Gibson Gives In

Gibson Guitar Settles Claim Over Imported Ebony

Gibson Guitar Corporation has agreed to pay $350,000 in penalties to settle federal charges that it illegally imported ebony Madagascar to use for fret boards, ending a criminal investigation that had drawn fire from conservatives as an example of over-reaching by the government, the Justice Department announced on Monday.

The guitar maker agreed to pay a $300,000 fine and to donate $50,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to promote the protection of endangered hardwood trees, like ebony and rosewood. In return, the government deferred prosecution of the company for criminal violations of the Lacey Act, which since May 2008 has made it illegal to import wood that was harvested and exported illegally under another country’s laws... 

Orlianthi with Gibson Les Paul

Bear in mind the policy is not about saving endangered species, but rather "social justice", the notion that the job of finishing the wood that's already been harvested should be done by the native labor.

Gibson said the shipments were legal and disputed the government’s interpretation of Indian and Madagascar laws, which the company maintains allow the exportation of “fingerboard blanks,” which are in essence a piece of hardwood cut to the dimensions of a guitar fret board. But federal officials defended the raids, saying the company had failed to comply with the Lacey Act and its officials had willfully turned a blind eye to evidence the exports were in fact illegal.

The settlement announced on Monday is a compromise that frees Gibson from the criminal charges as long as the company doesn’t violate the agreement over the next year and a half. As part of the deal, Gibson agreed to withdraw a suit seeking to recover about $261,000 worth of ebony and rosewood that was seized during the investigation.

Allison Robertson - Gibson Les Paul

The cost of fighting such actions by the feds could rapidly exceed the settlement costs, so it only makes sense to

So the administration drives a few hundred more jobs overseas, and, oh so coincidentally, hurts a company that contributes to the GOP, and helps it's competition (Martin Guitars), who just happens to donate to the Democrats.


Previous posts on Gibson's problems with the feds:

Sheryl Crow - Gibson Hummingbird?

Feds Raid Gibson Guitars

Update on Gibson Guitar Grab

The Rally for Gibson

Tennesse Lawmakers Propose "Gibson Owners Protection"

Are You Resigned to the Mexi Paul?

Feds Promise Not to Persecute Guitar Owners 

Two masters of the guitar, Les Paul, the inventor of the electric guitar, for which the Les Paul guitar line is named, and Chet Atkins. I appreciate the "spat" about guitar brands at the end..

New Brazilian Soccer Game

I hope they propose this as a new sport for the next Olympiad.



That's how beach volleyball got started right?

Trust But Verify

A photo-op we see over and over at the Olympics is the Gold Medal Winner biting the medal, an apparent reference to the old time practice of biting a gold coin to verify that it's made of true gold:

Aly Raisman - US Gymnastics

Of course, Olympic Gold Medals are not pure gold.  Olympic Gold medal are actually 92.5% silver, plated with 6 grams of 24 karat gold.  Since silver is slightly harder than gold, and most alloys are harder than the pure metal, these girls are risking dental damage.

Jaime Gray - US Rifle

 More Olympic chicks biting their medals below.  They guys do it too, but who cares?

Jessica Ennis - UK Heptathlon

Jessica Rossi - Italy Trap Shooting

Kayla Harrison - US Judo

Kim Jang-Mi - South Korea Pistol

Roosannagh MacLennan - Canada Trampoline

Wenjun Guo - China Air Pistol

Yana Shenyakin - Ukraine Fencing

Ruta Meilutyte - Lithuania Swimming

Serena Williams - US Tennis

An Kum Ae - North Korea Judo

This last one looks like she might really want to eat it.

North Korea's key to success: Fridges for winners, labour camps for losers

Italian Fencing Team

Elisa Di Francisca, Arianna Errigo, Valentina Vezzali and Ilaria Salvatori

Rule 5 Saturday - Warehouse Women

Rule 5 Saturday rolls around again, and time to select victims subjects!  After rolling two twenty sided dice and consulting an obscure table, know only to me, I've settled on the Women of Warehouse 13.  If you don't follow it, I'm not surprised.  Warehouse 13 is one of those cheap sci-fi shows that is summer fare on the Sci-Fi Channel, on Friday Monday night.

