GDP for the Fourth Quarter of 2009

Statement by Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer on the Advance Estimate of GDP for the Fourth Quarter of 2009

The latest GDP report is the most positive news to date on the economy. The data show that the total output of the U.S. economy increased strongly in the fourth quarter of 2009. Real GDP (that is, GDP adjusted for inflation) increased at an annual rate of 5.7 percent. The change from the first quarter of 2009, when GDP fell at an annual rate of 6.4 percent, is truly extraordinary; indeed, the three-quarter swing in growth rates was the largest since 1981.

While positive GDP growth is a necessary first step for job growth, our focus must remain on getting Americans back to work. That GDP rose strongly in the fourth quarter of last year while employment fell and the workweek increased only slightly emphasizes the need for policy actions designed to help spur private sector job creation. The President is announcing today the specifics of his plan for a small business jobs and wages tax cut. This policy is designed to encourage businesses to respond to rising demand and output by taking the plunge and hiring new workers again.

Part of the rapid growth in real GDP was due to a substantial rise in inventory investment. This inventory bounce, though likely to be transitory, is a normal part of healthy recoveries. As firms’ confidence in the future increases, their desire to run down inventories wanes. This change in behavior is often a powerful force for growth early in a recovery. Other components of GDP also rose strongly: business investment in equipment and software rose at an annual rate of 13 percent and residential investment rose at a 6 percent rate. And consumer spending rose at a rate of 2 percent. This broad-based rise in GDP was surely fueled in part by the tax cuts and investment spending in the Recovery Act and other rescue actions, but some appears to be the result of private sector demand returning.

As always, it is important not to read too much into a single report, positive or negative. There will surely be bumps in the road ahead, and we will need to continue to take responsible actions to ensure that the recovery is as smooth and robust as possible. Nonetheless, today’s report is a welcome piece of encouraging news.

Department Of Energy, Washington, D.C. — The result from a years-long effort at DOE’s Jefferson Lab (known as the G-Zero experiment) to measure strange matter in the proton has revealed that strange matter doesn’t magnetize the proton or distort its charge distribution all that much. The effect is surprising small, since many of the early theoretical calculations suggested the possibility of larger values.

The proton’s main building blocks are up and down quarks, which are bound together by the strong force. The strong force energy inside protons also gives rise to a “sea” of quark pairs that bubble up out of the strong force energy and almost immediately melt away again. Pairs of up quarks and pairs of down quarks are the most likely to appear briefly in this sea. The next-heaviest quarks, strange quarks, are also thought to be present.

G-Zero scientists set out to measure what effect the temporary strange quarks had on the proton’s structure. The experiment successfully measured the influence that strange quarks exert on the electric and magnetic fields—seen as the distribution of charge and magnetization inside the proton. Experimenters found that the strange quark influence was small—amounting to less than 10% of the proton’s charge distribution and magnetization.

Dave Dearborn’s mission is to keep us safe from incoming asteroids.

Dearborn, a physicist in DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, serves on a research panel, spearheaded by the National Academy of Sciences, tasked with evaluating methods to divert potentially hazardous objects—those that could hit Earth in the next 100 years.

“An object of this size would have approximately 1 billion tons of mass,” says Dearborn, of LLNL’s’s Science and Technology Principal Directorate. “If it traveled at 30 kilometers per second, it would have explosive power equivalent to 100 billion tons of TNT.” In the event a 1-kilometer-size asteroid impacted Earth, the energy released would have global-scale effects.

The panel is considering several diversion technologies, but for Dearborn, nuclear explosives provide the best solution for dealing with catastrophic asteroids.

Dearborn has extensive experience in designing and testing nuclear and conventional explosives and leads the effort to model the impact of a nuclear explosion on an object’s trajectory in space.

NASA is evaluating impactor technology as a possible solution to diverting asteroids. These devices are designed to collide with the asteroid and change its momentum.

“Tests during NASA’s Deep Impact mission showed that impactors can divert smaller bodies, such as asteroids up to approximately 300 meters in size,” says Dearborn.

Another diversion method is the gravity tractor. In this deflection scheme, the gravitational attraction between the asteroid and a spacecraft allows the spacecraft to move the asteroid off course over time, a process that could take years or even decades.

