Here is a link to the Bloomberg news article. No registration or subscription required.

I have 2 questions.

According to TFA, the Wilkins Ice Shelf has lost 1,800 km^2 of ice in the past year. This article states that the ice shelf is 200-250m thick. This gives volume lost of 360,000 km^3 to 450,000 km^3; 2000m*900m*200m, 2000m*900m*250m (easy numbers). Remaining area = (1800/.14)-1800 = 11057 km^2.

First question. Is it possible that over time (think glacial timeframe, not human timeframe) that the remaining 11,057 km^2 will rebuild the lost volume? How long is this process? If I remember correctly, Antarctica is a rather dry place regardless of the amount of ice and snow seen in pictures. This would require 32.5m to 40.6m of new packed snowfall/ice to replace what broken off in the past year; 360,000/11,057 = 32.5m, 450,000/11,057 = 40.6m.

Second question. What is the air and surface temperature impact of the hole in the ozone layer? link. Would the increased UV and microwave radiation exposure, especially in the Antarctic summer months, more directly impact surface temperature than global warming?

Wait a sec, London has CCTV cameras everywhere for Big Brother, ahem Citizen Security, including the affluent areas. And they're working oh so well... Google comes along in a little village to take pictures from the road, which afaik, anyone can do. Now Brits claim privacy evasion. Sheesh, I'd be far more afraid of your govt than of Google. Besides, it appears that you have a developing reputation of being a good target for theives regardless. I'm not certain a thief googles, "easy burglary target rural england".

If citizens had guns, maybe they'd be better defended. After all, criminals will get guns/weapons regardless of whatever stupid law you have to try and control them.

Then how would we pay for Great Leader's multi-trillion dollar spending plan? The same way new cars will be powered next year, fairy dust. Quick! Buy 1000 Fairy Dust Dec Contracts! </saracam>

As a member and avid listener, NPR is balanced in news that is NOT politically sensitive. The have many great info pieces, local station pieces, and human rights stories. But during last years primaries and elections, their bias was completely obvious. On more than one occasion I had to change the channel because the reporter was about to orgasm talking about Obama. Based on the tones of their voices, you could tell who was thrilled and giddy (the Obama reporter) and who was hesitant and annoyed (the McCain reporter).

It is also biased with the current economic crisis. The only show on many NPR stations that provides real coverage of it is APM's Marketplace, and even then, that's their news beat. Where's the investigative journalism into this mess? And I don't mean a generic "Blame the Bush Administration" because honestly, that's not the whole truth. Why aren't they calling for Fannie & Freddie execs to give back their multi-million dollar bonuses? Why aren't they calling for the resignation of a number of Congress critters? Why not investigate the largest deficits ever projected by the CBO?

My political bias is libertarian and economic bias is capitalist, just fyi. And to further confirm my bias, Mark Levin's new book Liberty and Tyranny is absolutely brilliant.

You know there's 49 states other than California, right? Not all of them are quite so sunny year-round, or as windy, or have rivers flowing from mountain to ocean, or vast govt-owned deserts. For example, I'm from Michigan. Its cloudy, alot, especially in the winter. There are solar panels around, but not enough to power 10% of the state. And feel free to visit in the winter, I'll give you the broom and you can sweep the snow off the panels. Our rivers aren't exactly roaring, but there is hydro around.

I also lived in Alaska for a few years. Solar would work for, oh 4-5 months. Its pretty dark there in the winter. Forget hydro, its too cold and most of the state freezes. The Aleutians are pretty windy, but you'd have to build the entire transmission infrastructure to get it to the mainland. Easier said than done in some of the most hostile territory on earth. Besides, you hippies from the Lower 48 would complain about some environmental fad in one of the many regions of AK and try to block development.

It might be grid prices eventually, but I would bet rates will go up to market price after all the subsidies end in 2017, link or link or link. Besides, don't you Californian's have enough taxes on everything already? And the 7th largest economy is broke? Thanks but I prefer the +/- of the midwest, we don't need to import your bad habits.

Then what? As I said, whatever's next. I'm not a fortune teller or a captain of the New World Order, so I have no idea what exactly is next nor when. I'd like to buy a fully electric car when I replace my current gasoline one, but it won't happen for many reasons, price, practicality, range, design, availability, etc. I'm hopeful for the car after that though.

"Good faith" is broken all the time. Contract law and its enforcement is why contracts can safely be entered into. Guess you've never been apart of a verbal agreement gone bad. "I'll buy the beer next time," can often be heard by moocher friends.

"Good Intentions" drove up the stock and commodities markets last year to unsustainable levels. You can think of "Good Intentions" several ways in this case: 1)Your 401k or similar market investment was going up, way up. Easy money for you. 2)The quick and high runup in oil and base materials was considered best-case-scenario by many environmentalists. This made alternatives cost competitive and spurred investment in their development. 3)Due to high commuting costs, people started looking at housing closer to work/city centers, helping to reduce urban sprawl (well, theoretically anyways). Also for more efficient cars.

