Down in the Dumps in Dijon:
LONDON, June 19, 2006 (AFP) - The French are highly pessimistic about their country's future, with 85 percent finding their nation headed in the wrong direction, a survey of five European countries published here Monday showed.
The poll in the Financial Times newspaper, spanning 5,000 people across Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, found that Spaniards were the most optimistic, with 44 percent believing their country was on the right track as opposed to 45 percent thinking the opposite.
....Just nine percent of French respondents thought the country was moving in the right direction as it enters the final months of Jacques Chirac's 12-year presidency, ahead of elections in April.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Sunday, June 18, 2006
It Tolls for Thee Reputations, Fellas
The FLUBA Committee on Economists Who Can't Be Embarrassed is having to work overtime countering the fantasy lives of Mad Max and pgl, neither of whom can grasp the concept of a profit seeking business being willing to pay to lease an economic asset in the hope of making that asset more productive.
Max's singular contribution being that the state of Indiana is 'borrowing' by leasing its toll roads for 75 years to a Spanish-Australian consortium of toll road operators. Though under pointed questioning he seems to have admitted that, no, the state will not have to return the lease payment ($3.85 billion dollars) to the 'lender' at the end of the lease.
pgl, is more interesting in that he's busy trying to deny the definition of economics; the analysis of alternative uses of scarce resources, as well as the basics of arithmetic. Even when it's been spelled out for him by another professional economist:
Cintra is paying $3.85 BILLION up front for this lease. And they expect a 12.5% internal rate of return. If I can still do arithmetic, that's more than $400 MILLION per year in net income from the lease.. From a toll road currently generating only $96 MILLION in REVENUE (before any costs). And Cintra will be responsible for the operating costs, maintenance, and at least some expansion costs. The more I look at the numbers, the more I think it's a better deal for the state of Indiana than I originally thought.
Explanations of what is going on have not been in short supply, and they include a New York Times Op-ed by Indiana's governor:
In much of the world, but only recently in the United States, private capital has begun to play a role, most often in partnerships with public authorities. ....
If it were merely a matter of getting hands on money today that would otherwise come in over the years, such partnerships would make little sense. The goal for states is to capture far more value than an asset would be worth if it remained in public hands. That goal is often not difficult to achieve.
The 157-mile Indiana Toll Road had lost money five of the last seven years. A principal reason was its antique pricing; tolls had not changed since 1985 and were far below what comparable American toll ways charged.
As a private citizen, I had always been intrigued to stop at a concrete booth and fish out a dime and a nickel to pay the 15-cent toll at Gary. As governor, I asked, ''What does it cost us to collect a toll?'' This being government, no one knew, but after a few days of calculation, the answer came: ''About 34 cents, we think.'' I said, only half in jest, that we should just go to the honor system and we'd come out way ahead.
Why would a losing enterprise with an underpriced product drift on in that way? Because it was run by politicians, who are rarely businesslike and deathly afraid to annoy anyone. So the state lost money on the road, postponed repairs and expansions and failed to install the electronic technology that makes toll ways elsewhere faster, more convenient and more efficient.
Just as many business units are more valuable if separated from their conglomerate parent, an asset like a highway can be worth vastly more under different management. When we offered our road for long-term lease, we received a high bid of $3.8 billion, cash, from Macquarie-Cintra, an Australian-Spanish consortium. The highest estimate of the road's net present value in state hands was less than half that amount, and even that estimate assumed regular toll increases of the kind past governors steadfastly refused to impose. Noting the road's record of losses, one finance professor remarked, ''If they'd gotten a dollar for it, it would have been a good deal.'' Instead, Indiana will soon cash a check that closes a gap most had believed insoluble. Future toll increases will be capped at the level of inflation.
Max's singular contribution being that the state of Indiana is 'borrowing' by leasing its toll roads for 75 years to a Spanish-Australian consortium of toll road operators. Though under pointed questioning he seems to have admitted that, no, the state will not have to return the lease payment ($3.85 billion dollars) to the 'lender' at the end of the lease.
pgl, is more interesting in that he's busy trying to deny the definition of economics; the analysis of alternative uses of scarce resources, as well as the basics of arithmetic. Even when it's been spelled out for him by another professional economist:
Cintra is paying $3.85 BILLION up front for this lease. And they expect a 12.5% internal rate of return. If I can still do arithmetic, that's more than $400 MILLION per year in net income from the lease.. From a toll road currently generating only $96 MILLION in REVENUE (before any costs). And Cintra will be responsible for the operating costs, maintenance, and at least some expansion costs. The more I look at the numbers, the more I think it's a better deal for the state of Indiana than I originally thought.
Explanations of what is going on have not been in short supply, and they include a New York Times Op-ed by Indiana's governor:
In much of the world, but only recently in the United States, private capital has begun to play a role, most often in partnerships with public authorities. ....
