| The Kensington Review |
4 October 2006 |
| Latest Commentary: | Volume V, Number 118 |
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Congress Rushes Through 165 Bills in a Week -- The 109th Congress hasn’t done much of anything, spending more time on vacation than any other Congress in recent history. Social Security reform, nine out of eleven spending bills, immigration legislation and tax simplification remain undone. However, in just one week, legislators who are up for re-election in a month have rammed 165 pieces of legislation through the sausage grinder that is Capitol Hill. And this is a system the administration wants to spread around the world.
Lula Forced into Re-Election Run-Off -- The re-election of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took a twist in Sunday’s voting. He came up a couple percentage points shy of an absolute majority. Under the Brazilian constitution, that means he has to fight a run-off ballot with the second place finisher, former São Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin, who won 41.4% of the vote. The next round of voting occurs on October 29th, and the result is not entirely a foregone conclusion. UK Natural Gas Prices Turn Negative -- Theoreticians of the market like to say that markets are efficient at the production and distributing goods and services. That is not entirely true. Markets are good at weeding out unsuccessful efforts at production and distribution. As an example, the UK has such a glut of natural gas that the spot price for a therm of natural gas actually reached -5p yesterday. That is, traders were paying to get rid of it. Computer Analysis Proves Astronaut Armstrong Got His Line Right -- It has bugged people from all walks of life if they are of an age to remember July 1969. Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the face of the moon, said as he stepped on the lunar surface, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Yet, it was supposed to be “One small step for a man . . . .” Now, 37 years after the fact, a computer programmer from Australia has found the missing “a,” and he vindicates Mr. Armstrong. © Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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