How American workers lost their pensions

Excerpts from an article at Salon:

As Ellen E. Schultz, an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reveals in her new book, "Retirement Heist," it wasn't the dire economy that led these companies to plunder their own employees' earnings, it was greed. Over the last decade, some of the biggest companies -- including Bank of America, IBM, General Motors, GE and even the NFL -- found loopholes, abused ambiguous regulations and used litigation to turn their employees' hard-earned retirement funds into profits, and in some cases, executive compensation. Schultz's book offers a relentlessly infuriating look at the mechanisms they used to get away with it. ..

Think of pensions as a debt. If a company can reverse a debt, it can record it as income... There were billions in promises to retirees for pensions and healthcare and death benefits and life insurance, and the companies figured out that if they cut or eliminated them altogether then they could get those billions in profit -- and even use them for executive compensation...

[Lucent] eliminated a death benefit, which is a very simple thing that says, if you work for us for 25 or 30 years, and you die, your widow will get $50,000 dollars or whatever per year. Lucent said they couldn't afford that. So they took it away and saved $400 million that had been set aside physically in the pension plan for these folks. At the same time, they awarded more than $400 million in bonuses to executives.

The federal courts found Cigna documents that made it clear that the HR executives were discussing how, if the cutting of employees' benefits was handled right, there wouldn't be an employee backlash because the people wouldn't understand what was happening. And it's a pattern that has existed at a number of other companies...

These were not gratuities. This was not something the company decided they would give you if they felt like it. This was something that was earned, that was deferred. The pattern after the Second World War was that as companies were growing quickly, they didn't have a lot of cash. So the deal was, they gave workers less pay then in exchange for pay later, and they called it a pension. If you worked for x number of years, you'd get your pay back. Same thing with healthcare. So what we see now are millions of people who should not be in a difficult position financially putting more strain on society, now that we have to pay for their healthcare and public services.

Take the retirees of GenCorp. They had been promised their retiree health coverage in writing, but employers put little clauses into the plan documents that said, We reserve the right to change the benefits... All of this is contrary to the intent of pension law, which is that the assets were there protected supposedly for the benefit of the people who earned them, and taxpayers subsidized it, meaning that if employers put money in, it would grow tax-free. That's why a lot of this is abuse of taxpayers.

More at the link (and in the book).

The importance of "selection bias" in statistics

During WWII, statistician Abraham Wald was asked to help the British decide where to add armor to their bombers. After analyzing the records, he recommended adding more armor to the places where there was no damage!

This seems backward at first, but Wald realized his data came from bombers that survived. That is, the British were only able to analyze the bombers that returned to England; those that were shot down over enemy territory were not part of their sample. These bombers’ wounds showed where they could afford to be hit. Said another way, the undamaged areas on the survivors showed where the lost planes must have been hit because the planes hit in those areas did not return from their missions.

Wald assumed that the bullets were fired randomly, that no one could accurately aim for a particular part of the bomber. Instead they aimed in the general direction of the plane and sometimes got lucky. So, for example, if Wald saw that more bombers in his sample had bullet holes in the middle of the wings, he did not conclude that Nazis liked to aim for the middle of wings. He assumed that there must have been about as many bombers with bullet holes in every other part of the plane but that those with holes elsewhere were not part of his sample because they had been shot down. 

I suppose one could argue about whether the bullets were fired randomly, but the analytic principle involved is still an important one for students to learn.

Text credit John D. Cook at The Endeavor, via Neatorama; image via Mother Jones.

Alligator gar

Alligator Gar ("Gator Gar"), Atractosteus spatula, is a primitive ray-finned fish. Unlike other gars, the mature Alligator Gar possesses a dual row of large teeth in the upper jaw. Its name derives from the alligator-like appearance of these teeth along with the fish's elongated snout...

Alligator Gar are found in the Lower Mississippi River Valley and Gulf Coast states of the Southeastern United States and Mexico as far south as Veracruz... They have also been known historically to come as far north as central Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, and west-central Illinois. 

