What happens in Vegas...is a lesson for Wall Street

Who would have thought...that Las Vegas would be upset at being clubbed with Goldman Sachs!

FT.com / US / Society - Straight-dealing Vegas bristles at Wall Street gibe: "“It’s very offensive,” said Shelley Berkley, a Democratic congresswoman whose district covers the city’s gaming strip and casinos ranging from the luxurious Bellagio to the rather down at heel Binion’s Gambling Hall & Hotel.

“Las Vegas casinos might not have clocks but we have rules, we have regulations, we have odds for sports betting,” she said. “Everyone knows what the rules are and no one is getting ripped off.”

The regulatory framework for casinos in Nevada was established in 1959 – mainly to keep gangsters and the mafia out of what had become a booming industry. Nevada at that time was the only place in the US to allow gambling, and organised crime wanted its cut.

Robert Faiss, a lawyer with Lionel Sawyer & Collins, a Nevada firm, helped frame those regulations and went on to work in the Nevada Gaming Commission and the White House, where he served in the Lyndon Johnson administration.

“You don’t get to be regulated [in Las Vegas] unless you successfully complete an examination that may take years to complete,” he said. “Every aspect of the applicant’s life is examined and there are minimal internal control standards [within each company], which are exhaustive.”

The checks and balances within the system have helped build an industry that has shed its past associations with organised crime, he said. There have been no examples of executive greed in the Nevada industry that have resulted in “violations of the law or fiduciary obligations”.

Mr Faiss pointed to a spate of accounting scandals that rocked corporate America at the turn of the decade. “You won’t find any gaming companies among them,” he said.

Gamblers who feel they have been the victim of fraud in a casino can make an immediate appeal to the Nevada Gaming Control Board which, together with the Nevada Gaming Commission, is the main regulatory agency for Las Vegas casinos. The commission wields considerable power in the state: Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, is a former chairman.

“The reality is the gaming industry is very well regulated,” said Ms Berkley. “What happened on Wall Street would never have happened in a Las Vegas casino . . . it’s the most well regulated industry on the planet.”

That sentiment is echoed by gamblers interviewed by the Financial Times this week. Most said they were aware of the risks involved when they gambled.

“When you come to Las Vegas you know you’ll lose some money,” said Cheryl Westland, who was visiting from California and playing slots in the Tropicana. “What I’m not prepared to do is lose half the income on Wall Street that I’ve spent my life saving – but that’s what happened.”"

Oil-Slick Obama

President Obama has been pushing for more offshore drilling- rather than emphasizing dematerialization. The BP offshore oil rig explosion has enormous implications to both humans and nature. The oil spill can be greater than that of Exxon Valdez. BP and others have been getting away with "accidents" far too easily.

FT.com / Companies / Oil & Gas - Obama steps up fight to contain oil spill: "The Obama administration yesterday stepped up its response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, designating it an event “of national significance” as rescue workers struggled to stop the oil from washing ashore on the Louisiana coast today. The move will free up money and resources from around the country to fight the slick caused by last week’s explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which appears to be leaking five times as much oil as was previously feared. Louisiana declared a state of emergency as the slick neared the coast, threatening wildlife and fishing grounds. The US military might be deployed to help contain the leak. “While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and clean-up operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defense, to address the incident,” President Barack Obama said yesterday. The spill has complicated Mr Obama’s plan to lift some restrictions on US domestic offshore drilling for oil, a concession he made to try to win Republican support for a long-awaited climate change bill.

Louisiana declared a state of emergency as the slick neared the coast, threatening wildlife and fishing grounds. The US military might be deployed to help contain the leak..."

This is IT

3 Indian IT giants hire 20,000 employees in Q4-Jobs-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times: "T giants Infosys, TCS and Wipro hired over 20,000 employees in the January-March quarter, with improving business conditions propelling their recruitment plans.

According to human resources experts, IT and IT-enabled services are expected to see a huge jump in hiring this year and major companies in the sector have already set the pace.

The three IT companies put together have made net additions of 20,014 employees (taking into account attrition) in the January-March quarter."

Gautama Buddha double bogeys...

