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More college students are on the five-year plan.

For high school students who graduated in 1972 and who eventually received a college baccalaureate, 58% got their degree within four years, according to data analyzed by economists John Bound at the University of Michigan, Michael Lovenheim at Cornell University and Sarah Turner. In contrast, just 44% of eventual BA recipients who graduated from high school in 1992 finished their college degree “on time.”

But why? One explanation could be that students were less prepared for college than in the past. But math test scores and parent education levels suggest that college-bound high school graduates were actually more prepared for college in 1992 than twenty years earlier.

Instead, the economists find evidence that the increase in time to graduate is a matter of resources.

Much of the increase in time-to-degree happened at public schools that weren’t in the top tier (such as community colleges or whatever public university the public university you went to played against). Those are schools that couldn’t ration how many students attended them, and so saw student-faculty ratios rise as enrollment increased and budgets got strained.

Meantime, student budgets got strained by rising tuition costs, forcing more of them to spend more time working, and less time studying. Between 1972 and 1992, the average amount of time college students aged 18 to 21 spent working went from 9.5 to 12.4 hours a week. (As of 2005, that figure had risen to 13.5 hours.)

“[O]ur analysis also indicates that reducing students’ financial burdens while enrolled in college would help to reduce time to degree,” write the economists. That matters because the less time students spend getting a college degree, the quicker they’re using that degree in the workforce.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship said this week that piling up safety violations is simply a part of mining coal. He wasn’t kidding.

The Freedom # 1 Mine, a Massey-owned project in Pike County, Ky., has been cited with 54 safety violations in the four days since Monday’s explosion in West Virginia killed 25 miners, according to the Mining Safety and Health Administration.

Twenty-two of those violations were deemed “significant and substantial,” meaning they  are “reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness under the unique circumstance contributed to by the violations.”

Of those so-called S&S violations, four are related to preventing roof falls; two involve problems with ventilation; two target maintenance of machinery; and one indicates a failure to maintain methane sensors.

Since the start of the year, the Freedom # 1 Mine has racked up 233 safety violations — tops among all Massey-controlled tunnel mines.

The district housing the mine is represented by Rep. Hal Rogers (R). Rogers’ office hasn’t responded this week to repeated calls and emails requesting comment.

We have always known that indefinite motion is a physical impossibility but the US Navy and NASA’s Jet Propulsion lab have set out to prove that belief wrong. They have designed an ingenious propulsion motor that could power itself and propel a ship indefinitely. This engine, called SOLO-TREC, is fitted with tubes containing phase change materials. On encountering warmer currents near the surface these materials expand and they contract as the tubes go deeper in the water due to the cooler temperature. This expansion and contraction pressurizes oil, which drives a hydraulic motor. This motor generates electricity to recharge batteries that power a pump. This pump can then be used to control the buoyancy of the float facilitating its vertical motion in the water column.

In essence, this mechanism enables the engine to derive power from water currents. This also implies that it will run out of power when there is no energy left in the ocean, which will never happen. This technology when developed could a long way in further empowering the Navy while protecting the environment.
[neatorama]

Spring is in the air, and I love dining al fresco when we can.  I recently made a simple one-dish meal of clams and linguine, which we enjoyed outdoors with a glass of crisp white wine, admiring the spring crop of herbs and veggies we recently planted.

Now I must admit upfront, this is more of a product review than a recipe.  And that’s because the box of frozen clams at Trader Joe’s comes fully seasoned and is delicious as-is.  I added a big squeeze of lemon and a heavy sprinkling of herbs because that’s what I usually do with seafood, but you could make it even easier on yourself and still impress guests.

I learned about Trader Joe’s Steamed Clams from my Japanese hairdresser.  I usually chat with her about best places to get fresh sushi, her favorite sake brands, or travel.  But on my latest visit, we started talking about Trader Joe’s and she went on and on about the frozen clams and how they’re as good as any you’d get at a restaurant.  She keeps them constantly stocked in her freezer.  I hadn’t even noticed the clams until she mentioned them (and how many thousands of times have I shopped there?), but I knew I had to try them.

You’ll find Steamer Clams in the freezer case next to other seafood items.  They come in a sealed tray with garlic butter sauce.  Toss all the contents into a frypan and voila!  Done in about 6 minutes.  I chose to squeeze a whole lemon into the sauce for an extra burst of freshness, and I also chopped up some fresh basil leaves from our herb garden.  I think you could also stir 1/4 cup heavy cream into the sauce for extra creaminess.  I also tried a version with Fresh Bruschetta Sauce (one of our favorites!) stirred in, but I felt that the strong tomato & garlic flavor of the bruschetta overpowered the delicate clams.