In case you've been living under a rock, money has basically collapsed. Over 40% of the worlds wealth has vanished over the past 8 months. The paper backing the USD is practially worthless, 25bp. The only reason that the dollar is as strong as it is, is because of the economies and currencies of the world, the US is the best of the worst. Once other markets recover, look for an exodus from the USD. Then you'll really see some economic fireworks.

Well, I guess you could say that oil was once dinosaur dust, but not fairy dust, fairies are mythological. Peak oil is certainly an accepted concept, but as to when the peak has/will occur is debatable. There are still too many unknowns, variables, and estimates to determine a reliable answer. Peak Oil. Lots of charts and data open for interpretation. Keep in mind, I agree with the concept, but I'm not drinking the eco-religion Kool-Aid.

As to "look beyond" there's many, many companies investing in and researching alternative energies. In this case, Shell is no longer one of them. Shell is an oil company. The only priority of a company is to make a profit. Without that, there can be no R&D, no investments, no hiring employees, no philanthropy, etc. If they run out of oil, they go out of business or adapt to the market and sell something else. A study of the dot com bubble will show many companies that ignored reality for best-case, long-term ideas. But they forgot to make money now too. They lasted as long as the VC could afford them.

Based on your logic, I should start investing in horses and drawn-carriages. Both are renewable and sustainable, minimal emissions during use and construction, and minimal nasty chemicals used during manufacturing, much of the world does not have current access to them, and they can travel places other transportation cannot. Think of the demand for veterinarians and blacksmiths, plus tack and riding gear, and carpenters and farmers too. Horses are natural, so we can have as many of them as we need without consequence, right?

Seriously, they are an oil company in the business of producing and refining crude oil, for a profit. That's what their entire infrastructure is built around. Thousands of miles of pipe, thousands of service stations, thousands of by-products and oil-derivatives, sea and land tanker fleets, claims to reserves, geological surveys, exploration, oil derricks, off-shore platforms, thousands of scientists, geeks, tradesmen, and explorers, and so on. None of which correlate well to Wind, Solar, or Hydro. Yes, you can use oil products to generate electricity, but Shell wants to deliver the fuel, not run the power plant.

Now that the price of crude oil has settled back to where the market dictates, instead of speculators, Shell is making far less money (along with every company/country in that sector). This isn't much more than a belt tightening and cutting projects that are not contributing to the core business.

Again, they're an oil company trying to profit. The world doesn't run on good intentions, well wishes, and fairy dust. It does run on money and oil though.

I think the other technologies show lots of promise, especially solar, but let someone who specializes in it do it. I am a realist and understand that its going to take a combination of everything to get us to whatever is next.

Unless you interned with or already work(ed) for that company, you're going to have zero investment in said company.

Bingo!

The biggest difference when entering the workforce now versus 20y ago, is that you grew up with a reasonable expectation that you would be with 3-5 companies your entire career. Now you're almost expected to have been with 3-5 by 30. When I graduated college in 2005, I had already been with 7 companies, with the shortest tenure of 9 months; some part-time to pay for school, some career-path type of jobs that paid less than the retail part-time ones, and always at least 2 jobs at once (School's expensive!).

Growing up in a Michigan auto town, I saw exactly what company loyalty got you, laid-off with few options, and if you were lucky, some sort of union severance. Mid-career positions being eliminated, for cost or other reasons, hurt entry level positions and the concept of a career ladder. Now we not only have to compete against other recent grads, which is/was normal, but also against many, many more people with experience. Our biggest advantage against experience is our cost. A single person right out of college is going to be looking for less money than a 40-something with a mortgage, wife, & 3 kids.

Last bit of personal anecdote, companies don't invest in their employees any longer beyond the basic HR-mandated crap. They understand their turnover rates and instead of trying to fix it, they minimize their investment in the new employee. If they succeed with us, great; if not, oh well. When you see "self-starter" on a job advert, it really means "Zero to Minimal training. Hope you like to read!"

I really hope others have had better luck with their careers, but that's been my experience. YMMV. Narcissistic? Yes, but capitalism is a cold-hearted bitch. No one else is looking out for me or my career.

My last week in Alaska (end of December 2000), I was up from Monday 0600 AKST to Sunday 0001 EST, about 133h. I was moving, still had to work, and my friends wanted to go out one last time. I just kept going and going. Because of my job and previous shift schedule, I was conditioned to be up for 40-48h at a time. I routinely did 36h days. Some days because of work, others were self-inflicted (switching from night shift work to day shift life). I didn't even sleep on the 18h redeye flight back to Michigan on Saturday.

When I finally went to sleep late Saturday night, I slept for 18.5h! I got up, looked at the clock, saw 6:35, and thought 'Crap! I only slept for 6.5h! Figures...' Nope, 1835, as my family was having dinner, not breakfast.

I learned that it helps dramatically to stay away from the caffeine and sugars, drink lots of water, and eat 4 full meals per 24h, think breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight chow. It helps to be healthy and in physical shape too. The coffee & sugars are ok, if you want to crash about 4h after you drink/eat them. I didn't have any issues with visual hallucinations, but I had some crazy lines of thought because of the adrenaline.

Your Body Clock (Circadian Rythym) tends to reset every 24h or so. Mine seems to reset mid-morning. YMMV.

