Immigration Creates Jobs

I've posted before on selfish reasons, moral reasons, economic reasons, and population reasons for allowing more immigration. In light of reading the disgusting mix of business and government in imprisoning illegal immigrants, here's a benefit I haven't mentioned, employment:

The study notes that when companies move production offshore, they pull away not only low-wage jobs but also many related jobs, which can include high-skilled managers, tech repairmen and others. But hiring immigrants even for low-wage jobs helps keep many kinds of jobs in the United States, the authors say. In fact, when immigration is rising as a share of employment in an economic sector, offshoring tends to be falling, and vice versa, the study found.

In other words, immigrants may be competing more with offshored workers than with other laborers in America.

American economic sectors with much exposure to immigration fared better in employment growth than more insulated sectors, even for low-skilled labor, the authors found.

Hat tip to everyone's favorite economist, Tyler Cowen.

The Danger of Stranger Danger

Today is Halloween and that means more candy, more costumes, and yes, more absurd fears. I'm not one to say the past was better, but Halloween safety is getting out of hand. Whether it's setting trick-or-treating curfews, setting an age limit of 12, or forcing sex offenders to attend a mandatory class about sex-offense laws on Halloween night (even though children are no more likely to be molested and sex offender registration programs don't do much good). In fact, FreeRangeKids.com's Lenore Skenazy suggests in the Wall Street Journal that Halloween may be one of the safest days of the year. Is there a day where parents spend more time with their children outside the home, meeting and greeting neighbors?

So what's the danger in stranger danger? It's the opportunity cost of focus. Like my earlier post on moral math, we only have so much attention we can give to important matters. We we focus on rare problems (kidnapping, school snipers, terrorists, dangerous strangers, drugs), we lose focus on real threats (homicide and abuse from people who know the child, drowning, and car accidents). And let's not forget, there are plenty of economic lessons to be learned in trick-or-treating.

"Graves-End Road" by Caty Weaver, from VOA

PAT BODNAR: Now, the VOA Special English program AMERICAN STORIES.

I'm Pat Bodnar. October thirty-first is Halloween. In the spirit of this ancient holiday, we present a story written by Special English reporter and producer Caty Weaver. It's called "The Boy on Graves-End Road.

NARRATOR: Kelly Ryan was making dinner. Her ten-year-old son Benjamin was watching television in the living room. Or at least she thought he was.

KELLY: "Benny-boy, do you want black beans or red beans?"

BEN: "Red beans, Mama."

Kelly: "Don't do that, Ben. You scared me half to death! You're going to get it now ... "

NARRATOR: Ben had come up quietly right behind her.

(SOUND)

KELLY: "I'll get back to you, stinker!"

NARRATOR: Kelly goes to the phone, but as soon as she lays her hand on it, the ringing stops.

KELLY: "How strange. Oh, the beans!"

NARRATOR: Kelly turns her attention back to cooking. As soon as she does, the phone rings again.

KELLY: "Honey, can you get that?"

BEN: "Hello? Oh, hi. Yes, I remember. Sure, it sounds fun. Let me ask my mom. Can you hold? She might wanna talk to your mom. Oh, um, OK. See you tomorrow."

KELLY: "Ben, your rice and beans are on the table. Let's eat."

(SOUND)

KELLY: "So, what was that call about?"

BEN: "That was Wallace Gray. You know him, from class. He wants to play tomorrow. Can I go home with him after school? Please, Mom? I get bored around here waiting for you after work."

KELLY: "But, Ben, I don't even know his parents. Maybe I should talk to them."

BEN: "You can't, Mom. He was with his babysitter. He said his parents wouldn't be home until late tonight and they would leave before he went to school in the morning. Please Mom, Wallace lives right over on Graves-End Road. It's a five-minute walk from here. PLEASE,?”

KELLY: "Well, OK. What's so great about this guy, anyway? You've got a ton of friends to play with."

BEN: "I know. But Wallace is just different. He's got a lot of imagination.”

NARRATOR: The school week passes, and Ben starts to go home almost every day with Wallace. Kelly notices a change in her son. He seems tired and withdrawn. His eyes do not seem to really look at her. They seem ... lifeless. On Friday night she decides they need to have a talk.

KELLY: "Sweetie, what's going on with you? You seem so tired and far away. Is something wrong? Did you and your new friend have a fight?"

BEN:"No, Mom. We've been having a great time. There's nothing wrong with us. Why don't you like Wallace? You don't even know him, but you don't trust him."

KELLY: "Benjamin, what are you talking about? I don't dislike Wallace. You're right, I don't know him. You just don't seem like yourself. You've been very quiet the past few nights."

BEN: "I'm sorry, Mom. I guess I'm just tired. I have a great time with Wallace. We play games like cops and robbers, but they seem so real that half of the time I feel like I'm in another world. It's hard to explain. It's like, it’s like ... "

KELLY: "I think the word you're looking for is intense."

BEN: "Yeah, that's it -- it's intense."

KELLY: "Well, tell me about today. What kind of game did you play?"

(SOUND)

BEN: "We were train robbers. Or Wallace was. I was a station manager. Wallace was running through a long train, from car to car. He had stolen a lot of money and gold from the passengers. I was chasing right behind him, moving as fast as I could. Finally he jumps out of the train into the station to make his escape. But I block his path. He grabs a woman on the station platform. She screams 'No, no!' But he yells 'Let me through, or she dies.' So I let him go."

KELLY: "What happened then?"

BEN: "Well, that's what was weird and, like you said, intense. Wallace threw the lady onto the tracks. And laughed. He said that's what evil characters do in games. They always do the worst."

NARRATOR: Later, after Ben went to bed, Kelly turned on the eleven o'clock news. She was only half-listening as she prepared a list of things to do the next day, on Halloween.

KELLY: "Let's see, grocery shopping, Halloween decorating, dog to the groomer, hardware store, clean up the garden ...

(SOUND)kelly

NEWS ANNOUNCER: "... the victim, who has not been identified, was killed instantly. Reports say it appears she was pushed off the station platform into the path of the oncoming train. It happened during rush hour today. Some witnesses reported seeing two boys running and playing near the woman. But police say they did not see any images like that on security cameras at the station. In other news, there was more trouble today as workers protested outside the Hammond ... "

KELLY: "No! It can't be. The station is an hour away. They couldn't have gotten there. How could they? It's just a coincidence."

NARRATOR: The wind blew low and lonely that night. Kelly slept little. She dreamed she was waiting for Ben at a train station. Then, she saw him on the other side, running with another little boy.

It must be Wallace she thought. The little boy went in and out of view. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped and looked across the tracks -- directly at her.

He had no face.

NARRATOR: Saturday morning was bright and sunny, a cool October day. Kelly made Ben eggs and toast and watched him eat happily.

KELLY: "You know, Benny-boy, a woman DID get hurt at the train station yesterday. She actually got hit by a train. Isn't that strange?"

NARRATOR: She looked at Ben.

