Monday, January 31, 2011
WSJ: Home Price Declines Accelerate
Crumbling asset prices, rising commodity prices. What the hell is going on?
WSJ: Home Price Declines Accelerate
WSJ: Home Price Declines Accelerate
model question paper vlsi BE/B.TECH. DEGREE EXAMINATION, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008. Seventh Semester Electronics and Communication Engineering EC-1401-VLSI DESIGN
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BE/B.TECH. DEGREE EXAMINATION, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008.Seventh SemesterElectronics and Communication EngineeringEC-1401-VLSI DESIGN(Regulation 2004)
PART-A-(10*2=20 marks)
1.How do you prevent Latch up problem?
2.List any two types of layout design rules.
3.Define rise time and fall time.
4.Write an expression for power dissipation in CMOS inverter.
5.Differentiate between conditional and
www.annauniv.edu/Anna univ be second semester syllabus download Anna university be btech syllabus download
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www.annauniv.edu Anna univ be second semester syllabus download Anna university be btech syllabus download
Anna univ be second semester syllabus download Anna university be btech syllabus downloadANNA UNIVERSITY CHENNAICURRICULUM AND SYLLABIUNDER REGULATIONS 2008 FOR AFFILIATED INSTITUTIONS(with effect from the academic year 2008 – 2009)(Common to all B.E. / B.Tech. Degree Programmesexcept B.E.
Anna univ be second semester syllabus download Anna university be btech syllabus downloadANNA UNIVERSITY CHENNAICURRICULUM AND SYLLABIUNDER REGULATIONS 2008 FOR AFFILIATED INSTITUTIONS(with effect from the academic year 2008 – 2009)(Common to all B.E. / B.Tech. Degree Programmesexcept B.E.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
GST should be in this year's tax summit
Comments on Annabel Hepworth and Siobhain Ryan “Call to put GST in tax summit”, 31/01/2011, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/call-to-put-gst-in-tax-summit/story-fn59niix-1225997120225
While including GST in the tax summit this year is without doubt a perfect argument, some of the arguments here or in the Henry tax review report are just purely elementary school economics or
While including GST in the tax summit this year is without doubt a perfect argument, some of the arguments here or in the Henry tax review report are just purely elementary school economics or
Failing Gilalrd government
Comments on Mirko Bagaric “Flood of bad decisions from Gillard”, 31/01/2011, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/flood-of-bad-decisions-from-gillard/story-fn59niix-1225997082458
Gillard and her government have been playing a divisive game with the Australian public:
use politics for a flood levy to generate a division between the flood areas and the rest; and
to tax higher income
Gillard and her government have been playing a divisive game with the Australian public:
use politics for a flood levy to generate a division between the flood areas and the rest; and
to tax higher income
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Kerala medical and engineering entrance test 2011
Kerala medical and engineering entrance test 2011
The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations under Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, has invited applications for engineering and medical entrance examinations to be held on April 18, 19 and 20, for 2011-12 admissions to the following professional degree courses conducted in various colleges in the State.
Medical: MBBS, BDS, BHMS, BAMS and
Wage increases in China
Comments on Cai Fang and Wang Meiyan “Chinese wages and the turning point in the Chinese economy”, 29/01/2011, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2011/01/29/chinese-wages-and-the-turning-point-in-the-chinese-economy/
There are a few points needing some clarification.
The second reason given for worrying less about wage increases is moving westward of labour intensive industries inside China, because
There are a few points needing some clarification.
The second reason given for worrying less about wage increases is moving westward of labour intensive industries inside China, because
Measures for improving housing affordability in China
Comments on Li Shi “Social security and housing the poor in China”, 28/01/2011, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2011/01/28/social-security-and-housing-the-poor-in-china/
AS Professor Li said, there are no easy solutions to social affordable housing.
Beyond the three schemes, I think the government should consider a specific tax that targets the wasteful empty properties that exist in many Chinese
AS Professor Li said, there are no easy solutions to social affordable housing.
Beyond the three schemes, I think the government should consider a specific tax that targets the wasteful empty properties that exist in many Chinese
Friday, January 28, 2011
No alarm for Australia's aged care
Comments on Mike Steketee “Problem of the ageing boomers won't go away”, 29/01/2011, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/problem-of-the-ageing-boomers-wont-go-away/story-e6frg6zo-1225996154932
Australia should not be too alarmed by the so called population aging issue.
