With all the talk recently about whether the US economy is recovering and whether the President is popular, I've put together some links to graphs of how various measures of these things are evolving:
(1) Domestic stock market (S&P 500 and Dow Jones),
(2) Nationwide unemployment rate,
(3) For an indication of the housing market, the quarterly FHFA House Price Index and monthly median price of houses sold,
(4) Presidential approval ratings since Obama took office and a historical perspective.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Should I sign my credit card receipt?
Should I sign my credit card receipt?
Every time you buy something it seems you have to sign one of those stupid little receipts when you use your credit card, but recently it seems that some places are doing away with this. Why? Well, it turns out to be a liability and cost issue. Different banks charge different amounts for credit card transactions based on several variables. Things like whether or not a signature is obtained, the amount of sale, and for online purchases if they get the CVV. So, it is cheaper if stores get signatures. Also, say for Starbucks it is cheaper to just eat the occasionally $5 latte charge than to keep track of a gazillion receipts.
Now lets talk liability. If you dispute a charge to the bank and the store can make a case that they tried to verify the customers identity then the bank has to eat the charge. Yah, I know not like they are really checking anybodies identity, but that is the way it is. Though there is nothing actually saying that you need to sign it with your name or even a name for that matter. Try signing another name and see if they don’t take you money anyways. If you want to take it a little further, try drawing a little picture and tell them you are signing in hieroglyphics.
I think the most frustrating part of the whole deal is the massive amount of paper that is wasted each year on credit card receipts. To do a quick calculation and show off my Google skills lets try and estimate the amount of wasted paper each day. Well, standard paper is actually only 1/3 rough wood (what you and I think of as wood), the other 2/3’s comes from recycled paper or scraps left over from making other wood products. It is estimated that one cord of rough wood can make 460,000 personal checks if it is the only wood in checks. So, if they use current methods that means 1.38 million checks per cord. Say that for every 4 credit card receipts we can make one check. That means 5.52 million receipts per cord. Now, how many receipts per year go to waste. This is the hard part, so bear with me here. The average number of receipts that I get per day is about 3, some days I get 10 and some days I get none. With the US having roughly 232 million adults, at 3 receipts per day, that is 696 million receipts per day or 126 cords of wood a day to make credit card receipts. If we make it more conservative and say only 1 receipt per day per adult that is still 42 cords of wood a day on credit card receipts. Now ain’t that a pisser!!!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
How much, when, and at what temperature should you drink water?
Nowadays it seems like practically everybody is walking around with a water bottle of one type or another. Do we really need to have water with us everywhere we go? I often hear that I should drink about 8 glasses of water per day. A typical glass of water is 8 oz, so that means I should be drinking 64 oz of water each day. That’s a lot of water! Then there is the question of when I should drink all this water during the day, as well as the question of whether cold or warm water is better. There is are even rumors out there that cold water causes cancer. In this post I'll try try to answer these questions and get to the bottom of all this.
First, most of the material I could find about water consumption agrees that if you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters or more of colorless or slightly yellow urine per day, your fluid intake is probably adequate. So the answer to the question of how much is to measure your urine volume and make sure that the color is right.
Next, when should I drink the water? Can I drink 4 cups when I wake up and 4 cups when I go to bed (don’t worry, I have a water-resistant mattress pad)? It seems that many agree that the best time to drink water is between meals: drink about a half hour to an hour before and an hour after your meals, and otherwise evenly space your drinking throughout the day. Drinking during meals dilutes your stomach acids and makes digestion less effective. Drinking before and after meals allows your body time to process the water, and it allows your stomach to recover from the dilution.
Next, when should I drink the water? Can I drink 4 cups when I wake up and 4 cups when I go to bed (don’t worry, I have a water-resistant mattress pad)? It seems that many agree that the best time to drink water is between meals: drink about a half hour to an hour before and an hour after your meals, and otherwise evenly space your drinking throughout the day. Drinking during meals dilutes your stomach acids and makes digestion less effective. Drinking before and after meals allows your body time to process the water, and it allows your stomach to recover from the dilution.
