Food Stamp Cut Hits Friday
October 28th, 2013Via: NPR:
Poor families across the country will have a harder time stretching their food budgets after Friday, as stimulus funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) automatically expires. The 13.6 percent boost in SNAP benefits the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act instituted in April 2009 ends Nov. 1.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the cuts translate into $29 per month less for an average family of three. They will be left with $319 per year or $1.40 per person per meal, based on cost estimates from the Department of Agriculture’s “Thrifty Food Plan.”
Since the funding increase came from federal dollars, every SNAP recipient will experience reduced benefits.
Keeping Blood Sugar Low May Protect Memory
October 28th, 2013Via: NPR:
There’s a growing body of evidence linking elevated blood sugar to memory problems.
…
Study author Agnes Floel of Charite University Medicine in Berlin says there may be a couple of things at play. It’s possible that blood vessel effects can damage memory. “Elevated blood sugar levels damage small and large vessels in the brain, leading to decreased blood and nutrient flow to brain cells,” explains Floel.
Another explanation: Elevated blood sugar “may impair the functioning of brain areas like the hippocampus, a structure particularly relevant for memory,” Floel says.
“When you’re making a decision or trying to retrieve [information from your memory], the hippocampus requires a lot of glucose,” explains Gail Musen of the Joslin Diabetes Center.
But when glucose levels rise in the body, it may lead to a disruption in the transport of glucose through the blood-brain barrier to the hippocampus. And this may impact the integrity of the hippocampus, according to the findings of the new study.
So it seems that when blood sugar in the body rises, it may be “more difficult to get that glucose to the hippocampus,” Musen explains.
Research Credit: windhorse
Siri, Have Those People Killed
October 28th, 2013Via: GQ:
In 2011, Air Force psychologists completed a mental-health survey of 600 combat drone operators. Forty-two percent of drone crews reported moderate to high stress, and 20 percent reported emotional exhaustion or burnout. The study’s authors attributed their dire results, in part, to “existential conflict.” A later study found that drone operators suffered from the same levels of depression, anxiety, PTSD, alcohol abuse, and suicidal ideation as traditional combat aircrews. These effects appeared to spike at the exact time of Bryant’s deployment, during the surge in Iraq. (Chillingly, to mitigate these effects, researchers have proposed creating a Siri-like user interface, a virtual copilot that anthropomorphizes the drone and lets crews shunt off the blame for whatever happens. Siri, have those people killed.)
Electric Utility Executives Worry About Solar Panels
October 28th, 2013Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
Sitting on a rooftop, soaking up sun, the humble solar panel may not look like a threat to a multibillion-dollar industry.
But some electric utility executives say it is. They even have a name for the nightmare scenario solar could create – the “death spiral.”
They fear solar’s rapid spread across homes and businesses, combined with the increasing efficiency of modern buildings and appliances, could slowly erode the utilities’ ability to grow. California utilities get paid based on the value of the assets they own – the transmission lines, substations and wires. As more businesses and homeowners generate their own electricity, the utilities won’t need to add as many of those assets as before.
At the same time, the costs of maintaining the electricity grid might fall on fewer and fewer nonsolar utility customers. The companies could compensate by tacking on fixed monthly charges for all customers, solar and nonsolar alike. But those new charges would jack up bills, and that could prompt more people to slap panels on their roofs.
The problem will only get worse if advanced battery packs become cheap enough for home use, parked in the basement by the water heater.
Research Credit: ottilie
U.S. Banks Told to be Prepared for 30-Day Crisis
October 28th, 2013Via: Irish Independent:
The biggest US banks would be required to hold enough easily sold assets to survive a 30-day credit drought under proposed new Federal Reserve liquidity rules.
The Federal Reserve liquidity coverage ratio proposal, approved unanimously at a meeting in Washington, goes further than the Basel III measure adopted in January and calls for earlier implementation than the EU.
The US plan, most stringent for the biggest banks, is looking at implementation by 2017 – two years ahead of Basel’s deadline. “The proposed rule would, for the first time in the United States, put in place a quantitative liquidity requirement that would foster a more resilient and safer financial system,” Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said before the vote.
The proposal would require setting aside about $2 trillion (€1.44tn), and the Fed estimates that US banks are currently $200bn (€144bn) short.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in January agreed on a liquidity coverage ratio, meant to ensure banks can survive a 30-day credit squeeze without the kind of government aid that was required after the 2008 crisis.
China: ‘Unprecedented’ Policy Changes Ahead
October 28th, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
Chinese Politburo member Yu Zhengsheng said reforms to be discussed at a Communist Party meeting next month will be unprecedented, adding to signs that leaders are resolved to spur far-reaching policy changes.
Yu’s comments, made in a speech at a forum to promote relations with Taiwan, were reported by the official Xinhua News Agency on Oct. 26. Yu is ranked fourth in the seven-strong Politburo Standing Committee headed by party chief and President Xi Jinping.
