| Mother Earth Mother Board
During the decades after Morse's "What hath God wrought!" a plethora of different codes, signalling techniques, and sending and receiving machines were patented. A web of wires was spun across every modern city on the globe, and longer wires were strung between cities. Some of the early technologies were, in retrospect, flaky: one early inventor wanted to use 26-wire cables, one wire for each letter of the alphabet. But it quickly became evident that it was best to keep the number of individual wires as low as possible and find clever ways to fit more information onto them. This requires more ingenuity than you might think - wires have never been perfectly transparent carriers of data; they have always degraded the information put into them. In general, this gets worse as the wire gets longer, and so as the early telegraph networks spanned greater distances, the people building them had to edge away from the seat-of-the-pants engineering practices that, applied in another field, gave us so many boiler explosions, and toward the more scientific approach that is the standard of practice today.
Case-Shiller: Moderation?
Could the bottom be in sight? The latest results from the S&P/Case-Shiller index show the pace of price declines in the Boston area continued to slow in November, even as the national market accelerated its downward plunge. To be clear, we're not talking about a recovery. The price index dropped 3 percent in the Boston area compared to November 2006. It is the 20th consecutive month in which prices declined compared to the same month the previous year. The Boston index has now dropped 8.2 percent from its peak in September 2005. But here's the flip side: Look at the percentage declines for each month in 2007, through November, compared to the same month the previous year. The first number is for the Boston market, the second is an aggregate of 20 metropolitan areas.
Sidelines: By Mark Zeigler
Liverpool: The English giant crashes out of the F.A. Cup with a 1-0 loss – at home, no less – to unfancied Barnsley. Probably the only hope for coach Rafael Benitez to save his job is advancing in the UEFA Champions League. Strikes, shortages, sniping: FIFA inspectors are back in South Africa this week for one of their periodic site visits, and the mood is positively unsettled. The headline in the Sunday Times newspaper: "2010 Turmoil." The article begins: "Infighting and mistrust is causing widespread tension within the company entrusted to pull off Africa's first FIFA World Cup. Key players in the country's 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) are barely talking to each other, while chief executive Danny Jordaan is being labeled a 'control freak.' " One LOC official was quoted as saying, "It is an accident waiting to happen." Add to that fears that South Africa's recent electricity shortage could spill into the tournament, and a strike among construction workers at one of the stadiums last week came with demands for double their current wages.
Wall Street pares gains as oil surges, banks see more credit problems
Wall Street pared its big gains Tuesday as oil prices closed above $100 for the first time and stoked fears that inflation will stymie and already troubled economy. Soaring oil prices could bring more problems for consumers, having already made many Americans shy about spending in recent months. Consumer spending, a key driver of U.S. economic growth, has also been shaken by falling home prices and the volatile stock market. The market was also concerned that rising inflation might make the Federal Reserve reconsider its bias toward lowering interest rates to help the economy. ''I think there are still a lot of worries in the market that we have this stagnant growth in the economy and higher prices,'' said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati.
NLCC honors Wright
The NLCC is kicking off a world-wide tribute to Richard Wright this year. We expect large crowds, including numerous Wright relatives from across the country." Wright is renowned for such works as the novel, “Native Son;" the fictionalized autobiography, “Black Boy;" and a collection of stories, “Uncle Tom's Children," which was chosen Book-of-the-Year in 2008 by a statewide project called “Mississippi Reads." “Since 1940, when “Native Son" sold hundreds of thousands of copies in a matter of weeks, many of his books have been bestsellers and continue to sell," said Jerry W. Ward Jr., professor at Dillard University, New Orleans, and a nationally known Wright scholar. “He is one of the most powerful writers of the 20th century," Ward said. “These days, school children routinely read and study his works.
Value of Nation’s Mineral Production Rose Again in 2007
The preliminary estimated value of U.S. nonfuel mine production rose last year to $68 billion - a 2.9 percent increase from that of 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced. This was a 5.6 percent increase from the preliminary estimated 2006 value released at this time last year. Higher prices for many minerals resulted in the increased value of production, although the quantity produced decreased for most mineral commodities. Major industries that consume processed mineral materials accounted for more than $2 trillion of the U.S. gross domestic product of $13.8 trillion in 2007. Domestic production decreased for industrial mineral materials associated directly with housing construction and those associated with the manufacture of goods used by the housing industry, according to the annual USGS report "Mineral Commodity Summaries 2008" The report provides detailed information about events, trends, and issues in the domestic and international mineral industries during 2007.
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