 percent of employers believe high-skill service positions are at equal or more risk of being offshored than low-skill jobs. Examples of jobs companies plan to offshore:

Computer programmers

Software developers

Customer service

Systems analysts

Sales managers

Graphic designers

HR personnel

General managers

Marketing personnel

Technology services, telecommunications, insurance, manufacturing, engineering, banking and finance, oil, travel, utilities and communications all reported higher rates for offshoring.

Permarenter,

GC?

While I detest the Bush Administration handling of nearly everything, this was clearly the right call. A huge majority (>95%) of mortgages are being paid timely, and if I'm going to bail out my neighbor's foolish spending, could they hand over their toys (plasma TVs, video game systems, vehicles, new furniture, vacations, etc.).

As someone that purchased their first home in Florida in 2003 (mid-boom) with 20% down (how old fashioned) and at a value of less than 3 times my salary (again old fashioned) having my Hummer driving, beautiful people neighbors being foreclosed on is unfortunate for their children but exactly what they deserved. And the only aspect I'd like to alter is the ability to go and retroactively retrieve money from ultra-smug bankers, mortgage brokers and realtors that helped fuel this new paradigm by encouraging this foolishness.(and their well-paid lobbyists of course)

By the way, I subsequently left my job and was underemployed for a couple years, ended up relocating to NC in 2006 for a new job, and still own my house in Florida due to the market conditions. Now I have a renter (negative cash flow but close) and continue to pay my mortgaage while compromising my lifestyle to honor my obligations. That's what responsible adults do. If I had listened to all the shrewd financial advice, I could owe an extra $150K and NEED a bailout, but drive to my foreclosure in a sweet car while wearing Armani)

Finally, when somebody has no equity (0% down or the like) and pays a teaser rate, or pulls all the equity out of their home to finance other investments/lifestyle, they are really RENTERS, and should not be considered homeowners- they simply were a conduit for a prior owner to transfer ownership to the bank. And I'll be damned if I bailout the bankers, again.

Yes- it's a rant, but this stuff is mighty frustrating.

msbern,

What an elegant and excellent post.

I will vote for republicans in 2008 just because democrats favor bailout.

Another one bits the dust!

http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2008/pr08033.html

A rather detailed mortgage tax savings calculator:

http://www.crystalbull.com/mortgage_calculator.php

Paul,

ANB Financial, National Association, Bentonville, Arkansas.....

How odd. I take it that's Arkansas National Bank. It's in the hometown of Wallyworld. I wonder if Wallyworld has a stake in it.

It's interesting how FDIC has a "watch list" of troubled banks - about 60 last time I heard. But this watch list is a closely guarded secret. I can understant why, but it's still frustrating.

I wonder if you could pry that list loose using the Freedom of Information Act? :?

Offtopic: can anyone explain what is going on in Palo Alto? I saw a 1,200 sqft sh*tbox (really) listed for $1.39 million on Loma Verde just a week ago.

Yet, as unreal as that price seems, other houses listed in the past few weeks in the general vicinity seem to have sold. Who is giving these idiots mortgages?

OK youse guys, listen up! Here's some really good investment advice.

Investors agree that hard times for homeowners like Mr. Martin will yield good times for storage firms. U-Store-It’s stock is up 33 percent this year. Extra Space is up 18 percent. Public Storage is up 18 percent.

www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/business/11storage.html?hp

It looks like when FB's get foreclosed, they put all their stuff (e.g. plasma TVs, HD Fatboys, etc.) into storage. Then when they don't pay the rent, the storage place auctions the toys for pennies on the dollar.

A cottage industry has developed to profit from these lost and abandoned items. The other day in this Chicago suburb, Stephanie Donahou and her son Marcus had only a moment to decide whether to bid on a unit in default. They could see a couch, a sewing machine, a fish tank, a washer and dryer, lots of Christmas wrapping paper, a television and other trappings of daily life.

“This is someone’s house,” Mrs. Donahou said. Her bid, for $160, was the highest.

Offtopic: can anyone explain what is going on in Palo Alto?

School fetish?

I will vote for republicans in 2008 just because democrats favor bailout.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

Where do you get that this was anti-vaccinators at work? Is it an educated guess?
Just to follow up on the whooping cough story, the Mercury News has a much better article than the SF Chronicle.
Contra Costa Health Services temporarily shut down the private East Bay Waldorf School on Friday in an effort to control the outbreak, which health officials say spread quickly because fewer than half the students at the school are immunized.

About 98 percent of students at other schools in the county — public and private — have been vaccinated. California law allows parents to opt out of immunizing their children for various reasons.

