Robert's Stochastic thoughts, formerly Robert's Random Thoughts, summarizes (sends up?) the good ideas in economics as falling in one of 14 categories.
I think he's on to something here, at least if you accept, as I do, that whatever virtues may have lurked in his sociology, Marx was a very poor economist.
Fresh from accusations that the Social Security administration is being used as propaganda farm, the Bush administration today launched a trial balloon to destroy civil service unions, and indeed the entire idea of a tenured (and, one must presume, nonpolitical) civil service.
Civil Service System on Way Out at DHS: The Bush administration unveiled a new personnel system for the Department of Homeland Security yesterday that will dramatically change the way workers are paid, promoted, deployed and disciplined — and soon the White House will ask Congress to grant all federal agencies similar authority to rewrite civil service rules governing their employees.
… . Bush officials said that the old rules were outdated and too restrictive and that the government needed a more “flexible” workforce [at DHS] to fight terrorism.
Most likely translation: We hate unions. We are the victors. We demand the spoils.
UPDATE: Washingtonpost.com hosts Undersecretary for Management at the Department of Homeland Security Janet Hale for online questions:
Arlington, Va.: Ms. Hale – I've worked in a few govenrment agencies in my 20 years. Unfortunately, I've seen some awful managers who liked power or used their position to create a click of favorite employees. How does the new rating system address the abuse of favoritism ? If fact, doesn't taking away the step structure only increase the potential for supervisor favoritism ?
Janet Hale: I heard this expressed alot as I traveled across the country and have talked to dedicated DHS employees. Our goal is to have a fair, transparent system that all will understand and trust. We are commited [sic] to implmenting [sic]the peformance [sic]management provisions wiht [sic]direct employee and their reprsentatives [sic]involvement in order to achieve our objective.
Most likely translation: Workers are so **f*** [sic].
Latest study predicts 10°C global warming.
Increased levels of greenhouse gases will have a much greater impact on climate change than previously thought and will lead to a “dramatically different” future, according to the largest ever climate change experiment.
If the predicted levels of greenhouse gases predictions are reached, the ice caps are likely to have melted and Britain will be an average 10°C warmer.
Then again, maybe we've got some time to prepare:
The first results from climate prediction.net show that average temperatures could eventually rise by up to 11°C – albeit after a new global climate pattern has been established over several hundred years, even thousands of years – even if carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are limited to twice those found before the industrial revolution.
The results are based on a distributed computer model run as a screen saver:
The experiment, launched in Britain in 2001 on the science page of The Daily Telegraph, has since seen about 100,000 PC users around the world download a special screen saver to run a Met Office computer model to explore a vast range of climate change scenarios.
When they want to, the White House can act decisively.
AP reports:
President Bush on Wednesday ordered his Cabinet secretaries not to hire columnists to promote their agendas after disclosure that a second writer was paid to tout an administration initiative.
Contrast this rapid response to the White House Payola scandal with the utter non-response to the at least as serious scandal regarding the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Where was the order to the White House staff to release any reporters from pledges of confidentiality and/or to come forward if they had information relevant to the Plame matter?
Relevant blasts from the past: earlier example of fast action while ignoring the Plame matter and Gonzales link to obstruction of justice in the Plame scandal.
This looks like an interesting way to do skype calls from a regular phone: rapidBox.
Trouble is, I do so little long-distance calling, and it's so cheap, and none of my family use skype, that I doubt I'd actually break even. Plus you need one for each phone. (Please don't comment by saying “Asterix”, ok? Gotta get some Linux boxes up and running first. And that won't start until the home renovations are long over.)
Jotwell Blenderlaw