Saturday, December 1, 2012

@12:00, 12/1/12

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1
Business Day

MegaFon Shares Fall After I.P.O.

By ANDREW E. KRAMER and MARK SCOTT | Nov 28, 2012
The initial offering of the Russian cellphone operator MegaFon raised $1.7 billion, making it Europe's second-largest offering this year, but the market seem unimpressed on the first day of trading.
Cellular Telephones; Initial Public Offerings; Stocks and Bonds; Telephones and Telecommunications; Wireless Communications; 

The Soviet  Union did not issue phone books.
There is still too much state control for me to want to invest there.
It seems I am not alone in that.

2
Opinion

Learning History at the Movies

By GARY GUTTING | Nov 29, 2012
Films like "Lincoln" can contribute to our understanding of past events, but on their own, they are no substitute for the work of historians.
Civil War (US) (1861-65); History (Academic Subject); Movies; 

A produced movie is a story.  It has no duty of truth or even of fact.
It can incite interest or other emotions.  They are not documents or evidence of anything but the time in which they were made.
 
3
U.S.

When Internal Polls Mislead, a Whole Campaign May Be To Blame

By NATE SILVER | Dec 1, 2012
The problems with internal polls may run deeper than the tendency for campaigns to report them to the public in a selective way. The campaigns may also be fooling themselves.
Polls and Public Opinion; Presidential Election of 2012; United States Politics and Government; 

Yes.
 
4
Arts

Lisa de Kooning, Painter’s Daughter, Dies at 56

By DOUGLAS MARTIN | Dec 1, 2012
Ms. de Kooning, a sculptor herself, established the Willem de Kooning Foundation.
Sculpture; Art; Deaths (Obituaries); 

Nothing for me to learn here.
 
5
Business Day

Solar Industry Borrows a Page, and a Party, From Tupperware

By DIANE CARDWELL | Dec 1, 2012
Solar parties, like Tupperware parties, are being used by solar companies to sell their products to neighbors of homeowners who have installed the arrays.
Solar Energy; Customer Relations; Advertising and Marketing; 

Yes.  I am sold but I want to take it off the grid.
6
Opinion

The U.N. To Vote on Palestine

Nov 28, 2012
U.N. member states will vote Nov. 29 on a resolution to grant “non-member observer state status” to Palestine.
Palestinians; Voting and Voters; 

There is a majority of members who vote for the Palestinians.
The proposition passed.
7
Opinion

Memory, Loss

By LIU ZHENYUN | Nov 30, 2012
Why aren’t the Chinese ready to acknowledge the death of three million people in Henan in 1942?
Famine; Cannibalism; Books and Literature; 

There is no good reason to make this famine stand out from all the others.
Famines ruin the surviving children.  They are no way to limit population.
8
World

Qatari Poet Sentenced to Life in Prison for a Verse

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Nov 30, 2012
Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami was sentenced for a poem inspired by the Arab Spring that officials claim insulted Qatar’s emir.
Freedom of Speech and Expression; Poetry and Poets; Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- ); Sentences (Criminal); 

In Islam orthodoxy is vigorously enforced.
 
9
Health

New Help for Hoarders

By PAULA SPAN | Nov 29, 2012
In the three years since this blog wrote last about the problem of older people who hoard, new treatments and services have become available.
Elderly; Hoarding; 

Economic depressions are not helpful.
Art collecting can be the same drive.
 
10
World

Commission Calls for Guatemala to Protect Patients

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD | Nov 30, 2012
Patients at a Guatemala City psychiatric hospital were abused by gangs and guards according to an international human rights commission report.
Abuse of the Disabled; Human Rights and Human Rights Violations; Hospitals; 

The keepers at Bedlam in London in the eighteenth century would rent out sticks to poke the inmates.  We have learned some since.
Some more than others.
 
11
N.Y. / Region

Putting the Bounce Back in Your Step

By DANIEL KRIEGER | Nov 30, 2012
Dance classes with Kangoo Jumps, bouncy spring-loaded shoes designed for running and jumping without offending the joints.
Exercise; Sneakers; 

Just a bad idea.
 
