Stuff gets cheaper

The March Consumer Price Index reported that the average price of goods fell last month. This is the first time the CPI reported a March decrease since 1955. The CPI reported the price of goods fell by 0.1 percent.

Though a 0.1 percent decrease in cost will go unnoticed at the checkout counter, the year 1955 brings an different focus to the report. It adds support to the claim that this is the worst economic decline since the great depression.

"The numbers speak to an economy that is in deep recession, but we're no longer in the shock mode of staggering numbers that speak to a serious slide lower in terms of macroeconomic activity, coupled with the threat of inflation," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets.

Additionally, industrial production fell 1.5 percent. Analysts had predicted a 1 percent decrease.

The good news is that the stock market is always the first thing to improve at the end of a recession. It will be the first sign that the economy has finished crapping on...everyone. It is up 1,500 points since March 6.

child abduction

Personal note:

I don't understand the national media's recent obsession with child abduction stories (I'm looking at you Nancy Grace!). For the past two months, it was story after story on Haleigh Cummings. Now, its story after story about Sandra Cantu. I remember when JonBenet Ramsey was murdered and the media was obsessed for a year. Ramsey's case even spawned books and a made-for-tv movie!

According to Child Shield USA, 100 children were kidnapped last year, 75 percent of those were dead within three hours of being kidnapped. Where are the months of coverage about the other kids?

The media latches on to the stories involving photogenic girls with affluent but psychotic parents who think their kid will be returned if they thrust themselves in front of every camera they can find. These parents make shirts, hold rallies, announce large rewards, and turn a tragic event into a never ending crap fest that wreaks of tabloid sensationalism.

Child abduction is a horrible occurrence, especially when it ends in murder. But when is it newsworthy? Ethically, should it even be reported?

In August of 1996, one of those 100 kidnappings a year to a 12-year-old girl in my hometown. Her story was reported by the local media but nobody else. Police offered a $20,000 reward for information about the case. A google search of her name turns up 143 hits. The case was never solved.

Six months later, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey went missing. The JonBenet Ramsey Children's foundation offered a $100,000 reward for information about the case. A google search of her name turns up 324,000 hits. The case was never solved.

You make sense of it.

Detroit to close 23 schools

The current recession started in Dec. 2007 according to the National Bureau of Economics. Since then, Autotown, USA, has been one of the hardest hit cities in the country.

This fall, the Detroit Public School system will close 23 schools and lay-off 600 teachers, this amounts to 11.3 percent of all DPS teachers. The decision will force 7,500 students to transfer schools. According to the Detroit News, the move was because of "plummeting enrollment and mounting deficit." The DPS system was anticipating a $306 million deficit before the closings.

According to Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, (I can't help but wonder is he goes by Bob Bobb) the closings will save $8.8 million annually starting in the fall of 2010.

In the last 10 years, DPS enrollment has gone from 173,848 to 95,000 today. In that same time period, 70 buildings have been closed, and another 30 could be closed in 2010. Bobb has asked state Superintendent Mike Flanagan for $200 million of the state's $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds to help pay the district's deficit and upgrade the school's still open.

I feel bad for the students in Detroit. When a kid spends 35 hours a week at a school, more if they are involved in clubs or sports, they unavoidable develop alot of strong emotions about those hallways. Granted, for a lot of teenagers, high school sucks ass and a lot of those emotions are contempt and anger, but nobody likes being forced to switch schools.

Most of the teachers will be given severance packages and if they look hard enough they will find jobs in other cities. Their lives will be disrupted and they might have to move, it might take them a long time to find another job, but I still think the kids have it harder.

Black Pearl seen off Somalia Coast

The U.S.-registered Maersk Alabama freighter was attacked yesterday by a group of pirates off Somalia's coast. The ship, which was carrying food to Africa, is the first U.S. flagged vessel to be attacked by pirates in 200 years, said a maritime official to the Los Angeles Times.

According to initial reports, the pirates initially took over the ship, only to have it retaken by the ship's crew, which is around 20 people. When fleeing, the pirates were able to take the captain hostage, where he remains.

The U.S. Navy and Pentagon have been monitoring the situation closely and have been attempting to summon the Flying Dutchmen and Captain Barbossa. Phone Calls to Long-John Silver and Blackbeard were not immediately returned.

The Maersk freighter is part of Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line shipping. Maersk Line shipping has been a Pentagon shipping contractor for many years. According to Maersk Line Chief Executive John Reinhart, the crew is trained in anti-piracy tactics.

