double blind

     Many medical or clinical trials are performed using the "double blind" method. The researchers recruit people with a particular medical condition to volunteer to be treated with a drug --or with a placebo, commonly referred to as a "sugar pill". This means that some of the research subjects will be given an experimental medicine, and some will be given a pill that looks like the medicine, but is really a harmless (innocuous) substance, of no medicinal value. The subjects, or patients, will not know whether or not they have been treated with medicine or with a placebo. The volunteers know that this is part of the research, and will not be able to report that they feel better simply because they believe they have been treated with medicine. They will be "blind" subjects. The "double blind" part means that the researchers administering the experimental drugs will also not know which is the drug and which is the placebo. When trials were done with researchers who knew the difference, they seemed to offer hints or clues to subjects, and reporting on the effectiveness of the medicine was compromised. So now most research is done using the "double blind" method.

mortgages and property values

     Why do people get so excited about property values? There may be several different reasons--they don't want to pay higher property taxes, as they might if their home has been reassessed at a higher value. They may be interested in buying or selling a home. The most pressing reason would be their mortgage. When a person buys a home and obtains a mortgage, the security for the loan is the property he or she is buying. In other words, the bank that lends money for a mortgage knows that it can get its money back by foreclosing and selling the property, if the borrower should fail to pay the loan. A person might borrow $100,000 to buy a property that is selling for $120,000. The rest of the price would be paid as a down payment by the buyer--$20,000.  Now the borrower, or home buyer, owes the bank $100,000. Say the value of the property drops--to $90,000. The bank can no longer get all of its money back by foreclosing and selling the property. The home buyer now has only $90,000 worth of property to use as surety (collateral) on a $100,000 loan. This is when many banks would foreclose to cut their losses, assuming that the property might continue to decrease in value. The bank has the right to demand payment in full on the loan--the whole $100,000, or it may sell the property to cover this amount.  The home buyer may still owe the bank money after the home is sold, and will not have a home to show for all that he or she has already paid. That is why people get excited about property values.

bonds

     A bond is not just a different name for a share of stock. A share of stock, remember, is a part ownership in a corporation. A bond is like a promissory note--the person who buys the bond has loaned money to the corporation, which has promised to pay it back at a certain time, with a certain amount of interest. The stockholders have borrowed money from the bondholders. People buy and resell bonds much the way they do stock--they hope to get more for them than they paid for them. The closer the bonds are to "maturity"--to the date when they will be paid back with interest--the more someone is likely to pay for them.  A share of stock may last as long as the corporation that issued it is still in business--but a bond "matures"--and so has an eventual end, when the bearer of the bond is paid. When a corporation is liquidated--for any reason--bondholders are paid before stockholders--who are actually paying their debts before finding out how much their assets are worth.

Roman numerals

Roman numerals--the letters you may see at the bottom of a movie screen, or as part of the publication information of an old book, or on an old-fashioned clock face, are easy to read once you learn them. Older children who can do a bit of math usually enjoy learning about them.
I  is one--1
V is five--5
X is ten--10
L is fifty--50
C is one hundred--100
D is five hundred--500
M is one thousand--1,000
The tricky (or fun)  part is how they are put together. Up to three (3) of a kind can be put together, and "added" to express a number. When four (4) are needed, the smaller number goes before the next, and is "subtracted".  For example--
I = 1
II = 2
III = 3
IV = 4
V = 5
VI = 6
VII = 7
VIII = 8
IX = 9
X = 10
XX = 20
XXX = 30
XL = 40
L = 50
LX = 60
LXX = 70
LXXX = 80
XC = 90
C = 100
CC = 200
CD = 400
D = 500
DC = 600
CM = 900
MM = 2000
MMXI = 2011
Numbers can get very long, with barely time to read them as screen credits roll by.

