Frightened by article, Sarah Palin

Reading the article “Tri-Cities in Palin country” [NWMonday, Nov. 30] frightened me. Tri-Citians are right about one thing: Some of us snotty Seattleites are afraid of Sarah Palin.

But not because she’s right. We’re frightened because we know she’s wrong, but way too many people think she’s right. We’ve seen the documented articles describing how she’s gone rogue with the facts in her book, but people are eating it up anyway. We’re frightened because she seems more at home being a celebrity than running a state, yet she wants to run a country. Mostly, we’re frightened because this cult following she has supports the idea that Americans are losing their ability to think critically.

I agree with the person quoted in the article who thought we should split the state in half. I don’t want the uber-conservative votes negatively affecting the outcomes of issues that mainly concern Western Washington residents. It’s obvious the feeling is mutual. We’re not only divided by a mountain range, we are divided by cultural gaps that are just too deep to bridge.

— Marilyn Tomlin, Seattle

Democrats, Republicans both live in Eastern Washington

I just finished reading “Tri-Cities is Palin country,” and as a long time Tri-City resident, I find it quite disturbing.

First, reporter Erik Lacitis portrayed everyone in the Tri-Cities as having an anti-Seattle bias and being proudly conservative. This is far from the truth. While it is true the majority of voters in the eastern half of our state tend to vote conservative, there is a large amount of liberals here as well.

While the eastern Democrats may differ from the western Democrats on issues such as nuclear power, we share common ground in other areas. Fighting corporate greed, maintaining a strong labor movement and the need for comprehensive health-care reform are just a few examples.

Secondly is the inference that all Tri-Citians love Sarah Palin and all she stands for. Let me clear this up, I would not cross the street to see her if she were giving out thousand-dollar bills. She is completely unqualified to hold public office, and has no clue of real American’s struggles.

In the future, it would be greatly appreciated by the hardworking men and women of the Tri-Cities if The Seattle Times didn’t lump us into the same boat as the far-right-wingers who just happen to live here.

— Fred Rumsey, Pasco

Klagenfurt, Austria | Small Worlds and Model Towns

Imagine taking all of the most influential and important buildings from around the world, shrinking them, and putting them into a space of 26,000 square meters. Since 1958, that is exactly what Minimundus has been doing. The miniature park in Klagenfurt, Austria is home to 150 models of well-known buildings, including the Eiffel Tower, the White House and St. Petersburg Cathedral. It is perhaps the only place where a tourist can tour the entire world in one park.

The models, which are both educational and entertaining, are built by a group of expert model makers. Many of the models cost around, or even more than, 500,000 Euros each. The ideas for new models usually come from visitors. Upon request, if feasible, a search for facts and documentation of the real building is conducted and the building is then converted to the 1:25 scale and generally built from the same materials as its larger inspiration. A handful of expert gardeners also help maintain the proper environment for each model, allowing visitors to get a real feel for the building and the culture it belongs to.

Fashion Winner

Six $1 sweaters purchased at a thrift store have brought in big bucks for a Harper College fashion student. Sabina Ajdinovic of Hanover Park deconstructed the black and grey sweaters and crocheted them together for a new look – a design that scored her two top titles and $5,000 in scholarships at Fashion Group International’s annual fall competition in Chicago. Ajdinovic’s eco-friendly creation, a patchwork-effect sweater that also incorporated bright blue yarn and an asymmetrical design and used key chains for clasps, took first place in the contest’s Contemporary Sportswear/Wearable Art category and Best of Show. The project also earned Ajdinovic an invitation to study at the American Intercontinental University in London for 10 weeks to further hone her design talents. She’s now in her second year at Harper, and hopes to someday have her own store or merchandise line. The Fashion Group International contest, held in conjunction with a fashion industry career day, drew more than 1,000 students from across the Midwest, many from four-year colleges. Only the top 50 student-submitted designs were featured in the day’s fashion show and judged in the competition.  Twelve Harper students, including Ajdinovic, were among the finalists. They created 19 of the show’s garments.