These tactics are said to include:
giving the pirates fake treasure maps
firing grape shot at the pirate's sails
stealing the pirate's wind
dumping heavy cargo and outrunning the pirates
Gentlemenly swordfights.

In response to the attack, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has flown to Tortuga to meet with local leaders.

Google delays world domination until May

This May, Google will release the latest version of its Android operating system. Currently, the Linux based, open-source code, operating system has been relegated to the cell phone market. Samsung and T-Mobile will offer phones carrying Android, and everyone else is considering it.

Google is new to the iphone challenger market, and Android's release will coincide with the releases of phones from Nokia, Palm and Apple.

The difference between Android, Windows and Leopard (apple's current system) is that Android is the only one which is Linux based. The Linux operating system is notoriously non-user friendly, but is open-source code, and therefore nerd-friendly.

The advantages of Anderoid are basically two-fold.

1. Open-source code systems and programs allow users to manipulate and conform their compter in any way they see fit. Therefore, with a little coding knowledge and self-education, your computer becomes an expression of yourself, and will fulfill your exact needs much better than either windows or leopard ever could.

2. Windows and Apple source codes are protected and kept secret so users must purchase the program instead of downloading it for free. The definition (and beauty) of open-source programs like Linux, is that the coding is public knowledge, and therefore free. Computer manufacturers like HP and Dell do not have to pay large licensing fees to Apple or Microsoft for the right to run their operating system. So now, the $1200 computer in the store just became $800.

How this will affect the mobile phone market, I don't know. But Google has a reputation of becoming an industry leader at whatever they create, and whatever they don't create they buy.

Gmail, youtube, blogger, google news, google search, chrome (web browser), google finance, etc. If Google is entering the competitive mobile phone market, they are going to make their precense felt, not just known.

Japan spends lots of yen

Japan announced a stimulus package of 10 trillion yen, or $100 billion. This package will double the amount of money the government of Japan will spend to curb it's own recession.

The concern here, is that Japan's national debt was about 120 percent of its GDP before the recession, and is currently 175 percent of its GDP. By far the worst debt/GDP ratio of the world powers. Economists are questioning whether Japan has the ability to implement such a large stimulus package. The news became an immediate double-edged sword. The Asian stock markets reached a six-month high after the news was released, but the yen reached a six-month low against the dollar.

"Japan's debt is already so high that a few additional percentage points would make little difference. At these levels, whether gross debt is 175% or 180% is surely neither here nor there. Japan has had little difficulty financing large budget deficits for many years. Near-zero official interest rates, persistent deflation and sluggish economic activity have kept Japanese government bond yields low even without additional support to the market from quantitative easing."

Pentagon's new budget

Defense Secretary Robert Gates introduced the new Pentagon budget today. Where his budget becomes noteworthy, is the dramatic shift Gates is making away from current technology, to towards future technology.

For example, in the new budget, Gates decreased funding for the F-22 fighter made by Lockhead Martin. Only 187 F-22 fighters will be produced. However, Gates increased funding for Lockhead Martin's next model, the F-35, which is not yet in production (as far as we know). Dramatic cuts were also made in the "Future Combat Systems" program, and the proposed new fleet of presidential helicopters was canceled.

As far as the Navy is concerned, the new budget shifts focus from larger ships and submarines, to smaller, faster, more mobile units.

To put a different spin on this...I will put on my nerd hat. If you do not have a nerd hat, feel free to stop reading.

Imagine this is all an eight person free-for-all game of StarCraft on a money map, and the United States is Protoss. It is early game and the United States is playing a bunch of noobs who don't know build orders and are way behind. The U.S. has effectively bunkered in by building 8 photon cannons at the entrance behind a row of pylons, and a few more cannons around the base to prevent spies. In the base are a 10 zealots, 5 dragoons, and 20 probes.

Any attack on the U.S. right now will result in Uber Pwnage.

Because the U.S. is bunkered in, proper strategy dictates that it needs to shift focus from building up numbers, to research and technology. Therefore, when a noob gets brave and attacks, he will come with a 150 or so basic units. Superior numbers of basic units that have only been upgraded with level 2 sheilds.

By that time, the U.S. will have a fleet of arbiters supporting a fully upgraded army of archons, reavers, carriers, zealots and dragoons. Victory will be swift and complete.