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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
June 5, 2013
Pain in the Gas........
Regular unleaded prices are averaging just over $4 pg in the Detroit metro area, from my casual observations. ..... What's it like elsewhere in DULand right now?
June 5, 2013
America’s Exceptional Food Insecurity
June 4, 2013
by John Light
Millions of American families say they have trouble putting food on the table and the economic recovery has done little to provide them with relief. Despite our relative prosperity as a nation, the percentage of Americans who, at some point in a given year, cannot afford to eat sets us apart from other wealthy countries.
Last month, the Pew Research Center used International Monetary Fund data to analyze the “levels of deprivation” across various countries, including our own. When the data is compiled in a chart (as it is below), it’s clear that the U.S. is an outlier: We are by far the richest country included in Pew’s study, but nearly a quarter of our population – over 78 million people — live in what’s called a “food insecure” household. In Canada, the second richest country Pew looked at, only nine percent of people had difficulty; in China, it was eight percent.
Interactive chart at the link: http://billmoyers.com/2013/06/04/americas-exceptional-food-insecurity/
America’s Exceptional Food Insecurity
America’s Exceptional Food Insecurity
June 4, 2013
by John Light
Millions of American families say they have trouble putting food on the table and the economic recovery has done little to provide them with relief. Despite our relative prosperity as a nation, the percentage of Americans who, at some point in a given year, cannot afford to eat sets us apart from other wealthy countries.
Last month, the Pew Research Center used International Monetary Fund data to analyze the “levels of deprivation” across various countries, including our own. When the data is compiled in a chart (as it is below), it’s clear that the U.S. is an outlier: We are by far the richest country included in Pew’s study, but nearly a quarter of our population – over 78 million people — live in what’s called a “food insecure” household. In Canada, the second richest country Pew looked at, only nine percent of people had difficulty; in China, it was eight percent.
Interactive chart at the link: http://billmoyers.com/2013/06/04/americas-exceptional-food-insecurity/
June 5, 2013
(NPR) A U.S. trade agency says Apple infringed on its Asian rival Samsung's patent in its manufacture of some older models of the iPhone and iPad.
Bloomberg reports on the order from the U.S. : "It's the first patent ruling against Apple in the U.S. that affects product sales, covering models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G made for AT&T Inc."
Reuters notes that the ITC panel "issued a limited import ban and a cease-and-desist order for AT&T models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G."
President Obama has 60 days to overturn the order. An Apple spokeswoman told the that the company was "disappointed" with the decision and planned to appeal. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/04/188738172/u-s-trade-body-rules-apple-violated-samsung-patents
U.S. Trade Body Rules Apple Violated Samsung Patents
(NPR) A U.S. trade agency says Apple infringed on its Asian rival Samsung's patent in its manufacture of some older models of the iPhone and iPad.
Bloomberg reports on the order from the U.S. : "It's the first patent ruling against Apple in the U.S. that affects product sales, covering models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G made for AT&T Inc."
Reuters notes that the ITC panel "issued a limited import ban and a cease-and-desist order for AT&T models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G."
President Obama has 60 days to overturn the order. An Apple spokeswoman told the that the company was "disappointed" with the decision and planned to appeal. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/04/188738172/u-s-trade-body-rules-apple-violated-samsung-patents
June 5, 2013
from Grist:
Look, the U.N. wants you to eat more insects, because it’s a more sustainable way to get protein — and you want to do what the U.N. says, right? Well, maybe you don’t if it means roasting up some bugs for dinner, and listen, we agree. Really we do. Roasting is super work-intensive. What you need is a bug-based energy bar.
Luckily, Chapul has you covered. The company makes three flavors of cricket-based protein bar — Chaco adds dates, chocolate, and nuts to the cricket powder; Thai incorporates coconut, ginger, and lime; and nut-free Aztec features cocoa, coffee, and cayenne. None of which sound half bad, if you’re going to eat bugs. And if the reviews are to be trusted, they taste as good as they sound, though we can’t verify that the reviews come from actual customers. All we can be sure of is that they don’t come from crickets.