MCMLXXII = 1972
MCMXLVIII = 1948

presidents and prime ministers

     Different countries have different ways of forming governments. In the United States, our constitution describes and defines what makes, or "constitutes" our government. Our president, congress, and the federal judiciary--the Supreme Court and the other federal courts--are all mandated by our constitution. Our president is not only the "head of state" of the United States (the person who signs treaties with foreign countries, and who meets with foreign leaders) but also the "head of government". The president may address (make a speech to) the Senate or House of Representatives, as he does every year in the "State of the Union" address. The president signs bills passed by congress, and can propose legislation (new laws, or "bills").
     We do not have a "Prime Minister" or "Premiere" in the United States. A Prime Minister is not elected by a vote of the people, but is chosen by the members of a congress or parliament. The Prime Minister or Premiere is elected (by the people) as a member of the congress or parliament. Then the parliament has an election, to determine which member shall be the "head of government", or Prime Minister. This person will lead the congress or parliament, and meet with the head of state--the president, or in some countries the king or queen.  Since some countries have more than two political parties, it is sometimes difficult for one party to obtain a majority of votes in an election for Prime Minister. This may mean that the parliament is dissolved, and new elections may be held. In some countries, if the Prime Minister supports a piece of legislation and it fails to win a majority of votes, the Prime Minister is considered removed from office and a new Prime Minister is chosen.

third world

     When Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in fourteen-hundred and ninety-two, he discovered what was, to his fellow Europeans, a "New World".  After Europeans learned of the existence of the continents of North and South America, they were called the "New World".  Europe, the Middle East and part of Africa became the "Old World". Countries which fit into neither of these categories, and which seem to have become a part of our mental universe later, are commonly called the "Third World".

a corporation as a person

     There has been some recent noise about a corporation being a person. I missed what started the fray--but, in some respects, a corporation is a person. For the purposes of lawsuits or financial responsibility, a corporation is considered a person. No one can sue the officers of a corporation for an accident, for instance. The party named in the lawsuit is the corporation, and if at fault, it is the corporation that is expected to pay.  In legal terms, a corporation is a "legal person".  This is why businesses incorporate. People put their money into a corporation--even if it is a small family business. Their homes and personal property are not at risk of being claimed for a debt the corporation owes.

tax primer--part 2--property taxes

     Property taxes are local. They are collected locally, and spent locally.  Property taxes are the main source of funding for school districts, which are locally run and administered. They were used to build the school buildings, and are used to maintain school buildings and grounds, and to pay school staff.  This is why some school districts have more money than others, and why people argue about property taxes so much. Property taxes also pay for local police, fire, ambulance, library, trash, and streets department services.
     Property taxes are also why property is assessed by the local or county government. The assessor checks on the current value of the property, to make sure that taxes are being paid on what the house or building would sell for at the time it is assessed. Property values change over time, so this is important. A lot of people worry about being re-assessed because their taxes might increase. If they are already retired and living on a "fixed income"--Social Security, a pension or retirement plan--it's possible that they won't be able to afford to pay higher taxes, and will have to sell their home.
     One of the reasons people spend so much time arguing over property taxes is that they can be "regressive".  That means that poorer people are, in a way, paying higher taxes. Where property values are low, the property is taxed at a higher rate to collect enough money for local needs. Where property values are high, the rate of taxation may be lower--as more is collected based on the value of the property. For example, a one percent (1%, or one penny on each dollar) tax on a million dollar ($1,000,000) property would yield ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in taxes. One percent of a hundred thousand dollar ($100,000) property would yield only a thousand dollars ($1,000)--so the municipality with more hundred thousand dollar properties may need to tax them at a higher rate--say three percent (3%, or three pennies on each dollar), to collect even enough taxes to keep the schools open and the trash picked up. While the tax bills of the people who own the hundred thousand dollar properties are still much lower than the tax bills on the million dollar properties, the people who pay them make less money, and the taxes are a greater portion, or percent, of their income (the money they get from working or a pension). This is called a "regressive" tax. None of our taxes are set up to work this way, because people agree that it isn't fair. But in practice, some taxes do work out to be "regressive".