The cold versus warm issue is more convoluted. Some people believe that drinking hot water can purify the body. The logic behind this is that as you drink hot water your body tries to lower its temperature and this causes perspiration, flushing toxins from your system. The recommendation is to slowly drink one cup of hot water 2-3 times per week. Make sure to avoid drinking hot water from the tap as this is likely to have more heavy metals in it than water warmed external to your water delivery system. Also, if all 8 of your 8 oz glasses of water are cold then you can lose about 70 calories per day from water consumption alone. To put this in perspective, this is equivalent to about 1 tbsp of blue cheese dressing or 1 slice of whole wheat bread. Obviously, if you are exercising then the consumption of cold water helps to lower your core temperature. There are also sporadic claims that you absorb cold water slightly faster than warm water. Several places state this as fact, although I can't find a good reference for the statement. It doesn't appear to really mater what temperature the water is for normal hydration as it all eventually gets absorbed into the body. Absorption rates vary and it appears that no solid research has been done on this subject. There is a lot of guessing, but for exercise the consensus appears to be that cold water is probably the best. Also, properly hydrating the day before strenuous exercise can increase endurance. Before summing things up, there is an article in “Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise”, April 2010 - Volume 42 - Issue 4 - pp 717-725. It says, “Compared with cold water, ice slurry ingestion lowered pre exercise rectal temperature, increased sub maximal endurance running time in the heat and allowed rectal temperature to become higher at exhaustion.” How would you like to be that athlete: before and after running your ass off they stick something up it. Not a good day!!!!
To summarize: measure the volume of your urine, make sure it is the right color, only drink one hour before and after a meal, on hot days drink cold water, 2-3 times each week drink hot water to purify your body, and drink ice slurry if you plan on exercising on a hot day.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Choosing a vaccination schedule for your child
The question of vaccine safety has, according to wikipedia, been controversial since widespread vaccination began in the late 18th century. I have a daughter born in late 2009, so I read a number of articles online about vaccination but didn't find anything all that helpful. We got a book called "The Vaccine Book" by Dr Bob Sears (the son of Dr Bill Sears who wrote dozens of parenting books with his wife), which I found to be largely informative and unbiased. Note, though, that a number of online reviews found faults with the book.
Like many things, vaccines have costs and benefits. All vaccines can have side effects. Very crudely (and perhaps inaccurately) speaking, vaccines put a strain on the body, which often leads to exhaustion, occasionally leads to fever, and very rarely can cause infants to have such a severe fever that they have seizures. Other rare and severe side effects also exist. But at the same time, vaccines have been tremendously successful at combating serious illnesses such as polio, as well as typically less serious but annoying illnesses such as the flu. Note that vaccines typically do not give total immunity, but rather decrease the risk of catching a disease to about 10% what it was before vaccination.
The standard vaccination schedule in the US (American Academy of Pediatrics recommended schedule) suggests a lot of vaccinations at each scheduled doctor's visit during infancy. For example, it suggests 5 separate vaccinations to be given at the age of 2 months, then again at 4 months and 6 months. Most people seem to follow this schedule and do just fine. The Sears book recommends an alternative schedule for parents concerned about giving so many vaccinations at a time. In the alternative schedule, you still get all the recommended vaccinations, but you spread them out a bit, giving only 2 per month and adding extra "shots-only" doctors visits, for example, at the ages of 3 months, 5 months, and 7 months.
There are about 10 vaccinations (most require multiple doses) that are recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics to be given to the general population by the age of about 12 during about 10 doctor's visits (or about 20 doctor's visits if you use Sears' alternative schedule). This can be a lot to keep track of. I made an Excel spreadsheet to put all the information together. The spreadsheet indicates the American Academy of Pediatrics schedule which is based on US CDC recommendations ("C" on left side of each box) and the Sears alternative schedule ("S" in middle of each box). In each box, there's space to add a third letter on the right side, which can be used to indicate the vaccination schedule one is actually following.
Spreadsheet: Summary of American Academy of Pediatricians schedule (based on CDC guidelines) and Sears alternative vaccine schedule, with space to add your own schedule:
xls, pdf.