Joanne Kelly as Mika Bering

The theme?  Do you remember the very end of the first Indiana Jones movie, where they took the fabled and deadly magic Ark of the Covenant, stuck it in a box, and piled it in a huge warehouse full of similarly anonymous boxes?  Warehouse 13 is that warehouse.

An amusing cast of characters keeps track of the items (called "artifacts") in the warehouse (which turns out to be an artifact in itself).  A couple of Secret Service agents are assigned to track down missing artifacts, and of course, on of them is a woman, Myka Bering, played by Joanna Kelly.  Possessing an eidetic memory, she plays the straight, responsible woman.

Allison Scagliotti, aka "Claudia Donovan"

The other woman most closely attached to the Warehouse is Claudia Donovan, played by Allison Scagliotti, who plays (and I quote wiki who stole it from promo material, I'm sure):

"a young, hip, brilliant techno-wiz" who earns a job at Warehouse 13 after discovering too many of its secrets

It's also clear she will play a more significant role in the Warehouse's future, should the Warehouse (the series I mean) survive.

Leena

Genelle Williams plays Leena, the proprietor of the local bead and breakfast, and a psychic with the ability to "read peoples auras".  Whoopee! Since the Warehouse is located out in Bumfuck Univlle, South Dakota (do you think they'd trust it in Washington DC, and besides, I think it's beyond their control), all visitors have to stay with her.  Needless to say, people who visit the Warehouse aren't exactly normal.

H. G. Wells

H. (Helena) G. Wells is a recurring character played by Jaime Murray.  A British agent from a former incarnation of the Warehouse (in England).  Bronzed (think Han Solo and Jabba D. Hut) for improprieties, she was freed by Leena.  At some points villain, and at some points heroine, she is currently presumed dead after an act of self sacrifice.  But death is rarely permanent when magic is part of the plot...

And then, there's Mrs. Frederic, the real boss...

She told me if I was going to do this, I had to include her, or else...

Found by the DaleyGator for their Rule 5 Journey with Kadie Ann Johns.  Be sure to see their Daley Babes, fresh daily, too.  William Teach at Pirate's Cove links with his weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and link collection. Rule 5 Sunday done come on Sunday this week at the Other McCain, with "Every Rose Has It's Thorn."

Nerd Girl Extravaganza

Comic-Con 2012



There's plenty more where that came from.

Should Women Be Doctors?

I'm not a Dr., but I get paid better

Is Medical School a Worthwhile Investment for Women?
The average female primary-care physician would have been financially better off becoming a physician assistant.

Those damn conservative at Atlantic have the intolerance to publish this article claiming the women doctors worse less than men doctors, and that financially at least, they would be better off (on average) becoming physicians assistants:

Focusing on the financial repercussions of these career choices, we use a tool common for analyzing investment called a net-present-value (NPV) calculation. An NPV calculation adds up the costs of obtaining a degree, and all of the earnings received over the career that degree enables, taking into account the fact that money earned later is not as valuable as money earned earlier (due to interest), summarizing a career decision in a single number. This captures the insight that in order for an investment in the high up-front cost medical degree to overcome the lower up-front cost of a PA degree, not only do a doctor's wages have to significantly exceed those of the PA, but the doctor needs to be willing to work enough hours to make those wages pay off.

Some "non-Dr" pictures here

To see if doctors do indeed work long enough hours, we looked at data from a Robert Wood Johnson survey of physicians on how many hours female and male primary-care physicians work at different points in their careers. We combined that with data from the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

We then compared the earnings of male and female physicians in our data and estimate what those individuals would have earned if they had worked as PAs.

We found that, for over half of woman doctors in our data, the NPV of becoming a primary-care physician was less than the NPV of becoming a physician assistant. In contrast, the vast majority of male primary-care physicians earned an NPV greater than the NPV earned by a male PA. That is, while the vast majority of male doctors are financially better off for having become a doctor, the median female primary care physician would have been financially better off becoming a PA.

