Author Archives: Abe Johnson

Attention Econ Nerds: FRED Has Updated Its Graphing Capability

by Abe Johnson Posted on December 11, 2013

Mother Jones

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There are still a few bugs in the system, and you lose some control over presentation when you directly embed their code, but the fine folks at Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis have added a few snazzy little features to their FRED graphing program. You can see what it looks like in the example below, which shows GDP per capita since 2004—and illustrates just how long it’s taken us merely to get back to the level of 2007. The timeline control at the bottom is new: if you want to see this data for any other decade, or for multiple decades, just drag the year markers. The y-axis gets a little wonky when you do this, but this is just a beta version, so a few bugs are to be expected.

At the moment, unfortunately, the embedding function seems to be working sort of sporadically. If you see “Proxy Error” instead of a graph, click refresh and try again. Then try yet again. Like healthcare.gov, I’m sure it will work reliably soon enough.

This has been your stats nerd update for the day.

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Attention Econ Nerds: FRED Has Updated Its Graphing Capability

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Americans Claim to be Equally Divided on Who to Blame for Government Shutdown

by Abe Johnson Posted on September 23, 2013

Mother Jones

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According to Pew, the public will blame Republicans and President Obama about equally if there’s a government shutdown. I suppose this is good news for Republicans, though I’d be really interested in seeing the party breakdown on this question, since I’ll bet it’s basically a proxy for party affiliation and not much else. This seems especially likely since only 25 percent of those polled even say they’re following the shutdown fight “very closely.” Of the remaining 75 percent, only 7 percent answered “don’t know” on the blame question. So what are they basing their answers on?

UPDATE: Michael Dimock passes along the partisan breakdown. No surprise on the D/R front, but it turns out that independents say they’d blame Obama more than Republicans by a margin of 39-33 percent. I’ll confess that this startles me. I’m not sure what to make of it.

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Americans Claim to be Equally Divided on Who to Blame for Government Shutdown

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One failed project, another over budget, hint at carbon-capture challenges under EPA rules

by Abe Johnson Posted on September 23, 2013

One failed project, another over budget, hint at carbon-capture challenges under EPA rules

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OK, but what are you going to do with the carbon after you’ve extracted the energy?

The EPA’s new proposed power plant rules offer an unyielding compromise: If you want to burn coal in America in the 21st century, fine, but you have to clean up after yourself. The rules would basically make it impossible to open a new coal-powered facility unless it has carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS) technology that can keep some of its carbon dioxide emissions from being released into the air.

Despite an abundance of underground storage space where CO2 could conceivably be stashed, only a dozen or so carbon-capture projects are operating or under construction worldwide. And in a bad sign for any coal barons who might still be optimistic about the future of coal burning in the U.S., one of the world’s most ambitious carbon-capture efforts has just been abandoned in Norway. That development coincides with news of nearly billion-dollar cost overruns at another CCS project in Mississippi.

Reuters reports that Norway’s outgoing center-left government dropped its plans Friday for a CCS project that it had once likened in ambition to sending humans to the moon. It would have pumped CO2 from a natural gas plant at the industrial site of Mongstad deep underground:

“A full-scale carbon dioxide capture facility is still the objective. The government has, however, concluded, after careful consideration, that the risk connected to the Mongstad facility is too high,” Energy Minister Ola Borten Moe said.

The government said it would keep a research center at Mongstad, testing various carbon capture schemes, with funding of 400 million crowns ($67.4 million) over four years.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose Labour Party and coalition allies lost power last week to right-wing and centrist parties in an election, said in 2007 that Norway would try to lead the world in carbon capture. …

“This is one of the ugliest political crash landings we have ever seen,” said Frederic Hauge of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona of the decision to drop the carbon capture plan.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg brought us news last week of the costly travails of a “clean coal” plant with CCS being built in Mississippi’s Kemper County. Instead of being pumped underground, CO2 from Southern Co.’s plant would be piped and sold to oil companies to help them extract more oil from aging fields. But the cost overruns have already reached $900 million:

Altogether, the project is now expected to cost $4.7 billion. At that cost, the plant is now one of the most expensive power plants ever built for the amount of electricity it will produce. …

But capital costs are only part of the equation. Kemper will be the cheapest plant to operate once it’s up and running next year because it sits next to the reserve of low-cost lignite [coal]. It will also be selling carbon dioxide, sulfuric acid and ammonia that it pulls from its gasifier for an estimated $50 million a year.