Background information: CDC guidelines downloaded from their website, American Academy of Pediatricians schedule (based on CDC guidelines) as presented in Sears book, and Sears alternative vaccine schedule: pdf.
Like many things, vaccines have costs and benefits. All vaccines can have side effects. Very crudely (and perhaps inaccurately) speaking, vaccines put a strain on the body, which often leads to exhaustion, occasionally leads to fever, and very rarely can cause infants to have such a severe fever that they have seizures. Other rare and severe side effects also exist. But at the same time, vaccines have been tremendously successful at combating serious illnesses such as polio, as well as typically less serious but annoying illnesses such as the flu. Note that vaccines typically do not give total immunity, but rather decrease the risk of catching a disease to about 10% what it was before vaccination.
The standard vaccination schedule in the US (American Academy of Pediatrics recommended schedule) suggests a lot of vaccinations at each scheduled doctor's visit during infancy. For example, it suggests 5 separate vaccinations to be given at the age of 2 months, then again at 4 months and 6 months. Most people seem to follow this schedule and do just fine. The Sears book recommends an alternative schedule for parents concerned about giving so many vaccinations at a time. In the alternative schedule, you still get all the recommended vaccinations, but you spread them out a bit, giving only 2 per month and adding extra "shots-only" doctors visits, for example, at the ages of 3 months, 5 months, and 7 months.
There are about 10 vaccinations (most require multiple doses) that are recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics to be given to the general population by the age of about 12 during about 10 doctor's visits (or about 20 doctor's visits if you use Sears' alternative schedule). This can be a lot to keep track of. I made an Excel spreadsheet to put all the information together. The spreadsheet indicates the American Academy of Pediatrics schedule which is based on US CDC recommendations ("C" on left side of each box) and the Sears alternative schedule ("S" in middle of each box). In each box, there's space to add a third letter on the right side, which can be used to indicate the vaccination schedule one is actually following.
Spreadsheet: Summary of American Academy of Pediatricians schedule (based on CDC guidelines) and Sears alternative vaccine schedule, with space to add your own schedule:
xls, pdf.
Background information: CDC guidelines downloaded from their website, American Academy of Pediatricians schedule (based on CDC guidelines) as presented in Sears book, and Sears alternative vaccine schedule: pdf.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Getting a Green Card through marriage to a US citizen
Overview: I am a US citizen. I married a Canadian citizen who was living in the US at the time as an "exchange visitor" (J-1 status). We applied for the Green Card during summer 2009. It took quite a while to fill out the paperwork, mostly because the instructions were poor. The total filing fee (paid to USCIS) was $1365. About 4 months later, the application was approved at our interview, and 2 weeks later we received the actual Green Card.
Interview: I think that everyone who applies for a Green Card through marriage to a US citizen gets an interview from USCIS. This is done at a USCIS Field Office, which are located in most cities (e.g., California has 10, Maine has 1). The interview apparently has just one purpose: to establish that this is not a "marriage of convenience", i.e., a marriage carried out just to get a Green Card. So our job was to convince the interviewer that this was a marriage based on a bonafide romantic relationship. We already had a baby at the time of the interview and the birth certificate (which we brought) had both our names on it. We also brought an album of photographs of us together in various places during trips we had taken over the several years we'd been a couple, as well as records of our shared lease and bank account and credit card. So despite our worries over the fact that I don't know the color of my wife's toothbrush or the names of any of the shows she watches on the HGTV network, our interviewer was convinced we were a real couple. We were never put in separate rooms, although I hear this can occur. At the end of the interview, the interviewer said he was approving the Green Card, and a couple weeks later we received the Green Card in the mail.