Buddhism, a philosophy that is traced back to Prince Gautama, focuses on renunciation of worldly pleasures. It is ironic, but certainly not surprising, to see the WSJ run an article on golfers swinging on Buddhism. If the golfers followed Buddhism, they would not be playing "professional golf." Truly an great example of the awful reasons for adopting Buddhism. Further, the writer should have avoided the phrase "holy terror." Terror is the farthest from the Buddhist faith.

Can Buddha Help Your Short Game? - WSJ.com: "When Tiger Woods finally emerged from his trip through the wilderness of marital infidelity, he vowed to make some life changes. One of them was to reconnect to Buddhism, the religion of his youth.

It's fair to say Buddhism could make him a better person. But here's a scary notion for the rest of the PGA Tour: There's a reasonable chance it could make him a better golfer, too.

A growing number of golfers and golf coaches all over the world are warming up to the idea that the ancient religion, which teaches followers to let go of their egos, attachments and desires in order to attain enlightenment, could be the faith most suited to making somebody a holy terror on the links."

AstraZeneca out of $520 Million

Another drug company settling a marketing case. Unfortunately no criminal charges are being pursued. Money comes out of company coffers, business goes on as usual, and shareholders are happy because they are not being prosecuted. AstraZeneca, according to NYT, reported $4.9 billion in Seroquel sales in 2009. Assuming gross margins of 80%, and deducting $30 million for R&D ($600 million amortized over 20 years) gives a "gross profit-r&d" number of $3.89 billion. So $520 million in fine is less than 14% of this number- chump change.

Gives marketing, and ethical marketers, a big black eye.

AstraZeneca to Settle Case for $520 Million - NYTimes.com: "AstraZeneca has completed a deal to pay $520 million to settle federal investigations into marketing practices for its blockbuster schizophrenia drug, Seroquel. The Justice Department plans a news conference on Wednesday to disclose details of the case, according to two people close to the negotiations who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

AstraZeneca becomes the fourth pharmaceutical giant in the last three years to admit to federal charges of illegal marketing of antipsychotic drugs, a lucrative category of medications that have quickly risen to the top of United States sales charts. Aggressive sales and promotional practices have helped expand the use of powerful new antipsychotic drugs for children and the elderly.

AstraZeneca will sign a corporate integrity agreement with the federal government over its marketing of Seroquel for unapproved uses, but will not face criminal charges, the people close to the negotiations said.

The company, based in London, has been accused of misleading doctors and patients by playing up favorable research and not adequately disclosing studies that show Seroquel increases the risk of diabetes.

AstraZeneca still faces more than 25,000 civil lawsuits filed on behalf of patients contending that the company did not disclose the drug’s risks..."

Goldman Barks, Seven More Banks Close

Two contrasting headlines in the news...

Goldman Sachs Messages Show It Thrived as Economy Fell - NYTimes.com: "In late 2007, as the mortgage crisis gained momentum and many banks were suffering losses, Goldman Sachs executives traded e-mail messages saying that they would make “some serious money” betting against the housing markets."

Seven Illinois Banks Closed; 57 on Year - WSJ.com: "U.S. regulators closed seven Illinois banks on Friday, the largest of which was Amcore Bank and including a Chicago bank closely tied to the Democratic candidate running for President Obama's former Senate seat.

The failures bring to 57 the number of U.S. banks that have failed this year, after 140 failures in 2009. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said the total cost to its deposit insurance fund from Friday's failures topped $970 million."

Goldman in shorts strikes gold...

No one should be surprised at the revelations that Goldman went short against the mortgage market, or that it put the screws on AIG, or that it fleeced Greece. After all, it represents the elite of the banking industry- whose purpose appears to be to squeeze money in any and every way irrespective of laws or ethics.

FT.com / Companies / Banks - Goldman profited on shorts, emails show: "Goldman Sachs made big profits betting against the mortgage market even though it stated in its 2009 annual report to investors that it “did not generate enormous net revenues by betting against residential related products”, according to initial findings of a Senate investigation into the bank.

The senators’ findings mark the latest setback to Goldman’s efforts to stem the public backlash against the bank’s actions during the financial crisis, its pay policies and its stunning recovery from the downturn. The bank was blindsided earlier this month by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which charged Goldman with fraud for allegedly misleading investors in a mortgage-backed security it created."