If it were merely a matter of getting hands on money today that would otherwise come in over the years, such partnerships would make little sense. The goal for states is to capture far more value than an asset would be worth if it remained in public hands. That goal is often not difficult to achieve.
The 157-mile Indiana Toll Road had lost money five of the last seven years. A principal reason was its antique pricing; tolls had not changed since 1985 and were far below what comparable American toll ways charged.
As a private citizen, I had always been intrigued to stop at a concrete booth and fish out a dime and a nickel to pay the 15-cent toll at Gary. As governor, I asked, ''What does it cost us to collect a toll?'' This being government, no one knew, but after a few days of calculation, the answer came: ''About 34 cents, we think.'' I said, only half in jest, that we should just go to the honor system and we'd come out way ahead.
Why would a losing enterprise with an underpriced product drift on in that way? Because it was run by politicians, who are rarely businesslike and deathly afraid to annoy anyone. So the state lost money on the road, postponed repairs and expansions and failed to install the electronic technology that makes toll ways elsewhere faster, more convenient and more efficient.
Just as many business units are more valuable if separated from their conglomerate parent, an asset like a highway can be worth vastly more under different management. When we offered our road for long-term lease, we received a high bid of $3.8 billion, cash, from Macquarie-Cintra, an Australian-Spanish consortium. The highest estimate of the road's net present value in state hands was less than half that amount, and even that estimate assumed regular toll increases of the kind past governors steadfastly refused to impose. Noting the road's record of losses, one finance professor remarked, ''If they'd gotten a dollar for it, it would have been a good deal.'' Instead, Indiana will soon cash a check that closes a gap most had believed insoluble. Future toll increases will be capped at the level of inflation.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Dutch Treat...
...their slackers to a minimum wage, or else:
The law will require people who have lived in the Rotterdam region for less than six years to earn at least a minimum figure to be stipulated by city officials.
The law will require people who have lived in the Rotterdam region for less than six years to earn at least a minimum figure to be stipulated by city officials.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
With friends like Kos, you don't need enemies...
sez Froma:
The [Howard] Dean who entered the 2004 presidential campaign was a pragmatic centrist -- the very sort of Democrat who could win a national election. As governor of Vermont, Dean was rather conservative. He held down social spending, much to the annoyance of many Vermont liberals. They used to call him "the best Republican governor we ever had."
....All that changed when Dean ran for president and started the first "net roots" campaign. The left-wing blogs embraced him, raising both money and his national profile. But instead of visiting the blogosphere as a friendly tourist, Dean went native. Before you knew it, he was transformed into a latte liberal and proceeded to lose the nomination to the ineffective John Kerry.
We don't want that to happen to Ned Lamont, who is challenging Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary. The blogs have turned the Greenwich entrepreneur into a serious contender, and bless them for that. But now things get dangerous. Lamont is running a television ad in which he is joined by jubilant young supporters, including the DailyKos's Markos Moulitsas, who mugs at length for camera. That's cute, but stop right there.
Lamont is the best kind of liberal candidate. He's for universal health coverage and all the other good things, but comes at the issues from a sophisticated business perspective. It's not healthy for his campaign to become overly identified with the hothead dramatics and childish expletives of the lefty blogs.
The [Howard] Dean who entered the 2004 presidential campaign was a pragmatic centrist -- the very sort of Democrat who could win a national election. As governor of Vermont, Dean was rather conservative. He held down social spending, much to the annoyance of many Vermont liberals. They used to call him "the best Republican governor we ever had."
....All that changed when Dean ran for president and started the first "net roots" campaign. The left-wing blogs embraced him, raising both money and his national profile. But instead of visiting the blogosphere as a friendly tourist, Dean went native. Before you knew it, he was transformed into a latte liberal and proceeded to lose the nomination to the ineffective John Kerry.
We don't want that to happen to Ned Lamont, who is challenging Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary. The blogs have turned the Greenwich entrepreneur into a serious contender, and bless them for that. But now things get dangerous. Lamont is running a television ad in which he is joined by jubilant young supporters, including the DailyKos's Markos Moulitsas, who mugs at length for camera. That's cute, but stop right there.
Lamont is the best kind of liberal candidate. He's for universal health coverage and all the other good things, but comes at the issues from a sophisticated business perspective. It's not healthy for his campaign to become overly identified with the hothead dramatics and childish expletives of the lefty blogs.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Beer Is Your Life
Says the British Ambassador to football fans:
NUREMBERG - German police bracing for England's next World Cup match said Wednesday they were encouraged by English fans' behaviour so far, while the British ambassador reminded them that modern Germany "has nothing in common" with its Nazi past.
....Britain's ambassador to Germany, Sir Peter Torry, urged England fans to behave in another way, too - by restraining the urge to view Germany through the prism of Nazism.