Photo ("10 feet (3.0 m) alligator gar caught at Moon Lake, Mississippi in 1910"): D. Franklin (Library Services, American Museum of Natural History).

Food, deconstructed

When I recently purchased a small container of a seafood casserole, my wife pointed out to me that the ingredients list was almost as big as the package itself...

imitation crabmeat

• pollock
• water
• sugar
• soybean oil
• egg whites
• wheat starch
• salt
• potato starch
• sorbitol
• modified corn starch
• artificial crab flavor
• sake
• sugar
• yeast extract
• sodium tripolyphosphate
• tetrasodium pyrophosphate
• paprika oleoresin
• carmine
• corn syrup
• soy lechithin

dressing:

• soybean oil
• water
• egg yolks
• vinegar
• grated parmesan & Romano cheese
• pasturized skim milk
• cheese culture
• salt
• enzymes
• cellulose (anticaking)
• sugar
• salt
• corn syrup
• dehydrated garlic
• lemon juice concentrate
• anchovy 
• spice
• lactic acid
• onion powder
• xanthan gum
• extractives of tamarind
• hydrolyzed soy protein
• propylene glycol alginate
• calcium disodium EDTA [preservative]

pasta:

• durum wheat semolina
• niacin
• ferrous sulfate
• thiamine mononitrate
• riboflavin
• folic acid

sour cream:

• cultured milk
• cream
• whey
• sodium phosphate
• guar gum
• carrageenan
• locust bean gum
• potassium sorbate [preservative]

celery
sodium lactate
sodium diacetate
green onion

lemon juice:

• water
• lemon juice concentrate
• sodium benzoate and sodium bisulfate [preservatives]
• lemon oil

potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate (preservative)
salt
black pepper

A beluga with a halo bubble

A Beluga whale has become a sensation at an aquarium after learning how to blow halo-shaped bubbles. The extraordinary sight was captured on camera by photographer Hiroya Minakuchi at the Shimane aquarium in Japan. He said: "This beluga started making bubble rings when she was seven. And a couple of years ago she developed her technique. Now she blows the water from her mouth to make a current, which is not visible for us underwater. She then blows air from her blow hole into the current and that makes a ring shape."

Text and image from the Telegraph.   Photo credit: Hiroya Minakuchi/Minden/Solent News.

Note also this video that I first posted about three years ago:

YouTube link.

"Stupidity" the movie

YouTube link. 

The root word stupid, which can serve as an adjective or noun, comes from the Latin verb stupere, for being numb or astonished, and is related to stupor: in Roman culture, 'the stupidus of the mimes' was a sort of 'professional buffoon - the "fall-man", the eternal he-who-gets-kicked'.  According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, the words "stupid" and "stupidity" entered the English language in 1541. 

This is a 2003 movie with a 67% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.   Here's the IMDb link.  I've only watched the first few minutes, so I can't vouch for its content; posted for future viewing.

Repeat-offending drunk drivers

In local news:

Arrested: David J. Mortenson, age 48, Windsor, WI
Mr. Mortenson was arrested for Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence - 7th offense, Fleeing, and Deviating from Designated Lane.

Details: A Madison Police officer laid down road spikes along Interstate 90/94, on the bridge over Highway 51, Friday night, bringing to a close a police pursuit of a suspected drunken driver. He would be arrested for his 7th offense of Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence (OMVWI).

A Madison officer first saw him weaving in and out of designated traffic lanes on Milwaukee Street. The officer, with red lights and siren activated, followed the suspect onto N. Stoughton Rd., to Highway 30, and finally to I 90/94.

The officer noted that the driver nearly swerved into the path of a semi truck near High Crossing Blvd. Back-up officers responded, with one deploying the road spikes. They caused the driver’s front tires to deflate and he pulled over. He said he did not see the squad lights or hear the siren, and only knew he was being sought when his tires blew. An empty bottle of whiskey was on the front seat of his car.