Australia is different from Japan and most Western European nations because of its capacity to absorb immigration.
Australia should not be too alarmed by the so called population aging issue.
Australia is different from Japan and most Western European nations because of its capacity to absorb immigration.
Gillard's sinking PM leadership
Comments on Jennifer Hewett “Gillard's smooth sell upset by a few critics”, 29/01/2011, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/gillards-smooth-sell-upset-by-a/story-e6frg6zo-1225996389875
A very nice and can I say balanced analysis of Gillard's levy tax.
Gillard, though smart enough, has shown an unfortunate tendency to do stupid things, such as the BER school halls huge wastes under her
A very nice and can I say balanced analysis of Gillard's levy tax.
Gillard, though smart enough, has shown an unfortunate tendency to do stupid things, such as the BER school halls huge wastes under her
US GDP Growth
Everyone is reporting, but I'll link to the NPR story the latest GDP figures because a student pointed me there and there is a nice graph I can steal.
First off growth is a good thing and it is nice to see. But I am not very optimistic that it means much right now as stimulus dollars are running out and soon states across the nation will have to dramatically slash spending. This is going to put a big brake on economic growth that I don't think increases in consumer spending will fully counteract.
Still, six straight quarters of positive growth is pretty good evidence that the worst is over.
Military Retirees Receive No Cost of Living Adjustment
Government says no inflation since 2008.
"Unfortunately, military retirees and annuitants will not receive a Cost of Living Adjustment increase in 2011. Most Survivor Benefit Plan premiums will not increase either.
Every year, military retirement pay and Social Security benefits are automatically adjusted to compensate for inflation. The adjustment is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the previous year. Published by the Department of Labor, the CPI is a measurement of the cost of purchased goods. This year, there was no increase in the index when compared to the third quarter of 2008, the last year we had inflation."
Source: COLA Update for 2011
"Unfortunately, military retirees and annuitants will not receive a Cost of Living Adjustment increase in 2011. Most Survivor Benefit Plan premiums will not increase either.
Every year, military retirement pay and Social Security benefits are automatically adjusted to compensate for inflation. The adjustment is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the previous year. Published by the Department of Labor, the CPI is a measurement of the cost of purchased goods. This year, there was no increase in the index when compared to the third quarter of 2008, the last year we had inflation."
Source: COLA Update for 2011
Coffee anyone?
If a meeting becomes stressful, does it help, or make things worse, if team members drink lots of coffee? A study by Lindsay St. Claire and colleagues that set out to answer this question has uncovered an unexpected sex difference. For two men collaborating or negotiating under stressful circumstances, caffeine consumption was bad news, undermining their performance and confidence. By contrast, for pairs of women, drinking caffeine often had a beneficial effect on these same factors. The researchers can't be sure, but they think the differential effect of caffeine on men and women may have to do with the fact that women tend to respond to stress in a collaborative, mutually protective style (known as 'tend and befriend') whereas men usually exhibit a fight or flight response.
The study involved 64 male and female participants (coffee drinkers at the University of Bristol with an average age of 22) completing various construction puzzles, negotiation and collaborative memory tasks in same-sex pairs. They did this after drinking decaffeinated coffee, which either had or hadn't been spiked covertly with caffeine (the equivalent of about three cups' worth of coffee). Stress was elevated for some of the pairs by telling them they would shortly have to give a public presentation, and by warning them that their participation fee would be performance dependent.
How large were the caffeine effects? The men's memory performance under stressful conditions with caffeine was described by the researchers as 'greatly impaired' whereas caffeine didn't affect women in the same situation. For the construction puzzles, caffeine under high stress conditions led men to take an average of twenty seconds longer (compared with no caffeine) whereas it led women to solve the puzzles 100 seconds faster.
St. Claire, L., Hayward, R., and Rogers, P. (2010). Interactive Effects of Caffeine Consumption and Stressful Circumstances on Components of Stress: Caffeine Makes Men Less, But Women More Effective as Partners Under Stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40 (12), 3106-3129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00693.x
From BPS Research Digest, issue 182
Thursday, January 27, 2011
According to an informal vote of Indian School of Business MBAs...
...the cities with the most potential for real estate investment in India are Pune and Ahmedabad.
