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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Questions to ask of any institution

The Minister for Education is not going the right way about implementing change - Education News | Primary, Secondary & Third Level | The Irish Time - Sun, Dec 01, 2013: "Would you do it when your workforce are weary, undermined and demoralised, having had several years of seeing vital supports for the people they serve disappear, and also having suffered wage cuts and increased hours and responsibilities? Would you demand it after piling new iniative after new initiative on them, while job security for new workers virtually disappears?"

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Friday, November 29, 2013

Food-ishequilibrium

A goddess falls to Earth - Heritage News | The Irish Times - Sat, Nov 30, 2013: "According to Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, he ate bread and water, mostly, “with a little cheese on feast days”. He avoided rich food, for fear of indigestion; alcohol, for fear of hangovers; and sex, for fear of fatherhood.
He wasn’t opposed to luxuries on principle: only because of the “inconveniences” that followed. And this risk-free approach seems to have worked for him. In the final hours of his life, despite pain, he could write placidly of his feelings on this “truly happy day”.
Interestingly, Epicurus did not expect an afterlife. But – and again this might interest Nigella – he did believe in gods and goddesses (non-domestic). He just presumed that, being sensible, they didn’t involve themselves in human affairs. As Russell put it, Epicurus’s gods were “rational hedonists, who followed his precepts and abstained from public life”."

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The craze to shop

Wal-Mart Uses Wristbands to Deter Holiday Shopper Melees - Bloomberg: "With an estimated 140 million Americans predicted to shop this weekend, retailers are bolstering security, deploying Segway patrols and putting on live music to distract shoppers and avoid the deal-hunting scrums that can foster Black Friday tramplings.
Malls are beefing up patrols with off-duty cops. Chains including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) are using quota systems for popular doorbusters from iPads to jewelry. The National Retail Federation issued crowd management guidelines, urging stores to prepare for flash mobs, long lines of angry customers and crowded washrooms. The Washington-based trade group has sent out the memo annually since a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death in 2008 during a Black Friday melee."

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Thursday, November 28, 2013

Apprenticeships and University education- both are needed

Change One Thing: Apprenticeships need to be in the education mix - Education News | Primary, Secondary & Third Level | The Irish Time - Tue, Nov 26, 2013: "The one change to our existing educational system I would like to see is that we would value high-skills vocational training for the 20 per cent of students who are not particularly interested in, or suited to, a curriculum with an academic focus.
Industry could support such a radical change by providing a comprehensive apprenticeship structure for interested students from the age of 14. As part of the programme, students would continue to progress alongside their peers in core subjects such as English, maths and a European language.
Having provided for the needs of our practically minded students through an apprenticeship programme, we should maintain the current range of Junior Cert subjects for the 80 per cent who have no difficulty in studying them, thus preserving subjects such as history and geography as core to our curriculum.
Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands have a fraction of the youth unemployment when compared to Ireland and we need to ask why this is the case. The answer, I believe, lies in educational structures that value vocational education."

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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Unclouding the behavior of clouds

Unclouding the behavior of clouds: "Previously, scientists had thought that pollution causes larger and longer-lasting storm clouds by making thunderheads draftier through convection. But the new research, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that pollution makes clouds linger by decreasing the size, and increasing the lifespan, of cloud and ice particles.

Most climatologists would agree that the current models that predict weather and climate don't reconstruct the lives of clouds well, especially storm clouds. Usually these models replace storm clouds with simple equations that fail to capture the whole picture. Because of these poor reconstructions, researchers have been faced with a dilemma: pollution causes the anvil-shaped clouds to linger longer than they would in clean skies - but why?"

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Monday, November 25, 2013

Nobel bubbles

Stocktake - The Irish Times - Tue, Nov 26, 2013: "Renowned value investor Jeremy Grantham has harsh words for Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and incoming Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen in his latest letter, describing them as little more than bubble blowers. His real wrath, however, is reserved for efficient market theorists such as Eugene Fama (pictured above).
The recent decision to jointly award the Nobel prize in economics to Fama and Robert Shiller, who have diametrically opposed views, was a “farce”, says Grantham. Fama and his “laughable” efficient market hypothesis says bubbles do not and cannot occur, even though the last 25 years have seen four of the biggest bubbles in history."

