Archive for December, 2008
Exposure to Media Damages Children’s Long-Term Health
December 3rd, 2008Becky and I don’t have a TV, so what we’re doing with Owen is letting him see that there’s a TV at his grandparents’ house. The TV will be turned on for a few minutes with him in the room, and then we turn it off. We don’t want him to watch TV, but we […]
U.S. Light Duty Vehicle Sales Plunge 36.7% in November
December 3rd, 2008Via: Green Car Congress: Total US sales of light-duty vehicles (LDV) plunged 36.7% in November from November 2007 to 746,789 units, according to figures from Autodata. There were 25 selling days in November 2008 and November 2007. Year-to-date, total LDV sales are down 16.3% from 2007. Sales of passenger cars dropped 36.5% year-on-year, while sales […]
Delinquent Mortgages Set to Nearly Double in 2009
December 3rd, 2008Via: Wall Street Journal: The number of consumers with delinquent mortgages is poised to almost double by the end of next year, hitting its highest level in at least 16 years, according to a leading credit bureau. TransUnion LLC, which analyzed about 27 million consumer records in its database, predicted that the proportion of consumers […]
Change: Right-Wingers and Neocons Love Obama’s Cabinet Appointments
December 3rd, 2008Here’s one for your I-Only-Told-You-So-About-10,000-Times file folder. Via: Alternet: As Barack Obama’s opus, Team of Rivals, continues its rolling debut, the early reviews are in and the “critics” are full of praise for the cast: “[T]he new administration is off to a good start.” — Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell. “[S]uperb … the best of […]
Qatar Looks to Grow Food in Kenya
December 3rd, 2008Via: Guardian: Qatar has asked Kenya to lease it 40,000 hectares of land to grow crops as part of a proposed package that would also see the Gulf state fund a new £2.4bn port on the popular tourist island of Lamu off the east African country. The deal is the latest example of wealthy countries […]
Scientists Report Mental ‘Body-Swapping’
December 3rd, 2008Just another grant swindle, or… Something else? Via: Washington Post: The illusion of body-swapping — making people perceive the bodies of mannequins and other people as their own — has been achieved by Swedish neuroscientists. In one experiment, the team fitted the head of a mannequin with two cameras connected to two small screens placed […]
UN Team Warns of Hard Landing for Dollar
December 3rd, 2008Wait until Ben Bernanke-San starts buying up those U.S. Treasuries. Seriously, read that first, and then read the one below. Via: Financial Times: The current strength of the dollar is temporary and the US currency risks a hard landing in 2009, according to a team of United Nations economists who foresaw a year ago that […]
Ohio: Hungry? Turn In Your Guns, Get Food
December 3rd, 2008Via: Beacon Journal: Sponsors of the Goods for Guns program are hoping that the promise of a full belly will lure people to turn in their guns in exchange for $100 gift cards for Acme Fresh Markets. The dates for the program, Nov. 21 and 22, were strategically selected this year to coincide with Thanksgiving […]
No. 1 Chicken Producer Pilgrim’s Pride Files for Chapter 11
December 2nd, 2008Via: USA Today: The economic pressures facing the U.S. chicken industry came into full view Monday when the No. 1 producer, Pilgrim’s Pride, (PPC) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection. Pilgrim’s, which produces 25% of U.S. broilers, suffered a triple whammy of large debt, high feed prices and lower prices for chicken amid weakening demand […]
AFRICOM China and Congo Resource Wars
December 2nd, 2008Via: Engdahl: If France was the covert target of US ‘surrogate warfare’ in 1994, today it is clearly China, which is the real threat to US control of Central Africa’s vast mineral riches. The Democratic Republic of Congo was renamed from the Republic of Zaire in 1997 when the forces of Laurent Désiré Kabila brought […]
