Living Earth Simulator
December 29th, 2010I seriously need a Magic 8 Ball category.
Via: BBC:
It could be one of the most ambitious computer projects ever conceived.
An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator that can replicate everything happening on Earth – from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on Milton Keynes’ roads.
Nicknamed the Living Earth Simulator (LES), the project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world.
“Many problems we have today – including social and economic instabilities, wars, disease spreading – are related to human behaviour, but there is apparently a serious lack of understanding regarding how society and the economy work,” says Dr Helbing, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, who chairs the FuturICT project which aims to create the simulator.
Related:
Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation
U.S. Postal Service Vehicles to Carry Sensor Packages
2010 Worst Year for Bank Failures Since 1992 (Savings and Loan Crisis)
December 29th, 2010Via: Washington Post:
More banks failed in the United States this year than in any year since 1992, during the savings-and-loan crisis, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Amid high unemployment, a struggling economy and a still-devastated real estate market, the nation is closing out the year with 157 bank failures, up from 140 in 2009. As recently as 2006, before the bubble burst, there were none.
Now, there are more on the horizon.
80% OF ANTIBIOTICS SOLD IN U.S. USED FOR LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY
December 29th, 2010Via: Center for a Livable Future:
Antibiotics, one of the world’s greatest medical discoveries, are slowly losing their effectiveness in fighting bacterial infections and the massive use of the drugs in food animals may be the biggest culprit. The growing threat of antibiotic resistance is largely due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in both people and animals, which leads to an increase in “super-bacteria”. However, people use a much smaller portion of antibiotics sold in this country compared to the amount set aside for food animals. In fact, according to new data just released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), of the antibiotics sold in 2009 for both people and food animals almost 80% were reserved for livestock and poultry. A huge portion of those antibiotics were never intended to fight bacterial infections, rather producers most likely administered them in continuous low-dosages through feed or water to increase the speed at which their animals grew. And that has many public health experts and scientists troubled.
U.S. Changes How it Measures Long-Term Unemployment
December 29th, 2010Via: USA Today:
So many Americans have been jobless for so long that the government is changing how it records long-term unemployment.
Citing what it calls “an unprecedented rise” in long-term unemployment, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), beginning Saturday, will raise from two years to five years the upper limit on how long someone can be listed as having been jobless.
The move could help economists better measure the severity of the nation’s prolonged economic downturn.
The change is a sign that bureau officials “are afraid that a cap of two years may be ‘understating the true average duration’ — but they won’t know by how much until they raise the upper limit,” says Linda Barrington, an economist who directs the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Likening recessionary unemployment spikes in recent decades to a storm at sea, she says, “The waves are getting higher, and we want to understand the intricacies of how they’re made up.”
The change involves the form used for the bureau’s Current Population Survey, based on interviews with thousands of the unemployed. Currently, no matter how much longer than two years someone has been out of work, the form allows interviewers to check off only “99 weeks or over.” Starting next month, jobless stints of “260 weeks and over” can be selected on the response form.
“The BLS doesn’t make such changes lightly,” Barrington says. Stacey Standish, a bureau assistant press officer, says the two-year limit has been used for 33 years.
Research Credit: RD
Number of Multifamily Households at Record as People Try to Avoid Becoming Homeless
December 29th, 2010Obviously, the economy is playing a big part in this, but I wonder how many households choose this route even though they aren’t broke? This is the default setting for billions of people.
Update: Pew Research Center: The Return of the Multi-Generational Family Household:
Another factor has been the big wave of immigration, dominated by Latin Americans and Asians, that began around 1970. Like their European counterparts from earlier centuries, these modern immigrants are far more inclined than native-born Americans to live in multi-generational family households.
…
Some 18.8% of people living in immigrant households in the U.S. live in a multi-generational family household, compared with 14.2% of people in native-born households, according to a Pew Research analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s 2009 Current Population Survey. Interestingly, however, among the nation’s two largest immigrant groups by race and ethnicity – Hispanics and Asians – the native-born households of these groups have a slightly higher tendency to be multi-generational families than the foreign-born households.