According to Dearborn, this method may be advantageous for only about 5 percent of asteroids and would require major advances in technology before a spacecraft could carry out the mission successfully. Lasers have also been proposed, but even the most powerful lasers in existence would have to function over thousands of years to have any effect.

Methods that rely on elaborate launching stations or that add components to spacecraft could require putting an extra 20 tons of material into deep space. Conversely, nuclear explosives, with their high energy-to-weight ratio, would need comparatively less material to do the same job.

Not everyone shares Dearborn’s enthusiasm and confidence in using nuclear explosives to deflect asteroids. Yet, in the face of skepticism, Dearborn remains resolute. “Part of my job is to respond to criticism and to dispel myths related to the use of nuclear explosives,” he says.

Ultimately, Congress, the National Science Foundation, and NASA will use the information to determine the most effective strategy for deflecting asteroids.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities announced the finding of a 2000-year-old temple that is believed to for the Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet.

Egyptian Cat Goddess, Bastet

The photo was released by Egypt’s supreme council of antiquities showing the ancient cat-goddess Bastet found amongst the temple’s ruins in the Kom el-Dekkah area of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Archaeologists have unearthed a Ptolemic temple dating back more than 2,000 years.

The oldest known Hebrew writing has been discovered on a piece of potery. The piece dates from the period of King David’s reign, the 10th century B.C. It reads:
1′ you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2′ Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3′ [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4′ the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5′ Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, deciphered the text. Galil said,
“It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research. It uses verbs that were characteristic of Hebrew, such as asah (‘did’) and avad (‘worked’), which were rarely used in other regional languages. Particular words that appear in the text, such as almanah (‘widow’) are specific to Hebrew and are written differently in other local languages.”

The text is about four centuries older than any previous writing associated with the Bible.

by UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

As our nation celebrates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, it is important to remember the breadth and depth of his message and vision. In the era of the first Black President, it would be easy to say King’s dream has been fulfilled and now it is time to move on to new challenges. But this is a misreading of current events and his words.
In his 1967 Riverside Church speech, Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break Silence, Dr. King talked about three major demons; racism, materialism and militarism.[1] Today these triplets continue to haunt us. In fact they have become more entrenched. In the speech, King spoke of youth challenging his disapproval of their use of violence when the U.S. was “…using massive doses of violence…”[2] in Vietnam. He called our government, “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” This continues to be true as our nation is conducting global military operations and occupying two countries with eyes on one or two others. The U.S. is the largest weapons exporter in the world and has the largest military budget, nearly outpacing all other nations combined.

Racism continues to distort the promise of America as people of color have the highest unemployment rates and are blocked from access to resources and opportunity. Speculation and greed caused by rampant materialism has ravaged our economy, devastating the lives of millions, hitting working class and poor people especially hard. The economic and social currents created by the triplets flow together and work hand in hand to divert resources to war for profit’s sake and empire building rather than investing in healthcare, education, jobs, housing and other human needs that would uplift the poor and help change the insidious legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Perhaps Dr. King’s most prophetic words come from this speech when he warned, “The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation.”[3]

We find ourselves today as the clergy and laypersons organizing in our generation. As we remember Dr. King we must applaud how far we have come. We must also reflect on how far we have yet to go, and challenge others to see Dr. King’s full vision of a just and peaceful world. He called for a true revolution of values that will cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies and see that using war to settle our differences is not just. He called on America to lead this revolution of values.

“There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.”[4]

Dr. King wisely saw then what is still true today, that the world’s only hope “…lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.”[5]

This is how we ensure international security. This is how we stop nuclear proliferation and reverse global warming.

This January 18th remember Dr. King by proclaiming his full message. Do not stand by while it is watered down to make us all feel good. Celebrate the journey we have taken, but remind everyone how far we have to go. Will our nation take up the challenge? As Dr. King said, “The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.”[6]

April 4, 1967 Riverside Church speech: Beyond Vietnam  

[1] I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

[2] My third reason grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years – especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action. But, they asked, what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government.

[3] There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy, and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. We will be marching and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

[4] America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from re-ordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

[5] These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to ad just to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.

[6] Now let us begin. Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

———-

Help us continue to do this critical work: Make a donation to UFPJ today.