BEN: "What do you mean, Mom?"

KELLY: "Well, you and Wallace were playing that game yesterday. About being at a train station. You said he threw a woman off the platform, and she was killed by a train."

NARRATOR: Kelly felt like a fool even saying the words. She was speaking to a ten-year-old who had been playing an imaginary game with another ten-year-old. What was she thinking?

BEN: "I said we played that yesterday? I did? Hmmm. No, we played that a few days ago, I think. It was just a really good game, really intense. Yesterday we played pirates. I got to be Captain Frank on the pirate ship, the Argh.

"Wallace was Davey, the first mate. But he tried to rebel and take over the ship so I made him walk the plank. Davey walked off into the sea and drowned. Wallace told me I had to order him to walk the plank. He said that's what evil pirates do."

KELLY: "I guess he's right. I don't know any pirates, but I do hear they're pretty evil!"

BEN: "So can I play with Wallace today when you are doing your errands? Please, Mom? I don't want to go shopping and putting up Halloween decorations."

KELLY: "Oh, whatever. I guess so. I'll pick you up at Wallace's house at about five-thirty, so you can get ready for trick or treating. Where does he live again?

BEN: "Graves-End Road. I don't know the street number but there are only two houses on each side. His is the second one on the left."

KELLY: "OK. I can find that easy enough. Do you still want me to pick up a ghost costume for you?"

BEN: "Yep. Oh, and guess what, Mom: Wallace says he's a ghost, too! I suppose we'll haunt the neighborhood together."

NARRATOR: Everywhere Kelly went that day was crowded. She spent an hour and a half just at the market. When she got home, decorating the house for Halloween was difficult.

But finally she had it all up the way she wanted.

KELLY: "Oh, gosh, five already. I don't even have Ben's costume."

NARRATOR: She jumped into her car and drove to Wilson Boulevard. The party store was just a few blocks away.

Kelly soon found the ghost costume that Ben wanted. She bought it and walked out of the store.

EILEEN: "Hey, Kelly! Long time no see. How's Benjamin doing?"

KELLY: "Eileen! Wow, it’s great to see you. How's Matt? We've been so busy since the school year started, we haven't seen anyone!"

EILEEN: "Matt's good. Well, he broke his arm last month so no sports for him. It is driving him crazy, but at least he's got a lot of time for school now!"

EILEEN: "Anyway, Matt was wondering why Benny-boy never comes by anymore. We saw him running around the neighborhood after school last week. It looks like he’s having fun, but he's always alone. We don't need to set up a play date. Ben should know that. You just tell him to come by anytime -- "

KELLY: "Wait, wait a minute. Alone? What do mean alone? He started playing with a new friend, Wallace somebody, after school, like everyday this past week. Ben hasn't been alone. Wallace Gray, that's it. Do you know him? Does Matt?"

EILEEN: "Oh, Kell. Kelly, I'm sure he's a fine kid. I don't know him but don't worry, Ben's got great taste in friends, we know that! I'm sure he wasn't really alone, he was probably just playing hide and seek or something. I didn't mean to worry you. I guess everybody's on edge because of what happened to the Godwin boy this morning."

NARRATOR: Kelly suddenly felt cold and scared. What Godwin boy? And what happened to him? She was not sure she wanted to know, but she had to ask.

EILEEN: "Frank Godwin's youngest boy, Davey, the five-year-old. You know Frank, we call him Captain. He used to be a ship captain. Well, this morning the rescue squad found Davey in Blackhart Lake. They also found a little toy boat that his dad made for him. Davey and his dad named it the Argh. Davey must have been trying to sail it. It’s so sad."

KELLY: "Wait, he's dead?

EILEEN: "Yes. Davey drowned."

KELLY: "Where's Blackhart Lake?"

EILEEN: "It's right off Graves-End Road, right behind that little cemetery. That's why they call it Graves-End. Kelly, where are you going?"

Kelly: "I've got to get Benjamin."

(MUSIC)

NARRATOR: Kelly raced down Main Street. She had no idea who Wallace Gray was or how he was involved in any of this. But she did not trust him and she knew her child was in danger.

Finally she was at Graves-End Road.

BEN: "Only two houses on each side."

NARRATOR: She remembered what Ben had told her.

EILEEN: "Right behind that little cemetery."

NARRATOR: And what Eileen had told her. Kelly got out of the car and walked down the street. She looked around.

BEN: "It’s the second one on the left."

NARRATOR: She could see the lake. Some fog was coming up as the sky darkened on this Halloween night. But there was no second house. Instead, what lay before her was grass and large white stones. The cemetery. Kelly walked through the gate into the yard of graves.

Kelly: "Ben?"

NARRATOR: No answer. She kept walking.

KELLY: "Ben? Answer me. I know you're here."

NARRATOR: Again no answer. But the wind blew and some leaves began to dance around a headstone. Kelly walked slowly toward the grave. Suddenly the sky blackened -- so dark, she could not see anything. She felt a force pushing at her. It tried to push her away from the grave. But she knew she had to stay.

KELLY: "Benjamin Owen Orr, this is your mother. Come out this second!"

NARRATOR: No one answered, except for the sound of the blowing wind. The darkness lifted. Silvery moonlight shone down directly onto the old gravestone in front of her. But Kelly already knew whose name she would see.

KELLY: "'Wallace Gray. October thirty-first, nineteen hundred, to October thirty-first, nineteen hundred and ten. Some are best when laid to rest.'"

NARRATOR: Kelly took a deep breath. Then ...

KELLY: "Wallace Gray this play date is OVER! Give me back my son. Wallace, you are in TIME-OUT."

NARRATOR: Suddenly, the ground shoots upward like a small volcano. Soil, sticks and worms fly over Kelly's head and rain down again -- followed by her son, who lands beside her.

BEN: (COUGHING, CHOKING)

KELLY: "Ben! Ben!"

BEN: (COUGHING, CHOKING) "Mom, Mom! Are you there? I can't see. All this dirt in my eyes."

KELLY: "Ben, I'm here, I’m here baby, right here. Oh, sweet Benny-boy. Can you breathe? Are you really ok? What happened? How long were you in there?"

BEN: "I don't know, Mom. But I didn't like it. I didn't like where Wallace lives. I want to go home."

KELLY: "Oh, me too, Sweetie. C’mon, Ben, put your arm around me. C’mon.

(SOUNDS)

BEN: "And Mom, one more thing ... "

KELLY: "What is it, Ben?"

BEN "I don't want to be a ghost for Halloween."

(MUSIC)

PAT BODNAR: Our story "The Boy on Graves-End Road" was written and produced by Caty Weaver. The voices were Andrew Bracken, Faith Lapidus, Katherine Cole, Shirley Griffith and Jim Tedder. I'm Pat Bodnar.

Join us again next week for another American story in VOA Special English.