I served the clams on a bed of linguine pasta.  There was enough sauce in the pan to lightly coat the pasta, but if you like lots of sauce on pasta, you’ll probably need to make extra sauce.  Or you could serve these clams on their own as an appetizer.

Linguine and Clams

8 oz linguine or other pasta
1 (16 oz) box frozen Steamer Clams in Garlic Butter Sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Shredded Parmesan Cheese (optional)

1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water.
2. About 5 minutes before pasta is done, cook clams in a frypan according to package instructions.  Drain pasta while clams are cooking.
3. Add lemon and stir into clams.  Pour clams over pasta, and sprinkle liberally with basil.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves 2-3

What is this—a fairground toy? A contemporary sculpture?

This balloon is in fact an element of military defense. Russian balloon maker Rusbal is working on an order from the country’s defense ministry to supply full-scale inflatable military models. The realistic-looking hardware is used in battlefield positions and to protect Russian strategic installations from surveillance satellites, distracting snoops and protecting real combat units from strikes. They can look like real vehicles in the radar, thermal, and near infra-red bands, so they’d even look right through night-vision goggles. The units are light and can be set up in few minutes.

Image courtesy Rusbal

In Tennessee, Kurt Zimmerman, the father of a high school student wants the biology book banned.

Guess why.

Yeah, it dismissed Biblical creationism as a myth. So he took his case to the school board and complained, asking that the book be banned. Their response was actually very cool: they said no.

One reviewer’s first impression of creationism’s definition was similar to Zimmermann’s in that “the authors must be offensively biased against this Christian view of the world,” the reviewer wrote.

“Upon further investigation, however, I quickly realized there is more than one definition of the word ‘myth.’ In this case the word is used appropriately to describe a traditional or legendary story … with or without a natural explanation,” the [school board] reviewer wrote.

Not the use of the phrase “offensively biased”, indicating to me that the reviewer him or herself may be sympathetic to creationist claims. But they still came to the correct conclusion: the word myth just means an explanatory story.

I’m glad the board dismissed Mr. Zimmerman’s claims, and I’ll take whatever victory I can when it comes to stopping the forces of antireality. But still, it makes me flinch somewhat to hear this. Sure, we can’t teach creationism in public school because it would be a clear violation of the First Amendment. But I can hope that in the future, everyone will know that we won’t teach creationism because it’s wrong.

Tip o’ the fossil to SciBuff.

Without a promised transfer of money from the Department of Water and Power, the budget gap for the city of Los Angeles has grown to $222.4 million this fiscal year, even with a brighter forecast for property tax collections.

In a key financial status report released Friday morning, City Administrative Officer Ray Ciranna said the city has collected $26 million more than expected in property tax revenues.

But the deficit means the city will have to dip deeply into its reserves to balance its books to end the fiscal year on June 30 in the black. City Council President Eric Garcetti and Councilman Bernard C. Parks, chairman of the budget committee, stressed that the better than expected revenue collections did not mean the city’s budget crisis has been solved.

“The City Council has been consistent that we are going to work hard to close this year’s budget gap and we have,” Garcetti said. “We’ve tried not to propose anything that scares employees, that does things that are irrational or exuberant. But we are trying to maintain calm and a reasonable budget.”

Earlier this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa surprised council members by threatening to close some city departments two days a week to prevent the city from running out of cash.

Although the mayor has now backed away from that proposal, many council members believed it sent an unnecessary jolt of panic through the city’s workforce. Villaraigosa would have needed council approval for furloughs that would have cut employees’ paychecks by two-fifths.

Before the current stalemate between the DWP board and the council — utility executives refuse to send the city a promised $73.5 million because council members refuse to approve a sweeping electricity rate increase — various budget-balancing moves, in combination with the increased revenue, had reduced the midyear deficit from $212 million to $148.9 million.

The city will save about $6 million this fiscal year due to 100 layoffs processed so far and by transferring 280 employees from jobs supported by the cash-strapped general fund to positions that are paid for through fees and special funds.

Ciranna said he believed that the city’s reserve fund, which is about $207 million, would drop to about $39 million at the end of the fiscal year, far below what bond rating agencies consider to be a healthy threshold.