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
PO Box 607; Times Square Station; New York, NY 10108

NEW YORK CITY///NEWS ADVISORY///January 14, 2010///The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) will move the minute hand of its famous “Doomsday Clock” at 10 a.m. EST/1500 GMT on January 14, 2010 in New York City. For the first time ever, the event will be opened up to the general public via a live Web feed at http://www.TurnBackTheClock.org.

The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2007, when the Clock’s minute hand was pushed forward by two minutes from seven to five minutes before midnight.

The precise time to be shown on the updated Doomsday Clock will not be announced until the live news conference in New York City takes place on January 14, 2010. Factors influencing the latest Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.

News event speakers will include:

Lawrence Krauss, co-chair, BAS Board of Sponsors, foundation professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics departments, associate director, Beyond Center, co-director, Cosmology Initiative, and director, New Origins Initiative, Arizona State University.

Stephen Schneider, member, BAS Science and Security Board, professor of environmental biology and global change, Stanford University, a co-director, Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and senior fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

Jayantha Dhanapala, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, president, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and chair, 1995 UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Conference;

Pervez Hoodbhoy, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, professor of high energy physics, and head, Physics Department, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; and

Kennette Benedict, executive director, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists subsequently created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 as way to convey both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero). The decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made by the Bulletin’s Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 19 Nobel Laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences.

TO PARTICIPATE IN PERSON: Attend the live news event on January 14, 2010 at 10 a.m. EST, at the New York Academy of Sciences Building, at 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St, 40th floor, New York City. The event will be limited to credentialed members of the news media. For security reasons, all attendees must RSVP in advance by contacting Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266, or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

CAN’T PARTICIPATE IN PERSON?: Reporters outside of New York City who are unable to attend the live news event in person can watch and listen to the news conference via a live Webcast by registering by 945 a.m. EST on January 14, 2010 at http://www.TurnBackTheClock.org/media. A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.thebulletin.org as of 6 p.m. EST/2300 GMT on January 14, 2010.

CONTACT: Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

Fabrice Bellard, a French mathematician, claims to have set a new record for calculating Pi. Not only is it the longest, it was also done on a regular computer.

“I am pleased to announce a new world record for the computation of the digits of Pi.”

The following number of digits were computed:

2242301460000 hexadecimal digits (base 16)
2699999990000 decimal digits (base 10)

The base 10 result needs about 1137 GB(1) of storage. Parts of the result are available here.
Most of the computation was carried out on a single desktop computer costing less than 2000 euros. The previous records since 1995 were done using multi-million euro supercomputers.

Computation time:

computation of the binary digits: 103 days
Verification of the binary digits: 13 days
Conversion to base 10: 12 days
Verification of the conversion: 3 days
Total: 131 days
The previous record of about 2577 billion decimal digits was published by Daisuke Takahashi on August 17th 2009.
Formula and verification
The main computation used the Chudnovsky formula to give the binary result. Then the binary result was converted to a base 10 result.
The binary result was verified with a formula found by the author with the Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe algorithm which directly gives the n’th hexadecimal digits of Pi. With this algorithm, the last 50 hexadecimal digits of the binary result were checked. A checksum modulo a 64 bit prime number done in the last multiplication of the Chudnovsky formula evaluation ensured a negligible probability of error.

The conversion from binary to base 10 was verified with a checksum modulo a 64 bit prime number.

More technical details are available here.

Hardware
PC used during the computation:
Core i7 CPU at 2.93 GHz
6 GiB (1) of RAM
7.5 TB of disk storage using five 1.5 TB hard disks (Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 model)
Backups were done using 2 TB hard disks (Seagate Barracuda LP model).
The verification of the binary digits used a network of 9 Desktop PCs during 34 hours. It could have been done on the same PC as the main computation by using 13 more days.

Operating System
The Linux Operating System was used with the 64 bit Red Hat Fedora 10 distribution. The 7.5 TB disk storage was managed using software RAID-0 and the ext4 filesystem. Files of up to 2.5 TB were manipulated during the computation.
Pi Software
All the software was written by the author. The most important part is an arbitrary-precision arithmetic library able to manipulate huge numbers stored on hard disks. Technical details are available here.
(1)
The standard SI and binary prefixes are used. For example:
1 GB = 10^9 bytes
1 TB = 10^12 bytes
1 GiB = 2^30 bytes (approx. 1.07 GB)

Each year the Lake Superior State University releases a list of words or phrases they feel should banished:
shovel-ready, Czar, tweet, APP, sexting, friend (as a verb), teachable moment, in these economic times…, stimulus, toxic assets, too big to fail, bromance, chillaxin’, and Obama (prefix or roots).