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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Independent Scotland- Westminster NO-land

Alex Salmond faces Westminster hurdles over independent Scotland | Politics | The Guardian: "Alex Salmond's goal of setting up an independent Scotland in March 2016 could be hard to achieve because of the 2015 general election, UK cabinet sources believe.

Sources in the Westminster government and the anti-independence campaign said the UK government had no mandate to strike a deal with an independent Scotland, unless it won the general election in May 2015 after putting its proposals to voters in the rest of UK.

The alternative would be for the main parties to agree a common position on key issues such as sterling, North Sea oil and debt before the general election, to avoid the uncertainty harming the British economy."

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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Scotland- 24 March 2016 is the date of freedom, if....

SNP sets the day for Scottish independence: 24 March 2016 | Politics | The Observer: "If the people of Scotland deliver a Yes vote in next year's referendum, Scotland will have its Independence Day on 24 March 2016. The date is included in the SNP's white paper on independence, due to be revealed at Glasgow Science Centre on the banks of the Clyde on Tuesday.

The chosen date is not without historical significance: on the same day in 1603 the Union of the Crowns occurred, when James VI of Scotland also became James I of England and Ireland after the death of his cousin Elizabeth I, while on 24 March 1707 the Acts of Union – which merged the parliaments of Scotland and England – were signed, making one single country, Great Britain"

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intern- no turn

Interns: all work, no pay | Money | The Guardian: "Too many young people are still doing real jobs for no money, as unpaid interns. But not for much longer. Around the world, young workers expected to toil for months at a time for little or no pay are battling to be rewarded fairly.

For those of us who have been campaigning on this issue for years, it's an exciting time. Former interns who are brave Рand angry Рenough to challenge their employers are "lawyering up" (often finding a kindly donor to cover the fees). This is a big deal. In many cases, lone twentysomethings are squaring up to huge international firms or high-profile people with deep pockets and legal teams. In the US, intern power has seen Fox Searchlight appealing against a ruling that found that it should have paid interns in its movie, Black Swan. Meanwhile, Cond̩ Nast has ditched its unpaid internship programme, also following lawsuits.

In the UK, Tony Blair agreed to pay all his interns after public pressure and a threatened investigation. X Factor, Arcadia, IPC Media and Sony offered back pay where former interns could prove they'd worked for less than the minimum wage. This is"

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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Can land but can't take off-

Boeing cargo jet lands at wrong Wichita airport - CNN.com: "A Boeing Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas -- one with a runway apparently too short for the mammoth cargo plane to take off from again.
The Atlas Air 747 Dreamlifter is a beast of a plane. It's a modified 747-400 passenger airplane that can haul more cargo by volume than any airplane in the world.
In fact, it's a plane that carries major assembly parts for other big planes, such as parts for the 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world to its assembly plant in Washington.
Late Wednesday night, the plane, which was bound for McConnell Air Force Base from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, missed its mark by about 12 miles.
It ended up at the much at the much-smaller Jabara Airport on Wichita's northeast side."

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Monday, November 18, 2013

Del Monte - paying fruits of Thai workers..

Del Monte to pay $1.2 million to 100 Thai farmworkers - latimes.com: "More than 100 Thai farm workers who alleged that they suffered discrimination working in Hawaii pineapple fields will receive $1.2 million in a settlement with Del Monte Fresh Produce, federal officials announced Monday in Los Angeles.

Del Monte's agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission marks the first in a series of forthcoming settlements in what commission officials have called its largest farm labor trafficking case. The case involves a Los Angeles-based labor contractor, six farms and more than 200 Thai workers."