“Efforts to build the reserve fund balance are critical to maintain sufficient cash flow, to address the current-year revenue shortfall and resulting budget deficit, and to provide an adequate safety net for the 2010-2011 fiscal year,” Ciranna wrote.

— Maeve Reston at Los Angeles City Hall

Photo: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, and City Council President Eric Garcetti, shown in 2009. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Filed under: Performance, Truck, Ford, Off-Road

If you’ve been holding off on taking the plunge on a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor until the more potent 6.2-liter engine found its way to the option sheet, we’ve got good news for you. The big 411 horsepower, 434 lb-ft of torque V8 is officially on sale right now, and Ford says the mills are flying off the shelves. According to the Blue Oval, the company has received over 3,000 orders for the Raptor with the more powerful engine.

The bigger engine offers a 91 horsepower bump over the base 5.4-liter V8, which should help the Raptor be a little quicker on its toes when it comes to desert maneuvers. That’s all fine and dandy, but how much will it cost you? If you go for the 6.2, expect to add another $3,000 to the final price tag. While we haven’t had a chance to play with the uprated Raptor just yet, that sounds like a mighty fine deal to us.

Ford has also announced a number of other optional features now available for its off-road beast, including special halogen lamps mounted atop a light bar, a tow kit for pulling lesser machines from the sand, and blue powder-coated cam covers for both engines. Far be it from us to look down on a little show with your go.

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading Ford Raptor 6.2-liter goes on sale, nearly 3,000 already ordered

Ford Raptor 6.2-liter goes on sale, nearly 3,000 already ordered originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adam Serwer reads Andy McCarthy’s comment in my piece today about information of any kind being unacceptably jeopardized by the “day to day” interactions of civilian court procedures and observes:

I’m here at Guantanamo to observe a hearing in the case of Noor Uthman Mohammed, who is being accused of material support for terrorism. There has been very little detail released about the evidence against him, because much of it is classified — possibly because Mohammed was caught in the same sweep in which the U.S. captured Abu Zubayda in 2002. The process of sorting through the classified material in his case means that his trial won’t begin until February 2011, if it happens. The chief prosecutor for the military commissions told me a few days ago that “as a practical matter, there’s very little difference” between the process for dealing with classified information in military commissions and civilian court.

That “day-to-day” process McCarthy is so concerned about is happening here at Guantanamo, much in the same way it would happen back home. It’s also happening twice, once prior to a hearing that will determine whether Mohammed is an “unprivileged enemy belligerent,” and then again as the evidence is reviewed prior to his likely trial.

Meanwhile, it’s not like the military commissions have an unblemished record in protecting classified information. One example off the top of my head: The existence of the military’s “Frequent Flier” sleep deprivation program was disclosed during Mohammed Jawad’s military commission, which seems to me a much more significant disclosure than bin Laden finding out we’re after him several years after he’s issued fatwas calling for Muslims to fight the U.S.

In fairness, McCarthy told me he doesn’t carry any particular brief for military commissions. He favors the establishment of special national security courts for terrorism cases, an idea also favored by Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution and Jack Goldsmith of Harvard — and, for that matter, by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — but rejected by the Obama administration. (So far.)

NHTSA, fresh off its $16 million smackdown on Toyota is now investigating the company that booted Toyota from Consumerist’s Worst Company In America tournament — General Motor — for possible brake failure issues in millions of the company’s trucks and SUVs.

According to an announcement from NHTSA, the defect involves potential brake line rupture in Chevy and GMC C/K series pickups and SUVs for model years 1999 through 2003. That is a total of around 6 million vehicles.

NHTSA says is has received 110 complaints, which include 3 crashes, regarding an alleged loss of braking effectiveness.

In their words now:

The complaints allege the loss of braking effectiveness due to brake line rupture because of corrosion. In 37 of these complaints, the brake line failure was confirmed by a dealer inspection.

FYI, right now GM is losing to Anthem BCBS in the Sweet 16 of Worst Company In America.

GM Probed By U.S. for Brake Flaws in 6 Million Trucks [BusinessWeek]

Shares of Palm are leading the tech sector higher today, as it is up over 12% in early friday morning trading. As was the case earlier this week, another round of buyout speculation is fueling the rise once again.