Well, the EPA said that carbon capture is possible — it never said it would be easy. If the coal industry wants to build new plants, it looks like it has some serious innovating do it.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

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One failed project, another over budget, hint at carbon-capture challenges under EPA rules

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Everyone Is Happy About the Surveillance Debate

by Abe Johnson Posted on September 13, 2013

Mother Jones

Here is James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, talking about the disclosure of NSA surveillance programs by Edward Snowden:

I think it’s clear that some of the conversations this has generated, some of the debate, actually needed to happen.

And here is FISA judge Dennis Saylor, ordering the government to conduct a declassification review of court rulings related to the NSA’s phone records program:

The unauthorized disclosure in June 2013 of a Section 215 order, and government statements in response to that disclosure, have engendered considerable public interest and debate about Section 215. Publication of FISC opinions relating to this provision would contribute to an informed debate….Publication would also assure citizens of the integrity of this Court’s proceedings.

And, of course, here is President Obama shortly after the first Snowden disclosures:

I welcome this debate. And I think it’s healthy for our democracy.

It’s unanimous! Everyone thinks that Snowden’s disclosures have generated a useful and much needed debate. So when do we actually get to have this debate?

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Everyone Is Happy About the Surveillance Debate

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Sports Illustrated Exclusive: College Students Smoke Pot

by Abe Johnson Posted on September 12, 2013

Mother Jones

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On Thursday, Sports Illustrated published the latest in its five-part investigation into the Oklahoma State University football program, whose rise in the national rankings has tracked closely—the story alleges—with a culture of academic cheating and allegations of cash payments to athletes. (Paying players is forbidden by the NCAA, the sport’s governing body, even though many of the players who allegedly received cash were broke and incapable of holding down a paying job because they spend most of their free time providing unpaid labor for a multi-billion dollar cartel.)

The report also uncovered a disturbing trend at Oklahoma State: some college students smoke pot:

As the Cowboys have risen from Big 12 cellar-dweller to one of the nation’s elite teams, widespread marijuana use by players and even some drug dealing has gone largely unexamined, unchecked and untreated.

“Drugs were everywhere,” says Donnell Williams, a linebacker on the 2006 team who says he didn’t use drugs but observed other players who did. Other players echoed that, saying it was common for some players to smoke weed before games. “Against teams we knew we were going to roll, a couple of guys would get high,” says Calvin Mickens, a cornerback from 2005 to ’07. “Some of the guys it didn’t matter what game it was, they were going to get high.” In the weeks leading up to the 2012 Fiesta Bowl, running back Herschel Sims says that so many of his teammates were smoking marijuana regularly that if the school had suspended those who had the drug in their system, “we probably would have lost about 15-20 people who actually played.” (According to the school, 18 of the team’s more than 100 players were randomly tested by the NCAA before the game; one tested positive and was suspended.)

In other words, college student-athletes at Oklahoma State are a lot like unathletic college students at Oklahoma State, except that they’re forced to undergo drug tests on a regular basis and have their recreational pursuits scrutinized. The fact that widespread marijuana use seems to have such little effect on the football team’s performance would seem like an angle worth pursuing, given the story’s premise that marijuana use is a malignant problem facing the Cowboys program. But that goes unexplored. Nor is there any attempt to explain why, exactly, recreational marijuana use is a problem worthy of lengthy investigation from a major national magazine. And it’s not the first time either.

Previously in “OMG college athletes smoke pot”: ESPN‘s 2012 examination of the “cloud of pot busts” that threaten to tarnish the sport’s image.

College football players smoking marijuana is nothing new. Coaches and administrators have been battling the problem and disciplining players who do so for decades. Still, “I believe it’s becoming more and more frequent on campuses,” says Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon. One Football Bowl Subdivision coach says that athletes of today seem to treat marijuana as players from previous generations treated alcohol and that many of his players prefer smoking pot to drinking because weed leaves no hangover.

NCAA statistics show a bump in the number of stoned athletes.

Back in the world of peer-reviewed studies and public polling, marijuana is increasingly accepted and increasingly legal. And unlike, say, football, no one who uses it is going to die as a result. You’d never know it from reading the sports pages.

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Sports Illustrated Exclusive: College Students Smoke Pot

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Obama signs on to three international climate pacts in three days

by Abe Johnson Posted on September 9, 2013

Obama signs on to three international climate pacts in three days

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Barack Obama is walking the climate-change talk — all around the world. Or at least endorsing climate-change pacts.

Lawrence Jackson,

whitehouse.gov

Obama in St. Petersburg last week.