Chapul — the company’s name is the Aztec word for cricket — sold 6,000 bars last month, so clearly there’s a segment of the population that’s willing to get over the “ick” factor of eating bugs. If perhaps not the “ick” factor of having to cook.
http://grist.org/list/if-you-dont-feel-like-cooking-your-own-bugs-opt-for-an-insect-energy-bar/
Let's see, do I want apple/cinnamon, honey/oatmeal ....... or grasshopper/centipede?
from Grist:
Look, the U.N. wants you to eat more insects, because it’s a more sustainable way to get protein — and you want to do what the U.N. says, right? Well, maybe you don’t if it means roasting up some bugs for dinner, and listen, we agree. Really we do. Roasting is super work-intensive. What you need is a bug-based energy bar.
Luckily, Chapul has you covered. The company makes three flavors of cricket-based protein bar — Chaco adds dates, chocolate, and nuts to the cricket powder; Thai incorporates coconut, ginger, and lime; and nut-free Aztec features cocoa, coffee, and cayenne. None of which sound half bad, if you’re going to eat bugs. And if the reviews are to be trusted, they taste as good as they sound, though we can’t verify that the reviews come from actual customers. All we can be sure of is that they don’t come from crickets.
Chapul — the company’s name is the Aztec word for cricket — sold 6,000 bars last month, so clearly there’s a segment of the population that’s willing to get over the “ick” factor of eating bugs. If perhaps not the “ick” factor of having to cook.
http://grist.org/list/if-you-dont-feel-like-cooking-your-own-bugs-opt-for-an-insect-energy-bar/
June 5, 2013
Texas Cops (White) Slam Woman (Black) to Ground For Unpaid Traffic Ticket
by Abby Zimet
Exactly 15 years after the infamous murder of James Byrd, a black man tied to a truck and dragged to his death by three white men, two police officers from Jasper, Texas have been fired after jail video captured them brutally assaulting Keyarika Diggles, 25; one, then both grabbed her by the hair, slammed her head into a counter and dragged her by the ankles into a cell. Diggles was there to pay a $100 traffic ticket.
Video at link: http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/06/05
Jasper, TX: Cops (White) Slam Woman (Black) to Ground For Unpaid Traffic Ticket
Texas Cops (White) Slam Woman (Black) to Ground For Unpaid Traffic Ticket
by Abby Zimet
Exactly 15 years after the infamous murder of James Byrd, a black man tied to a truck and dragged to his death by three white men, two police officers from Jasper, Texas have been fired after jail video captured them brutally assaulting Keyarika Diggles, 25; one, then both grabbed her by the hair, slammed her head into a counter and dragged her by the ankles into a cell. Diggles was there to pay a $100 traffic ticket.
