lAfreebee

Here's a neat website. It lists free things! Try it out. (It's also very nicely done.)

Study says tailored music therapy can ease tinnitus

From Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Individually designed music therapy may help reduce noise levels in people suffering from tinnitus, or ear ringing, German scientists said on Monday.

The researchers designed musical treatments adapted to the musical tastes of patients with ear-ringing and then stripped out sound frequencies that matched the individual's tinnitus frequency.

After a year of listening to these 'notched' musical therapies, patients reported a distinct decrease in the loudness of ringing compared with those who had listened to non-tailored placebo music, the researchers wrote in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Hans Rosling: Asia's rise — how and when

A great TEDIndia talk by Hans Rosling, the creator of GapMinder, about economic and health growth in Asia compared to the West.

Who Are You? | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine

Sean Carroll has a neat blog entry about teleportation. Here's a piece.

What if you murdered someone, and then teleported — would the reconstructed person still be guilty of murder? That’s not quite the right question, because it still relies on the slippery essence of continuous personhood, but there’s a closely related sensible question — should we treat the reconstructed person as if they had committed murder? And it seems to me that the answer is clearly “yes” — whatever good reasons we had for treating the pre-teleportation person in a certain way, those reasons should still apply to the post-teleportation person.

The issue of duplication seems much thornier to me than the issue of teleportation. If someone made an exact copy of a known murderer, should we treat both the original and the copy as murderers? (I vote “yes.”) Fine, but what about the view from the inside? Let’s say you have an offer to get paid $100 if you let yourself be copied, with the proviso that after being copied one of the two of you will randomly be chosen for immediate painless execution. Do you take that deal?

A Look at the Lives and Loves of Older People

Ben Schott has a chart in the NYTimes.com that suggests we are doing pretty well as we age. He also points out that in 1967, when the Beatles released "When I'm 64" life expectancy of men/women was 67/74. Now it's 75/80. We're doing well there too.

Finally

From Obama Blasts Banks for Opposing Financial Overhaul - NYTimes.com

President Barack Obama singled out financial institutions for causing much of the economic tailspin and criticized their opposition to tighter federal oversight of their industry.

While applauding House passage Friday of overhaul legislation and urging quick Senate action, Obama expressed frustration with banks that were helped by a taxpayer bailout and now are ''fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists'' against new government controls.

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said the economy is only now beginning to recover from the ''irresponsibility'' of Wall Street institutions that ''gambled on risky loans and complex financial products'' in pursuit of short-term profits and big bonuses with little regard for long-term consequences.

''It was, as some have put it, risk management without the management,'' he said. …

The president also told CBS' ''60 Minutes'' that ''the people on Wall Street still don't get it. ... They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ... in decades and you guys caused the problem,'' Obama said in an excerpt released in advance of Sunday night's broadcast of his interview.

An Innovation Agenda

David Brooks of the NYTimes.com paraphrases from what he calls "an unfairly neglected" white paper on Innovation.

President Obama’s National Economic Council argued that the U.S. should not be in the industrial policy business. Governments that try to pick winners “too often end up wasting resources and stifling rather than promoting innovation.” But there are several things the government can do to improve the economic ecology. If you begin with that framework, you can quickly come up with a bipartisan innovation agenda.

1. Push hard to fulfill the Obama administration’s education reforms. Those reforms, embraced by Republicans and Democrats, encourage charter school innovation, improve teacher quality, support community colleges and simplify finances for college students and war veterans. That’s the surest way to improve human capital.
   
   
2. Pay for basic research. Federal research money has been astonishingly productive, leading to DNA sequencing, semiconductors, lasers and many other technologies. Yet this financing has slipped, especially in physics, math and engineering. Overall research-and-development funding has slipped, too. The U.S. should aim to spend 3 percent of G.D.P. on research, as it did in the 1960s.
   
   
3. Rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Abraham Lincoln spent the first half of his career promoting canals and railroads. Today, the updated needs are just as great, and there’s widespread agreement that decisions should be made by a National Infrastructure Bank, not pork-seeking politicians.
   