In June, the president unveiled a climate action plan that called, among other things, for the U.S. to establish itself as a global leader on climate issues. And over the past few days, he’s shown that it wasn’t just rhetoric. Though the U.N. treaty process is going nowhere fast, the Obama administration is moving forward with smaller international climate agreements.

A commitment that Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping made during private meetings in June to reduce climate-changing emissions of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, evolved on Friday into a formal agreement between the two nations. From The Washington Post:

The United States and China announced Friday they would seek to eliminate some of the world’s most potent greenhouse gases through the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the landmark treaty that successfully phased out ozone-depleting substances decades ago.

The move, announced at the Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg, is significant because it provides a clear path for curbing a major contributor to global warming in the near term as world leaders grapple with the more challenging task of cutting carbon dioxide in the coming decades.

And in news that’s so closely related you could be forgiven for thinking it’s exactly the same story, all of the countries at the G20 summit, including the U.S., reached a broader agreement to curb emissions of HFCs. From Reuters:

The White House cited the agreement to cooperate on phasing down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), gases used in refrigerators, air conditioners and some industrial equipment, as one of the “most significant agreements” of the summit.

“This commitment marks an important step forward toward addressing HFCs — highly potent greenhouse gases that are rapidly increasing in use — through the proven mechanism of the Montreal Protocol,” the White House said in a fact sheet.

Meanwhile, half a world away from the G20 meeting in Russia, some encouraging news emerged from a summit of Pacific Ocean island states — some of which are at risk of sinking beneath rising seas. From Agence France-Presse:

A new Pacific regional pact calling for aggressive action to combat climate change has achieved a “major accomplishment” by gaining US support, officials said Sunday.

The Majuro Declaration, endorsed by the 15-nation Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) at their summit last week, contains specific pledges on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced during the session a new climate change fund for Pacific islands vulnerable to rising sea levels. …

Separately, the US was offering $24 million over five years for projects in “vulnerable coastal communities” in the Pacific, she said. …

Marshall Islands minister Tony de Brum said the US support was a “major accomplishment”.

It might be time to send the president down under to try to talk some sense into Australia’s new government.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

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Obama signs on to three international climate pacts in three days

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Kanye West Performs for a Dictator’s Family, and Human Rights Activists Are Livid

by Abe Johnson Posted on September 3, 2013

Mother Jones

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Trying to steal Taylor Swift’s thunder is no longer the most cringeworthy thing Kanye West has ever done.

Over the weekend, the hip-hop artist performed for a dictator’s kin. On Saturday, West was in Almaty (Kazakhstan’s largest city) performing at the wedding reception of Aisultan Nazarbayev, the 23-year-old grandson of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev has ruled the central Asian country for 23 years since its independence from the dissolved Soviet Union, and has come under fire by human rights organizations for his authoritarian tactics, including attacks on a free press, torture, torpedoing workers’ rights, and jailing the political opposition. (In 2011, Sting canceled a gig in Kazakhstan after Amnesty International got in touch with him about the human rights abuses.)

For his performance (which included a rendition of “Can’t Tell Me Nothing“), West reportedly received $3 million. Here’s a brief clip from the event:

A news agency in Kazakhstan reported that West was a personal guest of the controversial strongman. As you can imagine, human rights advocates aren’t thrilled about any of this.

“Kazakhstan is a human rights wasteland,” Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), said in a statement sent to Mother Jones. “The regime crushes freedom of speech and association; someone like Kanye, who makes a living expressing his views, would find himself in a prison under Nazarbayev’s rule.”

“The millions of dollars paid to West came from the loot stolen from the Kazakhstan treasury,” said Garry Kasparov, a noted critic of Vladimir Putin and chairman of HRF. “West has supported numerous charities throughout his career, including a few specifically focused on international human rights work. Kanye has entertained a brutal killer and his entourage…It’s up to the public to hold him accountable.”

West is now in the growing club of celebrities caught getting chummy with despots. In 2012, Kim Kardashian, the reality-TV socialite and mother of West’s child, is in it, too. In 2012, she traveled to Bahrain and generated positive press for a regime that was still taking heat for its bloody crackdown on political dissidents. (Following her arrival, Bahrain police were deployed to control “hard-line” Islamic protesters enraged at her presence.)