"Many people will associate Nuremberg with its Nazi past," Torry wrote in an article for England team fanzine Free Lions. "But no country has dealt as honestly and comprehensively with its past as modern Germany."
....He urged England fans to take in a more care-free Germany.
"Fans will be able to enjoy the German South: bigger beer glasses...Torry wrote.
NUREMBERG - German police bracing for England's next World Cup match said Wednesday they were encouraged by English fans' behaviour so far, while the British ambassador reminded them that modern Germany "has nothing in common" with its Nazi past.
....Britain's ambassador to Germany, Sir Peter Torry, urged England fans to behave in another way, too - by restraining the urge to view Germany through the prism of Nazism.
"Many people will associate Nuremberg with its Nazi past," Torry wrote in an article for England team fanzine Free Lions. "But no country has dealt as honestly and comprehensively with its past as modern Germany."
....He urged England fans to take in a more care-free Germany.
"Fans will be able to enjoy the German South: bigger beer glasses...Torry wrote.
Peddling the same ol' cheese...
...at Angry Bear, is head salesman 'pgl'. The above graph is designed to show abnormal tax revenues as a percent of GDP thanks to the tax cuts of George W. Bush.
But, as pgl well knows--thanks to the diligence of the FLUBA Committee on Truth in Packaging--the decline in revenues from over 20% in 2000 is merely regression to the six decade post WWII mean of slightly over 18%.
The Federal government has never been able to sustain revenues of even 19% of GDP. Using the dot.com boom years as a baseline is fundamentally dishonest.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
More French Socialists Learning Economics
Another one (Jean Paul Sarte's ami) bites the dust:
PARIS, June 13, 2006 (AFP) - Serge July, historic founder of the left-wing French newspaper Libération, was poised to resign Tuesday after a row with the principal share-holder Edouard de Rothschild over the paper's mounting losses.
July told AFP that Rothschild had asked him to step down as chairman of the newspaper. "If my departure can help the refinancing of the newspaper, I will not be an obstacle," he said.
.... Rothschild, who invested EUR 20 million in Libération in January 2005, is furious at the paper's continuing losses and at a meeting last week demanded July's resignation as a condition for new finance, several French newspapers reported Tuesday.
....A 63-year-old former Maoist, July set up Libération with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1973, aiming to give voice to the counter-culture of the post-May 1968 generation.
Originally the newspaper was supposed to be free from the pressures of advertising and investor finance, but it has gradually had to accommodate itself to a capitalist economy.
PARIS, June 13, 2006 (AFP) - Serge July, historic founder of the left-wing French newspaper Libération, was poised to resign Tuesday after a row with the principal share-holder Edouard de Rothschild over the paper's mounting losses.
July told AFP that Rothschild had asked him to step down as chairman of the newspaper. "If my departure can help the refinancing of the newspaper, I will not be an obstacle," he said.
.... Rothschild, who invested EUR 20 million in Libération in January 2005, is furious at the paper's continuing losses and at a meeting last week demanded July's resignation as a condition for new finance, several French newspapers reported Tuesday.
....A 63-year-old former Maoist, July set up Libération with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1973, aiming to give voice to the counter-culture of the post-May 1968 generation.
Originally the newspaper was supposed to be free from the pressures of advertising and investor finance, but it has gradually had to accommodate itself to a capitalist economy.
Truth Out (on Jason Leopold)
The Fly Under the Bridge Academy's Shadow Jason Leopold Committee reviews the record:
And the denouement:
Thursday 20 April 2006
...Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald met with the grand jury hearing evidence in the CIA leak case and introduced additional evidence against Rove, attorneys and other US officials close to the investigation said.
...sources close to the case said... that Fitzgerald told the jurors that he would soon present them with a list of criminal charges he intends to file against Rove in hopes of having the grand jury return a multi-count indictment against Rove.
Wednesday 26 April 2006
Karl Rove's appearance before a grand jury in the CIA leak case Wednesday comes on the heels of a "target letter" sent to his attorney recently by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, signaling that the Deputy White House Chief of Staff may face imminent indictment, sources that are knowledgeable about the probe said Wednesday.
Friday 28 April 2006
Despite vehement denials by his attorney, who said this week that Karl Rove is neither a "target" nor in danger of being indicted in the CIA leak case, the special counsel leading the investigation has already written up charges against Rove, and a grand jury is expected to vote on whether
to indict the Deputy White House Chief of Staff sometime next week, sources knowledgeable about the probe said Friday afternoon.
Friday 12 May 2006
Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.
Saturday 13 May 2006
Special Prosecutor Patrick ....Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of
the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.
And the denouement:
WASHINGTON, June 13 — The prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case on Monday advised Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, that he would not be charged with any wrongdoing, effectively ending the nearly three-year criminal investigation that had at times focused intensely on Mr. Rove.