Indian Education

The top ranked Indian educational institutions are pushing the envelope on many fronts, and innovating many educational practices. The business departments at IIMs, IITs, and other leading institutions are excellent. In fact the business department at IIT-M does a superb job in training engineer-managers. The admissions process is quite rigorous as well. Opening the education sector to foreign competition will put pressure on second and third tier institutions, but it will also enable the leading Indian schools to get recognized as part of the global leaders.

FT.com / Asia-Pacific / India - A foothold in India: "Duke University’s Fuqua School of Businesscollaborates with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad to offer corporate education programmes in India.IIM-A also partners with Essec Business School of Paris to offer dual degrees in management from both institutions. And the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia has announced a partnership with IIM-A involving student exchange and research collaboration.The Asian Graduate School of Business in Hyderabad and Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business jointly offer a one-year post-graduate programme in management.The Indian School of Business in Hyderabad has student exchanges with many institutions including Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania and Kellogg School of Management both in the US.The Indian Institute of Management Bangaloreoffers a joint executive education programme in partnership with Lancaster University School of Management in the UK, McGill University in Quebec Canada,Renmin University School of Business in Beijing andEBAPE-Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil."

Bolivian Love of Mother Earth

A revealing interview with President Morales of Bolivia. Amy Goodman, you make the noblest of contributions to society.

Bolivian President Evo Morales ": "And I can tell you, I know and I have lived in my family, in my community, in my aillu, traditional community, where we said this year, we’ll grow chili peppers the next year, and we evaluate this among five different or eight communities. And over that time, it is regenerated in another place. Some time goes by, and we replant it in different place. And so, if we rotate the crops, then there’s not a detrimental impact on the environment. These seem like small things, but they translate into large things internationally in terms of the world environment."

Mother earth- Needs a little lovin'

An educational interview with Robert Stone in NYT. Had an interesting discussion with my neighbors about education. The latter has come to mean getting degrees- but education develops one's ability to question, to seek, to think, to collaborate, and to improve the world around us. A questioning mind leads us to conserve resources and figure out more efficient methods for living life. I am glad that my colleague and I started down this path in early 2007- hopefully we have 'educated' at least a few students. It is easier to teach than to practice, so one's own lifestyle must change first.

Earth Day, the Sequel - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com:

Q: "Sounds like you’re talking about a more educated populace (able to discern the broader costs and benefits of actions) and more transparency — kind of the energy/environment equivalent of those nutrition labels on food?"

A: Yes that’s part of it. But you can’t ram this stuff down peoples throat. They need to be drawn to it on their own accord because it interests them. How many Americans know that we send about [12:22 p.m. | Updated: $96 billion to OPEC countries a year*] $800 billion to the Middle East every year for oil? Why isn’t Glenn Beck outraged about that? How many American’s know that we consume 30 percent of the world’s oil but have only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves — so much for “drill, baby, drill.”

The Republican 'Right' way of health care - jacking up Rx prices

Ahead of the health care bill the drug companies are giving us the usual dose- of high price increases. The worst part of the explanation is the claim that the money goes towards R&D. Since the Republicans did not support the Health care bill, they can put the "blame" for the price increases on Obama, just like shifting the blame for everything else to the President.

Drug Prices Rose 9.1% Last Year - WSJ.com: "Drug companies sharply raised prices last year, ahead of increased rebates they must pay to Medicaid and other expenses tied to the federal health overhaul passed last month.

Prices for brand-name pharmaceuticals rose 9.1% last year, the biggest increase in at least a decade, according to pharmacy-benefit manager Express Scripts Inc., which included the recent number in its annual drug-trend report. The boost for specialty drugs, a category that is largely biotech products, was even sharper: 11.5%. In 2008, the price rise had been 7.4% for traditional pharmaceuticals, and 9.4% for specialty drugs."

"Absolute"ly "Relative" in interpretation

The Judge Roberts' Supreme Court is handing down powerful judgements. Yesterday, the Court ruled against a law that made it illegal to create or sell videos featuring animal cruelty. As the records show, Justice Roberts uses the absolute notion of First Amendment (no power to restrict) but subsequently argues that child pornography is “a special case” because the market for it is “intrinsically related to the underlying abuse.” Is it because the Christian Right actively protests 'child pornography' but does not protest cruelty to animals?