Sorry, I got on a bit of a rant there. It was late when I wrote it, but for some reason, my computer didn't post it until I refreshed it around noon today. Anyways...

I agree with you about the concept of a pension via an annuity. And you're right that it should have been paid when the work was performed. The railroad pension system is a good example of a proper defined benefit program. Its not without its kinks and issues, but it works and is properly capitalized.

Yes, those companies should have properly funded said annuities as they were accrued. Unfortunately for many retirees, they didn't. So any bankruptcy will pass the responsibility to the PBGC. Which will ultimately mean a reduction in benefits to retirees.

Let's say I have $50,000 budgeted for you this year.
Option A) $50,000 - $12,000 for healthcare = $38,000. $38,000 * .65 (35% fed, state, city, ss, med) = $24,700 net, or $475/wk.
Option B) $50,000 - $12,000 for healthcare = $38,000. $38,000 * .8 (20% pre-tax earnings toward retirement) = $30,400. $30,400 * .65 (35% taxes) = $19,760 net, $380/wk.
Unfortunately, most people I know take the short-sighted "Option A" route because it gives them an additional $4,940 now. Also, "Option B" which are traditional defined benefit plans or similar company-managed programs rarely exist any longer. They're much more likely to be employee-managed programs like 401k, and still require the employee to actively make that choice to defer wages. And to your point, I'd be stiffing you $7,600 if you chose "Option B" and I just didn't pay it. Which is wrong, unethical, immoral, illegal, and yes, stealing from you.

If any company with retirees/pensioners goes bankrupt and cannot even pay currently working employees, how do you propose to pay the retirees? Any company, not just UAW and other union companies? Where's the money come from? Rich executives? Hardly. Oh right, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). An interesting piece of legislation known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, signed into law by Gerald Ford on Labor Day, created the PBGC. While not directly financed by the general tax fund, its an indirect tax on business, which obviously passes that along to their customers. If you are management and have budgeted for a 3%-6% increase in your premium to keep your pension fund fully funded, then get hit with an increase of 10%-12%, where do you get that extra 4%-9% from? Healthcare costs alone are up 120% over the past 9y, compared to inflation, up 44%, and wages, up 29%; source. And while its not right, illegal, and immoral to stiff your retirees fund, according to this law anyways, its what executives have done. Where's the cryouts for government enforcement of that law?

As a capitalistic business owner, you work, I pay you; you don't work, I don't pay you. Seems like a basic theme throughout the history of the world. Retirees don't work, I don't see why I should still pay you. I'm sure you did a great job and provided excellent value for me to keep you around for 25+ years, but that gives me no reason to pay you for another 25+ years. In fact, I could probably hire 2 new people to replace you after you retire. If you're smart enough to properly plan and save for your own retirement, great, wonderful, I'll even through you a party. Otherwise, keep working.

When did retirement become a right and a given in life? Especially of the publicly-funded type. Only in the last 50y in western cultures. Certainly in the past there was family and community help for the elderly, but many were also wise enough to save for their own needs and also live within their means.

If you think the UAW pensioners, and their fund, are screwed, just wait until the bulk of the boomers here in the US start retiring and drawing Social Security and Medicare. Don't worry though, the greediest generation will just print more money or use the Fed's Chinese Express (CHEX?) charge card.

So let's see, boomers and their greedy offspring have:

• Made their children compete with world labor rates (instead of far closer national or regional rates)
• Commoditize as much as possible to compete only on price.
• Exported millions of 'middle class' jobs, manufacturing, knowledge, service, etc.
• Raised the middle class workforce entry barrier to include a 4y degree, which in-debts twenty-somethings with a mortgage-sized payment without actually owning a house or property
• Driven up costs of housing by insane urban planning (or lack thereof)
• To paraphrase a quote generally attributed to de Tocqueville, they've hired legislators to bribe themselves with their own money. See all entitlement programs and the most recent redistribution, er...Bailout, nope, umm...Stimulus Packages (I think that's the PC term this week).
• Are prepared to tax Gen X/Y into oblivion to continue their excessive lifestyles. I'm interested in theories as to how my taxes WON'T go up, at any level of government.
• Created huge indirect taxes through legislation, think of the various mandatory insurances.
• Created a legal environment which is threatening to anyone trying to run a business, or develop new products, or treat patients.

As to the thread topic, unless those companies listed in the theory start buying up track rights, or property for new track, they're pretty worthless to the rails. Yes they have great manufacturing capacity and talent, but the railroads already have enough supply for current demand. And by companies who've taken proper care of their union employees and pension obligations. Not without difficulty or arguments, but most railroad pensions are really good and properly funded. If the demand for passenger railcars jumps 50%, there will either be a) a business already around ready to meet the demand or scale accordingly, or b) an investor willing to risk money and invest time trying to meet that demand.

I suppose the biggest thing the railroads have going for them is limited competition. Railroads are a heavy, physical thing. Its not like railcars or locomotives are exactly disposable, like most of the junk from China.

Personally, I'd like to see Amtrak properly funded and, much more importantly, given priority on the tracks. It never ceases to amaze me that they even keep a schedule anymore. Especially if you are traveling through Chicago; just plan to be late.