Video at link: http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/06/05
June 5, 2013
In the Dead Zone of Capitalism: Lessons on the Violence of Inequality from Chicago
Tuesday, 04 June 2013 11:07
By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout | Op-Ed
Americans are confronted daily with the violence of inequality. The rich have longer life spans, better health care, access to better educational opportunities and an abundance of food. Many live in palatial homes in gated communities and wield a disproportionate amount of control and power over the major social, cultural, and political apparatuses that shape everyday life. Unlike most Americans, the extravagantly rich are protected from the massive degree of violence produced by poverty, poor health, joblessness, inadequate social provisions, decrepit housing, unsafe neighborhoods, and even environmental disasters. While the superrich also live in an age of precarity due to the free-market economic models they support, they largely escape its consequences through the obscene amount of wealth at their disposal that enables them to buy private solutions to public problems. As Naomi Klein points out, such wealth offers more than economic advantages. It also creates a world in which the penthouse and mansion set
The corrupt bankers, hedge fund managers, and financial services elite who caused the housing crisis and the economic recession of 2008 have little fear of finding themselves homeless or in debt, a fate suffered by millions of Americans, especially young people. The hedge fund managers who pour millions into charter schools as a first step towards privatizing them don’t worry about draining valuable resources from public schools because their kids only attend the most elite and expensive private schools, and they also get a hefty return from such investments as a generous tax credit. Transferring wealth from the public to the private sector has become a sport rather than a liability - a despicable act of looting the public treasury that is viewed strictly as a financial transaction divorced from any sense of civic duty or ethical consideration. The ultra-rich do not have to worry about being unemployed, even though their search for profits produces austerity policies that put millions out of work. In this instance what emerges is a savage form of casino capitalism along with an army of walking dead zombies who celebrate a narcissistic hyper-individualism that radiates a near sociopathic lack of interest in other people and civic life. For the new financial elite of the second Gilded Age, the challenges of a global world are private, not collective, and can only be addressed by pursuing one’s own desires, financial interests, and security.
The obligations of citizenship and social existence in this brave new world of egregious inequality in which the "top 8% of global earners are drawing 50% of this planet’s income" have been abandoned to the narrow dictates of the private realm, consumerism and an arrested notion of individualism and freedom. In the United States, "the 400 richest people . . . have as much wealth as 154 million Americans combined, that’s 50 percent of the entire country (while) the top economic 1 percent of the US population now has a record 40 percent of all wealth, and have more wealth than 90 percent of the population combined." It gets worse. Half of the jobs in America "now pay $34,000 or less a year . . . 42% of single-mother families with children under 18 are poor (and) 20.5 million people have incomes that amount to less than $9,500 a year. That’s half the poverty line, which is currently pegged at $19,090 for a family of three." Moreover, the myth of upward mobility has been replaced by the reality of downward mobility, given that wages for most Americans are stagnant; youth now face a future of low-wage jobs, if not long-term unemployment, and economic and educational opportunities are tied almost exclusively to income and wealth. What the cheerleaders for neoliberalism refuse to acknowledge is that the choices people make are tied to constraints, and "nearly all of the constraints are intimately tied to the material circumstances in which we find ourselves." ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16738-in-the-dead-zone-of-capitalism-lessons-on-the-violence-of-inequality-from-chicago
In the Dead Zone of Capitalism: Lessons on the Violence of Inequality from Chicago
In the Dead Zone of Capitalism: Lessons on the Violence of Inequality from Chicago
Tuesday, 04 June 2013 11:07
By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout | Op-Ed
Americans are confronted daily with the violence of inequality. The rich have longer life spans, better health care, access to better educational opportunities and an abundance of food. Many live in palatial homes in gated communities and wield a disproportionate amount of control and power over the major social, cultural, and political apparatuses that shape everyday life. Unlike most Americans, the extravagantly rich are protected from the massive degree of violence produced by poverty, poor health, joblessness, inadequate social provisions, decrepit housing, unsafe neighborhoods, and even environmental disasters. While the superrich also live in an age of precarity due to the free-market economic models they support, they largely escape its consequences through the obscene amount of wealth at their disposal that enables them to buy private solutions to public problems. As Naomi Klein points out, such wealth offers more than economic advantages. It also creates a world in which the penthouse and mansion set
protect themselves from the less savory effects of the economic model that made them so wealthy. In the past six years, we have seen the emergence of private firefighters in the United States, hired by insurance companies to offer a ‘concierge’ service to their wealthier clients, as well as the short-lived ‘HelpJet’—a charter airline in Florida that offered five-star evacuation services from hurricane zones (whose ad shamelessly states): ‘No standing in lines, no hassle with crowds, just a first class experience that turns a problem into a vacation.
