Worsening conditions loom as rain pummels California

This week I read an article about California's worsening conditions as they continue to get tons of precipitation. The main points of the article are:

• San Joaquin Valley citizens have been cleared to return home after fears of major flooding prompted evacuations.
• estimated 400 to 500 homes were in danger,evacuation recommendation for about 3,000 people was lifted Monday afternoon
•  stormy weather has gripped California since late last week, triggering mostly minor flooding, mudslides, road closures and power outages.
• Virtually the entire state was affected by the bad weather, from coastal cities to the Central Valley, Sierra Nevada and southern deserts.
• Pacific Gas and Electric Co. crews were working to restore power to the last of about 282,000 customers that lost electricity since the storm arrived
• Repair crews braced for predicted winds of up to 45 mph, along with heavy rain and snow in elevated areas

Precipitation in the form of heavy rain and snow continues to fall, and threatens almost the entire state of california with various hardships such as flooding and mudslides. There have been a few casualties, and repair crews are working hard to make sure that people have power and that their homes are safe. They are being very cautious.

It really is awful that California is always dealing with disasters such as mudslides, and it seems like it is almost year round for them I hope that they deal with no further hardships resulting from their worsening weather conditions.

Tax Cuts Brighten still-dim economic outlook

This week I read an article on tax cuts in relation to the economic outlook. The main points of the article are:

• Retailers are reporting a better than expected shopping holiday season. Manufacturers are seeing a pickup in production. And private sector job growth — though still very sluggish — has picked up from the first half of the year
• the outlook also brightened on the news earlier this month that Congress and the White House agreed to keep federal income taxes constant and cut payroll taxes.
• it all adds up to another year of relatively modest growth, not nearly enough to make much of a dent in the painfully high 9.8 percent unemployment rate.
• "The consensus of msnbc.com's Economic Roundtable calls for the gross domestic product to grow just 2.6 percent next year, even a bit slower than the estimated 2.8 percent growth seen in 2010. The unemployment rate is expected to drop only slightly to 9.2 percent by the end of next year, with the most optimistic of our dozen panelists calling for a drop to 8.5 percent."
• "A huge hangover from the housing bust is one of the major factors holding back the economy, with millions of homes still facing likely foreclosure. And high unemployment is holding down consumer spending and creating a cascade of unpleasant consequences, including huge budget shortfalls at every level of government."
• Inflation is also expected to remain low; the consensus estimate sees consumer prices, excluding food and energy, rising just 1 percent next year, about the same as 2010.
• "Despite a pickup in growth next year and in 2012, our forecasters expect the unemployment rate to remain stubbornly high for years to come. The consensus pegs the jobless rate at 9.2 percent by the end of next year and not falling back to pre-recession levels of 5 percent for five to seven years — or longer."

The economy is coming back from the biggest recession since WWII.Our economy is growing modestly. It is not growing enough to notice a major change. Forecasters predict that it will take several years, possibly over seven, before the jobless rate to fall back to pre-recession levels.

We are still facing hardships with our economy continuing to be in rough shape. It is unfortunate that it is not growing at a rate where people can appreciate it, and it make take several years to improve a significant amount. The good news is, it is improving. We are slowly but surely taking steps in the right direction.

NASA halts monkey radiation experiment for now

This week I read an article on NASA's halt on radiation experimenting on squirrel monkeys.
The main points of the article are:

• irradiate squirrel monkeys to better understand the risks of long-duration spaceflight on humans
• called for exposing 27 squirrel monkeys to high-energy gamma-ray radiation so researchers could observe its effects on the monkeys health and task performance
• Animal-rights activists called the project cruel and poorly designed
• NASA has said that studies involving other primates are essential to predicting the neurobehavioral effects of space radiation on humans
• The radiation study would reportedly expose the monkeys to radiation similar to what astronauts would experience on a three-year voyage.

NASA has, for now, stopeed its experiment on squirrel monkeys. They wanted to do this experiment to see the effects that radiation would have on their behavior and health, because astronauts traveling on a three-year voyage would be exposed to similar radiation. Many people feel that this is cruel treatment of animals, and are not at all okay with NASA's research techniques.

China’s army of graduates is struggling

This week I read an article on how despite a booming economy the graduates of China are still struggling. The main points of the article are:

• Often the first from their families to finish even high school, ambitious graduates  are part of an unprecedented wave of young people all around China who were supposed to move the country’s labor-dependent economy toward a white-collar future.
•  "In 1998, when Jiang Zemin, then the president, announced plans to bolster higher education, Chinese universities and colleges produced 830,000 graduates a year. Last May, that number was more than six million and rising."
  It is a remarkable achievement, yet for a government fixated on stability such figures are also a cause for concern.
• "The economy, despite its robust growth, does not generate enough good professional jobs to absorb the influx of highly educated young adults. And many of them bear the inflated expectations of their parents, who emptied their bank accounts to buy them the good life that a higher education is presumed to guarantee."
• “For many young graduates, it’s all about survival. If there was ever an economic crisis, they could be a source of instability.”

China's economy is booming and continually growing. Many graduates of chinese families are the first in their family to do so. Just last May, chinese colleges and universities produced over 6 million graduates which is unbelievably impressive. These numbers also cause concern. Their country does not generate good professional jobs to absorb the influx of highly educated adults. For many young graduates its about survival, because even in their booming economy they could be a source of instability.

I am extremely impressed by the number of graduates China has in a given year. I can only imagine how scary and stressful it would be for the graduates. They empty their parents bank accounts with the hope that they are going to become very successful. Then they are in a very unstable situation where they might not find a job at all. That is so much pressure and stress to be put on a young person.