Update on Detroit: skills gaps, job mismatches

Last updated on: March 26, 2016 at 4:07 pm By Jane the Actuary

For you data-lovers, there’s a new report out, commissioned by JP Morgan Chase, “Detroit’s Untapped Talent: Jobs and On-Ramps Needed; CSW Workforce System Mapping Report: Part I,” as linked to by the Detroit News. The report is sobering. In 2014, there were 278,000 residents of Detroit aged 16 to 64 years in the labor force, compared to 168,000 residents who were not in the labor force. The overall labor force participation rate for city of Detroit residents in this age range was 62%, which... Read more

Women, homeownership, discrimination: when everything’s a nail

Last updated on: February 1, 2016 at 9:20 am By Jane the Actuary

You know the adage: if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Also, the recurring Ann Althouse theme: whenever there are differences between men and women, activists and journalists will find ways to turn that into an injustice perpetrated against women, or a way in which they are superior to men in some way. Here’s an example from Sunday’s Chicago Tribune — actually a syndicated feature originally published on January 8, but never mind that — titled “Single... Read more

Three questions about the Islamic Society of Baltimore – UPDATE

Last updated on: February 3, 2016 at 12:04 pm By Jane the Actuary

Question 1: are women and girls required to wear a head-covering to attend prayers, or taught that it is a requirement of the faith? Are female schoolchildren and female teachers required to “cover” in their classes, and, if so, to what degree? Question 2: are women and girls treated with equality when it comes to community prayer, either able to pray alongside the men, or in a similarly-appointed area with prayer leaders who pray alongside them? Question 3: when Barack... Read more

Crochet help, please!

Last updated on: January 30, 2016 at 7:00 pm By Jane the Actuary

Looking for help please! I’m going to have another go at amigurimi, but my problem the last time was getting started with crocheting in the round, with a magic round. So a simple request: do any readers know of a web site/page which explains this clearly? thanks in advance! Read more

Update on Germany: new Grand Coalition migrant policies

Last updated on: January 30, 2016 at 5:00 pm By Jane the Actuary

This, from Friday’s Der Spiegel: “Grand Coalition agrees on a new Asylum Package,” as well as “Refugee policy: The compromise-compromise – the facts about Asylum Package II“, which provides the details of the new agreement between the leaders of the CDU/CSU/SDP Grand Coalition: Refugees with subsidiary protection will not be able to bring families to Germany for the next two years, with the exception of Syrians whose family members are currently in refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, up to... Read more

The other side of “reproductive choice” — the working poor

Last updated on: January 30, 2016 at 9:17 am By Jane the Actuary

Getting tired of discussing abortion, so: Earlier today, in reaction to a Chris Christie statement about Planned Parenthood funding at yesterday’s debate, Nick Kristof, the New York Times columnist, tweeted, Attn: Chris Christie. One Planned Parenthood IUD costs $500. One Medicaid childbirth costs $14,000. You’re not saving government money. Which reminded me of a post I had written back in April, which I’m going to revisit now. What follows is this old post, but with edits throughout to try to... Read more

Are Vertical Farms our future?

Last updated on: January 28, 2016 at 7:42 pm By Jane the Actuary

Here’s an article featured on Drudge yesterday: “The world’s first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily.” The Japanese lettuce production company Spread believes the farmers of the future will be robots. So much so that Spread is creating the world’s first farm manned entirely by robots. Instead of relying on human farmers, the indoor Vegetable Factory will employ robots that can harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce every day. Don’t expect a bunch of humanoid robots to roam... Read more

So what about early miscarriages, anyway?

Last updated on: January 28, 2016 at 6:59 pm By Jane the Actuary

So what about early miscarriages? You’ve heard that before – and it’s reappeared in comments on a prior blog post. It goes like this: large proportions of newly-conceived embryos/blastocysts/fertilized eggs/unborn babies simply don’t make it past those very early weeks of pregnancy. This means that there’s nothing wrong with intentionally “inducing a miscarriage” during (or after) this time period. Why? Take your pick of reasons: The fact that these early miscarriages occur means that God clearly doesn’t think that human... Read more

Remember the “blue card”? How times have changed!

Last updated on: January 27, 2016 at 8:11 pm By Jane the Actuary

That was a part of the failed 2006 immigration bill, helpfully summarized by Wikipedia, though with few specifics on this topic. My memory is that this was touted as the ultimate solution to illegal immigration: as many employers as wished to hire non-U.S. residents would simply bring workers in, on a temporary basis, with, rather than a “green card” (which isn’t actually green), a “blue card,” so all those individuals who would have otherwise come illegally would no be able... Read more

Do you believe in natural rights?

Last updated on: January 28, 2016 at 11:47 am By Jane the Actuary

The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Andre B., in a comment on my “pro-choice-ism” post: “persons acquire rights because the societies they are a part of decide to grant them.” What about you, dear reader? Do you believe in “natural rights” – that is, that certain rights are... Read more