Monday, June 12, 2006
What's in a name can get you in Dutch
AMSTERDAM – The Love of Fellow Man, Freedom and Diversity party, which grew out of the paedophile movement, was told on Friday by a judge in The Hague to change its acronym, NVD.
A security company, NVD in Haarlem, had brought a case against the party in a bid to stop it from using the abbreviation. The company said that it had incurred damages because of the paedophile party’s use of the acronym. Clients had indicated that they did not want the company’s logo on their property, and some employees had also said that they did not want to wear the company uniform with the letters NVD, for fear of being confused with the ‘paedo-party’.
The judge ordered the party to remove
the abbreviation from its registration with the chamber of commerce and in its statutes and to change its Internet domain name. He gave the party three days to comply.
The Love of Fellow Man, Freedom and Diversity party is controversial because it stands for the legalization of sex between adults and children older than 12 years (the present legal age of consent is 16).
Friday, June 09, 2006
Desverguenza...
...is the closest the Fly Under the Bridge Academy Committee on Chutzpah can come in Spanish to describe:
MADRID — One the 29 people accused in connection with the Madrid bombings attempted to claim compensation for his step-daughter was among the 191 victims.
Morrocan Abdenneri Esabar, 41, was arrested last year and has been accused of trying to send recruits to Iraq to fight in the insurgency. Authorities have discovered he has claimed compensation for his step-daughter who was one of 65 people who died at the Pozo de Tío Raimundo station.
....The Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported the judge in charge of the inquiry Juan del Olmo turned down the request.
MADRID — One the 29 people accused in connection with the Madrid bombings attempted to claim compensation for his step-daughter was among the 191 victims.
Morrocan Abdenneri Esabar, 41, was arrested last year and has been accused of trying to send recruits to Iraq to fight in the insurgency. Authorities have discovered he has claimed compensation for his step-daughter who was one of 65 people who died at the Pozo de Tío Raimundo station.
....The Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported the judge in charge of the inquiry Juan del Olmo turned down the request.
Pre-defending Ann
Irony abounds in the wake of the Matt Lauer assault on Ann Coulter. One time Coulter critic Dorothy Rabinowitz was two years ahead of her lambasting The Jersey Girls:
The core group of widows led by the foursome known as "The Jersey Girls," credited with bringing the 9/11 Commission into being, are by now world famous. Their already established status in the media, as a small but heroically determined band of sisters speaking truth to power, reached ever greater heights last week, when National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice made her appearance at a commission session--an event that would not have taken place, it was understood, without the pressure from the widows. Television interviewers everywhere scrambled to land these guests--a far cry from the time, last June, when group leader Kristin Breitweiser spoke of her disappointment in the press, complaining to one journalist, "I've been scheduled to go on 'Meet the Press' and 'Hardball' so many times, and I'm always canceled."
No one is canceling her these days. The night of Ms. Rice's appearance, the Jersey Girls appeared on "Hardball," to charge that the national security adviser had failed to do her job, that the government failed to provide a timely military response, that the president had spent time reading to schoolchildren after learning of the attack, that intelligence agencies had failed to connect the dots. ....
The hearing room that day had seen a substantial group of 9/11 families, similarly irate over the Jersey Girls and their accusations--families that made their feelings evident in their burst of loud applause when Ms. Rice scored a telling zinger under questioning. But these were not the 9/11 voices TV and newspaper editors were interested in. They had chosen to tell a different story--that of four intrepid New Jersey housewives who had, as one news report had it, brought an administration "to its knees"--and that was, as far as they were concerned, the only story.
.... Who, listening to them, would not be struck by the fact that all their fury and accusation is aimed not at the killers who snuffed out their husbands' and so many other lives, but at the American president, his administration, and an ever wider assortment of targets including the Air Force, the Port Authority, the City of New York? In the public pronouncements of the Jersey Girls we find, indeed, hardly a jot of accusatory rage at the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
....The day of Ms. Rice's appearance before the Commission, a radiant Gail Sheehy, author of "Hillary's Choice," beamed gratitude as she congratulated the host of "Hardball" for bringing the women on as guests. ....
Ms. Sheehy was hardly alone in her faith in the widows and their special skills. Their every shred of opinion about the hearings last week was actively solicited--as will be true, no doubt, this week. Asked what question she would put to Ms. Rice, if she could, one Jersey Girl answered, after some thought, that it would be, What did she know and when did she know it? ....
Little wonder, given all this, that the 9/11 Four blossomed, under a warm media sun and the attention of legislators, into activists increasingly confident of their authority--that, with every passing month, their list of government agencies and agents guilty of dereliction of duty grew apace. So did their assurance that it had been given to them, as victims, to determine the proper standards of taste and respectfulness to be applied in everything related to Sept. 11, including, it turned out, the images of the destroyed World Trade Center in George Bush's first campaign ad, which elicited, from some of them, bitter charges of political exploitation.
