links for 2008-11-23

4 thoughts on “links for 2008-11-23

  1. If you like the dot physics link, you’ll probably like these slides by Terry Tao, of the UCLA math department, which cover similar material but sound more authoritative and go futher.

  2. Thanks so much for putting up Chart Attack from in 1984. I loved the 80s (mostly) and 80s music, and am a whopping Cyndi Lauper fan. Her All Through the Night made her the first artist in history to have four top-five singles released from one album, assuming I interpret the facts correctly. Yeah, GJWHF, Lucky Star, Michael Jackson as a handsome, young, together fellow with snappy hits still going around, etc – 1984 was the coolest year of that decade.

    Also, my apologies again for banging on MW to the point of aggravation. Partly I am used to the political blogs which have an edgier air. I know that people are trying sincerely to figure that stuff out, I just don’t think the universe lends itself to being figured out in the final analysis!

  3. I just don’t think the universe lends itself to being figured out in the final analysis!

    As Douglas Adams put it:

    There is a theory which says that if anybody figures out what the universe is and what it is for, it will immediately disappear, to be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

    There is another theory which says that this has already happened.

  4. Low Budget § Unqualified Offerings
    “The only reason I can think of for propagating the “$70/hour” canard is political: to foster resentment of GM’s “lavishly paid” workforce among people who make less than $70/hour, which is most of us.”
    **************************************

    This is truly a farce (the $70/hour) especially when you consider that pension costs that allows them to calculate such an absurd figure probably includes executive pensions, which are the real drag on the company’s health. From the Wall Street Journal article from June 23, 2006 by Ellen Schultz and Theo Francis (As Workers’ Pensions Wither, Those for Executives Flourish: Companies Run Up Big IOUs, Mostly Obscured, to Grant Bosses a Lucrative Benefit The Billion-Dollar Liability) regarding GM pensions:
    “To help explain its deep slump, General Motors Corp. often cites “legacy costs,” including pensions for its giant U.S. work force. In its latest annual report, GM wrote: “Our extensive pension and [post-employment] obligations to retirees are a competitive disadvantage for us.” Early this year, GM announced it was ending pensions for 42,000 workers.

    But there’s a twist to the auto maker’s pension situation: The pension plans for its rank-and-file U.S. workers are overstuffed with cash, containing about $9 billion more than is needed to meet their obligations for years to come.

    Another of GM’s pension programs, however, saddles the company with a liability of $1.4 billion. These pensions are for its executives.”

    How can this not be a bigger talking point? Government should step in and teach the executives a lesson. The latter group should not be saved. The pension of the workers should be. Excessive greed without oversight potentially threatening the US economy can’t be rewarded.

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