A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television’s Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say. …
Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science.
via Fox News.
Sweet!!
Shakedown in Chicago is commonplace. It’s not just at Pete’s.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMHxcfQfL_M]
Four years of up-to-the-limit property tax increases for Chicago homeowners and businesses. Closing scores of under-enrolled and underperforming schools. Thousands of layoffs of teachers and other school staff. More cuts to the central office.
That’s what could await the Chicago Public Schools, thanks to the tentative agreement between teachers and the district that is expected to put an end to the five-day teachers strike.
Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said the 16 percent pay raise included in the tentative agreement will almost certainly trigger massive layoffs and scores of school closings.
via Chicago Sun-Times.
Well Duh!
This comes as a surprise to no one. What did CTU think was going to happen when you have a broke and bankrupt system giving 16% raises to it’s staff? You balance the budget by having less staff.
This is just like the minimum wage discussion: If the minimum wage was $25/hour there would be fewer people working… not more. And the price of your hamburger and groceries would be 20-50% higher.
When you artificially increase wages in the private sector you get inflation. When you artificially increase wages in the public sector you get a bankrupt public sector.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JaFRPbTpA8
PR — For Immediate Release
SYNOPSIS: LOCAL THUGS AND A QUESTIONABLE ALDERMAN MAY STOP CONSTRUCTION OF GROCERY STORE IN A FOOD DESERT.
One of Chicago’s food deserts may not be getting a grocery store after all. After years of wrangling, Pete’s Fresh Market broke ground on a site located at Western & Madison on Chicago’s West Side. Neighbors had waged a 5 year battle to bring a grocery store to that location. Alderman Bob Fioretti was on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony. But it all came to a screeching halt last week after the store’s owner was threatened not only by local thugs, but by the city itself.
A week ago the store’s site, exactly three miles west of the center of the city, had a construction trailer and several pieces of heavy equipment. “They worked every day. Even on weekends.” said a local resident who’s townhouse overlooks the site. Sunday, the site was just another barren parcel of land which appear to cover the West Side. The only remnant of construction is a single port-o-let. Rumors swirl about the neighborhood whether or not construction may resume anytime soon. Residents fear that they may have lost the only chance they had at getting a grocery store.
After an arduous process taking years, Pete’s Fresh Market was selected for the site. Several cut-rate or second tier grocers expressed interest however neighborhood residents feared that such a business would send the wrong message. Like many gentrifying neighborhoods it can be hard to find the right balance between long-time residents who wish to remain and keep property values, and property taxes, level and urban pioneers who are looking to see some return on their investment. Pete’s seemed like a natural fit. It’s selection had the support of nearly all in the neighborhood.
After the ground-breaking the neighborhood was excited about seeing their new store take shape. Locals talked while walking their dogs, on porches and patios, and on the phone. Emails were exchanged about everything from the construction fence going up to the equipment arriving on site. Photos were taken and news releases sent. “After being here for nine years I’m really looking forward to being able to walk to the grocery store.” said local resident Jim Bosco.
The situation changed last week when Pete’s got hit with a one-two punch.
First, a group of gentlemen who claim to be from the neighborhood stopped by the site and demanded jobs. They appeared to be organized; not just a few guys walking down the street looking for work. They came to the site, knew who to ask for, and demanded to be given jobs. Pete’s owner happened to be on site and suggested they fill out applications for employment; he even provided them with the forms. The group was told however that unless they were licensed, insured, and bonded that they could not be employed for construction work. That was unacceptable to the group and they began to get loud, pushy, and generally belligerent.
When the group was asked to leave the situation escalated. One of the group’s members brandished a handgun. Another told Pete’s owner that if they weren’t given jobs they would break every store window after it was open. Only after the group was informed that police had been called did they break-up and disappear into the streets and alleys.
Putting the unsettling experience behind them, Pete’s owner and the construction crew got back to work. However a few hours later they would be interrupted again, this time by a city Streets & Sanitation inspector. Pete’s was having a bad day; because the inspector proceeded to write Pete’s for 21 violations.
That was too much for Pete’s owner to bear. Business owners can deal with a few bullies who are looking for a handout. However no business can survive in this city when someone in power deliberately makes life difficult. Given the archaic and byzantine nature of Chicago’s codes any property is subject to numerous code violations at all times. Further, it doesn’t even matter if you’re fully in compliance. If the city writes the violation, you have to stop/ what you’re doing and head to building court. That takes time away from your business and is expensive.
Pete’s decided it was not wi/lling to fight city hall. It pulled the plug on construction, removed the equipment, and now the residents question whether or not they will get their grocery store.
The local residents don’t believe in coincidences.
Thanks to the ward remapping, Pete’s is in the “old” 2nd Ward and the “new” 27th Ward. This means that in addition to Alderman Fioretti, who spearheaded the new store, Alderman Walter Burnett is also well aware of Pete’s construction. It also just so happens that the ring-leader of the group of thugs who showed up at Pete’s is known acquaintance of Ald. Burnett’s ASSISTANT chief of staff. Further, those in the know have heard rumors for years about Ald. Burnett shaking down other business owners for everything from using the right valet service to hiring the right contractors.
Many local residents believe that Ald. Burnett was directly involved in the attempted extortion of Pete’s. They wonder why it is that Burnett is able to keep his job when so many of these stories are floating around openly. If the ward remap stands as it is, Ald. Burnett is going to have some explaining to do to folks who live in this neighborhood as to why he’s perhaps ruined their chances of getting a quality grocery store.