Egypt Shuts Down Internet And Text Messaging Ahead Of Million-Man Protests
Important strategic location (i.e. Suez Canal).
Egypt Shuts Down Internet And Text Messaging Ahead Of Million-Man Protests
Egypt Shuts Down Internet And Text Messaging Ahead Of Million-Man Protests
More stringent constraints needed on government's wants to increase taxation
Comments on Stephen Bartholomeusz “Gillard's spinning in a straitjacket”, 28/01/2011, http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Julia-Gillard-floods-levy-politics-pd20110127-DH7J5?OpenDocument&src=sph&src=rot
There should be more stringent constraints on any government that does spin and hurts taxpayers.
There should be more stringent constraints on any government that wants to
There should be more stringent constraints on any government that does spin and hurts taxpayers.
There should be more stringent constraints on any government that wants to
Emotional health of undergraduates
This article from the New York Times reports "The emotional health of college freshmen — who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school — has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago".
Economic Education
Foreclosures are on the rise dispite what you've heard about a recovering economy ... and this time it isn't about people having more house than they can afford -- its about the lost of jobs.
Cities that have seen a large increase
It is worse now than it was under Carter, I swear ... we will never see 80cent loaves of bread again.
Cities that have seen a large increase
- Houston
- Seattle
- Atlanta (where they were bursting at the seams just a few years back)
- 149 of Nation's largest cities have seen increase
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Foreclosure rates increases:
Houston 26%
Seattle 23%
Atlanta 21%
Chicago 16%
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
1 in 45 households rec'd foreclosure filings 2010
2.9M homes rec'd foreclosures in 2010
increased by 1.67% over 2009
30K homeowners participated in Gov'ts anti-foreclosure Program (Dec 2010)
info from RealtyTrac
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Good thing we went so deeply in Federal debt to "save" the country, huh?It is worse now than it was under Carter, I swear ... we will never see 80cent loaves of bread again.
Oregon University Funding and Faculty Salaries
Oregon Business Magazine reports on the Oregon University System's latest self study. The above chart is part of it and shows faculty salaries in Oregon as compared to all other states. Oregon does poorly. A few things to note about this - the first being that I clearly need a raise. But seriously, there is a lot of talk about the generous benefits Oregon offers state employees, and they are pretty generous, but without them we would lag badly in terms of relative pay, these generous benefits vault faculty salaries from 43rd in the nation to 31st. So talk of cutting into benefits has to take into account the fact that benefits are a component of overall compensation, so if you cut benefits you will have to increase salaries to stay competitive. And you will too because the second thing to notice is how states 44 through 50 offer a much lower cost of living. I suspect that if you remade the left hand table with figures normalized by cost of living, Oregon would come out dead last.
But my experience is that faculty are not as self-interested as you might think and what rankles academics in the state is the funding cuts that affect class size, instructional support, research seminars, travel to conferences to stay current in your field. Academics became academics for the most part because they are passionate about their fields of study and they want to be able to effectively translate their expertise into knowledge for the next generation. Most of us went into academics knowing that we could have become wealthier if we chose a different path, so it is not as much about personal gain as you might think. I think deteriorating working conditions are more responsible for the recent loss of two professors in my department than the fact that they now command much, much higher salaries at other state's universities.
Still academics are not immune to personal compensation. There is a lot of talk about the fact that part of the compensation for working in Oregon is being able to live in Oregon and this is true. Economists call this a compensating wage differential. It is exactly what led me to choose a 25% lower salary but the opportunity to come back to Oregon, and there are many others like me. But not that many. There are lots of good places to live in the US and the world and if Oregon is unable to offer at least somewhat competitive salaries they are not going to be able to recruit the better talent and ultimately it will be the students and the state that suffer. The research that gets done will not be as relevant or cutting edge (you'd better believe that the academic market prices these things), the knowledge that gets passed on will not be as timely or sophisticated and the students produced will not be as dynamic or productive.
If Oregon is unable to adequately support state universities, universities must be allowed to do what is necessary to support themselves. I support the efforts by the OUS to become a university system and achieve more independence. But more on that later.