Earlier this summer, Jennifer Lopez was slammed by human rights groups for her paid performance at the lavish birthday bash of 56-year-old Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the human-rights-quashing dictator of Turkmenistan. Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Lionel Richie, and Usher had all danced and sung for relatives of the deceased Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi. Godfather of Soul James Brown and blues guitar legend B.B. King performed for Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko, a vicious anti-communist tyrant. British supermodel Naomi Campbell was caught hanging out with Charles Taylor, a convicted war criminal and ex-president of Liberia. And the list goes on.

The human rights violations and internationally denounced actions of all the above can be found in five seconds on Google. Maybe famous people who don’t need the money—and the people they hire to vet their appearances—should use it more.

West’s publicist did not respond to Mother Jones‘ request for comment.

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Kanye West Performs for a Dictator’s Family, and Human Rights Activists Are Livid

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Why Climate Change Has Darwin Down for the Count

by Abe Johnson Posted on July 15, 2013

green4us

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Birds, reptiles, amphibians, and many other animals may not be able to adapt to rising temperatures. phrakt/Flickr If you live near water in the American southeast, you may have run across the green tree frog—or at least heard the species as it croaks (in a sound that kind of resembles rapid fire quacking). It’s a small frog that’s often found in pet stores. It’s the state amphibian of Louisiana and Georgia. And it’s one of many species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and even mammals that may be incapable of evolving fast enough to keep up with what global warming has in store. That’s the upshot of a new study in the journal Ecology Letters, whose authors used a vast body of data on 540 separate species’ current climatic “niches,” and their evolutionary histories of adapting to different conditions, to determine whether they can evolve fast enough to keep up with the changing climate. More specifically, the study examined “climatic niche evolution,” or how fast organisms have adapted to changing temperature and precipitation conditions in their habitats over time. Under normal circumstances, the answer is very slowly. On average, the study found that animals adapted to temperature changes at a rate of less than 1 degree Celsius (or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) per million years. By contrast, global warming is expected to raise temperatures on the order of 4 degrees Celsius (or 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next 100 years. “It seems like climate change is too fast, relative to how quickly the climatic niches of species typically evolve,” explains evolutionary biologist John Wiens of the University of Arizona in Tucson, who conducted the research along with a colleague at Yale University. Take the green tree frog. According to data provided by Wiens, the annual mean temperature in the species’ range across the U.S. Southeast is about 66 degrees Fahrenheit. For its closely related “sister” species the barking tree frog, meanwhile, it’s 65.3 degrees. The two species diverged some 13.4 million years ago, and their common ancestor is estimated to have lived in mean climatic conditions somewhere in between these two numbers, at 65.5 degrees. The rate of evolutionary change in response to temperatures for these frogs is therefore extremely slow—”about 100,000 to 500,000 times slower than the expected rate of climate change within the range of the species from 2010 to 2100,” says Wiens. Even if you take a species that evolved much more rapidly in relation to changing temperatures, the conclusion remains the same. The species still didn’t change fast enough in the past for scientists to think that it can evolve to keep up with global warming in the future. An example of a faster evolving species would be the Northern banded newt, which lives at relatively high altitudes in a range that spans from Russia to Turkey. Annual mean temperatures in its habitat are about 50.4 degrees Fahrenheit; but for a closely related species, the Southern banded newt, the average temperature is vastly different—65.7 degrees. The two species’ common ancestor is estimated to have lived only 350,000 years ago, amid mean temperatures of about 59.5 degrees. Adaptation to new climatic conditions among these newts thus happened much faster than among tree frogs—“but still about 1,600 to 4,700 times slower” than the kind of changes we expect from global warming, according to Wiens. In the new paper, Wiens and his co-author apply a similar analysis to several hundred other species, ranging from cranes to crocodiles and from hawks to turtles. And none adjusted to temperatures in the evolutionary past at anything like the rate at which temperature change is now coming. This does not mean that each and every species will go extinct. Some may shift their ranges to keep up with favorable temperatures. Some may perish in certain locales but not others. And some may find a means of coping in a changed environment. Just because these species have never experienced what climate change is about to throw at them doesn’t prove that they’re incapable of surviving it. Nonetheless, the new research as a whole validates a striking statement made recently by the renowned climate scientist Michael Mann of Penn State University. At a Climate Desk Live event in May, Mann remarked that there is “no evidence” from the planet’s past to suggest that life can adapt to changes as rapid as the ones we’ve now set in motion. Wiens’ data add an exclamation point to Mann’s statement. And it also raises an unavoidable question: What is going to happen to the species responsible for all of this, namely, humans? “Humans will be fine,” says Wiens, “because we have things like clothes and air conditioning.”