Media Note: A photo of Sabina Ajdinovic and her winning garment is available. Contact Media Relations Specialist Erin Brooks, 847.925.6159 or [email protected].

Graphic Arts Tour

Enrollment in Harper College’s Graphic Arts program is up nearly 40 percent this fall, and Program Coordinator Patricia Bruner says the department’s newly expanded Imaging Lab and state-of-the-art equipment could draw even more students. Harper’s rejuvenated Graphic Arts area will be on display at a public open house from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, December 7 in Room Y128 in Building Y, part of Harper’s Avanté Center. Prospective students and others interested in careers in the industry are invited to attend. The expanded laboratory and classroom, built into Avanté space that had been left purposely empty to accommodate growing programs, added 3,600 square feet to the Graphic Arts area. The rooms boast state-of-the-art technology, including a digital press that provides students a chance to learn the industry’s latest techniques. “This open house allows us to showcase the tremendous technology and learning opportunities Harper offers,” Bruner says. “Our students have always learned through hands-on projects, and this new space and equipment will allow us to expose them to the latest skills and trends in the industry. It’s good for prospective students to see that firsthand.” Harper’s four-year-old Graphic Arts program served nearly 350 students last fall and spring semesters. More than 240 students are enrolled this fall, up nearly 70 students from fall of 2008. The College offers associate Graphic Arts degrees in both design and production; many certificates also are available.

Press Contact: Erin Brooks, Media Relations Specialist, 847.925.6159, [email protected].

Speech Success

Members of Harper College’s award-winning Speech Team will take the stage for a public performance at 7 p.m. Monday, December 7 in the College’s Drama Lab, Room L109, Building L. The six-act event will showcase students in the areas of persuasive speaking, impromptu speaking, prose interpretation and more. Harper’s Speech and Debate Team recently took the Community College Division title at the 62^nd annual L.E. Norton Forensics Tournament at Bradley University in Peoria – one of the largest tournaments in the nation, drawing nearly 40 colleges from across the United States. Harper’s squad earned awards in eight categories in its division. Tickets for the group’s Fall Speech Team Spotlight are $6 for general admission. For tickets or more information, call 847.925.6100 or visit www.harpercollege.edu/boxoffice.

Press Contact: Erin Brooks, Media Relations Specialist, 847.925.6159, [email protected].

Winter Music

Harper College’s vocal and instrumental ensembles will stage a host of winter concerts this month, offering the public everything from steel drums and big-band jazz to a capella vocals and the classic wind symphony version of the holiday favorite “Sleigh Ride.” All concerts will be held in the Performing Arts Center on the College’s main campus, 1200 W. Algonquin Road in Palatine.

Concerts Include:

Festival Chorus Christmas Concert, 3 p.m. Sunday, December 6

Steel Bands, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 8

Jazz Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 9

Wind Symphony and Chamber Winds, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, December 10

Concert Choir and Camerata Singers, 7:30 p.m. Friday, December 11

Piano Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 12

Symphony Orchestra “’Tis the Season” performance, 3 p.m. Sunday, December 13

Tickets for the Festival Chorus are $15 for general admission; all others are $10 for general admission. Discounts are available for students and seniors, and children ages 12 and younger are admitted free. For tickets or more information, call 847.925.6100 or visit www.harpercollege.edu/boxoffice.

Press Contact: Erin Brooks, Media Relations Specialist, 847.925.6159, [email protected].