Mani, Hoddinott and Strauss: Long Term Effects of Early Schooling
Long-term impact of investments in early schooling
Mani, Subha
Hoddinott, John
Strauss, John
Abstract
This paper identifies the cumulative impact of early schooling investments on later schooling outcomes in the context of a developing country, using enrollment status and relative grade attainment (RGA) as short- and long-run measures of schooling. Using a child-level longitudinal dataset from rural Ethiopia, we estimate a dynamic conditional schooling demand function where the coefficient estimate on the lagged dependent variable captures the impact of all previous periods’ schooling inputs and resources. We find that this lagged dependent variable indicates a strong positive association between current and lagged schooling. Past history matters more for girls than boys and for children from higher-income households compared with the poor.
Mani, Subha
Hoddinott, John
Strauss, John
Abstract
This paper identifies the cumulative impact of early schooling investments on later schooling outcomes in the context of a developing country, using enrollment status and relative grade attainment (RGA) as short- and long-run measures of schooling. Using a child-level longitudinal dataset from rural Ethiopia, we estimate a dynamic conditional schooling demand function where the coefficient estimate on the lagged dependent variable captures the impact of all previous periods’ schooling inputs and resources. We find that this lagged dependent variable indicates a strong positive association between current and lagged schooling. Past history matters more for girls than boys and for children from higher-income households compared with the poor.
SOTU
A couple weeks ago, the recently departed CEA chairwoman Christy Romer wrote a good piece explaining what the President should say in the State of the Union. Here is what the President in fact said a couple days ago.
Question for class discussion: Did the President do what his former economic adviser recommended?
Question for class discussion: Did the President do what his former economic adviser recommended?
SOTU
A couple weeks ago, the recently departed CEA chairwoman Christy Romer wrote a good piece explaining what the President should say in the State of the Union. Here is what the President in fact said a couple days ago.
Question for class discussion: Did the President do what his former economic adviser recommended?
Question for class discussion: Did the President do what his former economic adviser recommended?
The Atlas of Religion
The Atlas of Religion
The world's religions have emerged as one of the greatest geopolitical forces now shaping our lives. Now available in an updated edition, this authoritative atlas is an essential resource for understanding the powerful role of religion around the globe. In an accessible text packed with information, it maps the current nature, extent, and influence of each of the major religions and shows, country by country, how religions are spread through broadcasting, missionary work, schooling, and banking; how they relate to government, laws, and world hunger; and the role they play in wars. It traces the emergence of new religious movements, the survival of traditional beliefs, and the presence of atheism and agnosticism. The Atlas of Religion also locates the origin, the heartland, and the sacred places of each of the major religions and provides essential background with a valuable table showing the fundamental beliefs of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and Taoism.
Copub: Myriad Editions Limited
List Price: $ 22.95
Price: $ 11.00
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we are the physics @ the attic/the garage
A few nice Physics images I found:
we are the physics @ the attic/the garage
Image by twistyfoldy.net
We Are The Physics
The Attic
The Garage
Glasgow
Physics-Electrical-1
Image by Hoomant
Sharif University of Technology, between Physics Campus and Electrical Engineering Campus
Dutch Graphic Design: A Century
Dutch Graphic Design: A Century
While the extraordinary achievements of Dutch graphic design in the twentieth century have long been recognized, this book is the first comprehensive account of the development of graphic design in the Netherlands, from its beginnings in 1890 to the present. Richly illustrated with 550 full-color plates, Dutch Graphic Design portrays a remarkable diversity of styles and techniques in a wide range of media and applications: books and typeface design, commercial printing, posters, postage stamps, corporate identity programs, logos, signage, and much more. Included is the work of individual designers such as Jan Toorop, Jan van Krimpen, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Zwart, Hendrik Werkman, Willem Sandberg, Wim Crouwel, H. P. Berlage, and H. Th. Wijdeveld, to name but a few. Their work is discussed in the context of such themes as the decorated book, the Wendingen magazines, Dadaism, De Stijl, pictographs, the underground press of the occupation years, the fifty best books, corporate design, and current trends.
List Price: $ 40.00
Price: $ 19.99
Who Needs Parents? The Effects of Childcare and Early Education on Children in Britain and the USA (Choice in Welfare) Reviews
Who Needs Parents? The Effects of Childcare and Early Education on Children in Britain and the USA (Choice in Welfare)
In this timely book Morgan examines a vast corpus of research data which reveals that, while the childcare bandwagon has been gathering speed, a considerable amount of evidence has been accumulating which calls into question the idea that third-party childcare is good for children.
