Cows go hi-tech

Spotted by View From The Solent at Russia Today:

A US family has been arrested with the help of a Predator drone, after a search for a missing cow did not go to plan. By “drone” we do mean military reconnaissance and assault flying machine used by the US Army and the CIA, mostly abroad...

The drone was called to the rescue when… six cows went missing in North Dakota.

Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went searching for them on the Brossart family farm, armed with a warrant. Next thing he knew, he was chased off by three armed men – Alex, Thomas and Jacob Brossart. Next thing they knew – a mini army and a Predator B drone have been* called in... Once the suspects had been spotted and it was confirmed that they were not armed, police moved in and arrests were made. A property search turned up two rifles, two shotguns, assorted bows and a samurai sword, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The missing cows have been found too.

OMG, the Americans are abusing this form of the past tense as well, that should of course read "had been".

Yvonne's record still safe

From Reuters:

A wayward cow's free-ranging days in a small Nebraska town are over. Three men on horseback tracked the cow in snow and roped her Wednesday afternoon on the north edge of Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

The 1,500-pound cow has caused a stir in Plattsmouth since falling off a cattle truck unnoticed in mid-September. She hid in woods during the day and came into town to graze on grass lawns at night.

Sue Baker, the town's animal control officer, had the cow at hand one day last week and tried to walk her toward a fenced tennis court but a barking dog spooked the bovine. She ran away and went back into hiding. Baker later unsuccessfully tried to lure the wandering bovine into the tennis court with a "bait cow" tethered inside.

Last weekend, Baker discovered that the cow had given birth to a calf in the woods. Baker used the calf as a lure but the cow kicked down a fence panel and escaped when handlers tried to corral her.

"I think I'll sleep for a week," Baker said.

So the unnamed cow didn't quite manage the three months. Unless of course we award a few bonus weeks for giving birth while on the run, that's got to be worth something.

UPDATE: Pavlov's Cat adds: Not that Ninja-ly!

"Cops scare and over kill young calf..."

Spotted by Anna Racoon:

"We just want to be treated the same as everybody else...

... unless we would rather be treated more favourably, of course."

PS, it's not your religion, it's a headscarf. The park was not expecting you to down a cocktail and eat a slice of salami before you got on the ride.

"When the government owes itself $US1.6 trillion"

Sackerson emailed me a link to this fine article which explains the accounting tomfoolery which goes on when governments (via their central banks or treasuries) start buying up their own debt.

The article is slightly confusing because the author starts with the bold (but probably accurate) claim that the US government in all its guises (Federal Reserve, states, public sector pension schemes etc) owns 42% of outstanding US government debt, but then focuses purely on Federal Reserve holdings of about $1.6 trillion, which is only about 12% of all US government debt.

It is this 12% which could be written off and cancelled without anybody noticing (you can't owe yourself money!), the same does not necessarily apply to US government debt owned by individual states or public sector pension schemes.

Short Lists

It's a very short one, I suspect there is only one item on it: "US soap operas called after a hill in south east Essex"

Hours of fun at the BBC

A list of people's most hatedest Americanisms, complete with 1,267 commentations.

My favourite: 14. I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of "shopping trolley" today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself. Graham Nicholson, Glasgow

Superbowl

This owl is superb:

NIMBYs Of The Week

Spotted by Joseph Takagi in The Augusta Chronicle:

An Evans neighborhood association has blocked a group that was prepared to build a home free of charge for a local veteran who was injured in Afghanistan. The homebuilding group, Homes for Our Troops, says Knob Hill Property Owners Association approved the home's design June 2 but reversed its decision in a later meeting....

Homes for Our Troops worked for four months with the Knob Hill Property Owners Association to get the design approved, according to John Gonsalves, [HfoT's] founder. But at an association meeting, members said the 2,700-square-foot home was too small and neighbors thought it would bring property values down, Gonsalves said. A cease-and-desist order was issued as the site was being prepared last week.

"We've done everything they've asked. For them to do this at the last minute is very disturbing," he said. "I don't think there's a community in America that shouldn't embrace this family after what they've sacrificed. No one deserves it more."

But owners association member Tom Rogers said Homes for Our Troops did not do everything asked of it. The group did not have written approval from the association's architectural review board, but negotiated through e-mail only.

"What's important to understand is the family already lives here. They're a great family. We have no qualms with them," Rogers said. "The problem is, that street down there has 5,000-square-foot homes all the way up and down the street there. ... It just doesn't fit. That's the whole issue."