....Nor can anyone miss, by now, the darker side of this spectacle of the widows, awash in their sense of victims' entitlement, as they press ahead with ever more strident claims about the way the government failed them.
The core group of widows led by the foursome known as "The Jersey Girls," credited with bringing the 9/11 Commission into being, are by now world famous. Their already established status in the media, as a small but heroically determined band of sisters speaking truth to power, reached ever greater heights last week, when National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice made her appearance at a commission session--an event that would not have taken place, it was understood, without the pressure from the widows. Television interviewers everywhere scrambled to land these guests--a far cry from the time, last June, when group leader Kristin Breitweiser spoke of her disappointment in the press, complaining to one journalist, "I've been scheduled to go on 'Meet the Press' and 'Hardball' so many times, and I'm always canceled."
No one is canceling her these days. The night of Ms. Rice's appearance, the Jersey Girls appeared on "Hardball," to charge that the national security adviser had failed to do her job, that the government failed to provide a timely military response, that the president had spent time reading to schoolchildren after learning of the attack, that intelligence agencies had failed to connect the dots. ....
The hearing room that day had seen a substantial group of 9/11 families, similarly irate over the Jersey Girls and their accusations--families that made their feelings evident in their burst of loud applause when Ms. Rice scored a telling zinger under questioning. But these were not the 9/11 voices TV and newspaper editors were interested in. They had chosen to tell a different story--that of four intrepid New Jersey housewives who had, as one news report had it, brought an administration "to its knees"--and that was, as far as they were concerned, the only story.
.... Who, listening to them, would not be struck by the fact that all their fury and accusation is aimed not at the killers who snuffed out their husbands' and so many other lives, but at the American president, his administration, and an ever wider assortment of targets including the Air Force, the Port Authority, the City of New York? In the public pronouncements of the Jersey Girls we find, indeed, hardly a jot of accusatory rage at the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
....The day of Ms. Rice's appearance before the Commission, a radiant Gail Sheehy, author of "Hillary's Choice," beamed gratitude as she congratulated the host of "Hardball" for bringing the women on as guests. ....
Ms. Sheehy was hardly alone in her faith in the widows and their special skills. Their every shred of opinion about the hearings last week was actively solicited--as will be true, no doubt, this week. Asked what question she would put to Ms. Rice, if she could, one Jersey Girl answered, after some thought, that it would be, What did she know and when did she know it? ....
Little wonder, given all this, that the 9/11 Four blossomed, under a warm media sun and the attention of legislators, into activists increasingly confident of their authority--that, with every passing month, their list of government agencies and agents guilty of dereliction of duty grew apace. So did their assurance that it had been given to them, as victims, to determine the proper standards of taste and respectfulness to be applied in everything related to Sept. 11, including, it turned out, the images of the destroyed World Trade Center in George Bush's first campaign ad, which elicited, from some of them, bitter charges of political exploitation.
....Nor can anyone miss, by now, the darker side of this spectacle of the widows, awash in their sense of victims' entitlement, as they press ahead with ever more strident claims about the way the government failed them.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Mauvaise Voyage
The recent interest in getting the incentives right in France doesn't appear to extend to the courts. This should be good for the travel and tourism biz:
PARIS, June 7, 2006 (AFP) - A French travel agency was ordered Wednesday to pay more than a million euros in damages to three tourists who were abducted by a Philippine kidnap gang during a diving holiday.
Stéphane Loisy, his partner Sonia Wendling and Marie Moarbes were among 21 people seized by the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group in the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan in April 2000.
They were held captive for more than four months in Jolo island in the southern Philippines, the stronghold of the rebel group blamed for a spate of kidnappings, murders and bomb attacks over the past decade.
.... The court ruled that the company had failed in its duty to monitor the risks in the region — and should have realised the Western tourists would act as a magnet for the kidnap gang.
PARIS, June 7, 2006 (AFP) - A French travel agency was ordered Wednesday to pay more than a million euros in damages to three tourists who were abducted by a Philippine kidnap gang during a diving holiday.
Stéphane Loisy, his partner Sonia Wendling and Marie Moarbes were among 21 people seized by the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group in the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan in April 2000.
They were held captive for more than four months in Jolo island in the southern Philippines, the stronghold of the rebel group blamed for a spate of kidnappings, murders and bomb attacks over the past decade.
.... The court ruled that the company had failed in its duty to monitor the risks in the region — and should have realised the Western tourists would act as a magnet for the kidnap gang.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Grandmasters Behaving Badly
Over chess babes:
When Danny Gormally, 30, one of Britain's leading chess players, spied his Armenian rival and the world's No 3 at the Turin Chess Olympiad jiving with a beautiful chess queen, usual tactics were abandoned.