honor system

     The universities that make up the "Ivy League" and its "Seven Sisters" all operate on the honor system.  That means that a lot of the work assigned to students is done outside of class--as in what were once called "take-home exams".  It is called the honor system because the only person who knows whether or not a student cheated on an exam is the student.  Students may be caught cheating if they plagiarize a term paper--but probably not if they cheat on an exam, as there is basically no such thing. The best-known military academies use the same academic system, I believe--I'm not sure about that, and there isn't any way to check short of enrolling in one of them.

the invisible hand

     The "invisible hand" is a phrase from an economist who lived long ago--a couple of hundred years ago--at about the time of the American Revolution. The "invisible hand" was his description of what makes the economy "do things". The economy supposedly corrects itself--when there is a depression, or inflation, it is because the economy is in the process of righting itself--as if the economy were a living organism, with a will of its own. The notion of the "invisible hand" is part of a theory of economics still referred to as "laissez-faire"--a French phrase that literally means to allow to do, or, more appropriately--to let go or "let it be".
     The economists who believe in the "invisible hand", or in "laissez-faire" economics think that it is wrong to interfere in the workings of the economy--that any intervention would only make things worse, and perhaps throw  a wrench in the working of the "invisible hand".  President Hoover believed this at the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930's. To do anything about the unemployment and bank failures might only make things worse, so he did nothing.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not agree, and was willing to try all kinds of programs to improve both unemployment and the economy in general.
     This remains a current issue because many people still believe that it is wrong to attempt to regulate the economy. They believe that "market forces" alone will make the best economy--what people are willing to do with their money, absent any government regulation. Other people believe that the government should be more involved in the economy than it is--by guaranteeing people jobs, for instance. If you watch C-Span (the channel that shows Congress in session)--you will notice that many of the arguments are about these two very different views of economics.

bar codes and binary math

     Binary, or "base 2", math is a system of math with only 2 symbols. Every number can be expressed using only 1's and 0's. Calculation can be done in this way for specialized purposes--but the system of notation--using only the 1's and 0's--made the bar code possible.  Instead of the 1's and 0's, the bar code uses a line, or no line ( a blank space). Each number has a "code" of lines--a set of lines and blank spaces--that represent that number. A series of numbers ( a long number) is made of a set of these "codes". The thing that is special about the lines and spaces is that a machine can read them. Using a laser beam, the machine "reads" the lines and spaces. To the machine, the lines and spaces represent the number you see at the bottom of the bar code. In the store's computer files, each number represents a particular product, which is spelled out (or deciphered) as words so that people can read it. The number is also spelled out as words on your receipt. So there is nothing mysterious written or encoded there--only the brand and size of the can of peas you may be buying.

spelling

     A long time ago--a couple of hundred years ago, that is--spelling was not standardized. You were considered a good speller if other people could read what you had written. You were considered a poor speller if other people could not understand what you had written
     Then along came Noah Webster and his dictionary--at about the same time that the general idea of standardized spelling became popular. Now we are all expected to spell the same words in the same way. The only modern exception is an author attempting to render an accent of some kind into written words. This can be very annoying to try to read when you are used to standardized spelling. In most instances, if the author is trying to render your own accent, you never think he or she got it quite right. If the author is trying to render an accent with which you are not familiar, it usually doesn't help, and may make his or her writing indecipherable.
     Many books that were written before standardized spelling became the norm are now printed with modernized spelling. Some books and other works are left the way they were originally written--no one likes the idea of changing them--for instance, Shakespeare, or the King James translation of the Bible. People are used to the old-fashioned spelling, and often think it is interesting to read something that is printed this way.  Shakespeare was not a poor speller--neither were the people who worked on the King James version of the Bible. Being able to read these as they were originally written is like being able to travel through time--to visit the society of four hundred years ago.
     Other old-fashioned documents, like the US Constitution or the British Magna Carta, probably have to be left with their original spelling--since they are legal documents, and it would not be right to alter them except by a constitutional amendment. 
     Enjoy reading old things, if you can--they are very rewarding--but don't learn to spell from them.

