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37366 More on the UK rail crash -- rank: 1000

Carl Remick wrote: >It is called an automatic train protection (ATP) system. If a >careless driver jumps a red light, the brakes come on and the train >halts. It is in use in many American trains It's even in the NYC subway, which hardly sets a technological standard in anything except maybe graffiti-proofing. Doug

Document Size:	4766
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Oct 8 16:27:55 PDT 1999

37367 E Timorese embrace escudo -- rank: 1000

rc-am wrote: >btw, isn't Portugal in the EU? Yes, and it's a Euro country too. Doug

Document Size:	4494
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Oct 8 15:43:43 PDT 1999

37368 AFL-CIO & WTO -- rank: 1000

I just spoke with someone with good contacts within the AFL-CIO who says the Seattle Weekly article I forwarded here the other day - the one reporting that labor had pretty much withdrawn from the WTO battle - is hogwash circulated by self-aggrandizing Naderites who want to position themselves as the authentic militants (and cardboard dinosaurs are an important part of any such strategy). The major difference, says my source, between the AFL-CIO and the other groups is that the Federation wants ...

Document Size:	5109
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Oct 8 08:20:16 PDT 1999

37369 NYT does Sweden -- rank: 1000

[Krugman's falling behind - he was only a few days ahead of the latest conventional wisdom.] New York Times - October 8, 1999 REBOUNDING SWEDEN DEFIES THE LAWS OF ECONOMIC GRAVITY By Edmund L. Andrews STOCKHOLM -- At a time when world leaders are fascinated by the United States' economic success and its credo of less government and low taxes, Sweden seems to be defying gravity. This is still, after all, a country where government consumes nearly 60 percent of the national economy, far above the ...

Document Size:	16357
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Oct 8 05:50:07 PDT 1999

37370 AFL-CIO restructuring -- rank: 1000

Nathan Newman wrote: >The fact is that trashing "mushy centrism" is like trashing gravity. Ah, so the status quo is eternal, like a force of nature? Doug

Document Size:	4530
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 14:38:50 PDT 1999

37371 The winner is China? -- rank: 1000

Several interesting points from that Economist article: no "superprofits" are being made by foreign investors, and domestic Chinese firms are earning a 19% return, which meaty but not "super"; MNCs are at least as interested in strong domestic markets as they are in cheap export platforms; and far from homogenizing everything, foreign investors have to accommodate themselves to local markets, tastes, and practices. Doug

Document Size:	4795
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 14:49:02 PDT 1999

37372 Bill Gates's mugshot -- rank: 1000

An Albuquerque PD mugshot of Bill Gates is at <http://www.apbnews.com/media/gfiles/mugshots/bgates.html>. (Thanks to Jeff St Clair for pointing this out.) The associated article says: >Exactly why Microsoft mogul Bill Gates was arrested has never been >made clear. The records manager at the Albuquerque Police Department >said that after a thorough search no arrest record was found in >connection with this mug shot. Microsoft spokeswoman Kimberly >Kuresman said that Gates rec ...

Document Size:	5573
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 10:49:17 PDT 1999

37373 AFL-CIO restructuring -- rank: 1000

Nathan Newman wrote: >I love how much the insane freerepublic.com people sound like the insane LBO >people. Curiously enough, freerepublic.com is one of the leading sources of visitors to the LBO website. I think we "insane" people are united in our distaste for mushy centrism, as much as we differ on everything else. Doug

Document Size:	4718
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 10:23:33 PDT 1999

37374 More on the UK rail crash -- rank: 1000

Carl Remick wrote: >Today's Guardian notes that one consequence of privatizing UK rail >service has been a falloff in reinvestment. > >The Guardian states: "A report for the office of the rail regulator >by the consultants Booz, Allen & Hamilton had harsh words to say >about the lack of investment. 'Track renewals have averaged around >1.3% per annum during the control period (1995-2001). This is low by >comparison with European railways, which typically replace ...

Document Size:	5454
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 08:46:20 PDT 1999

37375 E Timorese embrace escudo -- rank: 1000

[from the World Bank's daily clipping service] EAST TIMORESE WANT PORTUGUESE INTERIM CURRENCY. East Timorese resistance leaders said yesterday their people placed particular trust in Portugal, the territory's former colonial ruler, and urged the UN to give Lisbon a bigger role in their transition to independence, reports the Financial Times (p.8). Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta said in London yesterday he and independence leader Xanana Gusmao wanted UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ...

Document Size:	6176
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 08:32:26 PDT 1999

37376 Krugman on Sweden -- rank: 1000

kayak3 wrote: >I was in Stockholm in August. It definetly was one of the most beautiful >cities on our tour and it certainly did appear to be properous. One >question. Our travel guide noted that in 1980 the Swedish workers >compensation was the 3rd highest in the world and that it had dropped to >about 13th by the mid-90's. Does anyone know if this has changed the >last few years? The BLS has international comparisons of manufacturing compensation at <http://stats.bls.gov/n ...

Document Size:	5552
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 08:17:01 PDT 1999

37377 Conferees Agree on Way to Keep the F-22 Alive -- rank: 1000

Michael Pollak wrote: >[Wasn't this guy Weiner the reporter who was so credulous in the Chinese >spy scandal? He's like an industry plant.] Weiner was pretty good when he was at the Philadelphia Inquirer covering the CIA & Pentagon. He did a pretty good book on the Pentagon's secret budget. Once he went over to the NYT he started sucking. What is it about that paper? Doug

Document Size:	5020
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 08:27:27 PDT 1999

37378 debating libertarians -- rank: 1000

rc-am wrote: >my impression, from the distance of melbourne, is that the davidians were >peculiar for the US in the extent to which they were not a 'white sect'. The Workers Vanguard analysis made a lot of this too - that the authorities just couldn't stand it that the sect was so multiracial and multiethnic. Also, speaking of WV and MOVE, the latest WV has a column by Mumia Abu-Jamal on Waco. He brings up the MOVE massacre as a parallel (as he says, the only person to do any jail time was ...

Document Size:	5036
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Oct 7 05:15:16 PDT 1999

37379 Gayatri speaks (NYC) -- rank: 1000

A Critique of Postcolonial Reason a book party & discussion with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Monday, October 11 7:30 p.m. The Brecht Forum 122 West 27th Street, 10th Floor (Between 6th and 7th Avenues) Sliding Scale Admission: $6-$10 In her recent book, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, Spivak presents her first full treatment of postcolonial studies, a field that she helped define. The book addresses feminists, philosophers, critics, and interventionist intellectuals and ranges from Kant's ...

Document Size:	5175
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Oct 6 18:38:59 PDT 1999

37380 Krugman on Sweden -- rank: 1000

[Unfortunately this isn't on Fortune's website, nor is it on Krugman's. But that's what scanners are for!] Fortune - October 25, 1999 Economics: The Vindication Of Scandinomics? WHO KNEW? THE SWEDISH MODEL IS WORKING By Paul Krugman Until recently, when people asked me what kind of a society I wanted to see, I had a stock answer: "Sweden in the summer of 1980." Why Sweden? Because I am a soggy liberal, and Sweden has traditionally been the exemplar of what used to be called the ,'middl ...

Document Size:	9289
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Oct 6 15:40:20 PDT 1999