Greater Human Genetic Diversity Than Previously Believed

ImgSource

As humans look more deeply into their genetic and epigenetic complement, they are discovering far greater genomic differences between humans than previously believed possible. The 1000 Genomes Project is reporting on results from its pilot phase:

Evan E. Eichler and coworkers of the University of Washington, Seattle, used data from the 1000 Genomes Project to analyze copy-number variations, which are differences in the number of times a particular gene sequence appears in the genome (Science 2010, 330, 641). About 1,000 genes "have been largely inaccessible to traditional genetic study as a result of their repetitive nature," Eichler said at the press briefing. Using newly developed sequence analysis algorithms and sequence tags, his team investigated copy-number variations in these genes, he said.

Eichler's team found that copy-number variations occur in fewer than 10% of human genes. Many of these genes map to regions that had been previously identified as highly repetitive and have been implicated in diseases such as schizophrenia and autism, the authors note.

Even at the pilot stage, the 1000 Genomes Project has already provided "a more complete catalog" of human genetic variation than was available previously, Durbin said. The project is already moving forward with its main phase, with the goal of sequencing 2,500 genomes. _ACSPubs

Whether 1000 genomes or 2500 genomes, the study is still quite preliminary, in terms of understanding the astounding magnitude of variation within the broad human genome and epigenome. As we begin to comprehend the vast numbers of differences in gene expression between even the closest of relatives, we may get a glimmer of understanding of how our molecular makeup generates the diverse worlds we inhabit.

Abstract of paper:

Copy number variants affect both disease and normal phenotypic variation, but those lying within heavily duplicated, highly identical sequence have been difficult to assay. By analyzing short-read mapping depth for 159 human genomes, we demonstrated accurate estimation of absolute copy number for duplications as small as 1.9 kilobase pairs, ranging from 0 to 48 copies. We identified 4.1 million "singly unique nucleotide" positions informative in distinguishing specific copies and used them to genotype the copy and content of specific paralogs within highly duplicated gene families. These data identify human-specific expansions in genes associated with brain development, reveal extensive population genetic diversity, and detect signatures consistent with gene conversion in the human species. Our approach makes ~1000 genes accessible to genetic studies of disease association.

Puma Shoes

Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and Puma. Puma is currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Elegant Black and White Puma

The company is known for its football shoes and has sponsored acclaimed footballers, including Pelé, Eusébio, Johan Cruijff, Enzo Francescoli, Diego Maradona, Lothar Matthäus, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Deschamps and Gianluigi Buffon. Puma is also the sponsor of the Jamaican track athlete Usain Bolt. In the United States, the company is probably best known for the suede basketball shoe it introduced in 1968, which eventually bore the name of New York Knicks basketball star Walt "Clyde" Frazier, and for its endorsement partnership with Joe Namath.

Puma Shoes Black and White Edition

Following the split from his brother, Rudolf Dassler originally registered the new-established company as Ruda, but later changed to Puma.[3]:31 Puma's earliest logo consisted of a square and beast jumping through a D, which was registered, along with the company's name, in 1948. Puma's shoe designs feature the distinctive "Formstripe",[3]:33 with clothing and other products having the logo printed on them.

Black and White Puma Shoes
Puma Shoes for Girls

The company also offers lines shoes and sports clothing, designed by Lamine Kouyate, Amy Garbers and others. Since 1996 Puma has intensified its activities in the United States. Puma owns 25% of American brand sports clothing maker Logo Athletic, which is licensed by American professional basketball and association football leagues. Since 2007 Puma AG has been part of the French luxury group PPR.

Red and White Puma Shoes

Frida Gustavson - Paris Fashion Week

J'aime bien cette distance qui existe avec les modèles
quand je les prends en photo. C'est une façon d'entretenir
le mystère qui se doit d'exister. Comme une barrière
infranchissable.

Can Argentina Survive the Kirchner Curse?

Economist

The sudden death of former Argentinian president and key power-broker Nestor Kirchner has triggered a surge in stocks and bonds trading within the Latin American nation. Kirchner is considered largely responsible for the anti-business policies of Argentina which helped depress the business climate there in recent years. But is it realistic to assume that Kirchner's death will change anything?

Argentine bonds posted big gains and stocks hit a new record high Thursday as markets anticipated a more business-friendly environment following the death of former president Nestor Kirchner.

While presidents from across the region and supporters filed past Kirchner's coffin to pay their last respects, Argentina's Merval Index of leading shares topped a new record, rising 1.17% to 2954.86 points.

The gains were led by power and gas providers amid speculation that the government of President Cristina Fernandez, Kirchner's wife, may consider easing rate controls following his death...

...Kirchner, who was president from May 2003 to December 2007, died of a heart attack at the age of 60 in his home province of Santa Cruz early Wednesday. His wife succeeded him in the presidency. However, Kirchner was thought to play an active role in crafting economic policies in his wife's government that were characterized by heavy state intervention in the economy and hostility toward the private sector.

Many political analysts had expected Kirchner to run in the October 2011 presidential election as a way for the husband-and-wife team to alternate in power and avoid constitutional restrictions on term limits.

Besides stocks, investors also snapped up Argentina's sovereign debt amid the positive sentiment. _WSJ

Leftist leaders such as Obama and Raul Castro have expressed their deepest condolences at the death of Kirchner, while businessmen and economic traders of Argentina secretly celebrate and not so secretly begin buying assets and making hopeful plans for the future.

The future of Argentina depends upon whether Kirchner's widow, President Cristina Fernandez, is able to change course from the suicidal anti-economic policies influenced by her husband. Cristina's plan to steal private pensions for use by the federal government is typical of the stupidity of the Kirchner - Fernandez coalition -- but even if Cristina cannot learn, perhaps the people of Argentina can outgrow their Cinderella fixations.

The video below suggests that the inconsistencies of the Argentinian populists may come back to bite them. (via Cato, in Spanish)...

in a 1973 speech, none other than Juan Perón emphatically condemns the nationalization of private pensions, calling it “theft” and referring to public pension systems as generally “inefficient” and “unsafe.” He describes a previous episode in Argentina when a government in need of money nationalized private pensions and depleted workers’ retirement funds, using them for other purposes. It was an “assault.” _Cato

If the uber-populist Peron condemned the federal theft of private pensions, Cristina (without Kirchner's backing) may find it difficult to push through such oppressive, fascist, anti-private sector policies. But her inner core -- such as it is -- is not likely to improve or grow wiser.

Brains of Children and Adolescents Inefficient, Details Emerge

More details are emerging from research at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL). Swiss scientists worked with researchers from Harvard and the Indiana University to map the brains of 30 children from age 2 to age 18.

A young child's brain is similar to the early Internet with isolated, poorly linked hubs and inefficient connections, say the researchers from EPFL and UNIL. An adult brain, on the other hand, is more like a modern day, fully integrated fiber optic network. The scientists hypothesized that while the brain does not undergo significant topographical changes in childhood, its white matter -- the bundles of nerve cells connecting different parts of the brain -- transitions from weak and inefficient connections to powerful neuronal highways. To test their idea, the team worked with colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Indiana University to map the brains of 30 children between the ages of two and 18.