The closet Neocons crawl out of the woodwork. There was never even a debate about $29 billion bailout to investment banker BS Corp, yet Bush thinks it is sufficient to give the American people $600 spending money, which won't even cover one mortgage payment. Just pathetic.

In response to Lost Cause, I can't be further from a NeoCon. Socially Liberal, Fiscally conservative- which seems to be the opposite despite the claims of the NeoCon publicity machine.

Just to be consistent- I think the Bear Stearns deal was BS as well, although the structure of the deal was engineered over a single weekend, and certainly wasn't open to widespread discussion or debate before the government handed JP Morgan a "golden ticket". From JP's perspective it seems to be a no-lose deal. From the government (you and I) perspective, the best we can do is not lose.

Frankly, as an individual investor, greater risk demands greater reward. Not sure why government takes the risk, and passes the potential reward to others (Actually, I think I know the answer, but it's rather unseemly). Sometimes I wish I was a NeoCon, and could suspend my "morality" when there was money to be made. If my post inspires permarenter or others to vote Republican purely on this one matter, I sincerely apologize to humanity but can do little other than to ask that you take six consecutive years of Republican Dominance (White House/Supreme Court/Both Houses of Congress/The Fed (yes,I know its "non-partisan")) and look where it has left us from a financial/civil liberty/morality standpoint. I can hardly imagine being able to devise a more universally destructive way to lessen our world standing.

Maybe I agree with this one decision, but a NeoCon I am not.

EBGuy re vaccinations

looks like your "hunch" was right on! What a bunch of idiots. I don't like the fact that it's legal not to vaccinate, although I understand there's no alternative unless there's some kind of catastrophic outbreak. I hope the school at least discloses that little nugget to potential enrollees! If I were to sign up my kid there I'd sure like to have that kind of information.

I'll bet you the Chronicle knew it was about vaccinations and just didn't want to put that in their article.

Bap, no need to slam anyone. I don't think there is anything wrong about defending the Conservative position. As a matter of fact, it is important that our voice is heard in California.

If I start slamming liberals I will be left with no friends.

RE: civil liberty

It is an interesting question...

Who cares more about the civil liberty of unborn children.

Who cares more about the civil liberty of taxpayers.

Who cares more about the civil liberty of businesses, the engine of our economy?

On the other hand...

Who cares more about the civil liberty of criminals?

>> If my post inspires permarenter or others to vote Republican purely on this one matter, I sincerely apologize

Why?

Democrats are eqauly culpable ...... I do not see a difference ...

>> I don’t think there is anything wrong about defending the Conservative position.

I agree ... proud to be a conservative.... after watching democrats for nearly 10 years as a non citizen.

What are the reasons for opting out of vaccination? Money? I thought the county pays for it.

Speaking of epidemic, certain coastal parts of China is undergoing the spread of hand foot and mouth disease, accumulating more than 5000 "reported" cases in a matter of days with more than 20 "official" deaths among children and infants. WHO's head is now staffed by a woman from Hong Kong planted there by the Chinese government, so you cannot expect honest reports coming out of WHO. When she ran for the head of WHO, Chinese government bought off many African votes to put her where she is. She was actually in charge of SARS control in Hong Kong and attempted cover-up herself at the initial stage.

This could be a resurgence of the SARS episode almost 5 years ago.

Of the 80 million houses in the U.S., about 55 million have mortgages. Of those, four million are behind on payments. Foreclosure proceedings were begun on about 1.5 million homes last year, up more than 50% from 2006. This year will be worse. The Treasury, according to presentations its officials have made recently, predicts house prices could fall another 10% to 15% before touching bottom.

Moody's Economy.com estimates that one in roughly 12 American families with mortgages -- four million in all -- already owe more than the current value of their homes. They are said to be "underwater." The firm predicts that by early 2009 nearly one in four, or 12 million, homeowners will be underwater. Most will continue to pay mortgages on time. Many won't, and are at risk of losing their homes.

Lenders, we're told repeatedly, prefer to avoid foreclosure if possible. Better to cut a deal than end up with an empty, decaying house. "If a foreclosure is preventable...the economic case for trying to avoid foreclosure is strong," Mr. Bernanke said this week. And not just for borrower and lender: "Clusters of foreclosures can destabilize communities, reduce the property values of nearby homes and lower municipal tax revenues," he said. And that could depress housing prices, which could hurt the economy and the stability of the financial system, he added. On that much, Mr. Frank and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson agree.

