Is Cycle 24 the Beginning of a Dalton-Like Minimum?

The unexpected development of cycle 24 emphasizes the need for a better way to model future solar activity. In this article, we analyze the accumulation of spotless days during individual cycles from 1798-2010. The analysis shows that spotless days do not disappear abruptly in the transition towards an active sun. A comparison with past cycles indicates that the ongoing accumulation of spotless days is comparable to that of cycle 5 near the Dalton minimum and to that of cycles 12, 14 and 15. It also suggests that the ongoing cycle has as much as 20 \pm 8 spotless days left, from July 2010, before it reaches the next solar maximum. The last spotless day is predicted to be in December 2012, with an uncertainty of 11 months. This trend may serve as input to the solar dynamo theories.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and Homeownership: Is Smaller Now Better?

Prior to 1997, homeowners under 55 were allowed to defer capital gains taxes from a home sale if they bought another house at least as expensive, while those over 55 received a capital gains exclusion regardless of the cost of their new home. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (TRA97) eliminated this differential tax treatment. We exploit the differential treatment before 1997 to uncover TRA97’s effects. Comparing homeowners under 55 before and after 1997, we find that those who moved after 1997 are twice as likely as to list “seeking less expensive housing” as a reason for moving, 8 percent less likely to own their residences and 9 percent less likely to live in a single family home.

An improved external recycle reactor for determining gas-solid reaction kinetics

These improvements in the recycle system effectively eliminate initial concentration variation by two modifications: (1) a vacuum line connection to the recycle loop which permits this loop to be evacuated and then filled with the test gas mixture to slightly above atmospheric pressure; and (2) a bypass line across the reactor which permits the reactor to be held under vacuum while the rest of the recycle loop is filled with test gas. A three-step procedure for bringing the feed gas mixture into contact with the catalyst at time zero is described

Tax Limits, Houses, and Schools: Seemingly Unrelated and Offsetting Effects

Property tax limitations, as well as other tax and expenditure restrictions on state and local governments in the United States, date back to the late nineteenth century. A surge in property tax limitation legislation occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and its effects on government revenue, school financing, and educational quality have been studied extensively. However, there is surprisingly little literature on how property tax limits affect housing markets. For the first time, we examine the impacts of property tax limitations on housing growth, in addition to their impacts on housing prices. Using state-level data over twenty-three years, we find that property tax limits increase housing prices (indexes) by approximately 1.6%. These limits appear to have little impact on the growth in the housing stock, as measured by the number of permits. Our evidence suggests that this is because while property tax limits reduce property taxes they also increase the price of housing. These two counteracting effects lead to ambiguous impacts on the gross price of housing.

Through the Autobiographies and into the Art: A Deeper Look into Women of the 1920s

The 1920s in America reflected a time of change ranging from prohibition to the iconic Flapper girl lifestyle. Famous public figures tended to transform their ideals to the rapidly changing societal standards. Fortunately, for many artists, their lives encompassed the ideals that were established in the 1920s. Thus, the production of art simply became a reproduction of past experiences and lifetime events that the artist encountered. Seemingly obsessed with drugs, alcohol, and sex, artists fell into lives consumed with addictive and psychotic behaviors. The public eye saw these artists as victims of tragic lives and searched for any psychoanalytic meaning throughout their work. Lines dividing Surrealism or Expressionism and writing a diary or an autobiography became blurred. Readers became avid fanatics of these artists with the hopes of catching a glimpse or understanding the personal life of the rich and the famous. Reasons for appreciating the art were skewed in the 1920s and still are in the present day. Women such as Zelda Fitzgerald, Mina Loy, and Frida Kahlo all produced art deserving immense respect and analysis. Instead, the public understands these artists to have fallen victim to their abusive husbands, drug addiction, and mental illnesses. Yet, deep within the lines of the text or past the paintings, viewers can find more than an autobiography of a tragic woman. These artists utilized their ideals and their lives to produce astounding art worthy of recognition. Embracing Surrealist ideals moving far beyond simple autobiographical qualities, Fitzgerald, Loy, and Kahlo each transform from artist to the art itself