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Yes, those other things increase the work pool. The net change is tough to measure though.

The net change is easy to measure, and most countries keep detailed records. Here is the data for the US: http://faculty.tamucc.edu/sfri...

I think the deliberate expansion of higher education by governments is a way of papering over the losses of entry-level jobs created by minimum wage and other restrictive labor laws. You see that even in the US, where labor participation rates in younger age groups have dropped significantly: http://faculty.tamucc.edu/sfri...

Hmm, labor force participation rate is about where it was at the end of Regan's first term, but if you drill into the details you'd see that most of the hit is to 16-24 year olds, and it's largely been because the 55+ rate is higher than it's been in 40+ years, basically the boomers won't retire so there's little room at the bottom. The boomers refusing to retire wouldn't be a problem in an expanding economy, but in one that went through a hundred year recession followed by a rather flat recovery it's going to have some significant impacts.

They do exist, and Macondo isn't unique as an oil field either. There is ample evidence for natural plumes of oil and gas seeping from the sea floor at many locations world-wide, including the Gulf of Mexico and offshore California where they have been well-studied. There are some details at this site, which includes a number of publications about California seeps. This site has more information, including a nice aerial photo of the natural oil slick produced by the seeps off the coast of California. This paper [PDF] is a good summary of the best known California locations.

here and here [PDF] are some examples [PDF] of seeps, gas plumes [PDF], and seep-related life [PDF] in the Gulf of Mexico [PDF]. The tube worms growing on asphalt [PDF] or "ice worms" in burrows in gas hydrate (!) [PDF] are particularly cool. Some life *likes* oil and gas leaking into the ocean.

The bottom line is, seeps of gas and liquid hydrocarbons into the water column happen all the time, and the ocean deals with them by bacteria eating the oil. On the sea floor there are flourishing biological communities associated with the release of hydrocarbons, like a little "oasis" of life in the deep sea, supported by creatures eating the bacteria that are in turn eating the hydrocarbons that are expelled. However, the rate of release at the BP well is several times the total output of natural seeps across the entire Gulf of Mexico, so the scale of the release is much bigger and concentrated in one gigantic point source. It would be like trying to feed on a volcano. There certainly won't be any seep communities setting up at the BP well any time soon :-) Anyway, the life in the ocean will consume this stuff as it spreads out, whether it is in a plume or on the surface, but it will take a while. Also, the plume they are talking about in the water column is extremely low concentration (ppb average). 99%+ of the oil is making it to the surface, and most of the gas is either dissolving in or venting to the atmosphere. The plume is interesting from a scientific perspective and probably will have some kind of environmental effect that could be important, but it's not the main part of the environmental problem. People are hyped about it because they are obsessed with the idea that the disaster could be 10x worse than the oil that is obvious on the surface. These studies show that simply isn't the case because of the low concentrations. A significant fraction of the oil is not lurking below, only a tiny, instrument-detectable amount is.

Here on Ward Island / TAMUCC we've got over 10 million of related research going on. This is a sad day and I hope doesn't effect us. :( http://www.sp.tamucc.edu/pulse/info.shtml

Ohio Creates 'Pre-Crime' Sex Offender Registry


In a scene right out of Spielberg's vision of Philip K. Dick's classic short story the state of Ohio has established a pre-crime registry for sex offenders--even if they've never been charged with a crime!

"The person's name, address, and photograph would be placed on a new Internet database and the person would be subjected to the same registration and community notification requirements and restrictions on where he could live."

I can't wait to see how this is going to affect the current trend that has divorcing women making false accusations against their husbands during the custody phase of proceedings! Then there's the way this (being that it is a civil matter) can be expanded to encompass so many other things...

Could this new registry be away for the homophobic to reverse the trends towards civil rights homosexuals have achieved in recent years? What about the affect this can have on children engaged in normal sex play for their ages? I'm reminded of Ryan Zylstra, Leah DuBuc, Laura M. Wilcox, Genarlow Wilson and other teenagers and children who have had their lives ruined by this type of hysteria and the lack of due process that comes with it. And who can forget the vigilantes who murder people they find on these lists? People like William Elliott, who was placed on the registry at age nineteen for having sex with his two weeks shy of sixteen year old girlfriend and thanks to the registry murdered.

Now they want a civil registry they can place people on without the benefit of a conviction or a jury trial? Next thing you know they'll be pushing for a pink triangle on your ID! Oh wait... Well just remember that when you give up your rights one by one, you're doing it for the children....

I'm posting the original submission because I believe anyone who follows the links here will see quite clearly how bad this is even beyond the usual Constitutional violations. This is a law that will harm the very same people it purports to protect!