Gonsalves said his team checked association documents, which do recommend that at least 2,700-square-foot houses be built, but Rogers said homeowners in that section built much larger homes.

"We want to protect our homes that we worked hard to achieve, and we want everyone to be treated equally," Rogers said. "These people will have to go through the same process as everyone else did."

Another "deer smashes through window" story*

From The Daily Mail:

The Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, North Carolina, may want to look into updating its security system after a deer broke through a glass door and tore through the house of worship. Security cameras caught the deer pushing his way though an unguarded entrance, before taking the grand tour...

The deer proceeded to charge though the halls of the crowded church, leaving children - who were forced to dodge the sprinting animal - terrified and scrambling for the exits. A trio of brave men followed behind the unwanted guest as he nosed through a few rooms in what resembled a classic skit on the Benny Hill show."

Previous episodes here and here.

* OK, glass door, window, what's the big difference?

Cow attacks: This professor claims to be an expert?!?

From the Des Moines Register:

A rural Urbana woman died after a cow attacked her while she was feeding her animals, leaving people baffled.

"It's pretty unusual for a cow to become aggressive," said Terry Engelken, an associate professor at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. "We have a few instances of (cow attacks) across the country every year - but it's uncommon. For it to result in a fatality is very uncommon."

I also wonder why the URL includes the word "SPORT", it's only a sport from the cows' point of view.

US Banking Fun

Via Icarus at HPC, this fine summary:

[Senator Bernie]Sanders subsequently asked the Congressional Research Service to compare the emergency Fed loans with investments in government securities by the nation’s six largest bank holding companies. The study found, for example, that:

• In the 1st quarter of 2008, JPMorgan Chase had an average of $1.2 billion in outstanding Fed loans with a 2.1 percent interest rate while it held $2.2 billion in U.S. government securities with an average yield of 4.6 percent.

• In the 4th quarter of 2008, JPMorgan Chase had an average of $10.1 billion in outstanding Fed loans with a 0.6 percent interest rate while it held $10.3 billion in U.S. government securities with an average yield of 1.7 percent.

• In the 1st quarter of 2009, JPMorgan Chase had an average of $29.2 billion in outstanding Fed loans with a 0.3 percent interest rate and held $34.6 billion in U.S. government securities with an average yield of 2.1 percent...

And so on and so forth.

Policy Based Evidence

Right at the end of an artlcle in The Daily Mail about smoking bans in the USA:

Studies proved that bans in restaurants, bars and businesses improved air quality of air and reduced exposure to second hand smoke.

Smokers are also more likely to quit the habit in areas where the bans are in effect, while there is a potential reduction in heart attack rates in adults and rates of asthma attacks amongst children.

‘All states that have not done so already could protect the health of their residents by adopting laws that prohibit smoking in workplaces, restaurants and bars,’ the CDC report advises.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization released a study in 2002 that proved that non-smokers are exposed to the same carcinogens by tobacco smoke as active smokers...

The CDC’s report concludes that although smoking bans have put the health of Americans at less risk than in 2000, further action could be made to improve the health of non-smokers.

The report indicated that casino workers are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke, and those who live in apartments adjacent to heavy smokers are exposed.

A University of Rochester study found that up to 99% of children living in apartment buildings had a tobacco by-product in their blood, likely from second-hand smoke exposure.

Cows don't do 'gratitude'

From KLTV.com:

Last week, [Deputy Sheriff] Britton was called to help divert traffic around an injured cow. Bullard Police Chief Gary Lewis says few noticed the cow started to stand until it was too late.

"He run right at us standing there and I moved to the left and Mr. Britton backed straight up and the cow kind of hit him chest high," said Lewis.

For nearly four days, Britton fought for his life at a Tyler hospital. Thousands prayed for him to pull through, and now, those same people are offering prayers for his family...

The USA has non-jobs too...