This time the chatty mouths on Wall street would have you believe that Taiwan based HTC is now interested in acquiring Palm Inc. According to MarketWatch an unnamed Chinese newspaper is said to be the source. The article has some humorous quotes from analysts over the recent round of M&A chatter. HTC is not commenting on the rumor and a US based HTC spokesperson is quoted by Reuters as saying “To the best of my knowledge this is just a rumor.”

“Every day there is a different rumor about who is going to buy Palm,” said Kevin Hunt of Hapoalim Securities on Friday. “I could make a list of eight companies who could buy it. But would they buy it for more than $1 billion? I just don’t know.”

Lots of the little stuff that used to wind up here at SvN gets posted by us individually at Twitter these days. So as an experiment, let’s try a wrap-up post featuring highlights from this week’s 37signals staff posts at Twitter.

@rjs Here are some notes on my talk at the School of Visual Arts by @soulellis: http://bit.ly/9MBLig

@jasonfried http://twitpic.com/1ea9hl – The Russian jet train: http://bit.ly/dpeU3f

@dhh The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you”. http://bit.ly/dCLsmW (The Fisherman’s Parable)

@dhh Kindle still owns the iPad for use outside. You can’t see anything but smudges and it overheats in 5-10 minutes in direct sunlight 🙁

@jasonfried You haven’t blown them away until they send you a check.

@jsierles Travel, but have a modest base. Carry a pen. Put the camera away. Talk to people.

@asianmack For all the praise Apple gets for its quality user interfaces, iTunes really sucks the big one.

@bergatron You can double-tap a paragraph of text with TWO fingers on the iPad to select it. The alternative is four successive single taps.

@mattlinderman Good piece on “Producing Pro Podcasts.” http://emusician.com/tutorials/emusic_producing_pro_podcasts/index.html

@jasonfried Zillow’s iPad app is really well done. Great way to explore homes for sale/rent: http://www.zillow.com/ipad

@mattlinderman Robie House video: Experience a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece from inside. http://bit.ly/9bHKGe

@dhh Talking computer setups at http://david.heinemeier.hansson.usesthis.com/

@rjs “Goodbye Point & Shoots, Goodbye Laptops.” http://bit.ly/d1Apz5

@jasonfried My first article for Inc. Magazine. Also in the April issue on newsstands now: http://bit.ly/d7B66F

@rjs Beautifully simple and complete sketches of splashes and falling drops from “On Growth and Form”: http://bit.ly/a7yCPU

@jasonfried Newsweek on 37signals and REWORK: http://www.newsweek.com/id/235687/output/print

@asianmack Apple’s market capitalization exceeds Walmart’s. Microsoft and Exxon are the only US companies whose market caps exceed Apple’s.

Reports from component suppliers in Asia have RIM buying an unspecified number of 8.9″ touchscreens from supplier Hon Mai. The sources are unnamed and the original report is proving difficult to track down; the only copy of it seems to be in CrackBerry’s possession (copied below). That already places this rumor in pretty unlikely territory, but hey, you be the judge.


Add in to the mix that RIM’s Mike Lazaridis publicly stated last year that they were not developing a tablet and had no specific plans to do so, and the rumor is looking even less substantiated.

If they did buy up a few touchscreens, then what? It’d be the first indications of a large, innovative company toying around with the idea of a tablet device. Perhaps after playing with an iPad and seeing Microsoft pushing tablets hard via third parties, RIM felt they may as well see if they could whip up something internally that was of any potential utility to their users. As it stands, though, there’s no real evidence that this order actually took place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we never hear anything more about it.

Yesterday, we received an e-mail from Lotus saying “149 – Sorry, but we’re too busy celebrating to elaborate!” Well, today Lotus told us exactly what 149 means.

“We are delighted to announce that the new 2011 Lotus Elise has just been certified with an outstandingly low emissions figure of 149g of CO2 / km which represents a reduction of 16% over the previous Lotus Elise S,” Lotus said in a statement.

That means that the new 2011 Elise has the lowest CO2 for its performance level for any gasoline sportscar in the world. If that’s not impressive enough, Lotus says that the Elise also returns an impressive fuel-economy figure of 56.1 mpg (46.7 mpg in U.S. terms). This means that the Lotus Elise can travel 500 miles on one tank of fuel.

Not to mention, the 2011 Lotus Elise is still capable of running 0-60 mph in 6 seconds flat thanks to its 136-hp 1.6L 4-cylinder VVT-I.

