Tag Archives: jobs

Friday Cat Blogging – 8 November 2013

by Fredric6271 Posted on November 8, 2013

Mother Jones

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Here is Domino staring up into the camera as she prepares to jump onto the couch. This is always a huge production. The sofa is a grand total of 18 inches off the ground, but she walks back and forth, meows piteously, gets on her hind legs to look at the cushions, then walks back and forth some more, and then some more—and then, finally, after a bit of butt twitching and tail swishing, finally makes her grand entrance. You’d think she was Evel Knievel preparing to jump the Grand Canyon or something.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 8 November 2013

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President Obama Doesn’t Much Care What Benjamin Netanyahu Thinks Anymore

by John Basset Posted on November 8, 2013

Mother Jones

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The United States and its allies appear to be close to an interim deal with Iran, one that would modestly ease some of the economic sanctions currently in place in return for some kind of freeze on its centrifuge activities. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is apoplectic at the prospect of a deal, but no one seems to be paying much attention to him. Jeffrey Goldberg explains why:

Two reasons. The first reason is that U.S. President Barack Obama has him boxed in. Netanyahu can’t launch a unilateral strike on Iran now that the U.S. is actively negotiating with its leaders.

….The second reason is one Netanyahu, so far at least, has refused to comprehend. His unwillingness to permanently freeze settlement growth on the West Bank, to make the sort of grand gesture toward the Palestinians that would advance the peace process, has caused even those in Washington and Europe who are sympathetic to his stance on Iran to write him off as generally immovable and irrational.

….Netanyahu argues that these are two separate issues, and he’s correct. Except that, in the world of international diplomacy, they are inextricably linked. The Obama administration hears Netanyahu’s demands for more action on Iran and tries — so far, fairly successfully — to meet that call for action. But when the Obama administration turns around and asks Netanyahu to make the sort of gestures that might advance the peace process, it more often than not gets stonewalled.

I’d put it more simply. Netanyahu has made it clear that he’s just flatly opposed to any plausible bargain at all. His idea of a deal is that Iran first destroys its entire nuclear infrastructure and then—maybe—sanctions should be eased or lifted. This is pretty plainly not a deal that any national leader in his right mind would ever accept, and Netanyahu knows it. So he’s essentially saying that no deal should ever be made with Iran.

Given an attitude like that, who’s going to take him seriously? Nobody. Add to that an unending string of personal affronts against President Obama, and it’s a credit to Obama’s self-control that he’s still willing to talk to Netanyahu at all. Obama has been endlessly accommodating toward Netanyahu’s interests, and it’s gotten him nothing in return but condescending lectures and blunt dismissals. So now he’s acting on his own. More here from Andrew Sullivan.

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President Obama Doesn’t Much Care What Benjamin Netanyahu Thinks Anymore

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Chart of the Day: Net New Jobs in October

by Christopherd3o Posted on November 8, 2013

Mother Jones

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The American economy added 204,000 new jobs in October, but about 90,000 of those jobs were needed just to keep up with population growth, so net job growth clocked in at 114,000. That’s not bad. In addition, revisions to previous months increased previous estimates for August and September by 60,000 new jobs. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the labor force participation rate fell, and the headline unemployment rate increased from 7.24 percent to 7.28 percent. However, unlike the job growth numbers, this is based on a separate survey that counts furloughed government workers as unemployed, so it’s not very meaningful. It will bounce back down next month.

Overall, then, the news was reasonably good, if not spectacular, but tainted by some artificial job losses due to the shutdown. We’ll have to wait until next month for a clearer picture.

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Chart of the Day: Net New Jobs in October

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Illinois town bans stripping because of fracking

by Cletus Posted on July 12, 2013

Illinois town bans stripping because of fracking

By John Upton

cobalt123

There will be no more of this in Fairfield.

It’s bad enough that the fracking boom is making it more difficult for Americans to breathe clean air, feel safe drinking their water, and stand on steady ground. Now the boom is preventing anybody in one Illinois town from dancing with their clothes off.

Fairfield, Ill. (population 5,000 and shrinking) is bracing for an influx of frackers, most of whom will be men from out of town. (Despite promises of jobs associated with fracking, fracked communities normally discover that most of the work goes to experienced hands who fly in from Texas and other industry hotspots.)

A city committee charged with preparing the town for fracking warned that it could create a market for strip clubs. So, acting on the advice of the committee, the Fairfield City Council unanimously passed an ordinance this week that prohibits nude, seminude, and exotic dancing. It doesn’t even matter whether the stripping is done for profit or if it’s, er, gratuitous. From the Evansville Courier & Press:

The ordinance makes it “illegal for any person, firm, corporation, partnership, limited liability company or any other entity to operate any kind of business which provides as a form of entertainment either gratuitously or at cost, nude, seminude or exotic dancers.”

The pre-emptive ordinance was drawn up after news accounts began surfacing about strip clubs popping up around the oil work camps in North Dakota, and a resulting increase in criminal activity.

Under the newly enacted Fairfield ordinance, anyone violating the law may be fined $5,000 for each day the violation exists.

Memo to any roughnecks headed to Fairfield for fracking jobs: Pack porn.

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.

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Illinois town bans stripping because of fracking

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Taiwan’s most-wanted gang leader ‘White Wolf’ captured at airport after 17 years

by Posted on June 29, 2013

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<!– google_ad_section_start –> A Taiwanese gang leader who has been on the island’s most wanted list since he fled to the mainland 17 years ago was arrested on arrival at a Taipei airport on Saturday, police said. Chang An-lo, better known by his nickname “White Wolf”, is a key member of the Bamboo Union – one of Taiwan’s biggest gangs accused of organised crimes including blackmail, extortion, smuggling and money laundering. <!– google_ad_section_end –>

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Falling prices for renewable energy could lead to a tripling of investment

by Kyung Wilhoite Posted on April 23, 2013

Falling prices for renewable energy could lead to a tripling of investment

By John Upton

John UptonSolar panels in San Francisco.

Catch ya later, failed renewable energy companies. We’re sorry to lose you, but so long as your laid-off workers find other jobs in the ballooning clean energy economy, your collapse really doesn’t matter.

That’s one takeaway message from a new analysis of the renewable energy sector by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The plummeting price of renewable energy has bankrupted more than two dozen wind and solar manufacturers, but the BNEF analysts say it could lead to a tripling of investment in the sector over the next 17 years. Notable victims of the falling costs of solar panels include Solyndra and Suntech. But the collapse of those companies appears to be little more than natural attrition in a fast-evolving industry with an extremely bright future.

From Bloomberg:

Annual spending on clean-energy projects that don’t add to greenhouse-gas pollution may rise to $630 billion at the end of the next decade from $190 billion last year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a report today. That’s 37 percent more than estimated in November 2011 and means renewables would account for half of all generation capacity by 2030. …

While suppliers are suffering, lower equipment prices are making more projects profitable to develop and advancing the day when renewables can rival coal and oil on cost.

“The apocalyptic views about what it will cost to shift the world to renewable energy simply aren’t true,” Michael Liebreich, chief executive officer of New Energy Finance, said in an interview. “Three years ago, we thought wind and solar would be cheap as chips, and they’ve even gone below that.”

Despite noise made on the right, the failures of high-profile renewable energy companies don’t mean that the sector is failing. Quite the opposite.

Read another post about the Bloomberg New Energy Finance report: The smart money is on renewable energy

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Facebook

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blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

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Falling prices for renewable energy could lead to a tripling of investment

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