Even though both male and female doctors both earn higher wages than their PA counterparts, most female doctors don't work enough hours at those wages to financially justify the costs of becoming a doctor.

We also examined alternative medical professions such as pharmacy, and our basic findings were the same. Programs that have high upfront training costs only make financial sense if you plan to work enough hours later on, and many women doctors do not end up working enough to justify the costs they pay.

It is worth noting that this specific result pertains to women primary-care physicians who work about 40 hours a week. Obviously, some women doctors work more hours, and some work many fewer. Women working significantly more than this do get a financial advantage from becoming a physician.

In a nation where physicians are going to be increasingly in demand, and medical care will likely be rationed based on the availability of physicians, does it make sense to even allow women to try to become doctors? I mean, as long as we're going to carefully regulate medicine and all.  It's not like choice should play into this, right?  Or can we mandate that women Drs put in the same hours that the men do?

Or we could pay them less and make more of them.

Found at Althouse.

And to complete the weirdness...



Rule 5 Sunday done come on Sunday this week at the Other McCain, with "Every Rose Has It's Thorn."

The Olympic Babe Page

I'm starting to see "Hot Babes of the Olympic" type posts pop up here and there (not to mention my own feeble attempts , so I though I'd start a page to celebrate and direct you all to notable ladies of the 2012 Olympiad.  I'll update this page as I find things, so come back often.

First up, from Paraguay, the noted spear chucker (and model) , Leryn Franco.  More photos here:

Next, Australian Pole Vaulter, Melanie Adams:

U.S. Women's Volleyball Jen Kessey:

Isabelle Gulden, Sweden, Handball:

Jacque Carvalho, Brazil Volleyball:

Wizbang's Olympic Babe du jour, Logan Tom, USA Beach Volleyball:

Another Wizbang Girl, Darya Klishina, Russian Long Jumper

Olympic athletes tattoos; warning, some of these are male!  Anastasia Davydova, gold medal winning synchronized swimmer:

Jewish American Princess Aly Raisman brings home the gold, and incurs a $10,000 debt to the IRS to the strains of 'Hava Nagila':

Wizbang's Girl du jour is Staphanie Rice, the swimmer from Australia:

Wizbang's Olympic babe for 8/2/12 Emilia Pikkarainen, swimmer from Finland:

While not exactly the height of babedom, the Chinese Badminton pair, Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, 2012 World Champions,  made the news by being disqualified for throwing a match to better their position later in the tournement:

Similarly Korean pairs Kyung Jung and Ha Na Kim:

and Jung Eun Ha and her partner Min Jung Kim

and Indonesian couple Meiliana Jauhari and Gresia Polii were also tossed:

I blame whoever made the rules that allowed throwing games to be potentially advantageous.

Rebecca Soni incurred a debt of almost $10,000 to the US government, by winning the Gold Medal in the 200 meter breaststroke (and setting a new world record).  But she couldn't have done it without Obama's stimulus spending, so she owes it to him.

Gold Medal winning Chinese diver Wu Minxia (now there's a name to conjure with), won the gold, and was then told that her grandparents had died the year previous, and her mother was being treated for breast cancer.  No personal distractions allowed in the the Chinese program:

Wizbang add Jennifer Ennis, British track and field start to their collection:

Urska Zolnir (top) from Slovenia beat China's Xu Lili (bottom) to win the Gold in Judo.  She's not that cute, but I thought if I didn't include her, she might hurt me...

Wizbang's Olympic Babe of the Day is Ivet Lolova, Bulgarian sprinter.

Playing now in the Beach Volley Ball Quarterfinal, Sara Goller, for Germany:

Wizbang's Olympic Chick of Yesterday was Christine Sonali Merril, Track and Field, Sri Lanka.

and their babe of today was Lolo (Lori) Jones, US track and Field.

Rule 5 Sunday done come on Sunday this week at the Other McCain, with "Every Rose Has It's Thorn."