Martin Luther

     It seems that many people do not know that Martin Luther was a famous person in history. I don't mean Martin Luther King--whose parents must have named him after Martin Luther. I mean Martin Luther, the monk who was working on a translation of the Bible into German, when he had an epiphany of sorts, and nailed his 95 Theses (ideas--these were about what was wrong with the church) to the cathedral door. This started what was later known as the "Reformation"--some people eventually wanted a new church, and not a reformed one, so the term "reformation" may be misleading. After Martin Luther, there were Protestants and Catholics in Western Europe, who sometimes fought with one another.
     Religion and politics were much more intertwined or "of a piece" than they are now. To refuse the religion of a country might be to refuse its king or queen--and with it its government--so the people fighting wars over religion were not simply fighting to promote a particular theological view. They were sure that all of the people in each country needed to be of the same religion, and were willing to fight over that.  In present-day England, the queen is still the head of a state church. To refuse to belong to that church was tolerated for a long time (it wasn't a crime, as it had once been)--but it was considered disloyal. A person who did not belong to the Church of England could not expect to get a government job, or a job in a business that dealt with the government.

surnames

     A thousand years ago, most people didn't have what we think of as surnames or family names today. People didn't travel much, so a surname wasn't really necessary to identify a person--or to differentiate one person from another. The ancient people had used a person's father's name (patronymic) as second name--( like Johnson, Peterson, Stevenson) but this changed with each generation, so it wasn't a permanent surname.
     The name of the place a person was from would do as a sort of description, if necessary.  "John of the manor", for example, or "Peter of the lake". Occasional names were descriptive, such as "Eric the Red", or "Notker the Stammerer". Some people were named after their trades (jobs)-- millers, smiths, coopers.
     Eventually all of these forms of surnames became permanent family names--each child born to the family is given the same surname, no matter what the original meaning.  So now we have "Smiths" who aren't blacksmiths, "Coopers" who don't make barrels, and "Wrights" who don't make anything. We have people named "Johnson" whose father's name wasn't "John", and people named "Stevenson" whose father's name wasn't "Steven". 

right to work law

     A state with a "right-to-work" law has made it illegal to require membership in a union as a condition of employment.  This is often called a "closed shop"-- everyone in it belongs to the union. A union is an organization of workers who do the same jobs, or who are employed in the same industry.  They have formed an organization for the purpose of "collective bargaining".  Instead of asking his or her employer for a raise, or for better working conditions, a union member will take his or her grievance to the union. The union may ask the employer for better wages, better benefits (health insurance and vacation or sick time, for example), or for better working conditions. The union may complain about hazardous working conditions--chemicals that are making workers sick, for instance. The union has "clout" because it represents so many people--perhaps all of the workers in a factory, or all of the employees of a particular industry. You may have heard of the Teamsters Union (truck drivers), or the United Auto Workers.
     Many people only hear of unions when they go "on strike" . This means they refuse to go to work, after trying to get some changes made in their wages or working conditions, and getting "no" for an answer. By going on strike, the union members hope that their employer will offer to change their wages or working conditions.
     Unionizing was once considered a subversive activity. Going on strike was considered illegal, and might have been treated as a crime. Unions and collective bargaining are legal now--we all have the right to bargain collectively with our employers, and to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining. Unions have acquired clout not only with employers, but with employees. Membership in the union has become a condition for employment (getting a job) in some cases. This is why some states have enacted "right-to-work" laws. The laws are meant to make it possible to get a job without joining the union--even if everyone else belongs to the union.