   
4. Find a fiscal exit strategy. If the deficits continue to surge, interest payments on the debt will be stifling. More important, the mounting deficits destroy confidence by sending the message that the American government is dysfunctional. The only way to realistically fix this problem is to appoint a binding commission, already supported by Republicans and Democrats, which would create a roadmap toward fiscal responsibility and then allow the Congress to vote on it, up or down.
   
   
5. Gradually address global imbalances. American consumers are now spending less and saving more. But the world economy will be out of whack if the Chinese continue to consume too little. The only solution is slow diplomacy to rebalance exchange rates and other distorting policies.
   
   
6. Loosen the so-called H-1B visa quotas to attract skilled immigrants.
   
   
7. Encourage regional innovation clusters. Innovation doesn’t happen at the national level. It happens within hot spots — places where hordes of entrepreneurs gather to compete, meet face to face, pollinate ideas. Regional authorities can’t innovate themselves, but they can encourage those who do to cluster.
   
   
8. Lower the corporate tax rate so it matches international norms.
   
   
9. Don’t be stupid. Don’t make labor markets rigid. Don’t pick trade fights with the Chinese. Don’t get infatuated with research tax credits and other gimmicks, which don’t increase overall research-and-development spending but just increase the salaries of the people who would be doing it anyway.

This sort of agenda doesn’t rely on politicians who think they can predict the next new thing. Nor does it mean merely letting the market go its own way. (The market seems to have a preference for useless financial instruments and insane compensation packages.)

Instead, it’s an agenda that would steer and spark innovation without controlling it, which is what government has done since the days of Alexander Hamilton. It’s the sort of thing the country does periodically, each time we need to recover from one of our binges of national stupidity.

In my opinion, 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are about innovation. The rest are simply Brooks' conservative agenda.

OpenSecrets

The following table, from OpenSecrets.org, lists the top 100 lobbying organizations ranked by money spent. I had always imagined that the lobbying money was mainly Republican. This suggests it is heavily Democratic.

LEGEND:  Republican  Democrat   On the fence
	= Between 40% and 59% to both parties
	= Leans Dem/Repub (60%-69%)
	= Strongly Dem/Repub (70%-89%)
	= Solidly Dem/Repub (over 90%)