Supreme Court Rejects Ban on Animal Cruelty Videos - NYTimes.com: "The government argued that depictions showing harm to animals were of such minimal social worth that they should receive no First Amendment protection at all. Chief Justice Roberts roundly rejected that assertion. “The First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter or its content,” he wrote.

The chief justice acknowledged that some kinds of speech — including obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement and speech integral to criminal conduct — have historically been granted no constitutional protection. But he said the Supreme Court had no “freewheeling authority to declare new categories of speech outside the scope of the First Amendment.”"

Inflation- in prices and in G.P.A.s

Another story about the increase in G.P.A.s over the past fifty years.

Plenty of debate about what this means- but it should be noted that G.P.A.s are calculated after a student's actual numerical score in a course is converted to a letter grade.

In our private liberal arts college "Regular grades are defined as follows:

A - Superior

B - Above Average

C - Average

D - Below Average

F - Failure"

Most schools have definitions along these lines.

Since B represents a 3 on a 0-4.0 scale, an average G.P.A. of 3.3 (in private schools) can be interpreted to mean that the "average" student (based on the mean G.P.A.) in these schools is somewhere between Above Average and Superior in performance...which seriously begs the definition of "Superior" and "Average" in the grading scheme. The entire grading scheme is a real academic performance. Interestingly, back in my engineering days at IIT (India) our report cards just showed our "actual" performance...the % achieved in every course.

Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com: "Over the last 50 years, college grade-point averages have risen about 0.1 points per decade, with private schools fueling the most grade inflation, a recent study finds.

The study, by Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, uses historical data from 80 four-year colleges and universities. It finds that G.P.A.’s have risen from a national average of 2.52 in the 1950s to about 3.11 by the middle of the last decade."

One more data point...points towards the future

Nearly every day, newspapers in India actively report on the hiring of new college grads and "laterals." The salaries offered to the students get a lot of press. Recently MBAs, especially from ISB and the IIMs, have been offered vast sums, often by multinationals.

OTOH, news reports in the U.S. press describe a different story.

Once Reluctant, Many Now Embrace Part-Time Work - NYTimes.com: "“I think it’s far less risky than being in a full-time job somewhere and cut at will and left with nothing,” Mr. Sinclair said. “I see this as the way more people will work in the future.”

Economists believe that Mr. Sinclair’s situation has become increasingly common. What is known as “contingent work,” or “flexible” and “alternative” staffing arrangements, has proliferated, although exact figures are hard to come by because of difficulties in tracking such workers. Many people are apparently looking at multiple temporary jobs as the equivalent of a diversified investment portfolio.

The notion that the nature of work is changing — becoming more temporary and project-based, with workers increasingly functioning as free agents and no longer being governed by traditional long-term employer-employee relationships — first gained momentum in the 1990s. But it has acquired new currency in this recession, especially among white-collar job seekers, as they cast about for work of any kind and companies remain cautious about permanent hiring.

In just one snapshot of what is going on, the number of people who describe themselves as self-employed but working less than 35 hours a week because they cannot find full-time work has more than doubled since the recession began, reaching 1.2 million in December 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists who study flexible work arrangements believe that the increase has been driven in large part by independent contractors like Mr. Sinclair and other contingent workers, struggling to cobble together whatever work they can find.

As the economy continues its halting recovery and employers’ confidence remains shaky, economists believe that it is likely that the ranks of these kinds of workers will continue to grow.

“To the degree there’s more uncertainty coming out of this recession than in past recessions, we would expect companies to be more cautious about taking on more permanent employees,” said Susan Houseman, senior economist with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, who studies contingent workers. “So they’d be looking for more of these nonstandard employees to hire.”

Some, like Mr. Sinclair, have embraced this lifestyle, influenced by a growing sense of just how precarious traditional employment can be and reveling in the other benefits, like flexibility and diversity.

Others, however, would vastly prefer permanent jobs. They have struggled to deal with the instability, the second-tier status often accorded contractors and other temporary workers and the usual lack of benefits. In most states, they are ineligible for unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation. Indeed, it is not at all clear that the shift to these kinds of arrangements is good for workers.