The corrupt bankers, hedge fund managers, and financial services elite who caused the housing crisis and the economic recession of 2008 have little fear of finding themselves homeless or in debt, a fate suffered by millions of Americans, especially young people. The hedge fund managers who pour millions into charter schools as a first step towards privatizing them don’t worry about draining valuable resources from public schools because their kids only attend the most elite and expensive private schools, and they also get a hefty return from such investments as a generous tax credit. Transferring wealth from the public to the private sector has become a sport rather than a liability - a despicable act of looting the public treasury that is viewed strictly as a financial transaction divorced from any sense of civic duty or ethical consideration. The ultra-rich do not have to worry about being unemployed, even though their search for profits produces austerity policies that put millions out of work. In this instance what emerges is a savage form of casino capitalism along with an army of walking dead zombies who celebrate a narcissistic hyper-individualism that radiates a near sociopathic lack of interest in other people and civic life. For the new financial elite of the second Gilded Age, the challenges of a global world are private, not collective, and can only be addressed by pursuing one’s own desires, financial interests, and security.
The obligations of citizenship and social existence in this brave new world of egregious inequality in which the "top 8% of global earners are drawing 50% of this planet’s income" have been abandoned to the narrow dictates of the private realm, consumerism and an arrested notion of individualism and freedom. In the United States, "the 400 richest people . . . have as much wealth as 154 million Americans combined, that’s 50 percent of the entire country (while) the top economic 1 percent of the US population now has a record 40 percent of all wealth, and have more wealth than 90 percent of the population combined." It gets worse. Half of the jobs in America "now pay $34,000 or less a year . . . 42% of single-mother families with children under 18 are poor (and) 20.5 million people have incomes that amount to less than $9,500 a year. That’s half the poverty line, which is currently pegged at $19,090 for a family of three." Moreover, the myth of upward mobility has been replaced by the reality of downward mobility, given that wages for most Americans are stagnant; youth now face a future of low-wage jobs, if not long-term unemployment, and economic and educational opportunities are tied almost exclusively to income and wealth. What the cheerleaders for neoliberalism refuse to acknowledge is that the choices people make are tied to constraints, and "nearly all of the constraints are intimately tied to the material circumstances in which we find ourselves." ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16738-in-the-dead-zone-of-capitalism-lessons-on-the-violence-of-inequality-from-chicago
June 5, 2013
By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times
June 5, 2013, 1:00 a.m.
The country's tepid growth in its gross domestic product isn't creating enough good jobs to build a strong middle class, according to a UCLA report released Wednesday.
"Growth in GDP has been positive, but not exceptional," UCLA economists wrote in their quarterly Anderson Forecast. "Jobs are growing, but not rapidly enough to create good jobs for all."
The report, which analyzed long-term trends of past recoveries, found that the long-anticipated "Great Recovery" has not yet materialized.
Real GDP growth — the value of goods and services produced after adjusting for inflation — is 15.4% below the 3% growth trend of past recoveries, wrote Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. More robust growth will be necessary to bring this recovery in line with previous ones.
"It's not a recovery," he wrote. "It's not even normal growth. It's bad." ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-forecast-20130605,0,7676874.story
U.S. economy is not in recovery, report says
By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times
June 5, 2013, 1:00 a.m.
The country's tepid growth in its gross domestic product isn't creating enough good jobs to build a strong middle class, according to a UCLA report released Wednesday.
"Growth in GDP has been positive, but not exceptional," UCLA economists wrote in their quarterly Anderson Forecast. "Jobs are growing, but not rapidly enough to create good jobs for all."
The report, which analyzed long-term trends of past recoveries, found that the long-anticipated "Great Recovery" has not yet materialized.
Real GDP growth — the value of goods and services produced after adjusting for inflation — is 15.4% below the 3% growth trend of past recoveries, wrote Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. More robust growth will be necessary to bring this recovery in line with previous ones.
"It's not a recovery," he wrote. "It's not even normal growth. It's bad." ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-forecast-20130605,0,7676874.story
June 5, 2013
(NPR) A U.S. trade agency says Apple infringed on its Asian rival Samsung's patent in its manufacture of some older models of the iPhone and iPad.