Animal Food Drive

As part of her work to help the homeless this holiday season, Jennifer Pitek again is asking for donations of canned food –  and collars, leashes and chew toys. The beneficiaries of her annual Harper College-based effort, dubbed “Santa Claus for Paws,” are the four-legged residents of Illinois animal shelters, and gifts like those help keep them going. With many shelters strapped for cash amid the downturned economy, Pitek, an administrative secretary in Harper’s Center for New Students, says this year’s donations are even more important. “Because of the recession, shelters are finding themselves really in need of basic supplies,” Pitek says. Reports indicate increasing numbers of former homeowners are leaving animals behind as their homes go into foreclosure and money gets tight, putting added pressure on shelters. In addition, fewer families are adopting shelter pets. Pitek has been heading up Harper’s cats and dogs food drive for seven years, inspired after seeing donations from Harper faculty and staff pile up during routine campus drives for the homeless. “I’m an animal lover,” she says, “and I had an understanding of the needs the shelters face.” The effort has yielded good results in previous years, with Harper employees, students and community members stepping up to donate everything from grooming supplies and cat beds to monetary gifts in memory of a beloved pet. Donations will be accepted through Wednesday, December 23, and again after Harper’s campus reopens on Monday, January 4. Needed items include dry and canned foods for cats, kittens, dogs and puppies; dog and cat toys; towels and bedding; biscuits and treats; and leashes and collars. Pet supply store gift cards also are welcome. Donation drop boxes are at the Center for New Students, Room C104 in Building C; the Building A main entrance; the Liberal Arts Office in Building L; the first floor of the Library, Building L; the first floor of Building H; the Math Lab, Room D105 in Building D; and the first floor of Building X in the Avanté Center. All buildings are on Harper’s main campus, 1200 W. Algonquin Road in Palatine.

Press Contact: Jennifer Pitek, Administrative Assistant, 847.925.6314, [email protected];  Erin Brooks, Media Relations Specialist, 847.925.6159, [email protected].

 

Please join us for the dedication of Tree Spire, a permanent installation, on Thursday, December 10th at 12:30 pm.

A gift to the families and citizens that enjoy Whitaker Park!

Funded by Burning Man and exhibited in Black Rock City 2007, “Tree Spire” was the first project created by the Seattle art collective, the Iron Monkeys.  They created 4 fifteen-foot tall trees that were part of the “Mangrove”, a group of simulated trees fashioned from recycled industrial materials, surrounding the center-focused icon The Man.  These artificial trees were not burned: they survived to subdivide the blue of other skies.

Brought to the south bank of the Truckee River in downtown Reno, on the corner of Sierra Street and Island Avenue after the 2008 Burning Man event, the “Tree Spire” was displayed in the center of a collection of eight tree sculptures made by five different artist collectives called The Mangrove.  The creative works were made from construction waste and reclaimed materials.  The Black Rock Arts Foundation and a Project Grant from the City of Reno’s Art and Culture Commission funded this project.

The Black Rock Arts Foundation was awarded a Public Art Challenge Grant in 2008 towards the permanent installation of “Tree Spire” in a city park.  That grant was matched by donations from Ward 5, Old Northwest Neighborhood Advisory Board, and City Councilman David Aiazzi to place the sculpture in Whitaker Park.  Additional funding came from The Robert Z. Hawkins Foundation, Reno Burners LLC, and the Black Rock Arts Foundation.

The Black Rock Arts Foundation thanks the following people, businesses and organizations for their generous support of Tree Spire:

• City of Reno: Christine Fey, Stacey Spain, Councilman David Aiazzi, City
  of Reno Parks & Recreation
• Black Rock Arts Foundation: Crimson Rose, Maria Partridge
• Reno Volunteers: Richard Johnson, Bill Schultz, Erika Wesnousky, Dave Kaul, Berry Scott
• Ward 5, Old Northwest Neighborhood Advisory Board
• Robert Z. Hawkins Foundation
• Reno Burners LLC
• Fernley Electric
• Ahearn Equipment, Inc.
• Clean Energy Center
• Telesto Nevada Inc.
• United Ready Mix
• Black Rock City, LLC – Burning Man

AND to the Artists that made it happen: Tabasco Mills, T-Bone, Dave and the Iron Monkeys!

The Iron Monkeys are a Seattle-based metalworking collective, working under the gentle guidance and watchful eye of Tabasco Mills, owner of Seattle’s The Blacksmith Shop www.theblacksmithshop.com/ironmonkeys.html .