Christine Reams, 45, spent a dozen years as the director of human resources at a large hospital in Columbus, Ohio, but was laid off in July 2008. After struggling for more than a year to find a permanent job, she landed a contract assignment back at her former employer in September, this time in the information services department. Initially, the position, which pays half of what she used to make, was only supposed to last six weeks, but the hospital has extended her contract several times.

Now past her sixth month, she is grateful for the work, but the uncertainty has weighed on her, so much so that she checked herself into the emergency room recently when her blood pressure soared. Without health benefits, she had fretted over whether she would be extended again.

“It’s not permanent,” she said of the assignment. “So I am not feeling secure.”

Bob Longo, 47, of Green Brook, N.J., was laid off as a divisional sales training manager atUnilever in 2006. Since then, he has worked as an independent contractor, stringing together a relatively steady stream of assignments, often several at once.

But he has also had to deal with serious peaks and valleys, and he is now trying to find a permanent job.

Mr. Longo estimates that he has earned slightly more on an annual basis than he did at Unilever. On the other hand, he no longer has health benefits, a company car, a pension or a 401(k). Though he can use his wife’s health insurance, he says he does not have the stomach anymore for the endless cycle of scrabbling for work every time he comes off a project."

IPL- it's not the cricket but the off-field mis-hits

There is a lot of speculation about the money-awash IPL, including money-laundering and shady dealings. Recent news about Mr. Tharoor and Lalit Modi provides more data points.

Lalit Modi charged with 'Betting & Laundering'-ET Cetera-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times: "NEW DELHI: ‘Mr Lalit Modi has had a trail of failed ventures and defaults till four years back but has a lifestyle now that includes a private jet, a luxury yacht and a fleet of Mercedes S class and BMW cars all acquired in the last three years.’

Thus opens a highly confidential and explosive report by the income-tax department that has been in the possession of the government for six months now but formed the basis of any action only on Thursday evening after a raging controversy over secret ownerships and sweetheart deals in the Indian Premier League, or IPL, stalled both houses of Parliament."

Back to the...Nature

In India, there was a time when meals were eaten on banana leaves, water drunk out of earthen pots, items were packed in coir. Now it is plastic plates, plastic cups, and plastic nuts and Styrofoam. Hence it was interesting to read a story about packaging made out of mushrooms.

Packing With Shrooms, Not Styrofoam : Discovery News: "'We should make products that fit into nature's recycling system,' Ecovative Design cofounder and CEO Eben Bayer told the Greener Gadgets Conference audience. The company, located in Green Island, New York, uses mushroom roots called mycelia to grow packaging. Bayer told me that his business partner, Gavin McIntyre, originally grew samples under his bed."

No Au(ra) of Goldman..Just a sordid stench

Goldman has been sued by SEC for misrepresentation- according to the suit it sold securities to customers that it bet against. The people involved still do not take responsibility for their crimes.

Investor Who Made Billions Not Targeted in Goldman Suit - NYTimes.com: "By betting against the pool of questionable mortgage bonds, Mr. Paulson made $1 billion when they collapsed just a few months later, the S.E.C. said. Investors, who bought what regulators are essentially calling a pig in a poke, lost the same amount.

Mr. Paulson, 54, was not named as a defendant in the S.E.C. suit, but his role in devising the instrument that caused $1 billion in losses for Goldman’s customers is detailed in the complaint. Robert Khuzami, the director of enforcement at the S.E.C., explained that, unlike Goldman, the manager of the hedge fund, Paulson & Company, had not made misrepresentations to investors buying the security, known as a collateralized debt obligation.

“While it’s unfortunate that people lost money investing in mortgage-backed securities, Paulson has never been involved in the origination, distribution or structuring of such securities,” said Stefan Prelog, a spokesman for Mr. Paulson, in a statement. “We have always been forthright in expressing our opinion as to the quality of the underlying mortgages. Paulson has never misrepresented our positions to any counterparties."

HP - not Honest Practice

H-P Executives Are Investigated for Bribery - WSJ.com: "The German probe could lead to a parallel investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, regulators said. The Foreign Corrupt Practice Act prohibits U.S. companies from paying bribes to foreign officials. The SEC also requires public companies to disclose important investigations in their filings with the agency.