2011 Lotus Elise:

– By: Omar Rana

Flowingdata has put together an amazing visualization of Wal-Mart’s (WMT) growth over time.

We won’t say it’s “cancerous,” but we’ve got no doubt that more than a few of you will think that.

Click the map:

Join the conversation about this story »

Here we see the first prototype of the LapDock, a laptop docking station for the iPad. How this is more convenient or practical than Apple’s keyboard/dock is beyond me. Just stop, lousy iAccessory makers. Please, please, stop. [ipadlaptdock] More »

Mumia Abu-Jamal remains on death row in Pennsylvania. The widow of slain police officer Daniel Faulkner has been used to push for the execution of Jamal despite his unfair trial.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Mumia events on his birthday

Published Apr 8, 2010 9:30 PM

Writers for Mumia, an afternoon of readings and testimonials by poets, playwrights, journalists, book authors, wordsmiths and activists, will be held April 24 from 2:30 to 6 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, 512 W. 126th St. in Harlem.

The New York Chapter of the National Writers Union and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition of New York City are co-sponsoring the event, which precedes a rally in front of the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 26.

Unjustly held captive on Pennsylvania’s death row since 1982, Abu-Jamal is being threatened by the courts with another execution date for a killing he didn’t commit in 1981.

“Mumia needs public support at this critical time, so that’s why fellow writers want to pay tribute to the power of his words and his struggle for freedom and justice on April 24,” Susan Elizabeth Davis told Workers World. Davis founded Writers for Mumia as a project of the International Action Center in 1997 and organized two public events in 1999 and 2007. “As the ‘voice of the voiceless,’ Mumia inspires others to write as truthfully, eloquently and purposefully as he does.

We must fight to free him with our words as we seek to write truth to power.” Davis noted that Mumia has been an honorary member of the National Writers Union since 1995. The gathering will also celebrate his 56th birthday, which is on April 24. For more information call 212-633-6646; 212-254-0279 ext. 18; or 212-330-8029.

There will also be a Birthday Celebration and Organizing Party for Mumia Abu-Jamal on April 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the S.H.A.P.E. Center, 3815 Live Oak in Houston, Texas. The event is sponsored by the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement.

The program will include poetry, music and a birthday cake, along with strategizing to support the campaign for a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department into violations of Mumia’s civil rights.

For more information call 713-503-2633 or email [email protected].

— Workers World bureau, New York
Gloria Rubac contributed to this report.
——————————————————————————–
Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: [email protected]
Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2010/us/mumia_0415/

Right off the bat I’m going to tell you that this video is about 4 minutes too long. It’s the story of a gentleman who explains why BMW’s make much better road cars than drag cars. He’s not a mechanic or a race car driver, he’s just some Dude that f*cked up his M3 at the drag strip and unfortunately paid the price… you know, the cash money price. I do have to give him some props as the video, albiet being too long is quite entertaining, especially around 7:02 in. Those of you out there that own one of these ultimate driving machines, you may want to take heed at what this owner says because at the end of the day, I think he’s right.

New York investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald is the lead agent for the $25 million share offering of geothermal developer Raser Technologies.  An official at the Provo, Utah-based company tells G.E.R. that it’s never worked with Cantor before.

Cantor’s pricing was competitive, the executive says. Although, the clincher for Raser might have been the bank’s experience with the type of offering Raser is doing, known as a controlled equity offering whereby companies agree to sell a specified number of common shares in at-the-market transactions. Cantor Managing Director Jeff Lumby, who is listed in Raser’s 8K, launched Cantor’s dedicated controlled equity group in 2001.

Raser, one of the country’s largest geothermal developer, will use proceeds from the share issuance to support development and construction of  the 15-megawatt Lightning Dock project in New Mexico. We’re told that the company has secured a driller and expects to start construction in the next few weeks.

Lightning Dock is slated to start operating in 2011 and is backed by a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP), a utility district in neighboring Arizona.

For long-term financing, besides the equity issuance, Raser is also considering applying for a loan guarantee, the company executive says, declining to provide specifics on the dollar amount it would seek.

Earlier this year, Raser secured additional development capital from Evergreen Clean Energy, a newly-formed Utah-based investment fund in exchange for equity stakes in some of the projects that make up the company’s 100-megawatt project pipeline. It also recently scored a $32.9 million U.S. Treasury direct cash grant for its five megawatts Thermo Number 1, project.

Image: iStockphoto