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Sunday, November 17, 2013

The Au- (ra) of Gold- Indian affinity for imported metal

Gold-Laden Brides in India Defying Singh as Culture Wins - Bloomberg: "“In the long term, the fundamentals of gold demand are still intact,” said Haresh Soni, chairman of the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation, which represents 300,000 jewelers and bullion dealers. “For Indians, gold buying is not just a cultural or traditional compulsion but also acts as social security. From birth to death, gold is involved in all aspects of our life and used in our prayers and rituals.”
To lure customers, jewelers are spending more on television and outdoor commercials and signing up Bollywood stars from Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Award-winning South Indian actor Mohanlal is a brand ambassador along with actress Kareena Kapoor for Malabar Gold, which has 102 stores in the Middle East, India and Singapore.
The Babus purchased all their wedding gold from Malabar’s flagship store in Kozhikode, a city famous for being the first trade link between India and Europe after Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama landed on its shores.
“It helped that Mohanlal is my mom’s and fiance’s favorite actor,” said Amrita, drawing laughs from those gathered at the henna ceremony"

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Saturday, November 16, 2013

State Sponsored Bribes, er..Incentives- making a clean breast of it...

Breastfeeding bribes? What a grubby little idea | Barbara Ellen | Comment is free | The Observer: "In a bid to see whether financial incentive could overcome cultural resistance, researchers at Sheffield University are to offer 130 mothers in Yorkshire and Derbyshire up to £200 (in shopping vouchers) if they breastfeed. This will be piloted in areas where breastfeeding rates are below the national average, involving women (from "young, white, low-income areas") who probably weren't breastfed themselves and are too embarrassed to breastfeed in public or even at home.

Personally, I'm jumpy about the idea that anyone could or should be bribed, sorry, incentivised, into breastfeeding, but first: would it be too much to ask for people to lay off women's breasts generally?"

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Global deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures | Environment | theguardian.com

Global deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures | Environment | theguardian.com: "Global deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures
Earth has lost more than half a million square miles of forest between 2000 and 2012. Analysis of 650,000 satellite images, published in the journal Science, reveal the extent of loss and recovery – Brazil’s success in the Amazon is offset by deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia and Angola. The colour-coded maps here show the changes: green is forest cover, red is lost forest, blue is forest gained and pink is forests both lost and gained in the period"

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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Liked versus QUalified

I Like You…You’re Hired: 3 Questions to Answer During The Employee Selection Process - Yahoo Small Business Advisor: "What role does likeability play in the hiring of new employees? According to a recent study by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management—which looked at the hiring practices among elite investment banks, law firms and management firms—personal likeability seems to play a bigger role in the hiring process than a candidate’s resume. Although the study targeted a narrow range of professions, it served to shed light on an age-old dilemma for hiring managers, namely choosing between the most qualified candidate and the most likeable."

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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Workplace culture, and lack of trust = Wasted talent!

The workplace culture that is holding women back - Technology Industry News | Market & Trends | The Irish Times - Thu, Nov 14, 2013: "Girls here outperform boys in school and in Ireland, as in many other countries, more women take undergraduate university degrees than men. This has been the case for more than a decade of CSO statistics (in 2011, 53 per cent of third-level graduates were women, while 39 per cent were men). In the US, more women than men also take master’s and PhD degrees.
Yet year after year, women remain poorly represented at senior levels in companies and participate to a lesser degree than men in the workforce. In 2011, 46.7 per cent of Irish women worked –
a considerable fall below the 60 per cent level the EU set as a target for 2010. (That said, Ireland did meet the 60 per cent marker in the final boom years of 2007
and 2008, but not since.)"

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Healt, Sweat, and Body Type

Jennifer Lawrence is striking a blow for healthy, sweaty women | Muireann Carey-Campbell | Comment is free | theguardian.com: "On Newsnight, speaking of playing Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games, Lawrence said that she refused to lose weight for roles, explaining: "We have the ability to control this image that young girls are going to be seeing. They see enough of this body that they will never be able to obtain and it's an amazing opportunity to rid ourselves of that in this industry."