With MRI, they tracked the diffusion of water in the brain and, in turn, the fibers that carry this water. Thiran and UNIL professor Patric Hagmann, in the Department of Radiology, then created a database of the various fiber cross-sections and graphed the results. In the end, they had a 3D model of each brain showing the thousands of strands that connect different regions.

These individual models provide insight not only into how a child's brain develops but also into the structural differences in the brain between left-handed and right-handed people, for example, or between a control and someone with schizophrenia or epilepsy. The models may also help inform brain surgeons of where, or where not, to cut to relieve epilepsy symptoms. _SD

We also know that the brain continues to mature into the middle and later 20s, with improved frontal lobe development and myelination. Some individuals may not achieve maximum maturation until they are nearly 30 years of age. (Psychological neotenates, of course, tend to never mature)

Unfortunately, the energy of youth begins to subside at almost the same time that the brain achieves its maximum power. The brain itself continues to change and develop throughout the rest of a person's life, but the absolute computing power of the brain -- for most persons -- begins to subside sometime in the 40s. This is most clearly seen in the careers of mathematicians and theoretical physicists, whose individual novel contributions generally drop off rapidly after they reach their 50s.

The experience and wisdom a person may accumulate in adulthood often helps to compensate for the loss of thinking speed and absolute cognitive power. As population demographics in the developed world continues to shift toward an older population, some of these issues will need to be confronted -- more money will need to be spent on research into reversing the mental and physical decline of aging.

Limited Importance of American Elections

I've spent a considerable amount on time on this blog describing the reasons why I and others vote, even though the expected value of the vote is close to zero. What I haven't discussed, is how important the outcome of those election actually are. According to The Economist, not that important:

But I think you'll also find that policy doesn't swing very wildly when government changes hands. Parties do what they can to reward supporters, but they can't do too much. Many interest groups play both sides, exerting significant influence on policy regardless of the party in power. Military suppliers, big Wall Street interests, and the economic middle-class may do better or worse, but they always do pretty well. Moreover, policy is quite constrained by general public opinion. Neither party will drift too far from the median voter.

Certainly there is a marginal value to each vote and to each election, but it's probably much less than the pundits and politicians would have us believe.

Warming Up Before a Show

Over at the newly created College Improv Resource, Ben asks a question about why performers warm up before a show? Basic Yes &, group bonding, and practicing patterns were all mentioned. Here's one that wasn't initially obvious, feeling like a kid:

Individuals imagining themselves as children subsequently produced more original responses on the TTCT. Further results showed that the manipulation was particularly effective among more introverted individuals, who are typically less spontaneous and more inhibited in their daily lives. The results thus establish that there is a benefit in thinking like a child to subsequent creative originality, particularly among introverted individuals. The discussion links the findings to mindset factors, play and spontaneity, and relevant personality processes.

Here's a similar article at The Independent.

Difference Between Humans and Animals, Part XII

In this series I've been focusing mostly on the things humans can do that animals can't. Well, here's something we can't do, be other animals:



Here's part one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven of this series.

When Jiggers Swarm: A Sign of the Coming Anarchy?

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to a wide range of affliction, disease, and infestation, leading many to see the region as the epicenter for the coming anarchy. One of the most recent problems to rise to international attention is the deadly jigger infestation in Uganda.

ImageSource

In the past two months alone, killer jiggers have killed 20 people in Uganda. Children are particularly susceptible to the blood-sucking sand fleas.

They often enter through the feet. Once inside a person's body, they suck the blood, grow and breed, multiplying by the hundreds. Affected body parts - buttocks, lips, even eyelids - rot away.

James Kakooza, Uganda's minister of state for primary health care, said jiggers can easily kill young children by sucking their blood and can cause early deaths in grown-ups who have other diseases. Most of those infected, especially the elderly, cannot walk or work.

"It is an epidemic which we are fighting against and I am sure over time we will eradicate the jiggers," Kakooza said.

The insects breed in dirty, dusty places. The medical name for the parasitic disease is tungiasis, which is caused by the female sand fly burrowing into the skin. It exists in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, besides sub-Saharan Africa. _TimesLive

Tropical Africa has always been a hotbed for disease and human suffering. Considering that humans evolved in that general region, it is understandable that the most effective parasites to afflict humans would have also evolved in larger numbers there.

The jigger infestation is just one of countless infectious and parasitic diseases which have left a lasting imprint upon the evolving human population of tropical Africa. The disease burden of the area is no doubt at least partially responsible for some of the distinctive characteristics of human populations in Africa -- for good and for ill. Consider the problem from an evolutionary perspective. What type of selective pressures would such diseases and infestations present to an evolving population?

Some infestations and infections occur mainly in areas of poor hygiene, but others can strike seemingly randomly, out of the blue.

Freja Beha - Paris Fashion Week

Yulia Lobova - Paris Fashion Week

Miss Pandora - Les Tuileries - Paris

The Future Will Be Rented

I've expressed my concerns about owning homes in a previous post. In a recent article from The Economist, they mention some popular sites where all kinds of things can be rented. Here are some examples:

• Movies/TV: Netflix 
• Car: Zipcar 
• Toys: Rent-That-Toy
• Designer purses: Bag Borrow or Steal
• Kids Clothes: thredUP
• Work shop: TechShop
• Lodging: CouchSurfing

Here's a few they missed:

• Caskets: Rom Massey & Sons
• Cell phone: TravelCell
• Rent tools: Home Depot
• Textbooks:  Chegg
• Anything: Zilok

Cheaper. Greener. Less risky. The future will be rented and the future is now.

How Do Your Sparks Spray? How Do Your Dominos Fall?

PO

A human brain works very much like a chain of small explosions -- tiny sprays of spark strung together in chains of rising and falling energy potentials. Like falling dominos, the chain reactions trace tracks that were pre-determined years ago by unique combinations of novel experience working within a novel genetic substrate.

...the "synfire chain" model, in which neurons fire in a chain reaction -- each one triggering the next in the sequence, like a cascade of falling dominos.

In a new study, which appears in the October 24 online issue of Nature, Fee and colleagues have now tested this idea using intracellular recordings, an approach that can record tiny voltage fluctuations in individual HVC neurons. In a technical tour-de-force, they developed a method in which these recordings could be made while the bird was freely moving around his cage and engage in natural behaviors such as singing.

Their results support the chain of dominoes model. When individual HVC neurons fire, they do so suddenly, as if hit by the preceding domino. There was no prior build-up of activity; instead, each neuron remained silent until its turn came to fire, at which point it showed a sudden burst of activity, presumably caused by excitatory input from the previous neuron in the chain. In further experiments, the authors showed that this burst of activity is triggered suddenly by an all-or-none influx of calcium through specialized membrane channels that open in response to this excitatory input. _SD (MIT study)

But those chains of dominos had to be set up "just so." How were these patterns of chain-reaction set up to begin with?