Morgan criticises the relentless propagandising of 'show projects' in which lavish resources are allocated to severely deprived children, for whom almost anything would have been an improvement on their home circumstances. She argues that we must look at the research into the sort of childcare which ordinary mothers actually use, and that this tells a very different story. It seems that childcare children may be disadvantaged in terms of their educational performance, their behaviour and their attachment to their mothers, compared with children cared for at home. Childcare advocates claim that they only want the best quality childcare, and that it must be made available to all. However, high-quality childcare is so expensive that it could never be widely available, and those governments which have made ideological commitments to providing it have, in the end, largely given up - except on the rhetoric.
Price:
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Appomattox, The War Of The Blue And The Gray: A Thrilling And Entertaining Drama, In Five Acts (1892) Reviews
Appomattox, The War Of The Blue And The Gray: A Thrilling And Entertaining Drama, In Five Acts (1892)
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!
List Price: $ 27.16
Price: $ 27.15
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Wednesday, January 26, 2011
How much freedom to choose?
Ed Glaeser argues that the "moral heart of economics" is "freedom" and in particular the "freedom to choose:"
I will leave it to others to dispute the notion that more choices are always better than fewer. But I can't help but think that it is to easy for those of us who are tenured professors to extoll the virtue of free choice, for the simple reason that we get so many, well, choices. We get to choose what we write, we to a large extent get to choose what we teach inside our classes, and we can piss our deans off and pay fairly little in the way of consequences. We might not get a raise or we might have to teach a class that we would rather not, but this is all small beer. We can make an awful lot of choices and still be economically secure.
Now consider the administrative assistant at a corporation who has a boorish boss and a sick kid. The company she (he) works for has a good health insurance plan, but if she were to leave, she would find herself unable to get coverage at a reasonable price. Does she really have choice?
Consider the West Virginia coal miner who goes into a dangerous mine every day, and whose life expectancy is shortened with each hour worked underground. Now consider the fact that the miner grew up in a West Virginia town with a poor school in an environment where going to college was a rare phenomenon. Does that miner have a choice?
I could go on, but I think the point is fairly clear. There are times when government intervention could expand the choice set up a large number of people.
Ed does point out how government can improve choice sets, and for that he deserves credit. But the more fundamental problem is that market economies produce large institutions that have limited markets inside of them, and therefore sometimes have hierarchies that can be as inhospitable to personal liberty as government bureaucracies. Elinor Ostrom's Nobel win in 2009 shows that the economics profession is beginning to recognize this problem, but I am not sure Ph.D. students are broadly encouraged to study it.
Improvements in welfare occur when there are improvements in utility, and those occur only when an individual gets an option that wasn’t previously available. We typically prove that someone’s welfare has increased when the person has an increased set of choices.
When we make that assumption (which is hotly contested by some people, especially psychologists), we essentially assume that the fundamental objective of public policy is to increase freedom of choice.
I will leave it to others to dispute the notion that more choices are always better than fewer. But I can't help but think that it is to easy for those of us who are tenured professors to extoll the virtue of free choice, for the simple reason that we get so many, well, choices. We get to choose what we write, we to a large extent get to choose what we teach inside our classes, and we can piss our deans off and pay fairly little in the way of consequences. We might not get a raise or we might have to teach a class that we would rather not, but this is all small beer. We can make an awful lot of choices and still be economically secure.
Now consider the administrative assistant at a corporation who has a boorish boss and a sick kid. The company she (he) works for has a good health insurance plan, but if she were to leave, she would find herself unable to get coverage at a reasonable price. Does she really have choice?
Consider the West Virginia coal miner who goes into a dangerous mine every day, and whose life expectancy is shortened with each hour worked underground. Now consider the fact that the miner grew up in a West Virginia town with a poor school in an environment where going to college was a rare phenomenon. Does that miner have a choice?
I could go on, but I think the point is fairly clear. There are times when government intervention could expand the choice set up a large number of people.
Ed does point out how government can improve choice sets, and for that he deserves credit. But the more fundamental problem is that market economies produce large institutions that have limited markets inside of them, and therefore sometimes have hierarchies that can be as inhospitable to personal liberty as government bureaucracies. Elinor Ostrom's Nobel win in 2009 shows that the economics profession is beginning to recognize this problem, but I am not sure Ph.D. students are broadly encouraged to study it.
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