They don't list driving without a license; I do not understand how someone with six prior DWI arrests can be allowed to operate a motor vehicle.  This makes me really mad.

New geoglyphs discovered in the Middle East

Referred to by archaeologists as "wheels," these stone structures have a wide variety of designs, with a common one being a circle with spokes radiating inside. Researchers believe that they date back to antiquity, at least 2,000 years ago. They are often found on lava fields and range from 82 feet to 230 feet (25 meters to 70 meters) across...

Kennedy's new research, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, reveals that these wheels form part of a variety of stone landscapes. These include kites (stone structures used for funnelling and killing animals); pendants (lines of stone cairns that run from burials); and walls, mysterious structures that meander across the landscape for up to several hundred feet and have no apparent practical use...

In Saudi Arabia, Kennedy's team has found wheel styles that are quite different: Some are rectangular and are not wheels at all; others are circular but contain two spokes forming a bar often aligned in the same direction that the sun rises and sets in the Middle East. The ones in Jordan and Syria, on the other hand, have numerous spokes and do not seem to be aligned with any astronomical phenomena. "On looking at large numbers of these, over a number of years, I wasn't struck by any pattern in the way in which the spokes were laid out," Kennedy said.

Very interesting (they look a little bit like mitochondria !).  I've previously blogged about the kite-shaped structures in Syria.  There's further discussion of these "wheels" at the Live Science source, which also has an excellent gallery of photos.  Those really interested in the subject matter should visit the APAAME's Flickr Photostream, which has over 2,000 pages of photos.

Via Finestkind Clinic and fish market.  Photo credit: David D. Boyer, APAAME.

The hook

Nothing spoils your day more than watching a wild creature dying a cruel and unnecessary death.

Such was the situation I encountered when I stopped at a city park in a small Wisconsin town last weekend.  I sat down on the grass next to a bubbling stream to eat a sandwich, then noticed a fluttering in the air above me.  There, hanging vertically below the branch of a tree above the stream was a cedar waxwing, intermittently fluttering its wings.

At first I thought the bird was trapped in a spiderweb, but a moment's study revealed a nearly-invisible line extending above the bird to the branch.  Apparently some fisherman had gotten a fly tangled in the tree and cut his/her line, leaving the lure (with its feathers) dangling above the water.

I was unable to reach the bird, having nothing longer with me than my trekking poles.  I stopped two passersby, but none of us could bend or climb the tree.  The hook appeared to be embedded in the bird's beak, and the bird would occasionally place a foot on it and try to pull himself up, but seemed unable to get a grip on the small lure.

I was just a half-hour from my house, so I returned home to get the longest tool available (here in the midwest, that item is a roof rake).  My wife came with me on the return trip and brought a wire cutter and a needle-nosed pliers.

By the time we got back, the bird was gone, and only the hook remained.  I hope this means the cedar waxwing was able to leverage himself off of the barb and fly away; we didn't find any evidence of a carcass in the underbrush, though he might have fallen into the water and washed downstream. 

A cautionary tale for anglers.  Perhaps some birders have seen similar situations, but it was a new one for me.

One sperm donor has 150 offspring

Today there are 150 children, all conceived with sperm from one donor, in this group of half siblings, and more are on the way. “It’s wild when we see them all together — they all look alike,” said Ms. Daily, 48, a social worker in the Washington area who sometimes vacations with other families in her son’s group.

As more women choose to have babies on their own, and the number of children born through artificial insemination increases, outsize groups of donor siblings are starting to appear. While Ms. Daily’s group is among the largest, many others comprising 50 or more half siblings are cropping up on Web sites and in chat groups, where sperm donors are tagged with unique identifying numbers.