Premier Li Keqiang has pledged to cut the state’s role in the economy, change the financial and fiscal systems, and overhaul land and household registration rules to sustain growth. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News this month said policies flowing from the meeting, called the third plenum, will reduce the odds of a severe slowdown and help China become a high-income country by 2030.
The meeting “will focus on studying comprehensive and deep reform,” Yu was quoted as saying in Xinhua’s report. “The depth and strength of the reforms will be unprecedented and will promote profound changes in every area of the economy and society.” The report didn’t refer to any policies or measures.
Yu’s remarks follow comments Xi made to foreign business executives last week that “comprehensive reforms” would be “planned out” during the plenum, according to an English-language Xinhua report on Oct. 23 that didn’t specify any policies.
Mexico Towns Lose Power in Suspected Cartel Sabotage
October 28th, 2013Via: AFP:
Unidentified assailants armed with guns and Molotov cocktails attacked power stations in a violence-torn western Mexican state Sunday, leaving 11 towns without electricity in a suspected drug cartel attack.
The interior ministry said in a statement that national power company equipment, six gas stations and a convenience store were targeted in 11 towns in the state of Michoacan, but that nobody was hurt .
The statement did not identify the assailants, and interior ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said authorities were investigation the attacks.
But a government official told AFP that authorities suspect that the Knights Templar drug cartel launched the assault to send a message to the population and self-defense forces that have formed in the state.
The attack on the power grid came one day after vigilante groups marched in the town of Apatzingan, a Knights Templar bastion, in a protest that left one person injured.
The cartel accuses the self-defense forces of being backed by their rivals, the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
“I think it’s an issue between rival gangs, the Knights Templar and the Jalisco cartel,” the source said on condition of anonymity. “It’s a territorial dispute.”
The attacks on the power grid were a “sanction against the people,” the official said. “More than revenge, it was a message that they won’t allow people to mess with them.”
The federal government deployed thousands of troops to Michoacan in May to bring peace to the state after months of cartel violence that prompted several towns to take up arms.
Residents of Michoacan say they formed vigilante groups to counter the wave of extorsion, kidnappings and murders perpetrated by the purportedly religious Knights Templar cartel.
Sunday’s attacks cut out power in a few towns that formed self-defense forces.
Black Box in Your Car to Tax and Track You
October 28th, 2013In other news, Iraq, Afghan wars will cost to $4 trillion to $6 trillion:
The U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost taxpayers $4 trillion to $6 trillion, taking into account the medical care of wounded veterans and expensive repairs to a force depleted by more than a decade of fighting, according to a new study by a Harvard researcher.
Never mind all of that.
More taxes and tracking are needed to rebuild the glorious homeland’s crumbling infrastructure.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
As America’s road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.
The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America’s major roads.
Multi-Billion Dollar Tax Avoidance Schemes Running in Ireland
October 28th, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
In that game, multinational companies find ways to legally avoid income taxes in the countries where most of their customers are. Google cuts billions off its tax bill each year by sending profits through Ireland to a mailbox in Bermuda; Facebook sends them through Ireland to Grand Cayman; LinkedIn uses Ireland en route to the Isle of Man. O’Rourke advised each company on its arrangements, according to two people familiar with the matter.
He also persuaded regulators to eliminate a withholding tax on profits that corporations move out of the country — while separately advising his cousin who was finance minister.
…
O’Rourke often speaks loudly and excitedly, gesturing with his hands, yet is careful not to let disagreements turn into arguments. He said the finger-pointing at Ireland and at his profession is misdirected, and politicians around the world complaining about tax avoidance have only themselves to blame.
“Why should Ireland be the policeman for the U.S.?” he asks. “They can change the law” — he snaps his fingers — “like that! I could draft a bill for them in an hour.”
Several Large Tech Companies Colluded to Cap Worker Salaries
October 28th, 2013Wouldn’t it be neat if there really was a Hell and Steve Jobs had to go cruising along in his ridiculous superyacht through great oceans of fiery, bubbling lava for all eternity?
Via: San Jose Mercury News:
More than 60,000 tech workers can seek monetary damages from Apple (AAPL), Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG) and Adobe Systems (ADBE) because of a federal judge’s ruling in a suit claiming that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs conspired with other local executives to limit the workers’ pay by barring them from moving from one company to another.
In granting class-action status to the suit Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose cited what she termed “considerable, compelling common proof” that the Silicon Valley companies engaged in antitrust behavior by agreeing not to try to lure away each others’ employees.
Koh’s decision makes it much easier for the workers to win compensation — potentially tens of millions of dollars — because without class-action status, each of them would have to file costly lawsuits on their own. The ruling also is likely to put pressure on the companies to reach a financial settlement with the workers, as three other companies — Pixar, Lucasfilm and Intuit (INTU) — did in July, said Stephen Hirschfeld, CEO of the Employment Law Alliance, a network of labor and employment lawyers.
Although a trial in the case has been set for May 27, companies in class-action cases often try to avoid getting that far, he said, because “there is an assumption that if they actually get in front of a jury and there are thousands of plaintiffs, a jury will think, ‘Well, if there’s smoke, there must be fire.’ “