Bloomberg reports on the order from the U.S. : "It's the first patent ruling against Apple in the U.S. that affects product sales, covering models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G made for AT&T Inc."
Reuters notes that the ITC panel "issued a limited import ban and a cease-and-desist order for AT&T models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G."
President Obama has 60 days to overturn the order. An Apple spokeswoman told the that the company was "disappointed" with the decision and planned to appeal. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/04/188738172/u-s-trade-body-rules-apple-violated-samsung-patents
U.S. Trade Body Rules Apple Violated Samsung Patents
(NPR) A U.S. trade agency says Apple infringed on its Asian rival Samsung's patent in its manufacture of some older models of the iPhone and iPad.
Bloomberg reports on the order from the U.S. : "It's the first patent ruling against Apple in the U.S. that affects product sales, covering models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G made for AT&T Inc."
Reuters notes that the ITC panel "issued a limited import ban and a cease-and-desist order for AT&T models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G."
President Obama has 60 days to overturn the order. An Apple spokeswoman told the that the company was "disappointed" with the decision and planned to appeal. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/04/188738172/u-s-trade-body-rules-apple-violated-samsung-patents
June 5, 2013
from Grist:
Gotta hand it to Ben & Jerry’s: It knows how to please its core audience (the hippies, at least; not necessarily the recently dumped). The company is already making ice cream with 80 percent of its ingredients GMO-free. By the end of the year, Ben & Jerry’s says, there will be no GMO ingredients at all in its ice cream.
It’s a little bit tricky, considering how many things go into Ben & Jerry’s flavors, but the company already does it in Europe. So it’s possible — it just needs to find the right suppliers.
Here’s why it’s doing it:
Also, it’s from Vermont! And it knows what side its GMO-free nine-grain whole wheat bread is GMO-free organic buttered on.
Ben & Jerry’s is going GMO-free
http://grist.org/list/ben-jerrys-is-going-gmo-free/from Grist:
Gotta hand it to Ben & Jerry’s: It knows how to please its core audience (the hippies, at least; not necessarily the recently dumped). The company is already making ice cream with 80 percent of its ingredients GMO-free. By the end of the year, Ben & Jerry’s says, there will be no GMO ingredients at all in its ice cream.
It’s a little bit tricky, considering how many things go into Ben & Jerry’s flavors, but the company already does it in Europe. So it’s possible — it just needs to find the right suppliers.
Here’s why it’s doing it:
We have a long history of siding with consumers and their right to know what’s in their food. We fought long and hard for labeling of rBGH, which was the first genetically engineered technology used in the US food system. We thank and encourage all those who are continuing this fight in support of transparency and the consumer’s right to know.
Also, it’s from Vermont! And it knows what side its GMO-free nine-grain whole wheat bread is GMO-free organic buttered on.
June 5, 2013
?6
Antler? He barely even knew her!
A seemingly lonely (and confused) bull moose in Grand Lake, Colo., has been snapped in some compromising positions -- with a moose statue.
The poor guy mounts his bronze counterpart each morning, according to 9 News.
The statue's owners, Randy and Pam, told the station that their new fixture has garnered the attention of neighbors, visitors, and even tour busses, since the real bull moose began its visits to their front yard last week. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/moose-loves-statue_n_3378730.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
Beware of a moose in heat
?6
Antler? He barely even knew her!
A seemingly lonely (and confused) bull moose in Grand Lake, Colo., has been snapped in some compromising positions -- with a moose statue.
The poor guy mounts his bronze counterpart each morning, according to 9 News.
The statue's owners, Randy and Pam, told the station that their new fixture has garnered the attention of neighbors, visitors, and even tour busses, since the real bull moose began its visits to their front yard last week. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/moose-loves-statue_n_3378730.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,091