They work together creating large-scale sculptural pieces, often containing functional elements, and work collaboratively to evolve designs as each work is being developed.  Their work has been on display temporarily in Black Rock City at the Burning Man event, Reno Mangrove, Burien Interim Arts Space, and permanently at Rainier Vista’s Central Park in South Seattle, Washington and now in Whitaker Park, in northwest Reno, Nevada.

For more information on other activities of the Black Rock Arts Foundation – www.blackrockarts.org

Thomas O’Toole points us to yet another issue with Google customer service, where an author who holds the copyright on his own books published them online but was denied the ability to put AdSense on the site, after Google told him it had found “it contains copyrighted material.” Of course, this makes no sense. Nearly every website “contains copyrighted material,” because any new creative content placed in a fixed form — such as a website — is automatically covered by copyright. What I’m guessing Google meant (even though it got it wrong) was that it thought the site contained infringing or unauthorized copyrighted content — though, if that’s the case, that’s what it should have said.

And, once again highlighting Google’s communication problem, the rejection came from an email address called “noreply,” making it difficult for the author to get clarification. He did eventually get Google to “resolve” the issue, but Google’s overall policy on the matter is not explained at all. Does Google have an official policy where its AdSense team tries to determine if content on a website is infringing? If so, do they have an official dispute process? Does the AdSense team take into account fair use? Google has, generally speaking, been very good on issues of copyright and fair use, but this particular policy seems rather strange.

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In case the rock in Rock Band wasn’t hardcore enough for you, would you care for a few rounds of Slipknot? Turn up the speakers and warn your neighbors, Corey Taylor and the rest of the masked

In a troubled economy where rising unemployment is forcing throngs of jobseekers to return to school, community colleges offer a beacon of hope as a low-cost educational alternative.

Yet, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the state’s 39 community colleges, which could lose half their state funding this year, or roughly $148 million, despite seeing a 10 percent to 12 percent spike in student enrollment.

Colleges received the first of four quarterly disbursements from the state, due in August, just last week.

State officials confirmed the second funding installment originally scheduled for November could be delayed until May, which means the last two payments for the year would be pushed back until the 2010-2011 school year.

Colleges with healthy reserves will likely dip into their savings to make up for the shortfall, and institutions without that cushion are forced to make cuts.

“This is not a good time to be putting somebody out of work,” Palatine-based Harper College President Kenneth Ender said. “We’re going to look at some other remedies.”

Harper College would lose $3.5 million from the state. The school’s reserves stand at a little more than $50 million.

“From a cash-flow perspective, if the college needed to finance that $3.5 million (shortfall), we certainly have a sufficient fund balance to do that. That would be the last resort,” Ender said.

The school is anticipating 5 percent growth in student enrollment this year but budgeted for only 3 percent growth. “If we end up with 5 percent, we are about $600,000 more on the revenue side (from tuition),” Ender said.

Not filling personnel vacancies unrelated to faculty would be another way to cut costs, he said.

Depleting reserves, though not the most desirable option, will bail out many colleges, but without more revenue coming in, the hole will only get larger, warned Ellen Andres, chief financial officer for the Illinois Community College Board, the agency that administers the state funds.

“Some of them are digging in to the point where it’s going to get really close to making payroll,” Andres said. “No matter what your size or what your wealth is, everybody is being hurt. Quite frankly, some colleges can’t do it with only 50 percent (of state) revenues.”

Further complicating matters, the state has other commitments such as repaying the more than $2 billion it borrowed for its own operations, which is due starting in March, Andres said.

“That’s the worry – that cash flow might be off,” Andres said. And state revenues are continuing to fall, she said.

Andres said that while the money would eventually come, it’s not like colleges will receive six payments next school year to make up for the loss this year.

The chief financial officers of all community colleges are meeting today with Andres to discuss the funding delays. The meeting will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Heartland Community College in Normal.

This isn’t the first time the state has delayed payments to community colleges. Last academic year’s fourth-quarter disbursement was made this August.