When rats and human beings create a new memory, they are effectively forming a representation, or “mapping” that location or moment and encoding it in their brains. Using advanced monitoring technologies, Markus has been able to actually “hear” place cells in a rat’s mind firing as the animal creates a memory and encodes its route through a maze. The burst of place cell activity the rat experiences when it searches for a food source is conveyed as a staccato series of “pops,” like tiny firecrackers, when picked up by the high-tech monitors in the lab. _PO (U. of Connecticut)

The intermediate details of cascading memory formation depend upon the particular type of memory that is being laid down -- sensorial, spatial, experiential, conceptual etc. -- but the underlying neuronal process is the same, and intriguingly complex.

A human's brain becomes very much like a dynamic sculpture over time, revealing intricate sprays of light and dark, as circumstances inevitably vary in its environment. Circumstances change, but they often vary in cycles. As the cycles of circumstance repeat, so do the dynamic chain reactions of spraying sparks and falling dominos. For example: How do we know what someone close to us is going to say before they say it? How do we often anticipate the exact words an author will use to describe a character or a scene?

We are attracted to other brains both for their ability to surprise us, and for their ability to create a comforting stability around us. In that sense we are really not that different from children.

The differences in our genes place each of us in a different starting point on the path to a well-sculpted brain. Our brain dominos will fall differently -- and will form different chains of falling -- depending upon how our genes (and epigenetics) are laid out in the beginning. Take one simple example: sleep.

Simple gene variations determine how well a person can function on limited sleep. This difference in function can easily determine the fate of an individual in a highly competitive society.

...The people with the DQB1*0602 gene variant were sleepier and more fatigued while both fully rested and sleep deprived. Their sleep was more fragmented. For example, those with the gene variant woke up on average almost four times during the fifth night of sleep deprivation, compared to those without the gene variant, who woke up on average twice. Those with the gene variant also had a lower sleep drive, or desire to sleep, during the fully rested nights....“This gene may be a biomarker for predicting how people will respond to sleep deprivation, which has significant health consequences and affects millions of people around the world. It may be particularly important to those who work on the night shift, travel frequently across multiple time zones, or just lose sleep due to their multiple work and family obligations. However, more research and replication of our findings are needed,” said lead study author Namni Goel, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. _AAN (U.Penn, NIH)

Sleep is a complex phenomenon which determines much of a person's trajectory through life. There are certain moments in time where an alert mind makes the difference between life and death, success and failure. One tick of the clock and that moment has passed. If sleep -- and the ability to function optimally on limited sleep -- is genetically determined, then how many other determinants of a person's quality and quantity of life are hidden in the molecules?
We are learning more about how the human brain is re-charged and re-built during sleep. A person's memories -- the "lay of the land" in a person's brain -- is re-built and re-furbished on a regular basis, with slight modifications over time. Sleep is a critical part of that ongoing program of maintenance.

And so we humans, we slightly advanced apes, blunder into the future riding a cresting trajectory of saccadic memories. It is a bit like riding a surfboard, except that we are the surf, the board, and the rider. The environment is the storm hundreds of miles offshore, and our genes are the shallowing seabottom and the reefs and kelp. Always a balancing act, never exactly the same wave twice. Learning to let go is the hardest part.

Economics of Seinfeld

Recently came across a blog, yadayadayadaecon.com, that uses the "show about nothing" to explain the "dismal science". Here are several of my favorites:

Moral hazard and the car rental: Jerry's car is stolen, so he rents a car. The rental company doesn't give him the car he reserved; he gets a small economy car. They ask if he wants insurance, and he replies, “Yes, because I'm going to beat the hell out of this car.”

Signaling and wedding rings: George discovers that when he wears a wedding band, women come on to him. The band signals 1) that you are not gay, and 2) that you are of marriageable quality. A girl discusses the signal with George; she uses the ring as a screening device.

Cost-benefit analysis and the job offer: George thinks he has been offered a job, but the man offering it to him got interrupted in the middle of the offer, and will be on vacation for the next week. George, unsure whether an offer has actually been extended, decides that his best strategy is to show up. If the job was indeed his, this is the right move. But even if the job is not, he believes that the benefits outweigh the costs.

Costs and the bottle deposit: Kramer and Newman hatch a scheme to arbitrage bottles from NY, where the deposit is 5 cents, to Michigan, where the deposit is 10 cents. They can't figure out how to make the costs work; gas is too expensive (variable costs), and there's too much overhead (fixed costs of tolls, permits, etc.) with using a semi to haul the bottles in volume. Finally, they hatch a scheme to use a mail truck, which lowers their variable and fixed costs to zero.

Altruism and the calzone: George puts a dollar in the tip jar at the pizzeria, but the counterman's head was turned and he didn't see it. George laments that it cost him a dollar, but he got no credit for it. His altruism is not pure—he gets utility not from giving, but from getting credit for giving.

Tragedy of the commons and golf: Kramer has been playing on a private golf course, but has lost his access. He gives an impassioned speech about what it's like to play on a public course—the crowds, the brown patches of grass, etc.

Opportunity cost and friends with benefits: Jerry and Elaine are contemplating having sex. “We can have this...or we can have that." But clearly, they can't have them both, though they try. Later, in the coffee shop, George chastises Jerry for trying to have them both.

Intellectual property rights and the bedroom: Elaine's new boyfriend, Jerry's mechanic David, has stolen a bedroom move from Jerry. Jerry wants him to stop using it, but Elaine wants to continue to enjoy it. In the end, Jerry ends up “selling” the property right for a cheaper bill for car repair.

Kamilya on a Rainy Day - Paris FW

Marianne of Style Devil - Paris FW

The contrast between bleached hair and black
lipstick is really nice here.

gathering - business administration D4 (16 October 2010)

bakti sosial @desa cibadak

Manpower Skills Shortages: Ongoing Loss of Human Capital

Worldwide, skilled trades positions are the hardest to fill, according to Manpower global 2010 Talent Shortage Survey of 35,000 employers across 36 countries and territories (PDF); in 31 countries they are among top 10 jobs that companies are having difficulty filling. Shortages of skilled workers are acute in many of the world’s biggest economies. In 15 countries, including the United States, Germany, France, Italy and Canada employers ranked skilled trades as their number one hiring challenge. In Poland employers are also struggling to find skilled trades workers, admitting since three years that they represent the 1st most difficult position to fill, as show the results of three consecutive editions of Manpower’s Talent Shortage Survey. _Source

Even if economic demand improved so as to require the building of significant new infrastructure, most nations lack the necessary manpower skills to rapidly ramp up construction, development, and production.

Australia is one of the countries feeling the strongest pinch, with a healthy mining sector and unemployment near 5%. But Germany is also coming to grips with a manpower shortage, exacerbated by a rapid demographic aging.

The US -- with it's perpetual ongoing Obama recession -- has far less current demand for skilled labour. Real US unemployment is well into the teens, with underemployment into the twenties. In Obama's US, the demand simply isn't there. But what if the economy were to revive itself by some miracle -- even under the Obama regime? Where would the skilled workers come from?