In ordinary times, a lender shouldn't need prodding from the government to do what's in its self-interest. But these aren't ordinary times. The drop in home prices is pervasive, mortgage markets messy and complexities caused by turning mortgages into securities many. No one in Washington wants to help the "speculators" who bought homes they don't live in or those who lent to them. And there's broad agreement that those who bought more house than they'll ever be able to afford are going to lose out. The debate revolves around the "preventable foreclosures."

Republicans or Democrats, both will support a massive bail out, it is the nature of being politicians, not GOP or Dem politicians, just politicians.

I wouldn't base my vote on who is going to support a bail out, I am not so naive to believe that one party is less inclined to bail out than the other. GOP has been handing out $$$ like a drunken sailor in the last 8 years, just as much as the Dems if not more.

One should only base his vote on whom he wants to be in the hot seat when the worst happens in the next 4 years. Which party he favors AFTER this 4 years? If you favor GOP for 2012 and beyond, vote Dem. If you favor Dem for 2012 and beyond, vote GOP.

What are the reasons for opting out of vaccination?

I would bet it's a type of "enlightened" decision making. The kind which is very common in the Bay Area. Definitely not money related (at least not the lack of it)

OO,

This is a Waldorf School, look it up here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education). There is some serious controversy about vaccination policy in Waldorf schools. I guess it's not a school policy but rather parents' choice in East Bay school. From Wikipedia :

"Rudolf Steiner (the founder of Waldorf education) suggested that children's spirits benefited from being tempered in the fires of a good inflammation.[85] A report about a growing trend against childhood immunizations describes parents of a Waldorf school in Colorado who believed vaccinations had harmful effects.[85] Concerns have been raised that unvaccinated students, some of whom attended Waldorf schools, may have been compromising public health by spreading disease, even among vaccinated populations.[86][87][88]

In response, The European Council of Waldorf Schools, representing 630 of the 900 Waldorf schools world wide, [89] has stated unequivocally that opposition to immunisation per se – or resistance to national strategies for childhood immunisation in general – forms no part of the goals of Waldorf education. It also stated that a matter such as whether or not to inoculate a child against communicable disease should be a matter for parental choice, and that insofar as schools have any role to play in these matters, it is in making available a range of balanced information both from the appropriate national agencies and from qualified health professionals with expertise in the field. [90]"

Peter P Says:
Most people who claim to be “saving the planet” are really trying to save themselves from lifestyle changes.

There _always_ is a segment of self-important windbags (often in the vicinity of university cafe's) who arrogate to themselves the lofty responsibility of 'saving' us from some catastrophe at a global level, or righting some injustice done to third-parties by fourth-parties twice removed.

It is never about picking up their ragged knapsacks, getting off their shiftless behinds, and taking _observable_ action that yields _measurable_ results.

Unfortunately the actual cause to which these remoras attach themselves is itself quite worthy - but their incessant prattling and pointless oral flatulence, not to mention the twee symbolism ("see this cool patch I sewed on my bamboo-fiber backpack") greatly increases the white-noise surrounding the faint distress-signal from the real problem.

At which point, we have no choice but to ignore the whole thing and move on. And then they graduate and buy a MINI or Priapus or (someone-please-shoot-me-now) the "SMART".

Bap33 Says:
I would love to slam the commie/lefty/diviant/libs amung us

Bap, remember to slam the argument - not the person. We are civilized around here, even if we aren't English. :-)

100% vaccination is not required for epidemic suppression.

Who cares more about the civil liberty of unborn children.

I do. I want my fetuses to read in the library without worrying that the government will confiscate their little books, and I want my hangnails to enjoy the right to bear arms.

OO Says:

> What are the reasons for opting out of vaccination?
> Money? I thought the county pays for it.

After years of pot smoking and doing other drugs most “Hippy Dippy” parents think that vaccinations (and fluorinated water) are a plot by ‘The Man” to take over the minds of their children. I bet less than half the kids in West Marin have been vaccinated against anything…

Peter P Says:

> Most people who claim to be “saving the planet” are
> really trying to save themselves from lifestyle changes.

I usually agree with Peter P, but this time I disagree.

Most people who claim to be “saving the planet” actually want a (very small) lifestyle change (so they can feel smug). Most people who claim to be “saving the planet” do make a life style changes like trading in the 3 Series that gets 28 mpg for a Prius that gets 38 mpg, paying an extra couple $ a pound for “fair trade” coffee and buying a reusable shopping bag from Trader Joe’s.

After making the above “lifestyle changes” the “saving the planet” crowd will never shut about there “sacrifices for the planet” (and hope you forget about the Suburban that they keep at the place in Sun Valley, the illegal alien gardener that they pay $6/hour and that they buy absorbent “pee pads” by the pallet for their little annoying exotic dog that is not house broken)….