Via SPPI, this:
----------------------------------------
Source: National Park Service [note: I checked yesterday evening to see if SPPI had copied the advert correctly, which they had, however the job advert has since been removed from the site, to be fair, this may simply be because the application deadline has passed]

Job Title: Interdisciplinary (Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator – Cultural Resources)

Department: Department Of The Interior

Agency: National Park Service

Job Announcement Number: NPSWASO-HQ-11-434393

SALARY RANGE: $89,033.00 – $136,771.00/year
OPEN PERIOD: Friday, February 04, 2011 to Thursday, February 17, 2011
SERIES & GRADE: GS-0101-13/14
POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time Career/Career Conditional
PROMOTION POTENTIAL: 14
DUTY LOCATIONS: 1 vacancy – Washington DC Metro Area, DC
WHO MAY BE CONSIDERED: This announcement is open to all U.S. Citizens.

JOB SUMMARY:

Experience your America and build a fulfilling career by joining the National Park Service. Become a part of our mission to unite the past, our cultures and our special places, to establish important connections to the present and build a rich and lasting legacy for future generations.

The National Park Service is seeking an energetic professional individual to serve as the Cultural Resources Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator. The position is located in Washington, DC and provides cultural resource management assistance to park units, and provides leadership and guidance to stakeholders in the cultural resource management and historic preservation communities nationwide on issues relating to climate change. Candidates interested in this position should have an indepth knowledge of climate change science either as a consumer or generator of climate change data and models to support decisions in cultural resource management and adaptation.

I'm with the Republicans on this one.

Spotted by DBC Reed in the New York Post Times:

The Obama administration’s much-anticipated report on redesigning the government’s role in housing finance, published Friday, is not solely a proposal to dissolve the unpopular finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It is also a more audacious call for the federal government to cut back its broadly popular, long-running campaign to help Americans own homes. The three ideas that the report outlines for replacing Fannie and Freddie all would raise the cost of mortgage loans and push homeownership beyond the reach of some families.

That fact is already generating opposition in Congress and among groups like community banks and consumer advocates. But administration officials said they had concluded the country could no longer afford to sustain its commitment to minting homeowners. Better to help some people rent.*

From the red corner:

“I’m encouraged to see the administration included a number of reform ideas that track closely with my own,” said Representative Scott Garrett, the New Jersey Republican who heads the subcommittee that oversees Fannie and Freddie.

From the blue corner:

Some of the White House’s usual allies, meanwhile, reacted with anger. “Gutting Fannie and Freddie is the most irresponsible housing proposal yet from this administration,” said Representative Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat from the Central Valley in California. “How is Joe Six-Pack ever going to be able to afford a home?”

1. Now, we don't know why the Republican guy supports this, but it's better to be right for the wrong reasons than to be wrong for stupid reasons.

2. Mr Cardoza appears to subscribe to the view that house prices are a given, and that cheap credit helps "Joe Six-Pack" afford a house. That is nonsense of course, as is the assumption that "replacing Fannie and Freddie... would raise the cost of mortgage loans and push homeownership beyond the reach of some families."

3. What they overlook is that cheaper credit just pushes up house prices, so "Joe Six-Pack" is running to stand still. The US administration went mad with extending cheap home loans to all and sundry in the late 1990s, and although the level of home ownership rose from 66% to 69% by 2004, it has now fallen back to the pre-madness level of 66%. So on the whole, people are worse off than when they started.

4. Another interesting comparison is with Canada, where the banks didn't go mad and there are no particular subsidies to buying or owning a home, and where home ownership levels remained stable at 68% throughout. In the UK, the level of home ownership fell by three per cent during the bubble years.

* Subsidising rents is probably even stupider than subsidising home ownership, because all this does is drive up rents, so all the subsidies end up in the pockets of people wealthy enough to buy up a slice of a limited supply of housing to rent it to those who are now priced out and forced to rent.

A bit of a shame really.

It looks like the Egyptian President is going to throw in the towel.

Up until now, I had lived in the vague hope that a former Israeli PM would make a comeback, and the current US President would get them to sign up some more Camp David Peace Accords.

UPDATE. According to the news, he has changed his mind and is hanging on. He got a barracking from the crowd and to prevent violence escalating, he has recalled the Army to their barracks.

Cow attack leaves Florida man critically injured

From The Herald Sun:

Oscar Wilcox's wife told police that her husband was working on a fence on the Port St Lucie ranch in Florida when she heard him scream, TCPalm.com said. She drove to the pasture and witnessed the bovine, a crossbreed with 30-45cm horns, "attacking" her 70-year-old husband.

"She was able to hit the cow several times with the truck to get it off of her husband," a St Lucie County Sheriff's Office report said.