Advance Parole: Since the J-1 is a non-immigrant status for academic and cultural exchange, similar to a student visa, my wife was advised not to leave the country while the application was pending. As I understand it, the reason was follows: if she had left the country and then re-entered, the border agent might have asked if she was married and, learning she was, he might have asked if she had a pending Green Card application. The pending application shows an attempt to establish residency, which is not consistent with the J-1, and it might have been grounds to deny entry. So we applied for an "Advance Parole Document", which is a form that allows you to cross the US border while your Green Card application is pending. The Advance Parole Document was approved in less than 2 months. Of all things, it was apparently lost by the US Postal Service. We went through a long process trying to get them to issue us a replacement, and ultimately we got the Green Card (just 2 months later) before the process of issuing a replacement Advance Parole Document was resolved. During our interview at a USCIS Field Office (described in previous paragraph), we learned that the lost Advance Parole Document could have been reprinted on the spot at any USCIS Field Office. It would have been nice if any of the people we spoke with on the phone at the USCIS National Customer Service Center had known this.
Required forms
I-485: Main form. Requires her birth certificate and 2 photos of her. Fee $1,010.
I-130: Petition for alien relative (my spouse is the "relative" here). Requires copy of my passport, marriage certificate, and 1 photo of each of us; I also included our lease with both names and our shared credit card statement. Fee $355.
G-325A: Biographical data form. I-130 requires that this form be filled out for each of us.
I-693: Medical exam (she had to go to a government "civil surgeon" and get a physical; the doctor filled out this form and sealed it in an envelope).
I-864: My income support. Requires copy of my most recent tax return (i.e., IRS Form 1040); I also included a letter from my employer (proof of employment).
I-765: Employment while application is pending. Requires 2 photos of her and a copy of p.1 of her passport.
I-131: Travel while application is pending. Requires 2 photos of her and her DS-2019 (the form required to enter the US as an Exchange Visitor).
Photos should be passport-style. Write full name on back of each photo using felt pen or pencil.
For all the required official documents such as birth certificate, passport, etc, a simple photocopy is sufficient. They later asked us to bring to the interview the originals of everything we'd sent.
Both checks ($1010 and $355) should be payable to US Department of Homeland Security.
Mail the entire package to USCIS, P.O. Box 805887, Chicago, IL 60680-4120.
Detailed notes
On most of the forms, we wrote "[none]" in empty boxes to make clear that we had not overlooked them.
I-485
Part 3A: It asks "were you inspected by a U.S. Immigration Officer" when you last entered the US. Even if you weren't searched, the answer is "yes" unless you snuck across the border illegally.
There are some pretty weird questions on p. 3 (have you ever committed a crime of moral turpitude?).
A copy of her birth certificate was required. Since she's French Canadian, the birth certificate is in French. She made a translation. We got a friend to handwrite the following at the bottom of the translation, followed by his signature, his handwritten name, and the date: "I certify that I am competent to translate from French to English, and I certify that this translation is complete accurate to the best of my knowledge."
I-130
#22: We weren't sure if we should put the local USCIS office (Los Angeles), but we put the office we were sending the forms to (Chicago) and left the two boxes on the right side blank.
G-325a
We left the "File Number" on the first line (A-number) blank on her form, since she would not get an A-number until she got her Green Card.
I-765
#10: Here she had an I-94 number, which we included.
#16: Her eligibility code was "C 9".
I-131
Part 2 #2: We entered "d".
Part 3 #1 & #2: We entered "Unknown" for both (details of intended trip).
Parts 4,5,6: We left these blank.
Part 7: We entered "more than one trip" in #1 and left the rest blank. For the essay explaining how she qualifies, we wrote the following: "I qualify for advance parole because I have a pending I-485 application. I am applying for a multiple entry advance parole document to be able to visit my family in Canada in case of an emergency while my form I-485 is being processed."
Interview: I think that everyone who applies for a Green Card through marriage to a US citizen gets an interview from USCIS. This is done at a USCIS Field Office, which are located in most cities (e.g., California has 10, Maine has 1). The interview apparently has just one purpose: to establish that this is not a "marriage of convenience", i.e., a marriage carried out just to get a Green Card. So our job was to convince the interviewer that this was a marriage based on a bonafide romantic relationship. We already had a baby at the time of the interview and the birth certificate (which we brought) had both our names on it. We also brought an album of photographs of us together in various places during trips we had taken over the several years we'd been a couple, as well as records of our shared lease and bank account and credit card. So despite our worries over the fact that I don't know the color of my wife's toothbrush or the names of any of the shows she watches on the HGTV network, our interviewer was convinced we were a real couple. We were never put in separate rooms, although I hear this can occur. At the end of the interview, the interviewer said he was approving the Green Card, and a couple weeks later we received the Green Card in the mail.