H-P hasn't reported the German probe in its SEC filings. In its most recent such filing, dated March 11, it gave a non-specific warning to its investors that 'in many foreign countries' illegal business practices are 'common.' Such actions, undertaken 'in violation of our policies…could have a material adverse effect on our business and reputation.'"

A Disgraceful University President

Some enterprising California State University students apparently got hold of the contract that the University Foundation struck with Sarah Palin. The contract reveals Palin's penchant for jets, luxury hotels and the like. What is absolutely disgraceful is the behavior of the University President, who wants to investigate the possibility that some students might have stolen the documents. A University should be open and transparent, and should make public what it offers guests for speaking or for other engagements. The President claimed that the foundation would raise a lot of money by getting Sarah Palin. While that may be correct, the University should practice ethics before teaching it, and raising money by any means possible is dishonest. The University could also raise a lot of money through other shady means. What message does the President intend to send to students by first inviting Ms. Palin, who is unread, and then making her offers that he does not make public- especially when the Institution is publicly funded?

Stanislaus University Palin Contract Stolen, Says School President: "A California university president said Wednesday a portion of a contract between a school foundation and Sarah Palin for an upcoming speech was stolen from a campus administrator's office last week.

California State University, Stanislaus president Hamid Shirvani said the five-page document was taken from a recycling bin inside the office of Susana Gajic-Bruyea, vice president for university advancement."

Cilantro - Good For Everyone, but not for Child

Cilantro is one of the mainstays of Indian dishes- the namesake chutney is the common dip for Samosas. Cilantro is added to just about every dish, and it can be made into a variety of chutneys. However, some folks apparently just hate this wonderful herb, according to the NYT article.

The Curious Cook - Why Cilantro Tastes Like Soap, for Some - NYTimes.com: "Culinary sophistication is no guarantee of immunity from cilantrophobia. In a television interview in 2002, Larry King asked Julia Child which foods she hated. She responded: “Cilantro and arugula I don’t like at all. They’re both green herbs, they have kind of a dead taste to me.”

“So you would never order it?” Mr. King asked.

“Never,” she responded. “I would pick it out if I saw it and throw it on the floor.”"

Twittelocity

News about Twitter seems to be creating a Twittonic Boom...

Bringing a Smarter Search to Twitter - NYTimes.com: "Called TweetUp, the service will also organize the posts according to their popularity as measured by how often readers repost them and click on links they contain.

Mr. Gross said he had signed deals with other outside Twitter services like Seesmic, TwitterFeed and Twidroid to display TweetUp’s rankings. A TweetUp search bar will appear on Web sites like Answers.com and BusinessInsider.com. TweetUp will split revenue evenly with each partner, he said.

The goal is to cut through the clutter of thousands of irrelevant posts on topics of interest and keep the useful ones from disappearing into a torrent of messages."

Twitter Has a Plan to Make Money With Ads - NYTimes.com: "The advertising program, which Twitter calls Promoted Tweets, will show up when Twitter users search for keywords that the advertisers have bought to link to their ads. Later, Twitter plans to show promoted posts in the stream of Twitter posts, based on how relevant they might be to a particular user.

Several companies will run ads, including Best Buy, Virgin America, Starbucks and Bravo."

PPR- The Chasm between Philosophy and Practice...in Religion

Op-Ed Columnist - Worlds Without Women - NYTimes.com: "To circumscribe women, Saudi Arabia took Islam’s moral codes and orthodoxy to extremes not outlined by Muhammad; the Catholic Church took its moral codes and orthodoxy to extremes not outlined by Jesus. In the New Testament, Jesus is surrounded by strong women and never advocates that any woman — whether she’s his mother or a prostitute — be treated as a second-class citizen.

Negating women is at the heart of the church’s hideous — and criminal — indifference to the welfare of boys and girls in its priests’ care. Lisa Miller writes in Newsweek’s cover story about the danger of continuing to marginalize women in a disgraced church that has Mary at the center of its founding story:"

Money- gushing like oil....for the Oil Majors

Editorial - Oil Royalty Rip-Off - NYTimes.com: "A lot of money has already been lost. Bizarrely, several weeks ago the government began refunding about $2 billion in royalties to companies that had paid up. Future losses could be immense. About 70 of the no-royalty-no-threshold leases are already productive, with more to come. The Government Accountability Office has estimated that lost royalties could run as high as $53 billion over the next 25 years, depending on prices.

