Tag Archives: rec

Friday Cat Blogging – 13 January 2017

by RaraBurne7440 Posted on January 13, 2017

Mother Jones

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I’m alive. Barely. My congestion decided to migrate up into my ear canals yesterday, so every time I cough my right ear blocks up and the world starts spinning. Unfortunately, I cough a lot. It doesn’t last too long, but it happens often enough to keep my stomach in a permanent state of mild nausea. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

Anyway, the cats are all fine. Here’s Hilbert camping out on the fence.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 13 January 2017

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No, Tech Firms Are Not Huge Job Creators

by TangelaMullens Posted on January 12, 2017

Mother Jones

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James Pethokoukis rounds up some evidence today that, contrary to their reputations, modern tech companies create just as many jobs as the big industrial giants of yore. The problem is that he’s comparing today’s companies with companies from a century ago, when the labor force was far smaller. You can’t do that. You have to look at jobs as a percent of the entire labor force. When you do that, here’s what his sample set of companies looks like 20 years after their founding:

Modern tech companies are all at the bottom. The only exception is Amazon, and it’s arguable just how much Amazon is really a tech company anyway. Putting a web interface on retail doesn’t really count, but then again, providing cloud services does. So they’re about half and half, which probably explains why they’re in the middle of the chart.

For better or worse, modern tech companies just aren’t huge jobs producers—and as machine intelligence progresses, they’re likely to become even smaller players in the employment market.

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No, Tech Firms Are Not Huge Job Creators

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Kids Are Killing a Lot Fewer Cops These Days

by Porter0892 Posted on January 4, 2017

Mother Jones

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Let’s end the day with some good news. As you all know, violent crime began falling after leaded gasoline began its phaseout in the mid-70s. And because lead affects the brain development of infants and toddlers, the fall in crime began with the youngest kids. In the mid-80s, only young children were showing signs of reduced violence. By the mid-90s, everyone under 20 started to show effects. By the mid-aughts everyone under 30 was starting to get less violent.

In other words, the first cohort to benefit from reduced lead was juveniles. Kids born in the late-70s showed only small improvements because lead had been only slightly reduced during their childhood. Kids born in the late-80s showed more improvement because ambient lead had decreased quite a bit during their childhood. Kids born in the late-90s showed yet more improvement, etc.

Rick Nevin has sent me a new chart that shows this vividly:

In the early 90s, young people between the age of 18-24 killed an average of 33 police officers per year. By 2015 that was down to 4. For juveniles under the age of 18, the number was zero.

Kids just aren’t as dangerous as they used to be, and that’s likely to be a permanent change. As time passes, this will affect older and older generations as the cohort born in the late-80s (when most lead was gone) grows up. How much better does news get?

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Kids Are Killing a Lot Fewer Cops These Days

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Google Searches for Hillary’s Emails Peaked After Comey’s Letter

by StacyBagshaw6 Posted on January 4, 2017

Mother Jones

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As long as we’re on the subject of James Comey and Hillary’s emails, here’s a chart showing Google searches on the subject:

I know what you’re thinking. Are you ever going to give this a rest, Kevin? No, I’m not. There may be periods when I don’t happen to blog about it, but I’ll never give it a rest. This is the second time in five elections that an arm of the US government, rather than the voters, has appointed a US president. It will never, ever be far from my thoughts, and the least I can do is make this blog a one-stop shop for anyone collecting evidence about the effect of the letter Comey released 12 days before the election.

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Google Searches for Hillary’s Emails Peaked After Comey’s Letter

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Quote of the Day: Obamacare Replacement Will Leave No One Worse Off

by QuincyConklin Posted on January 3, 2017

Mother Jones

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From House Speaker Paul Ryan, on Republican plans to repeal and replace Obamacare:

There will be a transition and a bridge so that no one is left out in the cold, so that no one is worse off.

This quote is a month old, but I only noticed it today when Nancy LeTourneau brought it to my attention. Democrats need to hold Ryan to this.

That means no change in Medicaid expansion. It means no change in access to health coverage. It means no reduction in federal subsidies. It means making sure that insurers stay in the exchanges. It means no lifetime limits on covered medical care. It means kids can stay on their parents’ plan through age 26.