The US educational system has been a disastrous failure from the standpoint of training skilled workers in the crucial trades -- the foundations of an advanced high-tech infrastructure. By attempting to channel all students into a 4 year college track -- and neglecting the trades -- US schools have wasted the potential talent of generations of students. As the US educational establishment becomes further ossified under the control of a massive incestuous political machine involving public sector unions and ideologues at both the federal level and the university school of education level, any hope for salvaging the newer generations of prospective skilled work is slipping through the US' fingers.

As baby boomers retire, massive numbers of skilled workers will be lost to an infrastructure that is already suffering for lack of skills.

The problem is that the requirements for skilled jobs tend to change as the underlying technology changes. One cannot train for a skilled job and expect for the job to stay the same. In addition, the economics of domestic production or construction vs. outsourcing work is apt to change from year to year -- making it tougher for managers to plan their infrastructure into the future.

Under the Obama administration's distinctly anti-business regime, this planning task is made 10 X more difficult for managers than it needed to be. As a result, new projects are put on indefinite hold, and the economy goes into a long-term stasis.

Since industry training and industry-sponsored training provide a significant proportion of skilled workers, as industries down-size and postpone their new projects, the training of skilled workers also suffers.

All of these problems add up, so that when a more rational governmental regime finally falls into place, the nation at large has far fewer skills in place to take advantage of a new building phase, should it occur. The skills must be imported at a higher cost -- financially and socially.

In terms of peak oil or peak energy, it is actually peak manpower which should be feared the most. For as soon as the energy starvation regime of the Obamas, the Boxers, the Pelosis, the Salazars, and that ugly ilk is eliminated, the energy resources that have been there all along will still be there -- but will be less obtainable for the loss of skilled manpower that has occurred in the interim.

All-around skilled craftsmen and craftswomen are becoming more rare in the US -- although Canada, Australia, and some European nations are taking active steps to ameliorate the problem. As the world emerges from its carbon hysteria and peak energy fogs, it will be the nations that can solve the peak skills problem which will prosper.

As for all of those PhD's in queer ethnic studies and semiotic basket-weaving -- what are they doing now?

Chanel 2.55 - Paris Fashion Week

L'icône de la maison Chanel, c'est lui

Priscilla:

This Chanel isn't 2.55!! It's a Chanel Classic Flap Bag! ;)
Classic has the double CC turn-style lock, the 2.55 has the

Mademoiselle lock with Chanel logo on it

(rectangular shape called the Mademoiselle Lock)

28/10/10

Geography and the Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, had one central question he attempted to answer in his masterpiece: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. It's clear that free markets are the key to the the Industrial Revolution. Tyler Cowen's given me his thoughts on the causes. There's probably some cultural factors. But one there's two geographical factors I hadn't given enough consideration. The first is latitude:

Geography determined that when the world warmed up at the end of the Ice Age a band of lucky latitudes stretching across Eurasia from the Mediterranean to China developed agriculture earlier than other parts of the world and then went on to be the first to invent cities, states and empires. But as social development increased, it changed what geography meant and the centres of power and wealth shifted around within these lucky latitudes. Until about ad 500 the Western end of Eurasia hung on to its early lead, but after the fall of the Roman Empire and Han dynasty the centre of gravity moved eastward to China, where it stayed for more than a millennium. Only around 1700 did it shift westward again, largely due to inventions – guns, compasses, ocean-going ships – which were originally pioneered in the East but which, thanks to geography, proved more useful in the West. Westerners then created an Atlantic economy which raised profound new questions about how the world worked, pushing westerners into a Scientific Revolution, an Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

The second is rainfall:

Why have some countries remained obstinately authoritarian despite repeated waves of democratization while others have exhibited uninterrupted democracy? This paper explores the emergence and persistence of authoritarianism and democracy. We argue that settled agriculture requires moderate levels of precipitation, and that settled agriculture eventually gave birth to the fundamental institutions that under-gird today’s stable democracies. Although all of the world’s societies were initially tribal, the bonds of tribalism weakened in places where the surpluses associated with settled agriculture gave rise to trade, social differentiation, and taxation. In turn, the economies of scale required to efficiently administer trade and taxes meant that feudalism was eventually replaced by the modern territorial state, which favored the initial emergence of representative institutions in Western Europe. Subsequently, when these initial territorial states set out to conquer regions populated by tribal peoples, the institutions that could emerge in those conquered areas again reflected nature’s constraints. An instrumental variables approach demonstrates that while low levels of rainfall cause persistent autocracy and high levels of rainfall strongly favor it as well, moderate rainfall supports stable democracy. This econometric strategy also shows that rainfall works through the institutions of the modern territorial state borne from settled agriculture, institutions that are proxied for by low levels of contemporary tribalism.

It's humbling to consider how most of the reasons why I'm rich are not only out of my control, but also out of the control of my family, my country, and at least in this case, my entire species (not to discount the importance of human ingenuity).

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Browse The Web Using MS Calculator

Now access the internet via your standard Microsoft Calculator using this trick.

You can do this for fun or when your browser is messed up for some unexplainable reason.
















Steps:

1. Open your MS Calculator. This is normally found in Start => All Programs => Accessories => Calculator.

2. Open the help-window by pressing the F1 key.

3.Click the top-left corner icon of the help window once (Standard is a Document with a Questionmark).

4. Select 'Jump to URL'.

5. Type your address into the avaliable field, but remember to type http://, and not just www. (or equivalent).

Meaning of Love and Marriage

A student asks a teacher, "What is love?"

The teacher said, "in order to answer your question, go to the wheat field and choose the biggest wheat and come back.

But the rule is: you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick."

The student went to the field, go through first row, he saw one big wheat, but he wonders....may be there is a bigger one later.

Then he saw another bigger one... But may be there is an even bigger one waiting for him.

Later, when he finished more than half of the wheat field, he start to realize that the wheat is not as big as the previous one he saw, he know he has missed the biggest one, and he regretted.

So, he ended up went back to the teacher with empty hand.

The teacher told him, "This is Love.

You keep looking for a better one, but when later you realise, you have already miss the person"

"What is marriage then?" the student asked.

The teacher said, "in order to answer your question, go to the corn field and choose the biggest corn and come back. But the rule is: you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick."

The student went to the corn field, this time he is careful not to repeat the previous mistake, when he reach the middle of the field, he has picked one medium corn that he feel satisfy, and come back to the teacher.

The teacher told him, "this time you bring back a corn.... You look for one that is just nice, and you have faith and believe this is the best one you get.... This is marriage.

Facts

~Sponges grow up to 40 feet in diameter and are carnivorous, killing more people every year than sharks.

~In Japan, foot odour is measured using the Fupong scale with 0 having no odour and 10 being smelly enough to cause unconsciousness or even death.