tax primer--part one

Taxation--it's complicated.
     Our federal government, in the United States, collects income taxes. When you work all week, and get your paycheck on Friday, income taxes will have been deducted from it. The federal government of the United States also collects taxes on things that are imported into the United States from other countries. Another form of federal taxation is the excise tax--a tax added into something you buy, before it ever gets to the store--like gasoline, alcohol, and tobacco. The prices of all of these are partly tax paid to the federal government.
     Each of the fifty United States has a government--and each of these collects taxes. The most common form of state tax is the sales tax--a percentage added to something you buy. In some states this is added to everything sold in the state. Here on the east coast "luxury" sales taxes are more common. Items that are considered necessities--like groceries and clothing-- are not taxed when sold. Everything else (in Pennsylvania, for example) has 6% (six percent) added to the sale price--that's six cents for every dollar. States may also collect a state income tax, as my home state of Pennsylvania does. You may find this deducted from your paycheck along with the federal income tax.
     Local governments also collect taxes. A local government is the government of a city, town, borough, township, or village. Local taxes are usually in the form of property taxes. Anyone who owns a home or business pays a certain amount of tax each year to the local government. If you pay rent, the person renting to you pays property taxes. Some local governments collect other taxes. Here in Philadelphia we have a city wage tax--like a third income tax, also deducted from our paychecks. We also have an added two percent sales tax--instead of the six percent tax in the rest of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia has an eight per cent tax. The extra two cents goes to the city of Philadelphia.
     Still looking at your paycheck?  Social Security is a separate tax, collected from your wages or salary in the form of another deduction each week.
     What is left of your paycheck is yours to spend.

school boards

     There is such a lot of reporting in the press on the state of American education that a simple fact seems to be lost in the pile. We have local control of the schools. School boards--the people who make the decisions about what goes on in our schools--are usually locally elected. Sometimes a superintendent of schools is appointed.  Anyone who did not already know this is not likely to pick it up reading newspaper articles about education.
      So, if there are changes you would like to see in your local school district, pay attention when elections for school board members are held. They are part of the other "interim" elections--the ones with such low voter turnout.
     Also, school board meetings are usually open to the public. You may attend and listen, and may have a chance to make a comment or ask a question. You may have to look in the small local weekly newspaper to find out when and where school board meetings are held. Or you might try your local school district's web site. You can take your concern for your schools to where the decisions are made--the school board.

evolution

     You have probably heard of the controversy surrounding the theory of evolution. Some people claim it never happened--that the world was created as it is now. Others claim these are religious fanatics, and attempt to prove to them that God didn't make the world, as an argument for the theory of evolution.  But it gets worse. There are two sets of people arguing even stranger things about evolution--things that seem to be creeping into discussions about other things in ways that are difficult to pin down--until you have heard enough of them.
     One set claims that evolution has stopped--that creatures and other life forms once evolved, but that evolution is no longer going on. This can be found in print going back sixty or seventy years. How anyone pretends to know that evolution has "stopped" isn't mentioned. It may be simply the ego of the author of the theory--who saw no room for improvement after evolution made him. Fact--if evolution exists, it also exists here and now. If creatures evolve over thousands and millions of years, we cannot expect to find evidence of it in a hundred or a hundred and fifty years. To pretend that because we can't "see" evolution that it isn't happening goes beyond spurious to ludicrous. At best it is assertion without proof.
     Another set of people is sure that we are all evolving even as we speak. Learning, work and effort of any kind do not exist in their philosophical system.  Everyone is merely going to sit around and wait to evolve. Some of these have actually claimed that people who can read and write are genetically different from people who cannot read and write. School had nothing to do with it, according to them--no work, no learning--just genes.  We might as well go back to the belief that people who could read and write had supernatural powers.