Now, there is growing concern among parents, donors and medical experts about potential negative consequences of having so many children fathered by the same donors, including the possibility that genes for rare diseases could be spread more widely through the population. Some experts are even calling attention to the increased odds of accidental incest between half sisters and half brothers, who often live close to one another. 

Further discussion of this interesting situation at the New York Times.

River delta documented on Mars

Eberswalde crater contains a rare case of a martian delta. Channels which fed the lake in the crater are very well preserved. The delta deposits and channels together provide a clear indication of liquid surface water during the early history of Mars. 

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Text and image from the European Space Agency, via The Conservation Report.

Ruth Belville - the lady who sold time

Ruth Belville sold time. Each day she would set her watch by the Greenwich clock in London and then charge a fee for the privilege of looking at her watch.

Belville’s father had established the business in 1836, when such knowledge was valuable — as railways revolutionized European travel, individual towns had to abandon their non-uniform local times, reckoned by the sun, and adopt instead the standard London time that dominated rail schedules.

For a confusing few years the nation underwent a sort of fugue, with public clocks displaying both London and local time; a few great clocks were even fitted with two minute hands...

But by 1880 the British government had finally established a single standard time for the nation, and when Ruth Belville began selling time in 1892 she was already an anachronism. Remarkably, she continued until 1940, after the advent of World War II — by which time most of her clients were clockmakers.

Text and image via the Futility Closet.

The reason for nonconference football mismatches

We all see it happen every year.  Big schools play little schools in nonconference games.  Michigan, Florida, and USC take on Western Nebraska A&M, East Dakota Polytechnic, and Sister Margaret's Home for Wayward Girls.

We know why the big schools do it; they get to warm up on hapless opponents and pad their undefeated records to enhance their postseason bowl appearance chances.  Why do the little schools subject their players to 68-3 defeats?  The StarTribune explains:

"...the [Minnesota] Gophers sent the [New Mexico State] Aggies home with an $800,000 tip Saturday, the largest visiting-team guarantee the Gophers have ever paid.

Nothing will change the economics of playing seven home games every season, however. It's necessary to find willing partners, and the price keeps going up. "It's become an arms race," Maturi said. "Look what happened to Purdue -- 10 months ago, they had Kent State on their schedule. Then Kent State paid the buyout and went to Alabama, because Alabama paid them more than a million dollars."

NCAA football.  Think of it as a farm league for the NFL.

Speaking of which, I gotta go.  Back later.

Miserere mei, Deus

YouTube link. 

The Miserere is written for two choirs, one of five and one of four voices, and is an example of Renaissance polyphony surviving to the present day. One of the choirs sings a simple version of the original Miserere chant; the other, spatially separated, sings an ornamented "commentary" on this...

Three authorized copies of the work were distributed prior to 1770 – to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, to the King of Portugal, and to Padre (Giovanni Battista) Martini.[1] However, none of them succeeded in capturing the beauty of the Miserere as performed annually in the Sistine Chapel[citation needed]. According to the popular story (backed up by family letters), the fourteen-year-old Mozart was visiting Rome, when he first heard the piece during the Wednesday service. Later that day, he wrote it down entirely from memory, returning to the Chapel that Friday to make minor corrections. Some time during his travels, he met the British historian Dr Charles Burney, who obtained the piece from him and took it to London, where it was published in 1771. Once the piece was published, the ban was lifted; Mozart was summoned to Rome by the Pope, only instead of excommunicating the boy, the Pope showered praises on him for his feat of musical genius. 

Whenever I hear Mozart stories, I reflexly think of him as Tom Hulce's Amadeus character.

Text credit Wikipedia, with a hat tip to beasterne.

Dinosaur feathers

Dating from the Cretaceous, and preserved in Canadian amber.  Wow.

"The least spectacular of these specimens have either single fibers or tufts of fibers coming from a common base," said Wolfe. "They've basically been inferred to exist from a theoretical model of feather evolution, but have never before been documented in the flesh, as it were."

More photos and some commentary at Wired Science.