The press release reads as follows:
Word “czars” at Lake Superior State University “unfriended” 15 words and phrases and declared them “shovel-ready” for inclusion on the university’s 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

“The list this year is a ‘teachable moment’ conducted free of ‘tweets,’” said a Word Banishment spokesman who was “chillaxin’” for the holidays. “‘In these economic times’, purging our language of ‘toxic assets’ is a ’stimulus’ effort that’s ‘too big to fail.’”

Former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and friends created “word banishment” in 1975 at a New Year’s Eve party and released the first list on New Year’s Day. Since then, LSSU has received tens of thousands of nominations for the list, which includes words and phrases from marketing, media, education, technology and more.

Word-watchers may check the alphabetical “complete list” on the website before making their submissions.

For the 2010 list, read on:

SHOVEL-READY

“Apparently, the generally accepted definition of this phrase is to imply that a project has been completely designed and all that is left to do is to implement it…however, when something dies, it, too, is shovel-ready for burial and so I get confused about the meaning. I would suggest that we just say the project is ready to implement.” – Jerry Redington, Keosauqua, Iowa.

“A relatively new term already overused by media and politicians. Bury this term, please.” – Pat Batcheller, Southgate, Mich.

“Do I really need a reason? Well, if so how about this: I just saw it in tandem with ‘cyber-ready’ and nearly choked on my coffee. It’s starting the ‘-ready’ jargon. Makes me ‘vacation-ready.’” – Karen Hill, Ann Arbor, Mich.

“Stick a shovel in it. It’s done.” – Joe Grimm, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

TRANSPARENT/TRANSPARENCY

“I can see clearly that this is the new buzzword for the year.” — Joann Eschenburg, Clinton Twp., Mich.

“In the lexicon of the political arena, this word is supposed to mean obvious or easily understood. In reality, political transparency is more invisible than obvious!” — Deb Larson, Bellaire, Mich.

“I just don’t see it.” – Joe Grimm, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

CZAR

Long used by the media as a metaphor for positions of high authority, including “baseball czar” Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, appointed by team owners as commissioner-for-life in 1919. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had an “industry czar” during World War I. Lesser-known “czar” roles in government during the last 100 years include: censorship, housing and oil czars in 1941; rubber czar in 1942; patronage czar (1945); clean-up (1952); missile (1954); inflation (1971); e-commerce (1998); bioethics, faith-based and reading czars (2001); bird flu (2004); democracy (2005); abstinence and birth control czars (2006); and weatherization czar (2008).

George W. Bush appointed 47 people to 35 “czar” jobs; Pres. Obama, eight appointments to 38 positions.

“First it was a ‘drug czar’ [banished in 1990]. This year gave us a ‘car czar.’ What’s next? A ‘banished words czar’?” — Michael F. Raczko, Swanton, Ohio.

“We have appointed a czar of such-and-such; clearly that’s better than a ‘leader,’ ‘coordinator’ or ‘director’! — Derek Lawrence, Thunder Bay, Ont.

“The president has been handing these “czar” positions out like party favors.” – Scott Lassiter, Houston, Tex.

TWEET

And all of its variations…tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere…

“People tweet and retweet and I just heard the word ‘tweet’ so many times it lost all meaning.” – Ricardo, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Mikhail Swift of Hillman, Mich. says the tweeting is “pointless…yet has somehow managed to take the nation by storm. I’m tired of hearing about celebrity X’s new tweet, and how great of a tweeter he or she is.”

“I don’t know a single non-celebrity who actually uses it,” says Alex Thompson of Sault St. Marie, Mich.

Jay Brazier of Williamston, Mich. says she supposes that tweeters might be “twits.”

APP

“Must we b sbjct to yt another abrv? Why does the English language have to fit on a two-inch screen? I hate the sound of it. I think I’ll listen to a symph on the rad.” — Edward R. Bolt, Grand Rapids, Mich.

“Is there an ‘app’ for making this annoying word go away? Why can’t we just call them ‘programs’ again?” – Kuahmel Allah, Los Angeles, Calif.