Mr Wilcox had shot the cow with a .22 calibre pistol but lost the weapon during the assault. Mr Wilcox's wife used the gun to shoot the animal several times in the face and drive it away, TCPalm.com saidd. The gun was loaded with "ratshot" cartridges, which contain small pellets.

Mr Wilcox was airlifted to Lawnwood Regional Medical Centre & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce. The report said the woman told police that the cow "has always been nasty and had attacked her about a week ago causing bruises".

"Cow attack lands Lancaster County woman in the hospital"

Spotted by Joseph Takagi at Penn[sylvania] Live.com:

The cow just wouldn’t moooooooove. Police say a central Pennsylvania woman had to be taken to a hospital after she was knocked down by a cow she tried to shoo off the road.

Southern Regional Police say the woman encountered a cow standing in the road Tuesday night in Conestoga Township, Lancaster County. Fearing the cow would be hit by another motorist, the woman stopped her car and tried to herd the cow off the road, Officer Dianne Carter says.

If we can't have it then nobody can have it!

Exactly a week ago, CityUnslicker asked "Irish bailout, why now?" and Spanner Monkey suggested:

Ireland was attracting more businesses to relocate to take advantage of the low tax rates, thereby reducing the tax take of other Euro countries.

By performing the G.Brown vs Lloyds trick of leaking market unsettling rumours to precipitate a bailout (which might otherwise have been less severe at a later date) the consequence is the surrender of control of the Irish economic and financial policies to the EU.

=>No more tax haven.

Which would appear to be borne out by this snippet from the FT:

French, German and European officials told the Financial Times that the tax rate had emerged as a major point of contention as negotiators from the European Union and International Monetary Fund arrived in Dublin to discuss a potential bail-out...

“They need lots of money and we note they have a corporation tax rate that is very low,” the [French] official said. “Supply must follow demand.”

“Without an increase in tax intake, the deficit can’t be reined in,” said a German government official, though he added that the size of any corporate tax increase had yet to be discussed. “That depends on [Ireland’s] financing needs, which are still unclear.”

D'you see what they did there? Ireland does indeed have a deficit, €12 - €15 billion a year, from memory, in the medium term they will have to increase tax revenues and/or cut spending (or just stop promising to bail out the bloody banks). But as I explained yesterday, because Ireland is a small country, cutting its corporation tax rate has the effect of increasing its corporation tax revenues by about €1 billion a year (this trick only works for small countries, I'm afraid).

1. Either the French and German officials are incredibly stupid, and don't know this, or they are doing it because they hope that some of the €24 billion profits that were channelled via Ireland (half of which are on paper and half of which are 'real', for sake of argument) will head their way, which is not going to happen. If the paper profits have to go via the EU, the chances are they will go via The Netherlands or Luxembourg. As to the 'real' profits, see 5. below.

2. As Onus Probandy pointed out when we discussed this yesterday, half of that €24 billion is 'real' profits, and he listed a few well known companies who set up their European head quarters and a bit of actual manufacturing in Ireland, such as "Dell, Google, Microsoft, Sun (now Oracle), Oracle, SAP, etc, etc... These are all highly mobile companies, that will have no trouble moving elsewhere when Ireland has a higher corporation tax rate imposed on them by the ECB."

3. We note that those are all US American companies. The US has a high corporation tax rate (about 40%, being a large country) and US tax laws are very strict, in particular as regards offshoring stuff. It would be quite easy for the US government to tweak the law slightly so that any advantage that US companies can gain by relocating to Ireland is wiped out (by taxing CFC profits), but they don't - because we know that US Americans are historically very pro-Irish (and anti-English).

4. So for these US companies (and Ireland) to benefit, it requires the forbearance of both the Irish and the US government - the whole exercise boils down to surprisingly efficient 'Third World Aid' payments from the USA directly to Ireland, and there's no reason to assume that the USA would be as generous with other EU countries.

5. So if Ireland were forced to increase its corporation rate, these companies, with their €12 billion of 'real' profits might well "move elsewhere", but there is no particular reason to assume that these companies would shift their head quarters to another EU country; it is just as likely that they will shut up shop completely and return to the US, or to PR China or heck knows where.

6. And so the French and Germans would gain nothing; the Irish treasury would lose €1 billion a year; and the Irish economy as a whole might lose €12 billion. The only winners will be the US treasury, but I doubt that the gains to the US treasury would even show up in the statistics, as its economy is sixty or seventy times that of Ireland.