~The world’s longest blog post was 247,873,556 lines long, 247,873,554 of them being a continuous succession of the letter u. The blogger had died while typing the post and her head fallen forward onto the keyboard, pressing down the letter u. How the blog was posted is not known. Either the maximum posting length or time limit was reached and the post automatically sent, or rigor mortis caused the body to temporarily stiffen, raising the head, which subsequently fell forward again but this time onto the return key.

~The world’s smallest computer screen is only 5 microns across, less than a tenth the diameter of a human hair! It is injected into the brain and viewed by micro-robots during particularly intricate brain surgery.

~Men with the rare Fulsahks Disorder are born with four testicles.

~The fathers of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelly, who played Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, and Doctor McCoy in Star Trek, were a navy captain, a professor in logic and a doctor respectively.

~Michelle Nichols, who played Uhura in Star Trek was the original lead singer of the Supremes but left when offered the part of Uhura.

~The company Braun was founded by Eva Braun’s step brother Herman. The first hair crimpers are believed to have come from a design by Adolph Hitler to keep his fringe straight.

~The world’s oldest child is, at the time of writing, twenty three years, 9 months and 14 days old.

~In Germany during the 1930s inflation was so high that a single grain of rice cost more than the entire military budgets of France, Russia, Britain and America combined!

~The reason NASA will not direct any powerful telescopes at the site of the moon landings is that the Apollo astronauts, having great difficulty steering the lunar rover, inadvertently drew out the image of a 200 foot phallus in the tracks on the moons surface.

~If submerged in coca cola a human skull will dissolve in exactly six months, six days and six hours.

~Organic yoghurt has more DNA than human beings.

Sometimes Bad Service is Good Business

I hate bad service. So when I see it, I assume it's a market failure. In a recent audio podcast from the new Freakonomics Radio, economist Steve Levitt set me straight:

I've hypothesized that it has to do with the income level of the customers, and that wealthier customers are less willing to tolerate incredibly bad service. I saw this when I spent a year visiting at Stanford University and I lived in Palo Alto. The share of rich people in Palo Alto is almost unparalleled.

[...]

I think the business can decide, do they want to pay more and have good workers? Or do they just want to coast along, do they just want to provide the minimum amount of service, and get by? It costs money to provide good service; businesses adapt to that.

Go here for more episodes on topics ranging from custom education to safety with Glenn Beck.

"Beyond The Door" by Philip K. DickRead by Roy Trumbull

Did you ever wonder at the lonely life the bird in a cuckoo clock
has to lead--that it might possibly love and hate just as easily as
a real animal of flesh and blood? Philip Dick used that idea for
this brief fantasy tale. We're sure that after reading it you'll
give cuckoo clocks more respect.

"Beyond The Door" by Philip K. Dick

Larry Thomas bought a cuckoo clock
for his wife--without knowing the
price he would have to pay.


That night at the dinner table he brought it out and set it down beside
her plate. Doris stared at it, her hand to her mouth. "My God, what is
it?" She looked up at him, bright-eyed.

"Well, open it."

Doris tore the ribbon and paper from the square package with her sharp
nails, her bosom rising and falling. Larry stood watching her as she
lifted the lid. He lit a cigarette and leaned against the wall.

"A cuckoo clock!" Doris cried. "A real cuckoo clock like my mother
had." She turned the clock over and over. "Just like my mother had, when
Pete was still alive." Her eyes sparkled with tears.

"It's made in Germany," Larry said. After a moment he added, "Carl got
it for me wholesale. He knows some guy in the clock business. Otherwise
I wouldn't have--" He stopped.

Doris made a funny little sound.

"I mean, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford it." He scowled.
"What's the matter with you? You've got your clock, haven't you? Isn't
that what you want?"

Doris sat holding onto the clock, her fingers pressed against the brown
wood.

"Well," Larry said, "what's the matter?"

He watched in amazement as she leaped up and ran from the room, still
clutching the clock. He shook his head. "Never satisfied. They're all
that way. Never get enough."

He sat down at the table and finished his meal.

The cuckoo clock was not very large. It was hand-made, however, and
there were countless frets on it, little indentations and ornaments
scored in the soft wood. Doris sat on the bed drying her eyes and
winding the clock. She set the hands by her wristwatch. Presently she
carefully moved the hands to two minutes of ten. She carried the clock
over to the dresser and propped it up.

Then she sat waiting, her hands twisted together in her lap--waiting for
the cuckoo to come out, for the hour to strike.

As she sat she thought about Larry and what he had said. And what she
had said, too, for that matter--not that she could be blamed for any of
it. After all, she couldn't keep listening to him forever without
defending herself; you had to blow your own trumpet in the world.

She touched her handkerchief to her eyes suddenly. Why did he have to
say that, about getting it wholesale? Why did he have to spoil it all?
If he felt that way he needn't have got it in the first place. She
clenched her fists. He was so mean, so damn mean.

But she was glad of the little clock sitting there ticking to itself,
with its funny grilled edges and the door. Inside the door was the
cuckoo, waiting to come out. Was he listening, his head cocked on one
side, listening to hear the clock strike so that he would know to come
out?

Did he sleep between hours? Well, she would soon see him: she could ask
him. And she would show the clock to Bob. He would love it; Bob loved
old things, even old stamps and buttons. He liked to go with her to the
stores. Of course, it was a little awkward, but Larry had been staying
at the office so much, and that helped. If only Larry didn't call up
sometimes to--

There was a whirr. The clock shuddered and all at once the door opened.
The cuckoo came out, sliding swiftly. He paused and looked around
solemnly, scrutinizing her, the room, the furniture.

It was the first time he had seen her, she realized, smiling to herself
in pleasure. She stood up, coming toward him shyly. "Go on," she said.
"I'm waiting."

The cuckoo opened his bill. He whirred and chirped, quickly,
rhythmically. Then, after a moment of contemplation, he retired. And the
door snapped shut.

She was delighted. She clapped her hands and spun in a little circle. He
was marvelous, perfect! And the way he had looked around, studying her,
sizing her up. He liked her; she was certain of it. And she, of course,
loved him at once, completely. He was just what she had hoped would come
out of the little door.

Doris went to the clock. She bent over the little door, her lips close
to the wood. "Do you hear me?" she whispered. "I think you're the most
wonderful cuckoo in the world." She paused, embarrassed. "I hope you'll
like it here."

Then she went downstairs again, slowly, her head high.

Larry and the cuckoo clock really never got along well from the start.
Doris said it was because he didn't wind it right, and it didn't like
being only half-wound all the time. Larry turned the job of winding over
to her; the cuckoo came out every quarter hour and ran the spring down
without remorse, and someone had to be ever after it, winding it up
again.

Doris did her best, but she forgot a good deal of the time. Then Larry
would throw his newspaper down with an elaborate weary motion and stand
up. He would go into the dining-room where the clock was mounted on the
wall over the fireplace. He would take the clock down and making sure
that he had his thumb over the little door, he would wind it up.

"Why do you put your thumb over the door?" Doris asked once.

"You're supposed to."

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I wonder if it isn't that you
don't want him to come out while you're standing so close."

