Bizzy’s AM Coffee Biz-Econ Links (022106)

Free Links:

• This Is “Ironic,” and Remarkable (HT S.O.B. Alliance member Weapons of Mass Discussion) — “High school senior discovers ironing deactivates anthrax.” “Central Catholic High School senior Marc Roberge discovered truth in the urban legend that ironing can kill anthrax spores in contaminated mail. His findings will appear in the June edition of the Journal of Medical Toxicology, which publishes peer-reviewed research papers. It is an accomplishment usually reserved for Ph.D.-level scientists and physicians.“
• Bomb, schmomb — Something I learned while researching something else is that the annual growth rate of the world’s population has steadily decreased, from a peak of 2.19% in the early 1960s, to 1.15% now, to a projection of less than 0.5% about 40 years from now. Ehrlich’s “Population Bomb” has been a bust; yet how many people still believe that the world’s population (currently about 6.5 billion) is growing at an “unsustainable” rate?
• “Step away from the keyboard….. Does that search engine have a license?” (HT Drudge)
• Well trained? Maybe. Well tanned? Definitely (HT Americans for Prosperity) — A Jacksonville, NC Daily News editorial cites Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, noting that “A survey by the senator’s staff found that federal agencies spent more than $1.4 billion since 2000 sending employees to such conferences — many at top-notch hotels in exotic locales. ….. And what taxpayers get in return for all the travel, lodging and room service is hard to determine — besides a well-tanned federal workforce.”
• You have to wonder — if this story had been about profits going up 62% instead of down 62%, would this resignation have been forced?
• I question whether there’s enough money in the satellite radio business for one company, let alone two. Sirius reported another big quarterly loss on Friday, shorty after XM came in with similarly bad news.
• Blogging on immigration is so frustrating, because for nearly 20 years it’s been a “nothing ever gets done” issue. This story from Dmitri Vassilaros at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has me convinced that border agents are going to have to die at the hands of Mexicans committing border incursions before anything gets done about them. Sometimes I think even that won’t move our in-denial government to do anything.