Advance Parole: Since the J-1 is a non-immigrant status for academic and cultural exchange, similar to a student visa, my wife was advised not to leave the country while the application was pending. As I understand it, the reason was follows: if she had left the country and then re-entered, the border agent might have asked if she was married and, learning she was, he might have asked if she had a pending Green Card application. The pending application shows an attempt to establish residency, which is not consistent with the J-1, and it might have been grounds to deny entry. So we applied for an "Advance Parole Document", which is a form that allows you to cross the US border while your Green Card application is pending. The Advance Parole Document was approved in less than 2 months. Of all things, it was apparently lost by the US Postal Service. We went through a long process trying to get them to issue us a replacement, and ultimately we got the Green Card (just 2 months later) before the process of issuing a replacement Advance Parole Document was resolved. During our interview at a USCIS Field Office (described in previous paragraph), we learned that the lost Advance Parole Document could have been reprinted on the spot at any USCIS Field Office. It would have been nice if any of the people we spoke with on the phone at the USCIS National Customer Service Center had known this.
Required forms
I-485: Main form. Requires her birth certificate and 2 photos of her. Fee $1,010.
I-130: Petition for alien relative (my spouse is the "relative" here). Requires copy of my passport, marriage certificate, and 1 photo of each of us; I also included our lease with both names and our shared credit card statement. Fee $355.
G-325A: Biographical data form. I-130 requires that this form be filled out for each of us.
I-693: Medical exam (she had to go to a government "civil surgeon" and get a physical; the doctor filled out this form and sealed it in an envelope).
I-864: My income support. Requires copy of my most recent tax return (i.e., IRS Form 1040); I also included a letter from my employer (proof of employment).
I-765: Employment while application is pending. Requires 2 photos of her and a copy of p.1 of her passport.
I-131: Travel while application is pending. Requires 2 photos of her and her DS-2019 (the form required to enter the US as an Exchange Visitor).
Photos should be passport-style. Write full name on back of each photo using felt pen or pencil.
For all the required official documents such as birth certificate, passport, etc, a simple photocopy is sufficient. They later asked us to bring to the interview the originals of everything we'd sent.
Both checks ($1010 and $355) should be payable to US Department of Homeland Security.
Mail the entire package to USCIS, P.O. Box 805887, Chicago, IL 60680-4120.
Detailed notes
On most of the forms, we wrote "[none]" in empty boxes to make clear that we had not overlooked them.
I-485
Part 3A: It asks "were you inspected by a U.S. Immigration Officer" when you last entered the US. Even if you weren't searched, the answer is "yes" unless you snuck across the border illegally.
There are some pretty weird questions on p. 3 (have you ever committed a crime of moral turpitude?).
A copy of her birth certificate was required. Since she's French Canadian, the birth certificate is in French. She made a translation. We got a friend to handwrite the following at the bottom of the translation, followed by his signature, his handwritten name, and the date: "I certify that I am competent to translate from French to English, and I certify that this translation is complete accurate to the best of my knowledge."
I-130
#22: We weren't sure if we should put the local USCIS office (Los Angeles), but we put the office we were sending the forms to (Chicago) and left the two boxes on the right side blank.
G-325a
We left the "File Number" on the first line (A-number) blank on her form, since she would not get an A-number until she got her Green Card.
I-765
#10: Here she had an I-94 number, which we included.
#16: Her eligibility code was "C 9".
I-131
Part 2 #2: We entered "d".
Part 3 #1 & #2: We entered "Unknown" for both (details of intended trip).
Parts 4,5,6: We left these blank.
Part 7: We entered "more than one trip" in #1 and left the rest blank. For the essay explaining how she qualifies, we wrote the following: "I qualify for advance parole because I have a pending I-485 application. I am applying for a multiple entry advance parole document to be able to visit my family in Canada in case of an emergency while my form I-485 is being processed."
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