This is unconscionable — and unnecessary.

The oil companies, already richly subsidized in other ways, are generating plenty of money for new exploration. As Mr. Markey put it, “when the price of oil is above $80 per barrel, subsidizing oil companies to drill through royalty-free drilling is like subsidizing fish to swim — you don’t need to do it.”"

Taking Responsibility- a Lost Virtue

Sarah Palin, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Rubin, Hank, President Bush, and many more - are cheered at public appearances. None of them have taken responsibility for their decisions- a point Mr. Rich makes eloquently in his Op-Ed piece in the times.

Op-Ed Columnist - No One Is to Blame for Anything - NYTimes.com: "No top player in the Bush administration has taken responsibility for his or her role in selling faulty intelligence products without exerting proper due diligence. There have been few unequivocal mea culpas from those who failed in their oversight roles during the housing bubble either — whether Greenspan, the Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson or Timothy Geithner in his pre-Obama incarnation leading the New York Fed."

Tech Hiring...

U.S. Steps Up Probe of Tech Hiring - WSJ.com: "The Justice Department is stepping up its investigation into hiring practices at some of America's biggest companies, including Google Inc., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Apple Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp., people familiar with the matter said.

The inquiry is focused on whether companies, particularly in the technology sector, have agreed not to recruit each others' employees in ways that violate antitrust law. Specifically, the probe is looking into whether the companies' hiring practices are costing skilled computer engineers and other workers opportunities to change jobs for higher pay or better benefits."
**********This is only one aspect of tech hiring that is questionable. The use of H-1 and other visas to "get around" the system should also merit an investigation.

A MANGO Fest for the Best

Mango fools: "These days, it’s only at the annual International Mango Festival, traditionally held in Delhi in July, that we get to sample the rarer varieties of mangoes, including the hard-to-get (in north India) Imampasand. The Batasha mangoes of Murshidabad, for instance, were famed for their concentrated, sun-ripened sweetness and are now a threatened variety. Totapuris, known for their parrot-beak shape, are still found, as are Chausas and the Gulab khas, but it’s hard to locate the Ananas in Goa, or the increasingly rare Jahangir."

Business Education in India

Tuition at top-tier schools in India is rising quickly. While still less than that of its US counterparts, the numbers are quite staggering, in the Indian context.

Studying at ISB to cost over Rs 20 lakh: "The Indian School of Business (ISB), ranked in the top 12 global B-schools by the Financial Times, has increased its tuition fee to Rs 15.3 lakh per annum — Rs 80,000 more than Rs 14.5 lakh it charged last year. The non-refundable fee remained at Rs 2 lakh.

It was only a couple of days earlier that the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) announced an increase in fees ranging from Rs 1-1.5 lakh."

Comcast wants to devour...bit by bit

Comcast wants to implement variable tariffs for traffic across its networks. Bits to Youtube might be charged at a higher rate than those to comcast.com

Court Favors Comcast in F.C.C. ‘Net Neutrality’ Ruling - NYTimes.com: "A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a sharp blow to the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to set the rules of the road for the Internet, ruling that the agency lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks."

De-Grading

An interesting article on outsourcing of grading drew my attention. (See below for That Term Paper Might be Graded in Bangalore - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com)

Faculty members, especially at large institutions, are graded primarily on research. It is understandable that faculty members would want to minimize the time spent on teaching and grading. Large class sizes not only increase the workload but also the monotony. Outsourcing grading is perhaps better than giving multiple choice or T/F quizzes, as quite a few of my peers do. I am a professor of business at a liberal arts college, and I personally grade all assignments. Often I ask students to rework their assignments, and this increases my workload. Carefully constructed assignments reveal a lot about where the class stands on key concepts. We expect students to take personal responsibility for their learning- faculty should practice taking personal responsibility for all aspects of teaching, including grading. Teaching is a big responsibility as students are spending their most valuable resource, time, with the teacher. During the term I find teaching to be an all-consuming affair. Students should not be blamed for lackadaisical work, they often perform at the minimum level expected of them. Higher expectations get better results, both from teachers and from students.

Having just returned from India, I find it interesting that the class sizes there are significantly larger but I did not find professors there who outsourced grading to "locals."