SEXTING

Sending sexually explicit pictures and text messages through the cell phone.

“Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished.” – Ishmael Daro, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada.

FRIEND AS A VERB

Came into popularity through social networking websites. You add someone to your network by “friending” them, or remove them by “unfriending” them.

“I’m certainly as much of a Facebook addict as the next person, but I’m getting a little weary of ‘friending’ people and being ‘friended’ by them. My daughter talks of ’sending friend requests,’ which doesn’t rankle me as much, so maybe we should all take her lead.” – John Wetterholt, Crystal Lake, Ill.

“‘Befriend’ is much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary.” – Kevin K., Morris, Okla.

TEACHABLE MOMENT

What might otherwise be known as ‘a lesson.’

“It’s a condescending substitute for ‘opportunity to make a point,’” says Eric Rosenquist of College Station, Tex.

“If everything’s a ‘teachable moment,’ we should all have teaching credentials, including the guy at the bar who likes to fight after one shot too many.” – Kuahmel Allah, Los Angeles, Calif.

“This phrase is used to describe everything from potty-training to politics. It’s time to vote it out!” – Jodi, Youngstown, Ohio.

IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES….

Nominations concerning the economy started rolling in as the 2009 list was being put together last year, i.e. “bailout.” They kept coming this year, in these trouble economic times. ” South Park ” warned us about what would happen if we angered The Economy.

“Overused and redundant. Aren’t ALL times ‘these economic times’?” — Barb Stutesman, Three Rivers, Mich.

“In this economy, we can’t afford to be wasteful…In this economy, we all need some security…In this economy, frogs could start falling from the sky…In this economy, blah blah blah… Overused for everything from trying to market products as inexpensive to simply explaining any and all behavior during the recession.” – Mark, Milwaukee, Wisc.

“When someone prefaces a statement with ‘in this economic climate,’ its starts to sound like a sales pitch, or just an excuse on which to blame every problem. And if a letter or e-mail message from your employer starts with this phrase, usually it means you’re not getting a raise this year.” – Dominic, Seattle, Wash.

STIMULUS

“Everything in the news is about the stimulus packages…it is no longer a grant, it’s stimulus money, stimulus checks, etc. I think it is just being over-used.” Teri Heikkila, Rudyard, Mich.

“Overused by companies to advertise a promotion.” – David Willis, Houston, Tex.

“What next, can I go down to the local bar and down a few drinks and call it a stimulus package?” – Richard Brown, Portland, Ore.

TOXIC ASSETS

We think we’re going to be sick.

“Whatever happened to simply ‘bad stocks,’ ‘debts,’ or ‘loans’?” — Monty Heidenreich, Homewood, Ill.

“What a wretched term!” Lee Freedman, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

TOO BIG TO FAIL

“Just for the record, nothing’s too big to fail unless the government lets it.” Claire Shefchik, Brooklyn, NY.

“Does such a thing exist? We’ll never know if a company is too big to fail, unless somehow it does fail, and then it will no longer be too big to fail. Make it stop!” – Holli, Raleigh, NC.

BROMANCE

“Have we really reached the point where being friends has to be described in a pseudo-romantic context? Just stop it already!” — Greg Zagorski, Washington, D.C.

“I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I’m going to scream!” – Kaylynn, Alberta, Canada.

CHILLAXIN’

Nominated for several years. We couldn’t chill about it anymore.

“Heard everywhere from MTV to ESPN to CNN. A bothersome term that seeks to combine chillin’ with relaxin’ makes me want to be ‘axin’ this word.” – Tammy, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

“A made-up word used by annoying Gen-Yers.” – Chris Jensen, Fond du Lac, Wisc.

“Horrifying overuse, even in face-to-face conversation… It should receive bonus points for its ability to exhort the opposite reaction from the receiver.” – Bret Bledsoe, Cincinnati, Ohio.

OBAMA-prefix or roots?

The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland….We say Obamanough already.

Russian is trying to determine if they should send a rocket to the asteroid Apophis. The 885 foot asteroid was discovered in 2004.

Anatoly Perminov said the space agency is meeting to assess the situation. “I don’t remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032. People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Calculations show that it’s possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision without destroying it (the asteroid) and without detonating any nuclear charges. The threat of collision can be averted.”