Not specifically on-topic, but it is always good to see someone taking a stand against legal blackmail Too often businesses settle to avoid the hassle of a court case, much less the possibility of losing even when the accusation is baseless. The whole system, from top "practioneers" who go after large companies (read deep pockets) and who may be considered presidential material on down to ambulance chasers, is corrupt and in need of massive reform.

It's a cost of business we could all do without.

According to a study discussed in Slate, if you are under water on your home, you are less likely to relocate for a new job until you are foreclosed.

[this] recent study by economists Fernando Ferreira, Joseph Gyourko, and Joseph Tracy finds that homeowners who have "negative equity" in their homes—that is, a mortgage that exceeds its resale value—are 50 percent less likely to move than those who can afford to pay off their mortgages with a home sale.

The result being that not only will capital makets be effected -- harder for businesses to get financing, but so too will labor markets. Workers will be stuck in areas where capital may be even scarcer and unable or unwilling to relocate to areas that are still functioning.

The authors calculate that every two years, about 12 percent of home-owning Americans moved. But for those with negative equity—about 2.6 percent of respondents during the 1985-2005 period of study—the probability of moving is cut nearly in half.

Which, I suppose, unfortunately, just reinforces the fact that the home work trend should be better off than ever. If it doesn't matter where you live, you can "happily" stay put in undersea home while continuing to work remotely and waiting for flood waters to receed.

A great book, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, delivering calm, rational, non-hyperbolic alternatives to dealing with issues related to climate change. Bjørn Lomborg delivers points that, at a minimum, any serious person thinking about global warming/cooling needs to address and rebut, before continuing down the path of blanket CO2 reductions.

What does it have to do with home work? I could probably gin something up, but really I just like the book.

That's our national investment banking strategy... not losing their own shirts so much, but your shirt. Well you weren't really planning on wearing it anyway, were you? For anyone who hasn't read Nassim Taleb's book The Black Swan, it is well worth the effort. It shakes the foundations of much of what we assume about how the world works. Working from home may soon be your only option (just kidding, I hope)!

A current essay The Fourth Quandrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics, a bit heavy going at times, continues the discussion and addresses some of the current financial banking mess.

[In discussing] the fate of close to 1000 financial institutions (includes busts such as FNMA, Bear Stearns, Northern Rock, Lehman Brothers, etc.). The banking system (betting AGAINST rare events) just lost > 1 Trillion dollars (so far) on a single error, more than was ever earned in the history of banking. 

I'm not worried though. I have my head buried deeply in the sand.

I've never been totally clear as to why this kind of thing --an umbrella organization for independent contractors that would allow them to get health insurance, etc. -- would not work in the US. Apparently quite successful in the UK but non-existent? here.

I recall hearing that eBay looked into offering something along these lines for their top eBay sellers but abandoned the effort perhaps due to excessive state and local tax issues.

Still seems like something worth pursuing... maybe it could be rolled out on a state-by-state basis.

There has been speculation around the valley that a downsizing has been in the works, as well as that they might delay it to avoid causing Meg (and thus McCain) political trouble. Of course, on a day like today, who would have noticed!

Clearly eBay is struggling to see where their future growth is going to come from. Even if their core business is just fine, in cutthroat Silicon Valley stasis can feel like death.

While Factcheck.org rebuts some of the extreme Creationist positions ascribed to VP-candidate Sarah Palin it seems to have awakened the Dems on the potential education issues could have to move the needle.

The Republican position on the topic seems somewhat pro-forma, and their ability to get anything done with a Dem-controlled congress seems suspect, Obama, if elected, has the potential to really shake things up.

Now it looks like the similarly-named company is about as much fun.

My apologies to ChaCha.com if this is just some disgruntled former (current?) employees stink bombing the company.

Say my old country in-laws, or maybe it was My Big Fat Greek Wedding (or, in Mark Stein's more demographically apt formulation "My Big Fat Uptight Protestant Wedding... but they don't spit and I digress). But Scientific American has the research to back it up.

Many people assume that superior intelligence or ability is the key to succes. But more than three decades of research shows that an overemphasis on intellect or talent — and the implication that such traits are innate and fixed — leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn.

In short, praise the effort.

[W]e can't settle for schools filled with poor teachers.

Hard to know which way Obama is going to flop on this issue should he be elected, but it seems to me like it could be a really positive issue for him to support. At least if he wants to regain some momentum amongst independents.