This is also a good yardstick for Ryan’s eventual replacement for Obamacare. Technically, he didn’t say that the eventual Republican replacement would leave no one worse off, only the transition. But someone should pin him down on that too.

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Quote of the Day: Obamacare Replacement Will Leave No One Worse Off

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Why Are CDs Cheaper Than Digital Downloads?

by JayEastham Posted on December 31, 2016

Mother Jones

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Last night I decided to buy a bunch of old-man albums from my youth that I’ve never gotten around to getting before. But old man though I might be, I am 21st century in my listening habits. I don’t need a bunch of CDs cluttering up my house, just digital downloads. And yet, I ended up with a bunch of CDs winging their way to my house.

Why? Because out of a dozen purchases at Amazon, the audio CD was cheaper in all but one case. And about half the time, the audio CD included download rights. So I was buying a CD plus a digital download for less than the price of the CD alone.

Can anyone explain this? I know Amazon has some weird pricing policies sometimes, but this seems even weirder than usual. They could have saved themselves both warehouse picking/packing time and shipping costs if they’d priced the digital a buck less than the CD, rather than the other way around. Possible explanations:

Most people consider digital files a convenience they’re willing to pay for. It saves them the time of having to rip a CD.
License rights something something something.
I was a subject in a large-scale study to find out how irrational consumers are.
Amazon is so used to losing money they just don’t care.

Any other guesses?

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Why Are CDs Cheaper Than Digital Downloads?

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Even After Health Care, Per Capita Income Keeps on Rising

by VonnieIronside Posted on December 30, 2016

Mother Jones

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Here’s another chart. I don’t know why I did this one. I was looking at some other stuff, and then one thing led to another. But it seemed kind of interesting. Even after you account for ever-rising health care expenditures, personal income has been steadily rising for 60 years.

This does not show medians, so don’t make too much of it. Especially over the past couple of decades, it’s skewed by the massive income increases of the top 1 percent. A more interesting measure, I suppose, would be median disposable income after median out-of-pocket health care expenditures. Maybe I’ll root around one of these days and see if I can find that.

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Even After Health Care, Per Capita Income Keeps on Rising

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Chart of the Day: Food Is Cheap!

by Scotty90Rx Posted on December 30, 2016

Mother Jones

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Whenever you point out that inflation is pretty low these days, you can expect a flurry of responses along the lines of, “Have you seen the price of eggs lately?!?” As it happens, yes, I have. More to the point, the US government tracks food inflation, and it’s really low right now. As in negative. Food bought in stores (as opposed to restaurant food) is 2.2 percent cheaper than it was a year ago. This means the average family is spending about $150 less on groceries than they did in 2015. Happy Holidays!

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Chart of the Day: Food Is Cheap!

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Happy Boxing Day!

by JaxonMcClelland Posted on December 26, 2016

Mother Jones

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We humans got all sorts of books, electronic devices, food items, and other doodads for Christmas. As usual, though, the cats made out much better than us, having a grand time with all the packing ephemera. Later they climbed a few trees and looked longingly at some hummingbirds who were perfectly safe, but seriously annoyed at all the feline prowling near their feeder. Life in the wild is pretty tough these days.

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Happy Boxing Day!

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In Ironic Twist, Conservatives Finally Win War on Christmas But Kill Santa in the Process

by DelilaSalgado Posted on December 24, 2016

Mother Jones

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Here’s the latest version of the Arctic meltdown, this time in cheerful Christmas colors:

For a while there, it looked like maybe things were heading back down to normal, but then a few weeks ago temps started spiking again. It’s now more than 30 degrees warmer than normal at the North Pole.

Data since 1958 is here. If you click through the years, you’ll see that the previous record was somewhere around 15 degrees above normal for maybe a week or two. Current Arctic temps are not only higher than they’ve ever been, but they’ve lasted for about four months so far. I am pretty sure this means Santa’s workshop has long since fallen through the thin ice and disappeared forever into the inky depths of the Arctic waters. Sorry about that, kids.

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In Ironic Twist, Conservatives Finally Win War on Christmas But Kill Santa in the Process

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