Tuesday, June 22, 2004

The Sun has reached its northernmost point in planet Earth's sky marking a season change and the first solstice of the year 2004. We celebrate the arrival of summer with this false-color composite of three images from the space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a mission of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). All three images are made in extreme ultraviolet light, but each individual image highlights a different temperature range in the upper solar atmosphere: Red at 2 million, green at 1.5 million, and blue at 1 million degrees Celsius (3.6 million, 2.7 million, and 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit). The combined image shows bright active regions strewn across the solar disk, which would otherwise appear as dark groups of sunspots in visible light images. SOHO's spectacular images are also featured in the cover article from this month's National Geographic magazine. Image From Astronomy Picture of the Day, Credit: NASA/ESA 7:33:32 PM    comment []

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Social expenditures and child poverty—the U.S. is a noticeable outlier All advanced industrialized countries make an effort to reduce the number of children who live in poverty, but poverty remains a harsh reality for many children in every country. Child poverty is defined as children living in households where income is less than 50% of household median income within each country. Although children bear no responsibility for living in poverty, they are penalized not only in childhood but later in life if their health or education suffers from a lack of resources.  All economies face the trade-off between how much money should be spent and what level of childhood poverty is acceptable. The data used in the figure below compare social economic expenditures and child poverty rates of the United States to that of 16 other rich, industrialized countries that, like the United States, belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The United States and these other countries face similar global conditions with respect to trade, investment, technology, the environment, and other factors that shape economic opportunities.  Thus, this comparison provides a yardstick for gauging the commitment of the U.S. government to reducing child poverty and its lifelong effects. The figure clearly illustrates that those countries with higher social expenditures — as a percentage of gross domestic product, or GDP — have dramatically lower poverty rates among children. The blue line in the figure shows the correlation between expenditures and child poverty rates for all countries. Individually, the Nordic countries — Sweden, Norway, and Finland — stand out, with child poverty rates between 2.8% and 4.2%. The United States stands out as the country with the lowest expenditures and the highest child poverty rate — five times as much as the Nordics. The paucity of social expenditures addressing high poverty rates in the United States is not due to a lack of resources — high per capita income and high productivity make it possible for the United States to afford much greater social welfare spending. Moreover, other OECD countries that spend more on both poverty reduction and family-friendly policies have done so while maintaining competitive rates of productivity and income growth. Source: Author's analysis of OECD and Luxembourg Income Study data. 7:29:55 PM    comment []

ROLLING THE GENETIC DICE: America's most important race for foreign labor is a search not for muscle, but for brains, writes Seattle Times Editorial Columnist Bruce Ramsey. And if brains are what you're looking for, as is the case for Microsoft Corp., "You would go where there are many rolls of the genetic dice. Microsoft has done that with a development center in China and the one it is building for 600 engineers and administrators in Hyderabad, India." 7:27:30 PM    comment []

Harrah's to Appeal Nevada Court Ruling By REUTERS Published: June 22, 2004 Filed at 3:01 a.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Las Vegas-based casino operator Harrah's Entertainment Inc. intends to appeal a recent court ruling in favor of cross-town rival Station Casinos Inc. in a patent infringement case, it said on Tuesday. Harrah's said in a statement it was confident it would win the case on appeal ``and that our patents will be found to be valid and enforceable.'' Last month, a U.S. District Court in Nevada ruled that two patents held by Harrah's for customer reward and tracking systems were invalid. The court granted summary judgment to Station on Harrah's claims that Station had infringed on the two patents. In its statement Tuesday, Harrah's said it would not pursue additional patent claims against Station that are still pending before the court. Harrah's, which owns or manages 25 casinos in the United States, sued Station in July 2001, contending that Station's ``Boarding Pass Rewards Program'' infringed patents held by Harrah's that govern similar customer reward programs. Harrah's ``Total Rewards'' program is like a frequent flier program for gamblers, allowing them to earn credits toward prizes and other benefits. A Station Casinos representative could not immediately be reached for comment. 7:18:48 PM    comment []