Public universities are in the same boat.

According to the Illinois State comptroller’s Web site, the majority of payments out of the state’s general fund will continue to be delayed more than 105 business days due to insufficient revenues. That number is expected to increase over the next several months.

State funding for community colleges, which by state law should be one-third of colleges’ revenues, has long been dwindling. The funding level has dropped to about 8 percent on average. Colleges depend mostly on local property tax revenue and tuition to keep operating.

College of DuPage President Robert Breuder said he’s lost faith in the state after seeing a continuing decline in its support for community colleges in funding for both operations and maintenance.

“I think what a good institution is doing is weaning itself off the state budget,” said Breuder. “We’re becoming quasi-private. We have to run colleges and universities like businesses. We can’t continue to be dependent on state and federal funding. There’s no other choice.”

Breuder said to make up for this year’s more than $5 million shortfall, the college will freeze hiring, curb unnecessary spending, encourage retirements, and cut courses such as massage therapy and medical transcription, which were already on the chopping block due to low enrollment.

The college doesn’t want to dip into its reserves of roughly $50 million because officials are trying to grow the balance to 50 percent of operating expenses, which are $155 million this year. That is the ideal target, he said.

Colleges likely will use more part-time teachers rather than hire full-time faculty to cut costs, he said.

Grayslake-based College of Lake County is bracing for cuts to supplies and travel, said Nancy McNerney, interim vice president of administrative affairs. The potential loss would not affect student programs funded mostly through local property tax revenue, she said.

Elgin Community College expects to cover the shortfall with its own reserves.

“It’s a small piece of our revenue,” said ECC’s vice president of business and finance, Sharon Konny. “The college also is in a strong financial position.”

Oakton will curb hiring and travel despite having a healthy reserve balance, said Carl Costanza, Oakton vice president for business and finance.

“We don’t really want to take reserve money to do operating,” Costanza said, adding though that the reserves likely will be used to cover at least part of the shortfall.

State revenues make up 7.1 percent of the college’s $65 million operating budget this year.

“It will have a major impact on the college not to get that funding,” he said. “We are very concerned and we’re hoping that state can come through for us.”

 

 

2009Dec4: Average pH levels in the world’s oceans have fallen from 8.21 at the start of the Industrial Age to an average 8.1 on the 1-to-14 pH scale, according to the IPCC (CS Monitor). A pH of 7 is neutral. A pH less than 7 is acidic. A pH greater than 7 is basic.

Reference: Christian Science Monitor http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/12/04/global-warming-increases-acidity-in-alaskan-seas/

Image Description: Boat on the Arctic Sea. August 2006. Photo by Ville Miettinen. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boat_on_the_Arctic_Sea_-_August_2006.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

One caveat to today’s jobs report — which overall was excellent — is the fact that Americans continue to leave the work force, and that these people aren’t included in headline rate.

Said the BLS:

About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in
November, an increase of 376,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not sea-
sonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and
were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12
months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched
for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

As you can see, that number remains at a record high, and eventually they’ll be coming back.

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Weather Alert 12/9/09

All campuses are open. All classes and events are running as scheduled.

View weather-related closing policies and procedures.

 

While telco lobbyists (or paid “think tank” commenters) have a long history of pushing the totally bogus concept of an “exaflood” of traffic that will take down the internet, more recently they’ve been pushing this idea of “bandwidth hogs.” That is, they say that even if there isn’t really a big threat to backbone bandwidth (which they had claimed originally) there is still a problem with “bandwidth hogs” at the last mile, using up way too much bandwidth. And, for that reason, they insist that ISPs should be able to cap and meter broadband, to make sure that the “low level users” aren’t subsidizing the “bandwidth hogs.” There are two big problems with this claim. First… in none of the experiments with metered billing have the “low level users” received a discount. Instead, they’ve kept paying the same amount, and it’s just that the ISPs have tried to jack up the rates on higher bandwidth users.