12
Business Day

In Ukraine, Mystery Man Fakes a Natural Gas Deal

By ANDREW E. KRAMER | Nov 30, 2012
Jordi Sarda Bonvehi, the man who negotiated with Ukrainian officials about building a liquefied natural gas plant on the Black Sea, was not authorized to do so.
Natural Gas; 

Hire that man.
 
13
Technology

Jeff Hawkins Develops a Brainy Big Data Company

By QUENTIN HARDY | Nov 28, 2012
Jeff Hawkins got rich and famous as the brains behind Palm, an early power in mobile data. He has also developed a new model of how we think. Having talked about it in books and university lectures, his model of consciousness will now be used, he says, to revolutionize the data analysis industry.
Artificial Intelligence; Brain; Enterprise Computing; Intelligence and Intelligence Tests (IQ); 

Mostly correct.  
Data basses including history are other streams that must be included.
The game is called a neural network.  It was new in 1972.
 
14
N.Y. / Region

For 2nd Time, Schools Official (Now Former) Is Fined for Nepotism

By DANIELLA SILVA | Nov 28, 2012
The Education Department official had arranged for his wife to be hired, the Conflicts of Interest Board said; a few years earlier he was fined for trying to get his brother hired.
Conflicts of Interest; 

A necessary action.
Real stupidity is a firing offense.

15
World

Should Health Care for the Very Poor Be a Fast-Growth, For-Profit Business?

By HEATHER TIMMONS | Nov 30, 2012
As excitement heats up in India about the "affordable healthcare" industry, some questions remain.
Health Insurance and Managed Care; Microfinance; Private Equity; Reform and Reorganization; Venture Capital; 

There is no money in it.  
Any income would be from subsidies.
This does not make a viable business.
A population crash is unacceptable.
There are more people than can be sustained.
I have no answers on this.
16
World

At the Doha Summit, India Pushes Developed Nations to Cut Emissions

By BETWA SHARMA | Nov 30, 2012
Results have been disappointing, officials say.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Kyoto Protocol; Third World and Developing Countries; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; 

Established political power considers any cut in fuel use as self destruction.
 
17
World

The Costs of Burying Carbon Emissions

By STANLEY REED | Nov 28, 2012
In times of austerity, should governments be subsidizing green energy? If so, how long should those subsidies stay in place?
Carbon Dioxide; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; 

The cost of the plant is trivial compared to the cost of operation.
This mans argument is specious.
Austerity is economically disastrous.
Fossil carbon for energy is never green.  
Spend the money on fossil carbon free energy.

18
Science

60-Million-Year Debate on Grand Canyon’s Age

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD | Nov 30, 2012
A bitter controversy among geologists edged into the open when a report offered support for a hypothesis suggesting a much older Grand Canyon than the prevailing view.
Geology; Research; 

The only question I have is why there is a controversy here.
Orthodoxy should have no power over geology.  
This is good new evidence.  It will require reconsideration of the older account of formation and the evidential chain that supported  that account.
The old professor will have to rewrite his text book and lecture notes.
Texas may even have to accept evolution.
19
Style

Do Gender-Neutral Gifts Still Elude Parents?

By KJ DELL'ANTONIA | Nov 29, 2012
Given the noise over a toy company's "gender neutral" images of Nerf-gun-wielding girls and doll-clutching boys, how much have things really changed in the 40 years since "Free to Be You and Me"?
Advertising and Marketing; Children and Childhood; Gender; Parenting; Toys; Women and Girls; 

Gender-neutral is not a goal.
There are objects that are gender free.  There are others that are gendered.
There are processes that are gendered.  There are processes that are not gendered.  
There are no dependable structures in the gendering of behavior.

20
Business Day

An 'Unsexy' Start-Up Tries to Fill Movie Seats

By JESSICA BRUDER | Nov 28, 2012
Dealflicks, says one of its founders, wants to do for movie tickets what Priceline.com and Hotwire.com do for travel bookings.
Movies; Small Business; Start-ups; 

Reads as the movie business has overpriced their product.
Why would the theaters want to pay a service to reduce their profits?










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