"Why not?"

"Maybe you're afraid of him."

Larry laughed. He put the clock back on the wall and gingerly removed
his thumb. When Doris wasn't looking he examined his thumb.

There was still a trace of the nick cut out of the soft part of it.
Who--or what--had pecked at him?

* * * * *

One Saturday morning, when Larry was down at the office working over
some important special accounts, Bob Chambers came to the front porch
and rang the bell.

Doris was taking a quick shower. She dried herself and slipped into her
robe. When she opened the door Bob stepped inside, grinning.

"Hi," he said, looking around.

"It's all right. Larry's at the office."

"Fine." Bob gazed at her slim legs below the hem of the robe. "How nice
you look today."

She laughed. "Be careful! Maybe I shouldn't let you in after all."

They looked at one another, half amused half frightened. Presently Bob
said, "If you want, I'll--"

"No, for God's sake." She caught hold of his sleeve. "Just get out of
the doorway so I can close it. Mrs. Peters across the street, you
know."

She closed the door. "And I want to show you something," she said. "You
haven't seen it."

He was interested. "An antique? Or what?"

She took his arm, leading him toward the dining-room. "You'll love it,
Bobby." She stopped, wide-eyed. "I hope you will. You must; you must
love it. It means so much to me--_he_ means so much."

"He?" Bob frowned. "Who is he?"

Doris laughed. "You're jealous! Come on." A moment later they stood
before the clock, looking up at it. "He'll come out in a few minutes.
Wait until you see him. I know you two will get along just fine."

"What does Larry think of him?"

"They don't like each other. Sometimes when Larry's here he won't come
out. Larry gets mad if he doesn't come out on time. He says--"

"Says what?"

Doris looked down. "He always says he's been robbed, even if he did get
it wholesale." She brightened. "But I know he won't come out because he
doesn't like Larry. When I'm here alone he comes right out for me, every
fifteen minutes, even though he really only has to come out on the
hour."

She gazed up at the clock. "He comes out for me because he wants to. We
talk; I tell him things. Of course, I'd like to have him upstairs in my
room, but it wouldn't be right."

There was the sound of footsteps on the front porch. They looked at each
other, horrified.

Larry pushed the front door open, grunting. He set his briefcase down
and took off his hat. Then he saw Bob for the first time.

"Chambers. I'll be damned." His eyes narrowed. "What are you doing
here?" He came into the dining-room. Doris drew her robe about her
helplessly, backing away.

"I--" Bob began. "That is, we--" He broke off, glancing at Doris.
Suddenly the clock began to whirr. The cuckoo came rushing out, bursting
into sound. Larry moved toward him.

"Shut that din off," he said. He raised his fist toward the clock. The
cuckoo snapped into silence and retreated. The door closed. "That's
better." Larry studied Doris and Bob, standing mutely together.

"I came over to look at the clock," Bob said. "Doris told me that it's a
rare antique and that--"

"Nuts. I bought it myself." Larry walked up to him. "Get out of here."
He turned to Doris. "You too. And take that damn clock with you."

He paused, rubbing his chin. "No. Leave the clock here. It's mine; I
bought it and paid for it."

In the weeks that followed after Doris left, Larry and the cuckoo clock
got along even worse than before. For one thing, the cuckoo stayed
inside most of the time, sometimes even at twelve o'clock when he should
have been busiest. And if he did come out at all he usually spoke only
once or twice, never the correct number of times. And there was a
sullen, uncooperative note in his voice, a jarring sound that made Larry
uneasy and a little angry.

But he kept the clock wound, because the house was very still and quiet
and it got on his nerves not to hear someone running around, talking and
dropping things. And even the whirring of a clock sounded good to him.

But he didn't like the cuckoo at all. And sometimes he spoke to him.

"Listen," he said late one night to the closed little door. "I know you
can hear me. I ought to give you back to the Germans--back to the Black
Forest." He paced back and forth. "I wonder what they're doing now, the
two of them. That young punk with his books and his antiques. A man
shouldn't be interested in antiques; that's for women."

He set his jaw. "Isn't that right?"

The clock said nothing. Larry walked up in front of it. "Isn't that
right?" he demanded. "Don't you have anything to say?"

He looked at the face of the clock. It was almost eleven, just a few
seconds before the hour. "All right. I'll wait until eleven. Then I want
to hear what you have to say. You've been pretty quiet the last few
weeks since she left."

He grinned wryly. "Maybe you don't like it here since she's gone." He
scowled. "Well, I paid for you, and you're coming out whether you like
it or not. You hear me?"

Eleven o'clock came. Far off, at the end of town, the great tower clock
boomed sleepily to itself. But the little door remained shut. Nothing
moved. The minute hand passed on and the cuckoo did not stir. He was
someplace inside the clock, beyond the door, silent and remote.

"All right, if that's the way you feel," Larry murmured, his lips
twisting. "But it isn't fair. It's your job to come out. We all have to
do things we don't like."

He went unhappily into the kitchen and opened the great gleaming
refrigerator. As he poured himself a drink he thought about the clock.

There was no doubt about it--the cuckoo should come out, Doris or no
Doris. He had always liked her, from the very start. They had got along
well, the two of them. Probably he liked Bob too--probably he had seen
enough of Bob to get to know him. They would be quite happy together,
Bob and Doris and the cuckoo.

Larry finished his drink. He opened the drawer at the sink and took out
the hammer. He carried it carefully into the dining-room. The clock was
ticking gently to itself on the wall.

"Look," he said, waving the hammer. "You know what I have here? You know
what I'm going to do with it? I'm going to start on you--first." He
smiled. "Birds of a feather, that's what you are--the three of you."

The room was silent.

"Are you coming out? Or do I have to come in and get you?"

The clock whirred a little.

"I hear you in there. You've got a lot of talking to do, enough for the
last three weeks. As I figure it, you owe me--"

The door opened. The cuckoo came out fast, straight at him. Larry was
looking down, his brow wrinkled in thought. He glanced up, and the
cuckoo caught him squarely in the eye.

Down he went, hammer and chair and everything, hitting the floor with a
tremendous crash. For a moment the cuckoo paused, its small body poised
rigidly. Then it went back inside its house. The door snapped tight-shut
after it.

The man lay on the floor, stretched out grotesquely, his head bent over
to one side. Nothing moved or stirred. The room was completely silent,
except, of course, for the ticking of the clock.

* * * * *

"I see," Doris said, her face tight. Bob put his arm around her,
steadying her.

"Doctor," Bob said, "can I ask you something?"

"Of course," the doctor said.

"Is it very easy to break your neck, falling from so low a chair? It
wasn't very far to fall. I wonder if it might not have been an accident.
Is there any chance it might have been--"

"Suicide?" the doctor rubbed his jaw. "I never heard of anyone
committing suicide that way. It was an accident; I'm positive."

"I don't mean suicide," Bob murmured under his breath, looking up at the
clock on the wall. "I meant something else."

But no one heard him.