--I*Love*Green*Olives

http://puffin.tamucc.edu/~mwilliamson/torrents/mdi s_depart.mpeg.mpa.mpg.torrent

Sure, here ya go.
http://puffin.tamucc.edu/cbook1_0a.pdf.torrent

Sure, here ya go.
http://puffin.tamucc.edu/cbook1_0a.pdf.torrent

BTW, Chuck Adams, the one who desiged the course, is one of the worlds fastest CW operators. He is a real authority on teaching CW and has taken countless hours putting this course together.

http://puffin.tamucc.edu/k7qo/

A few years ago a friend of mine who works at a European government's mapping division was having a very close look at some of Microsoft's maps for just this reason. I notice there are no maps of this country on the MS map website.

Microsoft who have also been borrowing radio station's playlists so it would be no surprise if Microsoft were borrowing supposed "public" information without the owners permission.

I created a torrent too, in case the other goes down. here

I use firefox w/adblock extension. Here is my list of sites (importable into adblock) generating almost all banner traffic, including the annoying flash-based ones. I rigged a few PC's to auto-populate this list from their blocklist every day.

We simply cannot tolerate the loss of HF communications. It is a matter of safety and national security. There is also no telling what these signals will do to sensitive medical equipment designed to run on clean 60hz power. BPL may constitute a direct as well is indirect threat to human life.

BPL will also certainly reduce our ability to listen to foreign broadcast on the shortwave bands. Looks like ClearChannel will be the only thing we'll be allowed to hear.

In addition, however, to the less available quirky content you mentioned, another problem is that everyone and his dog has a "wacky links" section. Not only is there less material overall, but much less material that hasn't been beaten to death by any number of sites in the weblog genre. How many times have you seen the pop-tart blowtorch linked somewhere, for example? The Too Many Chefs syndrome is as big of a problem as the drop in available links.

If you put pop tarts in the toaster for too long you get a 20 inch flame!

http://www.sci.tamucc.edu/~pmichaud/toast/

Of course, anything you post on slashdot with this toaster would automatically be modded "Flamebait".........

That would be ash, AKA the Adventure Shell, the most convoluted bash script on the face of the planet.

Patrick Michaud, the Researcher responsible for the grape experiment, has also performed ground-breaking Pop-Tart research. Check it out at:

Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches

• One seedless red grape (genus - ??? does it matter?)
• Microwave-safe plate (I guess it is, I'll know when it explodes)
• Knife (sharp!)
• Microwave oven (umm.. OH! &nbsp it's a GE 600W with turntable)
• No parental whuh???

• One seedless red grape (genus - ??? does it matter?)
• Microwave-safe plate (I guess it is, I'll know when it explodes)
• Knife (sharp!)
• Microwave oven (umm.. OH! &nbsp it's a GE 600W with turntable)
• No parental whuh???

If you want another real kick, check out his wife's web site and look at her Coups de Gueule pages. Yes, she really is that brutally honest.

Hey if any of you nutcases from Blucher read this, check in once in a while...haven't heard from you guys in a while!

- Brad Hartin

If you want another real kick, check out his wife's web site and look at her Coups de Gueule pages. Yes, she really is that brutally honest.

Hey if any of you nutcases from Blucher read this, check in once in a while...haven't heard from you guys in a while!

- Brad Hartin

This is an interesting innovation - at those speeds, you can cook your food with the radiated RF energy, the dissipated heat, or both. Finally, a computer that's *really* an appliance!

I can see it now, the new CPSC/FCC/DOE microwave PC warning label:

WARNING - Do not remove this tag under penalty of law!
(This isn't a matress or pillow, we mean it.)

DANGER! Microwave Microprocessor Unit! Do not ever, ever open the case of this computer!

RF Radiation Hazard inside. Opening this computer will let cancer-causing microwave
frequency photons jump out and eat their way through your retinas on their way
to your brain, where they may impair your judgement in selecting an operating system.

• You've been warned.
• Factory sealed for your protection.
• This computer contains no user-servicable parts.
• Like you could get it apart anyway, since Compaq uses these goofy screws...
• Do NOT warm strawberry Pop-Tarts in the Zip disk drive slot.
• Coffee cups on the CD-ROM drive "cup holder" may be heated, but drive
  must be closed when no coffee cup is present, or it's your retinas, baby.
• Digital/Compaq is NOT responsible for funny little fractal patterns on your CD's.
• Discontinue use if rash, irritation, redness, or swelling develops.
• Do not use an apostrophe to indicate the plural form.