A Stimulus or More of the Same Old Same Old?

“Stimulus” 101 Update: The Trillion Dollar Spending Plan Passes House is a Heritage Foundation article. This is very telling:

The “Stimulus” Bills Your Family – $819 Billion is equivalent to borrowing $10,520 from EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA. This borrowed money is equivalent to what the average family spends on food, clothing, and health care in an entire year.

This alarming illustration of the magnitude of government spending is followed by the pithy observation that lawmakers are acting as if we would never have recessions if the government could prevent them through increased spending. What we actually are witnessing is vodoo economic policy. It takes the form of politicians behaving as if they have invented a means of avoiding age old growth/recession cycle patterns. But if the claims are grandiose the spending itself is rather ordinary. More for education, more for medicaid, more pork and more green spending. Perhaps some of the increases can be justified in and of themselves. But if authorizing more money for existing programs is the key to avoiding recessions, then it is most amazing that this cure was not discovered before.

What we have is another scam. Promises that cannot be fullfilled and which incur great costs. More on the real costs in the next blog on this subject.

Recovery Rebate Credit

The following information came in the form of an IRS Tax Tips newsletter sent by e-mail. Quoting from IRS Tax Tips:

Four Tips to Help Taxpayers Avoid Errors On the Recovery Rebate Credit

Most taxpayers who received the economic stimulus payment last year will not be able to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2008 federal income tax returns. A small number of taxpayers who did not receive the full economic stimulus payment last year may be eligible to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2008 federal income tax return. Figuring the Recovery Rebate Credit incorrectly or entering inaccurate information will delay the processing of your tax return and any refund due.

Below are the four things every taxpayer should know about this one-time credit, which is related to last year’s Economic Stimulus Payment:

1. You do not have to pay back your Stimulus Payment and the payment is not taxable.

2. Less than an estimated 3 percent of taxpayers are eligible. The vast majority of taxpayers are not eligible to receive the Recovery Rebate Credit.

3. Did you have a major life change? If so, you may be eligible to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit. Some of the major factors that could qualify you for the Recovery Rebate Credit include:

Your financial situation changed dramatically from 2007 to 2008.
You did not file a 2007 tax return.
Your family gained an additional qualifying child in 2008.
You were claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return in 2007, but cannot be claimed as dependent by someone else in 2008.

4. Any Recovery Rebate Credit amount will be included in your refund. The IRS will figure the credit for you and include it in your refund or put it toward any taxes owed.

Links:

Recovery Rebate Information Center

Another IRS webpage:

Questions and Answers about the Recovery Rebate Credit provides information about the Recovery Rebate Credit.

Checking the Status of Your Immigration Case

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website has a helpful page to those who have filed applications. There is a link which helps to find the status of one's case, another for getting processing dates and one for e-mail updates.

To navigate through the site start here.

The Break Tag

Dave Raggett's More Advanced Features page of his Basic HTML shows how to cause breaks before the end of a line where a break would normally occur. It goes like this:

< p >The First Family< br >
1600 Pennsylvannia Ave.< br >
Washington D.C.< br >< /p >

Note that the tag < br > does not require a matching end version of that tag (no < /br >) This tag obviously would be useful for writing addresses.

Note to reader: In order to show the HTML tags I had to put spaces between the <> symbols and what lies in between. In actual HTML coding no spaces would be there.

Strange Polymer Behavior

Polymers strut their stuff under the spotlight is a Chemical Science article telling of how polymer films, having azobenzine groups, simulate an inchworm walk when exposed to alternating visible and ultraviolet light. The discovery was made by Japanese chemists who have shown that this polymer contracts in response to exposure to visible light and expands under UV light.

The reason for the strange behavior is attributed to N=N double bonds. These bonds have a cis conformation when the polymer bends but upon flattening is associated with bonds being trans.

Can Bumble Bees Estimate Time?

Bumble bees can estimate time intervals is a Biology News Net article. The article notes that humans and other vertebrates are known to have the ability to estimate time short time intervals with greater sophistication than their invertebrate counterparts. But a paper published in Current Biology and authored by Michael Boisvert and David Sherry shows that the bumble bee has time interval estimation abilities. Estimating time durations is linked to the need that bees and other insects have to make decisions. Floral nectar, which is cyclical with respect to renewal and depletion, is the object of attention of insect pollinators like bees. Estimating time intervals may be required to communicate and navigate accurately.

Showing Hidden HTML Commands

There is a difficulty in illustrating HTML commands on the web that does not exist for book publishers. A command expression will alter the composition of an explanatory article in ways that complicate the format. Particular commands are needed to show HTML commands while disabling the execution they normally cause. The following is enclosed by HTML commands you do not see:

<a href="../joe.html">Joe's work</a>

The above, without the hidden commands would produce:

Joe's work Joe's work would appear distinctively colored to indicate a link. But to show the HTML commands, which teach one how to execute Joe's work, you must enclose the executing commands within other commands. So, what do these enclosure commands look like? Almost like this:

< pre > <a href="../joe.html">Joe's work</a>< /pre >

I said almost because in order to show the format needed I had to put space between the < > symbols and what lies inside them. When you create code there is no space. The "greater than" and "less than" symbols lie immediately next to pre at one end and /pre at the other. No space in between.

HTML: Ordered Lists

Getting started with HTML is an HTML tutorial by Dave Raggett. I'll try out a part of it in this blof entry to test myself. Dave points out that one of the three types of lists which can be used is an ordered list. The symbols used to create an ordered list are < ol >, < /ol >, < li > and < /li >. < li > and < /li > are bookends to individual list items enclosed within them. All the lined items are contained within < ol > at the start and < /ol > at the end. So on with the experiment. You don't get to see the symbols when the web page is published. You see only the ordered list if the code is done correctly. Also, in order to show the symbolic HTML commands I had to put spaces between the < > and the letters in between; something not done when the symbols are used within codes. The list:

1. Leading off for the Yankees, Johnny Damon



2. Batting second, Derek Jeter



3. Batting third, Mark Teixeira



4. Batting fourth, Alex Rodriguez



5. Batting fifth, Hidecki Matsui



6. Batting sixth, Xavier Nady



7. Batting seventh, Jorge Posada



8. Batting eight, Robinson Cano



9. Batting ninth, Brett Gardner

Unordered lists rely on the same dynamics with one difference. Instead of the begining of the list starting with ol and ending with /ol between symbols < and >, the letters are ul. So it would go like this

• Yankees



• Rays



• Red Sox

The Futility of Corporate Welfare

Letting Companies Fail Creates Jobs is a timely piece given the bailout mania which afflicts the USA. Propping up failed companies is economically counterproductive. There is historic evidence, as the linked blog reference to futile British efforts to support carmaker British Leyland, testify. The market is a better guiding force for efficient use of resources. The reason is that those who drive market forces have a vested interest in utilizing resources efficiently. Their own financial welfare depends on it.