USC made its offer to neuroscientists a no-brainer
Federal Cuts to Force Closure of Fusion Project at MIT
The elephant in the room
The Outrageous Cost of a Gene Test
Officially Entering “And Then They Fight” Phase of Open Access

Other:

Where Are The Deficit Celebrations?
Tornadoes in America: The Oklahoma Disaster in Context
Before Deadly Tornado Hit, Oklahoma Senators Worked To Undermine Disaster Relief
The Most Absurd Religious War in Geek History is in the News Today
Storm Clouds
Could DNA Databases Curb Human Trafficking?
In Which We Give Sheldon Whitehouse A Big Bravo
A Guide for Game Hunting in England’s Premier League
ObamaCare Rollout: How not to attract “the young invincibles”
Why liberals should defend Harvard’s right to accept and publish Jason Richwine’s dissertation
Top 10 warning signs of ‘liberal imperialism’

Yes, that is a bag of full of chihuahuas.

Pull up a compounding calculator on line. Take an account with a $100,000 balance and compound it at 7 percent for 50 years. That gives you a return of $3,278,041.36. Now change the calculation to a 5 percent return (reduced by the 2 percent annual fee) for the same $100,000 over the same 50 years. That delivers a return of $1,211,938.32. That’s a difference of $2,066,103.04 – the same 63 percent reduction in value that Smith’s example showed.

While passively managed funds such as index funds (e.g., Vanguard) charge much lower fees, many employees don’t have that option (I don’t), and are placed into high fee accounts. As always, those who need the most help in retirement–less sophisticated investors–are more likely to get suckered into high fee plans.

John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, describes the system like so (boldface mine):

What happens in the fund business is the magic of compound returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs. It’s a mathematical fact. There’s no getting around it. The fact that we don’t look at it— too bad for us….

Well, you have to rely on somebody to get out a compound interest table and look at the impact over an investment lifetime. Do you really want to invest in a system where you put up 100 percent of the capital, you the mutual fund shareholder, you take 100 percent of the risk and you get 30 percent of the return?

I really don’t. I can’t help but think how much better off most of us would have been if we had simply been allowed to supplement our Social Security retirement accounts–especially those, who by being born at the wrong time, ‘mistimed’ the stock market.

And the congregation responds: this is yet another reason why we can’t have nice things.

The puzzle of rising IQ scores
Meet Your New Symbionts: Trillions of Viruses
The s**t hits the fan – FDA, INDs, and fecal microbiota transplants
The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek (overly optimistic; read the comments)
What’s the Matter With Portland? The city has been fighting fluoridation for 50 years. Will facts trump fear this month?

Other:

Macroeconomic Machismo (excellent)
The MOOC Moment and the End of Reform (excellent)
How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America (must-read; as we often write around these parts: personal responsibility should not be the sole purview of single minority mothers)
Creative People Say No (scientists too)
HIGH-MINDEDNESS
Pritzker Yields Party Role Reversal on Offshore Trusts
HEAR NO EXTREMISM, SEE NO EXTREMISM (very good media criticism)
More poor live in suburbs than in urban areas, research shows: But cities still have a bigger percentage, according to the Brookings Institution. The poverty shift has left many social service agencies unprepared.
Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust
How technology redefines norms
Here’s why remote state capitals are often more corrupt (I actually think the addendum is the better answer)

Here’s the reason why there is a giant fence in the middle of Boston designed to catch fish.

Mozambique Diary: Alipes
The kibosh
Nanopore Sequencing by Divine Intervention?
My breasts. My genes.
On Teaching Genetics Using Students’ and Parents’ ABO Blood Types (oops)

Other:

Florida Teen Expelled, Charged With Felony For Lesbian Relationship (parents should be thankful: no one will get pregnant…)
Michelle Rhee and the Washington Post
Dirty medicine
The Mythical 70s
In search of the lost lion of the Kensington Building
Austerity is a moral issue

Back during the stimulus debate, more than a few technobrat pundits argued that it was really difficult to figure out how to spend money on things we need (really, I’m not kidding). Like many technobrat pronoucements, this was ridiculous. Well, five years on, and, to use a phrase, shit is still fucked up and bullshit (boldface mine):

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, reeling from years of budget cuts, has fallen significantly behind in investigating consumer complaints about medical facilities and lacks sufficient staff to conduct safety inspections of every­thing from summer camps to food manufacturers to housing for migrant farm workers.

There’s a wait of more than five months for investigating problems reported in Massachusetts hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis centers, and clinics. Meanwhile, medical and biological waste from roughly 600 biotechnology firms is not being routinely monitored to ensure proper disposal.

Inspectors will be needed to ensure that children have Coast Guard-approved life jackets in camps this summer, as ­required by state law. The depart­ment has fewer than half the minimum number of ­inspectors required to meet federal standards for ensuring that food plants follow safe practices.

These gaps, detailed in a budget memo obtained by the Globe, surfaced as agency leaders pleaded with lawmakers for more money to hire inspectors. The agency, which is still dealing with the aftermath of two scandals last year, says it needs more staff to prevent another crisis….

The memo noted that the five-month backlog in responding to these complaints means that inspectors performing routine reviews often are unaware of the pending issues.

That last bit means inspectors often don’t know if the entity they’re reviewing is also under specific investigation for violations. That will help.

We have people who need jobs, and jobs that need filling. The federal government should just spend the damn money.

Neil Hall is Responsible for Rising NGS Prices
A pedantic look at the cost of sequencing
The need for critical science journalism; Too much contemporary science writing falls under the category of ‘infotainment’ (excellent)
Jim Lovell & Golden Spike: Apollo 13 Astronaut Joins Private Moon Flight Company

Other:

ALLEGED PARTISAN OBAMACARE ENFORCER: HIRED UNDER REAGAN, PRAISED BY BUSH
Why American Colleges Are Becoming a Force for Inequality
The US Murder Rate Is on Track to Be Lowest In a Century
How Twitter the Budgie Flew Into My Life
YEAH NO: Rich Manhattan Moms Allegedly “Renting” Disabled People To Skip Lines At Disney World
How the IRS’s Nonprofit Division Got So Dysfunctional
Sequester Hits Mass. Medical Industry On Multiple Fronts
Your Epidural is Against the Law: What Alabama Women and Doctors Need to Know