After falling for two years, the share of income going to the richest slice of Americans – the top tenth of 1 percent – grew significantly in 2003 while the share going to 99 percent of Americans fell, tax data released yesterday showed.
At the same time, the effective income tax rates paid by the top tenth of 1 percent fell sharply, declining at more than 10 times the rate reduction for middle-class taxpayers, the new report, by the Internal Revenue Service, showed.
Spanish Flue of 1918 is the Bird Flu
The virus responsible for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 50m people worldwide, has been reconstructed by genetic engineering in a high-security US laboratory.
Preliminary studies show that it is an avian flu virus that mutated to spread quickly between people just as many experts fear will happen soon with the current H5N1 strain of bird flu in Asia. Details of the project are published today in the journals Science and Nature. The US National Institutes of Health approved the research, despite its apparent risk, because it will help scientists find new treatments for the most dangerous types of flu.
Computer terms 'confuse workers'
Most office workers find computer jargon as difficult to understand as a foreign language, a survey suggests.
Three quarters of workers waste more than an hour a week deciphering what a technical term means, the poll found.
Terms such as jpeg, javascript and cookies are among the problem words highlighted by firm Computer People.
Get the hell out of here, an hour a week! Please. Here let me show you something, Google: “define:bullshit”.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News
Yahoo starts reporting.
One of the world’s most respected war correspondents, Kevin Sites has spent the past five years covering global war and disaster for several national TV networks. Now he joins Yahoo! News to provide a unique, multimedia perspective on some of the world’s most troubled and dangerous places.
This is the same dude who ignited a firestorm for reporting the killing of an unarmed Iraqi in Fallujah by an American soldier.
When Yahoo isn’t assisting in the persecution of political dissidents in China it seems they are breaking new ground in news reporting it seems.
The Kevin Sites Blog has some interesting bytes.
Global Warming Caused by Lack of Pirates
Undeniable evidence that Pirates Are Cool:
As a correlary, this also can be attributed to a decline in grog consumption.
And as we all know, grog contains one or more of the following:
- kerosene
- propylene glycol
- sulphuric acid
- artificial sweeteners
- red dye no2
- rum
- acetone
- battery acid
- scumm
- axle grease
- and/or pepperoni
New Orleans Power Crews Diverted, Restoring Pipeline Came First
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.
That order – to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. – delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.
Good to know we have our priorities straight.
Benchmark Studies Prove that Dell Sucks
Sun’s, allegedly, rejected print adverts for their Sun Fire series.
How To Write Unmaintainable Code
n the interests of creating employment opportunities in the Java programming field, I am passing on these tips from the masters on how to write code that is so difficult to maintain, that the people who come after you will take years to make even the simplest changes. Further, if you follow all these rules religiously, you will even guarantee yourself a lifetime of employment, since no one but you has a hope in hell of maintaining the code. Then again, if you followed all these rules religiously, even you wouldn’t be able to maintain the code!
You don’t want to overdo this. Your code should not look hopelessly unmaintainable, just be that way. Otherwise it stands the risk of being rewritten or refactored.
A few excerpts…
Be polite, Never Assert
Avoid the assert() mechanism, because it could turn a three-day debug fest into a ten minute one.
Bedazzling Names
Choose variable names with irrelevant emotional connotation. e.g.:
marypoppins = (superman + starship) / god;
This confuses the reader because they have difficulty disassociating the emotional connotations of the words from the logic they’re trying to think about.
Use Continuation to hide variables
Instead of using
#define local_var xy_z
break up “xy_z” onto two lines:
#define local_var xy\
_z // local_var OK
That way a global search for xy_z will come up with nothing for that file. To the C preprocessor, the “” at the end of the line means glue this line to the next one.
Escape from New Orleans
“This American Life” has an episode covering several stories from people who endured the post-Katrina hardships. This is a must hear episode that tells ground zero eye witness stories that are, simply put, shocking.
Some highlights:
Why didn’t people just walk away from the Superdome and Convention Center? Well, as it turns out the authorities wouldn’t let them leave the city.
Why didn’t people evacuate? This is a question I have heard often. Did you know that more than 20% of the population of New Orleans is below the poverty line? Did you know by the mayor’s estimate at least 80% of the popluation evacuated. So, in most cases, those who stayed behind had no place to go and no money to get them there. Another interesting tidbit: the storm came aground half a day earlier than expected. Many people didn’t even hear about the storm until the day before. Lot’s of folks didn’t want to get stuck on the highway and hit by Katrina.
Why did people at the Superdome and Convention Center keep lining up for buses that they were told were coming, but those who were drilling them to line up in the hot sun every four hours knew buses weren’t coming? In case you haven’t been to New Orleans in the summer time, let me tell you, the heat will kill you; especially if you are old, sick, or an infant.
Why were white people allowed to walk out of the city, but black folks weren’t?
Why were the authorities aiming weapons at American citizens, firing shots when people were attempting to leave the city, and threatening to shoot people who were seeking dry ground?
Why were private citizens’ chartered buses, which were purchased with their own money to get themselves out of the city, comandeered by the military?
Looters?! In almost all the cases in which looting took place these people were survivors grabbing supplies for distribution among the old, sick, and children.
Why couldn’t FEMA get through to people who were dying? Too many roadblocks? The media could make it through in Consumer SUVs!
Most importantly, it is interesting to note that although many in the federal government and idiots like Limbaugh have tried to place blame on the state and local governments, reponsibility for support and recovery was the federal governments responsibility before Katrina even hit ground as was determined by the federal declaration of a state of emergency, which soundly placed responsibility with FEMA.
“The more one learns about him,” Republican commentator William Kristol said on Fox News Sunday, “one is surprised that he’s in that job in the first place.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, however, said FEMA had a disaster plan in place, but Louisiana leaders did not implement it. “Brown is getting a bad rap,” he said.
Bush called him “Brownie” and said he was doing “a heck of a job.”
My question: “a heck of a job” doing what? Killing poor darkies? Good job Brownie!
My point: This administration, yes federal, is guilty of criminal negligence and has allowed countless to die and tens of thousands to suffer needlessly. Michael Brown, although guilty, should not be the only head to roll.
Iran Offers Oil Help
Iran has offered to send 20m barrels of crude oil to the US to help with the consequences of Hurricane Katrina.
The two countries have had no diplomatic relations for decades, but America did send help to Iran when a severe earthquake hit Bam in 2003.
Speaking on state-run radio, Iran’s envoy to OPEC said his country was ready to send up to five shiploads of crude oil to the US.
But he said this could only happen if US sanctions were lifted first.
Whats interesting is that you dont hear about this in America’s news outlets.
Aaron Fulkerson 