*****

That Term Paper Might be Graded in Bangalore - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com: "An article on the Web site of the Chronicle of Higher Education opens with the story of Lori Whisenant, a business professor at the University of Houston. The article says that Ms. Whisenant’s seven teaching assistants can’t process the hundreds of thousands of words being churned out each semester by her students.

And so, the reporter, Audrey Williams June, goes on to write, Ms. Whisenant “outsourced assignment grading to a company whose employees are mostly in Asia.” The story continues:

Virtual-TA, a service of a company called EduMetry Inc., took over. The goal of the service is to relieve professors and teaching assistants of a traditional and sometimes tiresome task — and even, the company says, to do it better than TA’s can.

The graders working for EduMetry, based in a Virginia suburb of Washington, are concentrated in India, Singapore, and Malaysia, along with some in the United States and elsewhere. They do their work online and communicate with professors via e-mail. The company advertises that its graders hold advanced degrees and can quickly turn around assignments with sophisticated commentary, because they are not juggling their own course work, too.

The company argues that professors freed from grading papers can spend more time teaching and doing research."

The 'Spirit' of À la carte

More items are being added to the À la carte model used by airlines. Then the airlines should be explicit about what is included in the base fare. Interestingly, the local grocery store at IIT Chennai would give us some free curry leaves and coriander leaves every time we bought some vegetables- a good way to sell perishable items and get loyal customers.

Less Baggage, Big Savings to Airlines - NYTimes.com: "Airlines in the United States started charging for luggage in 2005 by instituting a fee for passengers with more than one bag to check. Soon, even the first bag wasn’t free. Now, Spirit Airlines says it will charge as much as $45 each way for carry-on bags that are too big to fit under the seat."

Fine Unpaid Internships

Internships are in high demand, and my students are very eager to get them. The unpaid internships always leave me with a bitter taste- it can qualify as exploitation. Some of these involve tasks that are not related to any academic work, and involve routine clerical duties.

Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say - NYTimes.com: "Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California and other states have begun investigations and fined employers. Last year, M. Patricia Smith, then New York’s labor commissioner, ordered investigations into several firms’ internships. Now, as the federal Labor Department’s top law enforcement official, she and the wage and hour division are stepping up enforcement nationwide."

Let's pack the food...

Over the past year the topic of food has gained quite a bit of attention in our classes.

More articles are referring to the health issues facing humans and the connection to food.

While the topic is gaining more attention in the U.S., a greater number of Asians are eating more packing food and with greater intensity. Maggie noodles, chips, and other snacks are very popular in India.

Metrics - Factory Food - NYTimes.com: "Americans eat 31 percent more packaged food than fresh food, and they consume more packaged food per person than their counterparts in nearly all other countries. A sizable part of the American diet is ready-to-eat meals, like frozen pizzas and microwave dinners, and sweet or salty snack foods.

'Americans tend to graze rather than sit down and eat a full meal, so the food is tailored for convenience,' said Mark Gehlhar, who has studied global food consumer preferences at the Economic Research Service of the Agriculture Department. 'And Americans do not seem to be as discerning about quality.'"

Scientific English

Next Big Thing - Literary Scholars Turn to Science - NYTimes.com: "onathan Gottschall, who has written extensively about using evolutionary theory to explain fiction, said “it’s a new moment of hope” in an era when everyone is talking about “the death of the humanities.” To Mr. Gottschall a scientific approach can rescue literature departments from the malaise that has embraced them over the last decade and a half. Zealous enthusiasm for the politically charged and frequently arcane theories that energized departments in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s — Marxism, structuralism, psychoanalysis — has faded. Since then a new generation of scholars have been casting about for The Next Big Thing."

It's hot in India - Car Sales

Maruti Leads India Auto Sales Higher - WSJ.com: "But auto sales remained robust, with Maruti--India's biggest auto maker by sales--posting an 11% rise in March sales to 95,123 vehicles.

Local sales rose 8% to 79,530 vehicles, while exports surged 32% to a record 15,593 units, beating a previous monthly high of 14,847 posted in August 2009, the Indian unit of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. said.

But Maruti's small car sales, considered its bread-and-butter, slipped to 54,763 vehicles in March, down 1.2% from 55,415 a year earlier."