In a spectacular strategic blunder, Mr Gormally allegedly moved in with clenched fist and sent Levon Aronian, the 23-year-old Armenian national hero, sprawling.
As gambits go, it was to prove one of the worst. Not only did Mr Gormally sacrifice both his dignity and place in the team, but the following day found himself at the wrong end of a beating as Mr Aronian's hot-headed team-mates weighed in with a forceful counter-attack.
....According to insiders, the catalyst for this whole sorry affair was the appearance on the dance floor of attractive Australian female No 3, Arianne Caoili, 19, whom Mr Gormally's team-mates believed him to be fond of.
Neither shy nor retiring, Miss Caoili, of Filipino descent and who aspires to be a professional singer, is clearly intent on enjoying life. Her website lists her likes as "getting up to no good", "fine food and fine boys", "Edward Norton and Johnny Depp" and "Pina coladas, vodka, red wine, Kahlua, dwarfs and the odd Cuban cigar".
Apart from improving her chess, which she has been playing since she was five, her ambitions include earning "giant gobs of money".
Clearly a party girl, she had a reputation, according to one source on the chess circuit, "for coming back at 2am and waking people up, then having recharged her batteries, leaving again at 5am".
....Miss Caoili is currently voted No 7 in the Top Ten Women's Chess Beauty Contest on a website dedicated to the charms of chess's female finest in terms of looks if not always in terms of rankings.
When Danny Gormally, 30, one of Britain's leading chess players, spied his Armenian rival and the world's No 3 at the Turin Chess Olympiad jiving with a beautiful chess queen, usual tactics were abandoned.
In a spectacular strategic blunder, Mr Gormally allegedly moved in with clenched fist and sent Levon Aronian, the 23-year-old Armenian national hero, sprawling.
As gambits go, it was to prove one of the worst. Not only did Mr Gormally sacrifice both his dignity and place in the team, but the following day found himself at the wrong end of a beating as Mr Aronian's hot-headed team-mates weighed in with a forceful counter-attack.
....According to insiders, the catalyst for this whole sorry affair was the appearance on the dance floor of attractive Australian female No 3, Arianne Caoili, 19, whom Mr Gormally's team-mates believed him to be fond of.
Neither shy nor retiring, Miss Caoili, of Filipino descent and who aspires to be a professional singer, is clearly intent on enjoying life. Her website lists her likes as "getting up to no good", "fine food and fine boys", "Edward Norton and Johnny Depp" and "Pina coladas, vodka, red wine, Kahlua, dwarfs and the odd Cuban cigar".
Apart from improving her chess, which she has been playing since she was five, her ambitions include earning "giant gobs of money".
Clearly a party girl, she had a reputation, according to one source on the chess circuit, "for coming back at 2am and waking people up, then having recharged her batteries, leaving again at 5am".
....Miss Caoili is currently voted No 7 in the Top Ten Women's Chess Beauty Contest on a website dedicated to the charms of chess's female finest in terms of looks if not always in terms of rankings.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Take un Vieil Aigri to Work Day
The French continue to discover the power of incentives:
PARIS, June 6, 2006 (AFP) - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin unveiled proposals Tuesday aimed at boosting employment among older workers, notably via the creation of a new medium-term jobs contract.
Available to unemployed over 57 year-olds, the 'Senior Fixed-Term Contract' would last 18 months and be one-time renewable.
...."We cannot accept the fact that some of our fellow citizens cannot find employment because of their age. Older people are an opportunity for our country," Villepin told a meeting of government officials, academics, employers and unions.
....However two large unions — CGT and FO — remain opposed to the measures, especially a provision to phase out a tax on companies that fire workers over 50 years old.
The government argues that the tax discourages firms from hiring such employees.
Other provisions — which are to be approved by the cabinet later this month before going before parliament — include financial incentives for people to keep working beyond their official retirement age.
The target is to increase employment among 55-64 year-olds from 37 percent at present to 50 percent in 2010.
PARIS, June 6, 2006 (AFP) - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin unveiled proposals Tuesday aimed at boosting employment among older workers, notably via the creation of a new medium-term jobs contract.
Available to unemployed over 57 year-olds, the 'Senior Fixed-Term Contract' would last 18 months and be one-time renewable.
...."We cannot accept the fact that some of our fellow citizens cannot find employment because of their age. Older people are an opportunity for our country," Villepin told a meeting of government officials, academics, employers and unions.
....However two large unions — CGT and FO — remain opposed to the measures, especially a provision to phase out a tax on companies that fire workers over 50 years old.
The government argues that the tax discourages firms from hiring such employees.
Other provisions — which are to be approved by the cabinet later this month before going before parliament — include financial incentives for people to keep working beyond their official retirement age.
The target is to increase employment among 55-64 year-olds from 37 percent at present to 50 percent in 2010.