THIS POST IS UPDATED HERE.
THIS POST IS UPDATED 09/25/2012 HERE.
THIS POST UPDATED on 09/27/2012: I learned that Ald. Burnett’s “chief of staff: was incorrect. It was in fact Ald. Burnett’s Assistant Chief of Staff who is not only knows the thugs trying to shakedown Pete’s but WAS ACTUALLY ON SITE WITH THEM. New post here.
A citizen, whose nephew attends Brevard Community College, reports that he brought home the below bookmark pledging to vote for President Obama. The bookmark and pledge was handed out during a mathematics class taught by Assistant Professor Sharon Sweet. This occurred “while the student was in class at the request of his College Algebra teacher, Sharon Sweet, from Brevard Community College in [Melbourne] Florida.
”On the tear away GOTTAVOTE.org pledge form that students recieved, was the requirement to “state their party affiliation”. The student reported that Sweet has repeatedly stated her personal political views in support of President Obama in class. The student noted, “There is an older gentleman in the class that will argue with her but he said most of the students did not.”
I think this is the same tactic Saddam Hussein used.
… I guess that might not make sense to everyone. It’s worth noting that this GOTAVOTE organization is the left arm of Obama for America.
Striking Chicago teachers fear that once they approve a new contract with the school district and end their strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will go ahead with dozens of school closings because of falling enrollment and poor academic performance.
via Reuters.
Really? Well what do they think the mayor should do when the city is shrinking and budgets are in the red and the students are failing?
The union’s position is ‘just keep giving us more and more money to achieve less and less.’ It’s unsustainable.
Epic fail.
Lou Pritchett is a former vice president of Procter & Gamble whose career at that company spanned 36 years before his retirement in 1989, and he is the author of the 1995 business book, Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat. In April 2009 he wrote the follow letter to President Obama and copied the New York Times.
Dear President Obama;
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.
Lou Pritchett
In April 2012, the following update was added to the original:
In April 2009, I sent President Obama and the New York Times a letter titled “You Scare Me” because, as a candidate, he promised to “fundamentally transform America.” Now, after observing his performance for over three years, he no longer scares me, he terrifies me for the following reasons:
FIRST– He has done more to damage America’s standing in the world, to lower the standard of living in America, to impoverish future generations and to shake our faith in the country’s future than any other American president in history.
SECOND– With a compliant Democrat congress, a lapdog media and a weak, almost nonexistent Republican opposition, he has shattered the American dream of job security, home ownership and rugged individualism for millions of Americans and has poisoned and divided our civil society with his politics of envy, class warfare, race warfare, and religious warfare which he is using as fundamental building blocks for his ‘socialist’ agenda.
THIRD– culturally, he remains totally out of touch with traditional American values. This has absolutely nothing to do with race or where he was born, rather it has everything to do with where, how and with whom he was raised, schooled, educated, trained and associates with still today.
FOURTH– he has surrounded himself with naive academicians, lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats and socialist leaning czars who arrogantly think and behave exactly as he does. People who offer no balanced suggestions or devils advocate positions and think in lock step with him that big government is the answer to all our problems.
FIFTH– he not only encourages but aids and abets the unionization of all American industry, the albatross around the neck of the free market. In turn, they provide the money and muscle to intimidate his opponents.
SIXTH– he has increased the national debt by over 30% in just three years. If re-elected and this rate of increase continues, America will be burdened with an unsustainable 20 trillion dollar debt which will result in the Country’s financial death. Recovery will be impossible —- America will be the Greece of 2016.
SEVENTH– given his fanatical beholding to the ‘environmental’ and ‘man-caused global warming’ fringe, he has deliberately discouraged U.S. fossil fuel exploration and production while wasting millions of tax payer dollars on solar, wind and algae experiments. He refuses to accept that oil, gas and coal are not America’s enemies, they are America’s assets which, properly managed, could make us energy independent within a generation.
EIGHTH– He views the U.S. as a power in retreat which abused its World dominance. Therefore he systematically apologizes round the world. Last March he whispered to Russian President Medvedev “–this is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility”. Just what is the secret that Obama and Putin are concealing from the American people until after the election? With what other leaders has he made similar secret.
NINTH—and finally, after all his mis-steps, bad decision making, poor management, and zero leadership, the fact that he has the audacity to seek re-election should terrify every American. I predict that if re-elected, future historians and political interpreters will look back at the eight year period 2008-2016, and conclude “the 44th President of the U.S. allowed the takers to overpower the payers which resulted in the greatest economy in history vanishing from the face of the Earth”.
Lou Pritchett
Farewell America, the World will really miss you!
So-called patent trolls – which don’t actually make anything – in recent years received significantly larger damages awards on average than those won by companies that make things, a new report found.
Critics of “trolls,” or nonpracticing entities, claim they hold huge numbers of patents and make money by simply attacking others with litigation.
During the 2006-2011 period, these “trolls” received a median damages payment of $6.9 million versus practicing entities’ $3.7 million, according to the study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
via Business Insider.
I know this is not my usual post but it’s important. These Patent Trolls cost everyone money and contribute nothing to the economy. They don’t provide jobs. They provide little tax revenue. Yet they drive up the cost of goods that we all buy on a regular basis.
This is a legal problem that must be solved in Washington if we want to get this country moving again.