Rank	Organization	Total '89-'09	Dem %	Repub %	Tilt
1	AT&T Inc	$43,938,535	44%	55%
2	American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees	$41,728,311	98%	1%
3	National Assn of Realtors	$35,376,883	48%	51%
4	Goldman Sachs	$31,343,062	64%	35%
5	Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers	$31,287,957	97%	2%
6	American Assn for Justice	$31,232,479	90%	9%
7	National Education Assn	$30,035,417	92%	6%
8	Laborers Union	$28,705,400	92%	7%
9	Service Employees International Union	$27,830,017	95%	3%
10	Carpenters & Joiners Union	$27,650,183	89%	10%
11	Teamsters Union	$27,549,874	92%	6%
12	Citigroup Inc	$26,948,428	50%	49%
13	Communications Workers of America	$26,940,146	99%	0%
14	American Federation of Teachers	$26,282,221	98%	0%
15	American Medical Assn	$26,277,473	39%	60%
16	United Auto Workers	$25,767,002	98%	0%
17	Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union	$25,002,277	98%	0%
18	National Auto Dealers Assn	$24,189,708	31%	68%
19	Altria Group	$24,052,641	28%	71%
20	United Food & Commercial Workers Union	$24,027,833	98%	1%
21	United Parcel Service	$24,003,681	36%	63%
22	American Bankers Assn	$22,303,716	41%	58%
23	National Assn of Home Builders	$21,753,555	36%	63%
24	EMILY's List	$21,148,796	99%	0%
25	National Beer Wholesalers Assn	$20,786,845	32%	67%
26	Time Warner	$20,195,860	71%	28%
27	Microsoft Corp	$19,917,846	53%	46%
28	JPMorgan Chase & Co	$19,646,278	51%	48%
29	National Assn of Letter Carriers	$19,369,534	88%	11%
30	Morgan Stanley	$18,450,058	45%	53%
31	Verizon Communications	$18,376,312	40%	59%
32	Lockheed Martin	$18,205,727	42%	57%
33	AFL-CIO	$18,115,112	95%	4%
34	FedEx Corp	$17,876,416	40%	59%
35	General Electric	$17,741,069	51%	48%
36	National Rifle Assn	$17,299,836	17%	82%
37	Credit Union National Assn	$17,105,364	48%	51%
38	Sheet Metal Workers Union	$16,999,913	97%	2%
39	Ernst & Young	$16,992,786	44%	55%
40	Bank of America	$16,985,188	47%	52%
41	American Dental Assn	$16,380,954	46%	53%
42	Operating Engineers Union	$16,317,550	85%	14%
43	American Hospital Assn	$16,306,330	53%	46%
44	Blue Cross/Blue Shield	$16,210,718	40%	59%
45	Plumbers & Pipefitters Union	$16,131,511	94%	5%
46	Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu	$15,868,720	35%	64%
47	International Assn of Fire Fighters	$15,833,143	82%	17%
48	Air Line Pilots Assn	$15,564,027	84%	15%
49	PricewaterhouseCoopers	$15,303,093	36%	62%
50	Natl Assn/Insurance & Financial Advisors	$15,015,855	42%	56%
51	AFLAC Inc	$14,763,269	44%	55%
52	Merrill Lynch	$14,303,130	37%	61%
53	Union Pacific Corp	$14,211,648	24%	75%
54	Boeing Co	$13,946,607	47%	52%
55	United Transportation Union	$13,538,195	88%	10%
56	Pfizer Inc	$13,537,342	29%	69%
57	United Steelworkers	$13,512,447	99%	0%
58	Reynolds American	$13,344,777	24%	75%
59	Ironworkers Union	$13,085,525	92%	7%
60	BellSouth Corp	$12,993,782	45%	54%
61	American Institute of CPAs	$12,841,353	42%	57%
62	Credit Suisse Group	$12,412,640	44%	54%
63	American Postal Workers Union	$12,000,826	95%	4%
64	National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn	$11,936,821	52%	47%
65	General Dynamics	$11,670,294	46%	52%
66	American Financial Group	$11,443,825	18%	81%
67	GlaxoSmithKline	$11,062,994	29%	70%
68	Walt Disney Co	$10,924,749	67%	32%
69	Chevron	$10,857,904	24%	75%
70	Exxon Mobil	$10,616,673	14%	85%
71	Natl Active & Retired Fed Employees Assn	$10,496,000	77%	22%
72	MBNA Corp	$10,059,006	17%	82%
73	General Motors	$9,952,264	38%	60%
74	UST Inc	$9,938,811	21%	78%
75	Freddie Mac	$9,871,490	43%	56%
76	Human Rights Campaign	$9,856,266	90%	9%
77	AIG	$9,762,412	50%	49%
78	National Restaurant Assn	$9,703,645	16%	83%
79	Southern Co	$9,695,794	31%	68%
80	MetLife Inc	$9,464,192	55%	44%
81	Prudential Financial	$9,428,199	48%	51%
82	American Academy of Ophthalmology	$9,314,538	52%	47%
83	National Cmte to Preserve Social Security & Medicare	$9,200,499	80%	19%
84	Eli Lilly & Co	$9,120,609	28%	70%
85	CSX Corp	$8,997,779	31%	68%
86	Associated General Contractors	$8,883,441	14%	85%
87	American Maritime Officers	$8,855,221	46%	53%
88	Amway/Alticor Inc	$8,763,001	0%	99%
89	National Cmte for an Effective Congress	$8,707,940	99%	0%
90	Archer Daniels Midland	$8,304,114	43%	56%
91	Seafarers International Union	$8,217,644	84%	14%
92	American Airlines	$8,125,535	47%	52%
93	MCI Inc	$8,093,472	46%	53%
94	American Council of Life Insurers	$7,640,504	37%	62%
95	Marine Engineers Beneficial Assn	$7,413,127	74%	25%
96	Bristol-Myers Squibb	$7,263,612	21%	77%
97	Enron Corp	$6,583,257	28%	71%
98	Andersen	$6,313,422	37%	62%
99	BP	$6,137,028	28%	70%
100	Vivendi	$4,492,490	67%	32%

Based on data released by the FEC on November 08, 2009.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center