But, an even bigger problem may be that the very idea of “bandwidth hogs” may be a myth (found via Slashdot). Benoit Felten is smashing that myth, in noting that there are certainly some folks who use more bandwidth than others, but contrary to claims from ISPs, he hasn’t seen any evidence that they’re causing any harm or congestion on the network. So he’s presented a challenge to telcos to send over data that he can analyze to prove him wrong.

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If you’ve got a gaming purchase underway on the other tab, hold that mouse because you might want to take a look at this one first. Best Buy Canada is currently offering a Buy Two, Get One

Filed under: Videos, Chrysler, Celebrities

This is… different. To summarize, a new commercial by Chrysler is agitating for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s (a.k.a. Burma’s) pro-democracy leader and lightning rod who has been under one form of house arrest or another for twenty years. The thirty-second spot was originally created to be part of sister-brand Lancia’s sponsorship of the 10th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. Says Oliver Francis, the new President and CEO of Chrysler and Managing Director of Lancia:

“We produced the TV film in honor of all those who put their lives at stake in the hopes of making the world a better place. In particular, those men and women who are still prisoners, like Aung San Suu Kyi. For Chrysler, this is a chance to use our brand image to join with others in the fight for peace and to knock down the walls that divide us. We at Chrysler believe in doing the right thing and making a difference.”

The spot opens with a Chrysler 300 driving next to the some still-standing sections of the Berlin Wall. It then passes by a mural of Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela. We then see three Nobel Laureates getting out of the back of 300s: Muhammed Yunus, founder of the micro-lending Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Polish union leader and president Lech Walesa and former leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev.

As to whether or not a car company should be advocating in favor of peace and democracy, all we’ll say is we’re glad Chrysler is not fighting against ’em. Be sure to check out the video and press release after the jump.

[Source: Chrysler]

Continue reading VIDEO: Chrysler ad gets political, advocates for release of Myanmar Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

VIDEO: Chrysler ad gets political, advocates for release of Myanmar Nobel Peace Prize Laureate originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just about every time the monthly jobs numbers comes out, economic research firm TrimTabs comes out and slams the government’s methodology, usually honing in on the Birth/Death model of new businesses entering the market.

This week is no exception.

Frankly, we’re not sure what to make of their arguments. We’ve been hearing about this Birth-Death issue for a long time, but unless you believe they’re changing their methodology from month to month, then that issue only goes so far.

We welcome your thoughts.

————

TrimTabs’ Estimates 255,000 Jobs Lost in November, While BLS Reports a Decline of Only 11,000

BLS Revises September and October Results Down a Whopping 45%

Something’s Not Right in Kansas!

 TrimTabs employment analysis, which uses real-time daily income tax deposits from all U.S. taxpayers to compute employment growth, estimated that the U.S. economy shed 255,000 jobs in November.  This past month’s results were an improvement of only 10.2% from the 284,000 jobs lost in October.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the U.S. economy lost an astonishingly better than expected 11,000 jobs in November.  In addition, the BLS revised their September and October results down a whopping 203,000 jobs, resulting in a 45% improvement over their preliminary results.

Something is not right in Kansas! Either the BLS results are wrong, our results are in error, or the truth lies somewhere in the middle

We believe the BLS is grossly underestimating current job losses due to their flawed survey methodology.  Those flaws include rigid seasonal adjustments, a mysterious birth/death adjustment, and the fact that only 40% to 60% of the BLS survey is complete by the time of the first release and subject to revision.  

Seasonal adjustments are particularly problematic around the holiday season due to the large number of temporary holiday-related jobs added to payrolls in October and November which then disappear in January.  In the past two months, the BLS seasonal adjustments subtracted 2.4 million jobs from the results.  In January, when the seasonal adjustments are the largest of the year, the BLS will add anywhere from 2.0 to 2.3 million jobs.  In our opinion, trying to glean monthly job losses numbering in the tens of thousands or even in the hundreds of thousands are lost in the enormous size of the seasonal adjustments.

