Check this out:
For those with serious Hobbit habits longing to venture into Middle Earth for more than a few hours, New Line plans to screen all three films back-to-back-to-back on December 16 in a daylong marathon that will carry over with The Return of the King’s global release on December 17.
Via Diana Hsieh.
Discussion of the minimum wage will be alive and well during the next election year. Give yourself some time to read and think about the minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credits. Here is your assigned reading (make sure to read the comment threads as well):
Illinois Raises Minimum Wage
Minimum Wage
Why Minimum Wage Beats EITC
Popularity of Raising Min Wage to $8/hr
YOU SAY POTATO, I SAY TOMATO
You’ll probably want to read some of this a second time and then do a little more research before you make up your mind and load your pen.
Last week a French health official resigned:
Lucien Abenhaim, France’s director general of health, stepped down Monday amid calls for the resignation of his boss, Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei, who said the death toll from the heat could be as high as 5,000.
The large number of deaths is startling to an American but I am a little puzzled as to what he or any other government functionary might have done differently:
1. Turned down the regions thermostat sooner?
2. Imported ice from the Arctic?
3. Quickly sent ambulances collect everyone who might die and transport them…where?
4. Installed new airconditioning systems the day before the heatwave?
5. Told everyone that its not as hot as it seems.
Steve Verdon indirectly suggests that the deaths are the result of long term policy and that the current government probably could have done little to help beyond, perhaps, beginning the debate to change policy.
i don’t, though, completely accept his argument that the US does not experience the same problem because cheap power has lead to wholesale air conditioning installations. Sure, cheap power has facilitated installations especially in areas with regular seasonal high heat. However, there are many areas of the US where air conditioning is the exception even though power has been cheap historically.
For instance, in the Seattle area many live just fine without air conditioning in normal conditions and below a certain price point (maybe in the $350-400 range new houses are not built with AC in this area. Like in France normally it just doesn’tget that hot for very long. But if the Seattle area experience a heat wave similar to France00 there would be quite a few folks having trouble coping and maybe dieing while in eastern Washington people routinely live in 100+ weather.
This is basic stuff for lawyers but not a lawyer folk might wonder: what’s a transactional lawyer? Victor Fleischer at A Taxing Blog tells us a bit about transactional lawyers here and also teaches a course:
The goal of the course is to talk about what transactional lawyers do. (Unlike most law school courses, which teach you what appellate litigators do.)
In the first part of the course, we look at the lawyer’s role in identifying and managing business risks, or what Prof Ron Gilson calls “Transaction Cost Engineering.”
Every deal has information problems and behavior problems, and deal lawyers spend most of their time identifying these risks and allocating them (often, but not always, to the most efficient risk bearer) through private, contractual solutions.
Dave Neiwart analyzes the ‘Clinton hater’ and the ‘bush hater’ memes.
Kevin Drum updates his thoughts on the Hutton inquiry.
Electolite leads us to the world of education critic John Taylor Gatto who has some interesting thoughts on the purpose of the American educational system.
How much military spending is enough? Ezra Klein reminds the democratic candidates that this is the 3rd leg of American politics and that wiser spending and reform are better approaches then random cutting.
Good Night!