Monday, June 05, 2006
DeLong on DeCaf?
Not enough java. That your problem, Bunkies?
The coffee you drink as a pick-me-up in the morning could also make you more open to persuasion, researchers say. Evidence from a new study suggests that this happens because caffeine revs up the brain, not because it generally boosts mood.
Previous studies have show that consuming caffeine can improve one’s attention and enhance cognitive performance, with 200 milligrams (equivalent to two cups of coffee) being the optimal dose.
Moderate doses of caffeine can also make you more easily convinced by arguments that go against your beliefs, say Pearl Martin of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and her colleagues.
In 2005, her team published a paper suggesting that the compound primes people to agree with statements that go against their typical views because it improves their ability to understand the reasoning behind the statements.
The coffee you drink as a pick-me-up in the morning could also make you more open to persuasion, researchers say. Evidence from a new study suggests that this happens because caffeine revs up the brain, not because it generally boosts mood.
Previous studies have show that consuming caffeine can improve one’s attention and enhance cognitive performance, with 200 milligrams (equivalent to two cups of coffee) being the optimal dose.
Moderate doses of caffeine can also make you more easily convinced by arguments that go against your beliefs, say Pearl Martin of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and her colleagues.
In 2005, her team published a paper suggesting that the compound primes people to agree with statements that go against their typical views because it improves their ability to understand the reasoning behind the statements.
Not Making Socialists Like They Used To
Now they say you're not working enough:
PARIS, June 5, 2006 (AFP) - France's Ségolène Royal — the Socialist presidential frontrunner who sent sparks flying by calling for army training for young offenders — has violated another left-wing taboo by attacking the 35-hour working week.
In a text published on her website, Royal says the 35-hour week introduced by a Socalist government in 2002 has had "mixed results for the quality of working life" — the main argument put forward at the time for its adoption.
The number of people on flexible working hours has jumped from 10 to 40 percent as a result, she argues, with employees facing longer working hours and greater time pressure on the job.
Royal said this had the "unintended consequence of worsening the situation for the most vulnerable, notably for women with few qualifications" who now had less time to spend with their families.
She also said the measures — and subsequent case-by-case negotiations on its implementation — had led to a "spectacular loosening of labour laws".
A law with unintended consequences!
PARIS, June 5, 2006 (AFP) - France's Ségolène Royal — the Socialist presidential frontrunner who sent sparks flying by calling for army training for young offenders — has violated another left-wing taboo by attacking the 35-hour working week.
In a text published on her website, Royal says the 35-hour week introduced by a Socalist government in 2002 has had "mixed results for the quality of working life" — the main argument put forward at the time for its adoption.
The number of people on flexible working hours has jumped from 10 to 40 percent as a result, she argues, with employees facing longer working hours and greater time pressure on the job.
Royal said this had the "unintended consequence of worsening the situation for the most vulnerable, notably for women with few qualifications" who now had less time to spend with their families.
She also said the measures — and subsequent case-by-case negotiations on its implementation — had led to a "spectacular loosening of labour laws".
A law with unintended consequences!
Go to your room...
...now that the principal has cleaned it out:
A head teacher has raised standards at his school by confiscating computers and television sets from the homes of under-performing pupils.
Duncan Harper, the head of New Woodlands school in Bromley, south London, visits the homes of pupils who are tired or grumpy in lessons and seizes electronic equipment from their bedroom.
...."We discovered that a lot of them had televisions and Playstations in their bedrooms. They were staying up till all hours playing sometimes quite violent games or watching unsuitable programmes."
He said some of the pupils were amazed to see their headmaster walking off with their possessions. "When we turn up they are usually absolutely gob-smacked. They are quite taken aback as like lots of kids they might think that adults don't mean what they say."
....Annie Blake, whose eight-year old son Robert Juniper is a pupil at New Woodlands, said she noticed a "complete turnaround", in her son after his Gameboy was taken away for a month.
Miss Blake, 37, said: "It is a fantastic idea. He wasn't happy about it but it sends a very clear message that he can understand: 'misbehave and you lose the game, behave well and you can have it back'. After being a child who didn't sleep, would hit out at other children, and would be sent home from his old school 10 minutes after arriving, he is now the happiest he has ever been."
....Another 11-year-old pupil showed a marked improvement in concentration and behaviour after his television was confiscated for a month, Mr Harper said, but soon returned to his old habits.
"He realised there was a problem and actually brought the television into school himself for us to look after."
A head teacher has raised standards at his school by confiscating computers and television sets from the homes of under-performing pupils.
Duncan Harper, the head of New Woodlands school in Bromley, south London, visits the homes of pupils who are tired or grumpy in lessons and seizes electronic equipment from their bedroom.
...."We discovered that a lot of them had televisions and Playstations in their bedrooms. They were staying up till all hours playing sometimes quite violent games or watching unsuitable programmes."