In November, the BLS revised their September and October job losses down a surprising 44.5%, or 203,000 jobs. In the twelve months ending in October, the BLS revised their job loss estimates up or down by a staggering 679,000 jobs, or 13.0%. Until this past month, these revisions brought the BLS’ revised estimates to within a couple percent of TrimTabs’ original estimates. 

The large divergence between the two results begs the question of what is causing the difference.  While we don’t have an answer today, we will be poring over the data in an attempt to answer that question.

A comparison of TrimTabs’ employment results versus the BLS’ results from January 2008 through November 2009 is summarized below.

Source: TrimTabs Investment Research – www.trimtabs.com and Bureau of Labor Statistics – www.bls.com

Several other employment related data statistics support the conclusion that the labor market is not as robust as the BLS is reporting:

·        Automatic Data Processing reported on Wednesday that 169,000 jobs were lost in November.

·        The Institute of Supply Management (ISM) Non-Manufacturing Survey reported that the majority of companies surveyed were still shedding employees.

·        The ISM Manufacturing Survey reported weaker employment conditions in November.

·        Weekly unemployment claims were 457,000 in the week ended November 27, 2009.  While last week’s results were below the important psychological level 500,000, the weekly claims are still uncomfortably high and point to a contracting labor market.

·        The TrimTabs Online Jobs Index reported lower online job availability in the past three weeks.

·        The Monster Employment Index declined in November.

We will have the opportunity to truth our employment model estimates at the end of January 2010 when the BLS releases its annual benchmark revisions.  The BLS revisions are based on actual payroll data for March 2009.  The BLS revision is then divided by twelve to correct prior month’s data back to April 2008.  We also use the March 2009 revisions to adjust our model inputs and make any necessary corrections. 

For a complete analysis of the current employment situation and economic conditions, refer to TrimTabs Weekly Macro Analysis published this coming Tuesday, December 8, 2009.

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See Also:

• BOOM: Unemployment Just 10.0%
• TrimTabs CEO: The Government Is Afraid To Look At Real Economic Data
• TrimTabs CEO Explains How Employment Numbers Get Inflated (VIDEO)

 

According to this chart from Citi's Alan Heap today, gold traders are the most net-long they've been this decade, as indicated by the yellow line below. We'll go out on a limb and bet that they are also the most net-long in decades even given the massive run up in gold over the last few years.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Gold ETF Approaching Record Volume, As Metal Plunges $50 (GLD)
• Gold Plunges Below $1200 After Jobs Data
• Surprise: Now Even China Thinks Gold Is In Bubble Territory

Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedan, Buick

Yesterday, we showed you the first official rendering of Buick’s forthcoming small car, a shrunken LaCrosse lookalike that is expected to be based on the European market Opel Astra. The image was flashed on the screen during General Motors’ presentation of the new 2011 Buick Regal at this week’s LA Auto Show, and judging by these latest spy shots from our friends at CarPix, it would appear that the rendering gives us a very good look at the upcoming sedan.

As we saw in an earlier batch of shots, the Delta-II platform-based model (known as the Excelle in China) will retain Buick’s signature waterfall grille, yet unlike the Regal, it will have a set of horizontally-mounted ventiports to add a bit of the marque’s characteristic flash. In the past, the number of ventiport holes indicated the number of cylinders of the engine lurking beneath the sheetmetal, but in this case, we don’t expect for the as-yet-unnamed U.S. sedan to carry more than four cylinders.

With the Regal and this forthcoming small sedan, GM is clearly making a big push to lower the average buyer age of its Buick division by injecting a bit of sport and perhaps a greater measure of affordability. Is this the right strategy for the brand, or is The General at risk of revisiting the same brand perception (and brand overlap) issues it had in the Eighties with smaller cars like the Somerset and Century? Be sure to check out our high-res gallery below and then hop into Comments to let us know what you think.

[Source: CarPix]

Spy Shots: Baby Buick sedan caught in Germany originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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