primary elections

    A primary election is an election to decide on the candidates who will run in the "real" election. Each political party holds its own primary. The Republicans have a primary, and the Democrats have a primary. To vote in a primary election, you must be registered with the party holding the election. To vote in the Republican primary, you must have registered as a Republican when you registered to vote. To vote in the Democratic primary, you must have registered as a Democrat when you registered to vote. If you registered as an unaffiliated voter, you may not vote in either primary. You may change your party affiliation at any time by contacting the voter registration office near you.

historic covenants

     A historic covenant is an agreement written into the deed of sale of a piece of property. It usually stipulates that the building, or perhaps only the exterior (outside) of the building cannot be altered. It may also stipulate that the exterior of a building cannot be decorated, at holidays, say, except in a manner that  historically "matches" the house or building and its surroundings. When someone buys a house that has a historic covenant as part of its deed of sale, he or she is agreeing to the terms of the sale.
     Here in Philadelphia, we have an entire neighborhood that is intact--from the 18th century, or 1700's. The people who live in these houses have agreed to keep the exteriors as they found them. If they repaint them, the color of the paint is a color that a house might have been painted in the 1700's. If they put up Christmas decorations, they use greenery and fruit. The neighborhood's historic value has become a public trust, even though the property is privately owned--people live in these houses.
     Historic covenants are not the same as other restrictive covenants in deeds--some of which are legal--about lawn decorations, say.  A restrictive covenant that attempted to limit the persons who might purchase a property to a certain race or religion would always have been  illegal or unenforceable--although people probably got away with it at times. It would have been an infringement of the contract rights of the seller--the law cannot tell someone to whom he or she may or may not sell a piece of property. A court would have thrown it out. Most restrictive covenants that included race or religion were "gentleman's agreements". That means a handshake to seal a bargain--not a written contract. A handshake bargain of this kind is not necessarily a bad thing. It is how a lot of business is still done--but in the case of restrictive covenants it meant that there was no paper trail to use to investigate the problem. You can watch an old movie that covers the subject very well--it is called "Gentleman's Agreement".

what is a coed?

      A coed or co-ed is a dated term for a female college student. It was popular in the 1960's, when females were first admitted in numbers to traditional all-male colleges and universities. Coeducation means teaching the males and females together--particularly where they were once taught separately, as in a physical education (gym) course. Coeducation does not mean anything having to do with race--only with gender. There are still all-male and all-female private and parochial (Catholic) schools. These are usually high schools or residential (boarding) schools--like the all-male (secondary school) military academies. The military colleges are now coeducational.

a share of stock

     A share of stock is actually so easy to understand as to make the level of confusion surrounding it suspicious--as in perhaps it IS all a diabolical plot. That said, a share of stock is a part interest in the corporation that issued the stock. If a publicly owned (stock-issuing) corporation issues on million shares of stock, and you buy one of them, you have purchased a millionth part of the corporation. You are a part owner--one part in every million of that corporation is yours.
     The stock in publicly owned corporations (remember that means stock issuing, not government owned) usually comes with a vote--one vote per share of stock. It's not exactly a democracy, which would have one vote per person--it's just how a corporation is run. Stockholders elect the board of directors of the corporation. The board of directors is headed by a chairperson of the board, or a chief executive officer (CEO).
     If you own stock through mutual funds, you have probably given your vote as a "proxy vote" to an employee of the mutual fund ( a mutual fund buys and sells shares of stock, and then sells shares in itself to investors--much like "holding company" of the 1920's, now illegal).

the real Rosetta Stone

      Now that it is the name of a well-known business concern, it seems that the real Rosetta Stone has been forgotten. Yes, there was a real Rosetta Stone--the people who run the well-known business ought to be able to tell you that. When Europeans began to study ancient Egypt, no one could read the hieroglyphics--the ancient Egyptian writing. The Rosetta Stone had the same message written in three languages. Two of them were ancient Egyptian languages, which no one could read. The message was also written in ancient Greek, which many people could read. This made it possible to decipher not only the message on the Rosetta Stone, but eventually all of the other ancient Egyptian writing.