Via: New York Times:
Of the myriad ways the Great Recession has altered the country’s social fabric, the surge in households like the Maggis’, where relatives and friends have moved in together as a last resort, is one of the most concrete, yet underexplored, demographic shifts.
Census Bureau data released in September showed that the number of multifamily households jumped 11.7 percent from 2008 to 2010, reaching 15.5 million, or 13.2 percent of all households. It is the highest proportion since at least 1968, accounting for 54 million people.
Even that figure, however, is undoubtedly an undercount of the phenomenon social service providers call “doubling up,” which has ballooned in the recession and anemic recovery. The census’ multifamily household figures, for example, do not include such situations as when a single brother and a single sister move in together, or when a childless adult goes to live with his or her parents.
For many, the arrangements represent their last best option, the only way to stave off entering a homeless shelter or sleeping in their cars. In fact, nearly half of the people in shelters in 2009 who had not previously been homeless had been staying with family members or friends, according to a recent report, making clear that the arrangements are frequently a final way station on the way to homelessness.
Water Pipes Freeze Then Burst in Northern Ireland: Tens of Thousands Left Without Water
December 29th, 2010Via: Washington Post:
Frustration and fears of disease mounted in Northern Ireland Wednesday as tens of thousands of people were left without water after much of the supply drained away through broken pipes following a deep freeze and a sudden thaw.
In many towns and cities water supplies were cut off as residents turned to emergency water tankers and bottled water for their cooking, cleaning and drinking needs.
Some families have not had fresh running water for eight days, with officials predicting it will take several more days to restore normal service. Reservoir levels have dropped dangerously low, straining the entire system.
“This may go on for another short period but we are doing our best to keep it as short as possible to get those reservoir levels up and provide water to our customers,” said Liam Mulholland, of Northern Ireland Water.
He said the shortage had been aggravated by the many vacant properties that have experienced burst pipes, allowing water to drain away until technicians can trace and repair the problem.
There was also substantial flooding, with some floodwaters contaminated by sewage, raising public health concerns.
Baby Boomers’ Retirements in Jeopardy
December 28th, 2010What is this ‘Retirement’ you speak of?
—Generation X
Also, Pookie sent me this set of age distribution charts for the U.S.
If we didn’t know anything else about political and economic doom, this alone should be enough to indicate that bad trouble is ahead. Look at those charts and then consider the unemployed, underemployed and those like Becky and me who have opted to simply get by on much less than the rat-race nut house expects us to.
That’s the freight train, hurtling down the rails with nobody at the controls.
This is the wall:
In other words, the Ponzi scheme wreck is assured, in part, because millions of us who are now supposed to keep it going can’t, or won’t.
I often hear from people who are trying to manage with eldercare situations while working full-time jobs, or while unemployed. My own dad is driving my sister into the madhouse where he belongs. Forget about vague, distant, theoretical doom: When you have elderly people going nuts on you, it’s a whole new ballgame.
I have no idea how this is going to play out. It’s too big of a clusterfuck for me to get my head around.
Via: Time:
Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they’re hoping to retire. Starting in January, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.
The boomers, who in their youth revolutionized everything from music to race relations, are set to redefine retirement. But a generation that made its mark in the tumultuous 1960s now faces a crisis as it hits its own mid-60s. (See 10 smarter ways to reach your retirement goals.)
“The situation is extremely serious because baby boomers have not saved very effectively for retirement and are still retiring too early,” says Olivia Mitchell, director of the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
More Than 25% of Kids and Teens in the U.S. Take Prescription Drugs on a Regular Basis
December 28th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal:
These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and teens are taking a medication on a chronic basis, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc., the biggest U.S. pharmacy-benefit manager with around 65 million members. Nearly 7% are on two or more such drugs, based on the company’s database figures for 2009.
SkyWatch Manned Mobile Surveillance System
December 28th, 2010Research Credit: JW
Bailed-Out Banks Slip Toward Failure
December 27th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal:
Nearly 100 U.S. banks that got bailout funds from the federal government show signs they are in jeopardy of failing.
The total, based on an analysis of third-quarter financial results by The Wall Street Journal, is up from 86 in the second quarter, reflecting eroding capital levels, a pileup of bad loans and warnings from regulators. The 98 banks in shaky condition got more than $4.2 billion in infusions from the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