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Why Climate Change Has Darwin Down for the Count

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Why Climate Change Has Darwin Down for the Count

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Locating And Selecting The Perfect Solar Panel Contractor On The First Shot

by Abe Johnson Posted on June 25, 2013

If you have several home improvement projects that need to be done by a solar panel installation contractor, ideally, you want to find one contractor who can tackle all of your projects. And if he is really good, you can keep him in mind for future projects. To help you in your search for a competent contractor, you’ll want to check out the following tips.

After a successful completion of the job has been attained, services of a professional inspector should be sort in order to guarantee the quality of the work before final pay is done to the solar panel installation contractor. A contractor should welcome this and he should never take it as an under estimation of the quality of his work.

Before firing a solar panel installation contractor, make sure you fire him according to the terms and conditions mentioned for firing in the contract. Some contractors involve a third party to settle their dispute so make sure you follow the right path before taking such an action.

Most people comparison shop for big ticket items, a solar panel installation contractor should be no different. Ask at least three contractors for detailed bids and references so you can compare price and quality of work. Also, ask for a business card so the physical location of the business can be visited.

There is so much information to absorb when choosing the correct solar panel installation contractor for your project. Don’t get bogged down with the all the useless information that will be provided to you by the contractor. You don’t have to know everything about the process which is why you are hiring the contractor in the first place.

Solar Panel Contractors can be very competitive. Always tell the solar panel installation contractors that you are planning on getting more than one bid. When most contractors hear that there is a little competition involved their bids seem to get a little bit better.

If you feel hesitant about anyone who will be working on your project, it’s best to talk to your solar panel installation contractor to make sure you can get feedback on these workers. One bad worker can set an even the biggest project back.

A great solar panel installation contractor can be recognized by their reputations, not by how much they harass you at your home and business. While others may offer steep discounts, they may not provide quality work that is not up to professional standards and it is best to hire a fantastic contractor first.

Before starting any work you should be aware of each and every clause mentioned in the contract. Any misunderstanding or mistake can lead you into great risk. It is recommended that you should consult your advocate or solar panel installation contractor if you have any concerns or doubts, so that you can get rid off heavy loss.

Curious about the topic of solar heating options? Be sure to go to Yahoo and enter go green energy today. You’ll be able to find quite a bit of information.

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Follow These Steps To Find The Right Solar Panel Contractor

by Abe Johnson Posted on May 29, 2013

A lot of the so-called helpful information out there can prove unreliable when you’re trying to figure out which solar panel installation contractor is right for you. It’s tough to know what’s true and what’s fluff. Since this decision hard enough without wondering which information is good, follow our compiled list of facts to help you cut through the nonsense and make the right call.

The method by which a solar panel installation contractor keeps up to date on advancements in his field can tell a lot about their commitment. Solar Panel Contractors who attend trade shows and belong to trade associations are committed and will generally provide good quality work.

When a solar panel installation contractor advises that they cannot meet your requirements either timeline or budget, be polite, thank them and move on to the next potential contractor. If more than one tells you the same thing, the issue may be with your expectations. Ask for details as to why the contractor cannot meet the requirements and re-evaluate your requirements to ensure they are reasonable.

You can sometimes get a discount on your project if you agree to let the solar panel installation contractor show off the work they perform to potential clients. If you agree to this, remember that strangers may stop by in order to inspect the work before hiring the contractor for their project.

Give your solar panel installation contractor freedom. If you want an employee who you can see every day, don’t hire a contractor, employ someone. If you want someone to do a specific tasks that doesn’t need to be managed, then use a contractor.

Hiring a great solar panel installation contractor can make your project a breeze, they are great with work crews as well as solar panel experts and usually know a lot about the business. They can be your eyes and ears, so a good one can be crucial for any project.

Visit a few job sites by yourself and ask the workers as to who they think is the best solar panel installation contractor. Hire the contractor on the basis of their recommendations because they will recommend the best one available around.

Manage your own expectations. Your expectations may not be realistic! The saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” applies here. Ask your friends or co-workers if your expectations are realistic.

Request recommendations from your area trade association and community. Contact sources and determine what they liked and hated about the performance of your potential solar panel installation contractor. If it suits your design, check out the contractor’s style and perspective.

Customer reviews reveal all. Look online for customer reviews as they tend to offer the good, bad, and ugly of companies in the area. There are now dedicated websites to customer reviews that can offer honest opinions about solar panel installation contractors and other professionals.

Whenever you are curious about the topic of perth solar panels, go ahead and visit Bing and search for westsun solar. You’ll be satisfied to know you did!

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