Pun Salad

Last month I looked at (here and here) a NYT article that purported to show Vermont in terrible demographic trouble due to a massive outflux of young people.

Now the latest is this Boston Globe article (referred to by Jay Tea at Wizbang) that points to similar direness for Massachusetts. The Census Bureau recently reported that, on average, about 116 more people per day have been moving out of Massachusetts than have been moving in. (This is a net interstate migration number only, not counting foreign (im|em)migrants, or in-state births and deaths; the period studied was 7/2000-7/2004.)

Unsurprisingly, the Globe finds someone to bash Governor Mitt ("Mitt") Romney for this, even though he was in office for only 1.5 years out of the four year period.

The (PDF) report from the Census Bureau is here. Other fun facts therein:

• New York is the most popular state to be from; it has lost people at an average rate of slightly over 500 per day. (That's the highest out-migration rate in absolute numbers.)

• On the other hand, Florida has about 523 people per day moving in. (That's the highest in-migration rate in absolute numbers.)

• Measured in percentage terms, Nevada is the in-migration champ, at about 2.33% of its population per year; New York has the highest out-migration percentage rate, losing 0.96% of its population per year. (Massachusetts is in second place by this measure: 0.66%)

• New Hampshire has been gaining about 21 people per day (0.61% rate). Maine, of all places, has been taking in about 22 people per day, (0.63% rate). And even Vermont is still getting a trickle of 2.5 persons per day (0.15% rate).

• The report also compared the migration rates from 1990-2000 with those from 2000-2004. The out-migration rate in Massachusetts seems to be increasing (from 0.41% to 0.66%). The in-migration rate in New Hampshire is also increasing (from 0.33% to 0.61%). Maine went from an out-migration rate of 0.04% to in-migration rate of 0.63%.

• The headline says it all:

  Bill Gates makes cryptic remark on Internet rights to China's Hu

  … causing numerous geeks to wonder what algorithm and key length Gates used. (Link via CEI Open Market.)

• Speaking of geek news, huge story here. Boldly go, babe.

• Dan Henninger writes negatively about the blogosphere:

  Not surprisingly, a new vocabulary has emerged from clinical psychology to describe generalized patterns of behavior on the virtual continent. As described by psychologist John Suler, there's dissociative anonymity (You don't know me); solipsistic introjection (It's all in my head); and dissociative imagination (It's just a game). This is all known as digital identity, and it sounds perfectly plausible to me.

  A libertarian would say, quite correctly, that most of this is their problem, so who cares? But there is one more personality trait common to the blogosphere that, like crabgrass, may be spreading to touch and cover everything. It's called disinhibition. Briefly, disinhibition is what the world would look like if everyone behaved like Jerry Lewis or Paris Hilton or we all lived in South Park.

  Anyone who happens to notice any untoward dissociative anonymity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, or especially disinhibition around here should feel free to let me know as soon as possible. I'm probably not introspective enough to notice myself.

  Also, you should check out Randy Barnett's response at the Volokh Conspiracy.

• And Janice Brown has a nominee for Official New Hampshire State Monster: the Lakawaka, safely offshore, haunting up the Isles of Shoals. She apparently glows in the dark. The monster, that is, not Janice.