He said some of the pupils were amazed to see their headmaster walking off with their possessions. "When we turn up they are usually absolutely gob-smacked. They are quite taken aback as like lots of kids they might think that adults don't mean what they say."
....Annie Blake, whose eight-year old son Robert Juniper is a pupil at New Woodlands, said she noticed a "complete turnaround", in her son after his Gameboy was taken away for a month.
Miss Blake, 37, said: "It is a fantastic idea. He wasn't happy about it but it sends a very clear message that he can understand: 'misbehave and you lose the game, behave well and you can have it back'. After being a child who didn't sleep, would hit out at other children, and would be sent home from his old school 10 minutes after arriving, he is now the happiest he has ever been."
....Another 11-year-old pupil showed a marked improvement in concentration and behaviour after his television was confiscated for a month, Mr Harper said, but soon returned to his old habits.
"He realised there was a problem and actually brought the television into school himself for us to look after."
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Kinder, Gentler Than Your Average Bear
In Homer Alaska, the Reginald Denny of joggers says, the grizzlies have to be cruel to be kind:
[Mike] Mungoven and the bear stared at each other momentarily, and then the bear reacted.
"The bear got me across the shoulder first, then took a couple more swipes at me," he said. "I went down and curled up into a fetal position."
It was a move that Mungoven had been taught many times, and possibly what saved his life.
"It really worked pretty well," he said. "I just played dead. The bear came back and bit me a couple more times and then left me alone."
Mungoven said he speculated that the bear was possibly a female protecting her cubs, as he thought he heard some mewing sounds coming from the woods behind her.
"I really think the bear actually showed quite a bit of kindness in the way she mauled me," Mungoven said.
[Mike] Mungoven and the bear stared at each other momentarily, and then the bear reacted.
"The bear got me across the shoulder first, then took a couple more swipes at me," he said. "I went down and curled up into a fetal position."
It was a move that Mungoven had been taught many times, and possibly what saved his life.
"It really worked pretty well," he said. "I just played dead. The bear came back and bit me a couple more times and then left me alone."
Mungoven said he speculated that the bear was possibly a female protecting her cubs, as he thought he heard some mewing sounds coming from the woods behind her.
"I really think the bear actually showed quite a bit of kindness in the way she mauled me," Mungoven said.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Le Boot Camp?
It's printemps and young Frenchmen's attention turns to rioting. So, the politicians are competing with each other to enforce law and order:
PARIS, June 1, 2006 (AFP) - France's Segolene Royal, the Socialist frontrunner to succeed President Jacques Chirac, has broken ranks with her party by calling for a crackdown on youth crime that is set to rival the centre-right on its home turf.
....She charged that tough anti-crime policies led by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- the top centre-right contender in next year's election -- had failed to prevent an explosion of violence in poor French suburbs.
However in a break with her fellow Socialists -- who demonise Sarkozy as a hardliner -- the mother of four called for "a much firmer approach" towards young offenders.
"The left has long underestimated" the problem, she said. "Now is the time to tackle it head-on."
Military-style academies could be set up for young offenders aged 16 or over, she suggested, steering troubled youths into aid work or apprenticeships and teaching them "how to behave as citizens".
Herself the daughter of an army officer, Royal said Chirac's decision to scrap military service in France in 1996 had been a mistake.
For younger offenders, parents would be enrolled on compulsory courses at the first sign of trouble -- with social benefits scrapped for those who failed to bring their children back into line, she said.
Serious troublemakers under the age of 16 should be removed from schools and placed in special boarding schools under close supervision by teachers, sports workers and volunteers, she said.
PARIS, June 1, 2006 (AFP) - France's Segolene Royal, the Socialist frontrunner to succeed President Jacques Chirac, has broken ranks with her party by calling for a crackdown on youth crime that is set to rival the centre-right on its home turf.
....She charged that tough anti-crime policies led by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- the top centre-right contender in next year's election -- had failed to prevent an explosion of violence in poor French suburbs.
However in a break with her fellow Socialists -- who demonise Sarkozy as a hardliner -- the mother of four called for "a much firmer approach" towards young offenders.
"The left has long underestimated" the problem, she said. "Now is the time to tackle it head-on."
Military-style academies could be set up for young offenders aged 16 or over, she suggested, steering troubled youths into aid work or apprenticeships and teaching them "how to behave as citizens".
Herself the daughter of an army officer, Royal said Chirac's decision to scrap military service in France in 1996 had been a mistake.
For younger offenders, parents would be enrolled on compulsory courses at the first sign of trouble -- with social benefits scrapped for those who failed to bring their children back into line, she said.
Serious troublemakers under the age of 16 should be removed from schools and placed in special boarding schools under close supervision by teachers, sports workers and volunteers, she said.
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