Jonathan's blog

Job cuts at Dow seem to have tapered off for now, though the seemingly-endless re-org process is on-going. DuPont announced plans to slash 1500 more jobs. From an AP article by Randall Chase on abcnews.com:

Chemicals maker DuPont Co. said Wednesday it plans to cut 1,500 jobs and close four facilities in Europe in a restructuring of its performance coatings business and raised its overall earnings outlook. DuPont officials said the restructuring, which will take about 18 months to complete, will reduce annual costs by about $165 million. The Wilmington-based company anticipates taking a pretax charge up to $165 million in the first quarter, with additional costs of up to $55 million over the next year. In a separate announcement, the company raised its first-quarter profit guidance to 80 cents per share, up from a January estimate of 70 cents per share. For 2006, DuPont revised its earnings estimate to $2.70 a share, up 10 cents from its earlier projection.

From a recent article in USA Today by Dennis Cauchon titled "Federal aid programs expand at record rate":

A sweeping expansion of social programs since 2000 has sparked a record increase in the number of Americans receiving federal government benefits such as college aid, food stamps and health care. A USA TODAY analysis of 25 major government programs found that enrollment increased an average of 17% in the programs from 2000 to 2005. The nation's population grew 5% during that time. It was the largest five-year expansion of the federal safety net since the Great Society created programs such as Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. The biggest expansion: Medicaid, the health care program for the poor. It added 15 million beneficiaries over five years to become the nation's largest entitlement program. Robert Greenstein, head of the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, says the growth in the number of people in many programs is due to a rise in the poverty rate from 11.3% in 2000 to 12.7% in 2004, the most recent year available. "It's certainly better that people falling into poverty can get Medicaid, but I'd prefer fewer poor people and employers not dropping medical coverage," he says. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a conservative Republican from Minnesota, says the number of people in entitlement programs should not be growing when unemployment is near a record low. "It's probably time to revisit food stamps and its goals and costs," says Gutknecht, chairman of the subcommittee that oversees food stamps. Food stamp enrollment climbed from 17.2 million in 2000 to 25.7 million in 2005. USA TODAY found three major causes for soaring enrollment in government programs: •Expanded eligibility
•Increased participation
•Welfare reform

The USA Today article drew criticism for being "wildly misleading." For example, from a post by Greg Anrig, Jr. on TPM Cafe titled "USA Today Buries the Lead, Botches the Rest":

Medicaid enrollments have mainly gone up because more people have fallen below the eligibility thresholds while losing health insurance at work--most states have cut back their eligibility requirements rather than make them more generous. Food stamp enrollments have mainly gone up because, again, more people have fallen below the eligibility thresholds --though some administrative changes have helped modestly. The whole story is basically a mess. For example, the front page graph shows enrollment in 25 "federal aid" programs is up 17 percent, increasing from 263 million to 307 million. That's quite something, considering that there are only 300 million U.S. citizens. Oh, right, there is a note in agate type to the effect that some people participate in multiple programs. But what then is the logic behind combining numbers for age-dependent universal programs like Social Security and Medicare, to which recipients have paid dedicated taxes, with means-tested safety net programs? And if one person falling into poverty can add three, four, or five to the enrollment count of safety net programs, disproportionate ly elevating percentage increases, how are readers supposed to begin to make sense of what that number means?

From a Newsweek article by Jennifer Barrett on MSNBC:

At least 400,000 Americans have the neurological disease, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, but that's still a small sliver of the total population. And there's no "typical" patient. Multiple sclerosis-so named because the disease results in multiple scars (or scleroses) on the myelin sheath, which surrounds the body's neurons-affects the body's central nervous system. Symptoms and severity vary widely: from blurred vision to slurred speech to poor coordination and, in the worst cases, paralysis. In the last decade...at least half-a-dozen drugs have been approved that have helped many like Roehrich enjoy a relatively normal life. While new treatments still don't cure the disease, they are able to slow its progression and relieve the symptoms. Betaseron...requires an injection every other day, but he says it's become as habitual as brushing his teeth. Now 24, Roehrich says that, except for an occasional twitch in his eye or numbness, he is "virtually symptom free." Other drugs have since been approved-although not without some problems. Injections of Avonex, Rebif, and Copaxone reduce the frequency and severity of MS attacks by suppressing the immune system. (In cases of MS, patients' immune systems turn against their own bodies, attacking nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.) These drugs help limit the damage to the nerve cells. In addition, there's evidence that Avonex and Rebif may actually slow down the progression of physical disabilities. Another drug, Novantrone, has also been approved for people with a rapidly worsening form of MS. A chemotherapy drug, it's given intravenously and also helps to suppress the immune system so it stops attacking the cells. The drug may reduce new damage in the nerve cells; decrease relapses (or new attacks); and slow down the rate of disability. But it is not recommended for long-term use because heart damage is a potential side effect.

Tonight I watched Occupation: Dreamland (2005,NR), a documentary about troops "Camp Dreamland," the Army headquarters on the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq, exploring their views and their daily lives and activities. I thought it was pretty good. I give it 4 out of 5.

From Newswise:

Children with plenty of opportunity to play in nature before age 11 are more likely to grow up to be environmentalists than other children, says Cornell University environmental psychologist Nancy Wells and research associate Kristi Lekies. "Although domesticated nature activities -- caring for plants and gardens -- also have a positive relationship to adult environment attitudes, their effects aren't as strong as participating in such wild nature activities as camping, playing in the woods, hiking, walking, fishing and hunting," said environmental psychologist Nancy Wells, assistant professor of design and environmental analysis in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell. Interestingly, participating in scouts or other forms of environmental education programs had no effect on adult attitudes toward the environment. "Participating in nature-related activities that are mandatory evidently do not have the same effects as free play in nature, which don't have demands or distractions posed by others and may be particularly critical in influencing long-term environmentalism," Wells said.