Sure, it's silly that a body type should even need celebrity endorsement, but what Lawrence has done here is a pretty rare thing among her peers. Various female celebrities will trot out similar lines in what come across as weak Kumbaya moments, where womankind should all join hands and rejoice. Rarely though, do we ever hear high-profile women say they want to look healthy."

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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Bailout or knock-out?

Real story of bailout exit is how good crisis was wasted - Economic News | Ireland & World Economy Headlines |The Irish Times - Mon, Nov 11, 2013: "There is no such thing as a good bailout – it is an oxymoron – but that has not not stopped us claiming whatever kudos were going over the past three years. To paraphrase the Taoiseach, we have become the best small country in the world in which to do bailouts by 2013.
This is not nearly as pathetic as it seems. Our ability to meet pretty much all the conditions of the bailout has done much to restore international confidence in Ireland and its institutions. Making a virtue out of this necessity was the obvious and correct strategy."

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Dublin and Environment

Car lanes to be given to walkers and cyclists on Dublin’s quays - Environmental News | The Irish Times - Sat, Nov 09, 2013: "A plan to reduce traffic lanes and remove parking spaces from the Liffey quays, and to create a new pedestrian and cycling boulevard, will be presented to Dublin City Council next week.
The 21st Century Liffey Project envisages the creation of two major civic plazas – at O’Connell Bridge, where traffic lanes will be reduced and a diagonal pedestrian crossing created, and at the Custom House, which will be completely pedestrianised with traffic diverted around the back, along Beresford Place.
The project, developed by urban planners and designers Fergus Browne and David Jordan, with the support of the council and the Dublin Civic Trust, seeks “re-orientating the public realm away from the car”, without completely eliminating traffic from the quays, by 2030."

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Thursday, November 07, 2013

Food waste: not to be wasted

Food waste: what does the latest report tell us? | News | theguardian.com: "4.2m tonnes of avoidable food and drink waste was thrown away by UK households last year - worth £12.5bn - according to the latest report by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap).

The annual report by the government's waste advisory body provides estimates of the amount of food and drink wasted in the UK, with detailed data on the types of food and drink wasted, reasons for disposal and the impact on the environment. Rebecca Smithers writes today:

The average UK family is wasting nearly £60 a month by throwing away almost an entire meal a day, according to a new report that reveals the scale of the ongoing challenge to reduce household food waste.

Britons are chucking out the equivalent of 24 meals a month, adding up to 4.2 million tonnes of food and drink every year that could have been consumed. Almost half of this is going straight from fridges or cupboards into the bin. One-fifth of what households buy ends up as waste, and around 60% of that could have been eaten."

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Monday, November 04, 2013

ChocOChips: Salt, Sugar and Starch

Lay's Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate only at Target - UPI.com: "DALLAS, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- In a limited time offering, Lay's, the U.S. snack maker, is expected to offer Lay's Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate.
Lay's, the nation's largest salty snack maker, is expected to announce on Friday its plans to roll its chocolate covered potato chip that is scheduled to last from post Halloween to New Year's only at Target stores, USA Today reported.

However, Ram Krishnan, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, the parent company of Lay's, said if the chocolate potato chip is a major hit, it could become permanent.

"When you try something drastically different, you have to walk before you can run," Krishnan told USA Today. "We wanted to test our way through this before we go big.""

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Sunday, November 03, 2013

Coconuts- memories of childhood, may not last long

Coconut Crisis Looms as Postwar Palm Trees Age: Southeast Asia - Bloomberg: "Asia’s coconut palms, which mark the landscape from the Philippines to India, face a crisis as rapidly aging groves become less productive, curbing harvests that are a source of food and income for millions.

The trees, many of which were planted about 50 to 60 years ago after World War II, no longer yield enough to meet rising global demand, according to the Rome-based Food & Agriculture Organization. There’s an urgent need for replanting and rejuvenation, said Hiroyuki Konuma, regional representative for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations agency, which is seeking to coordinate a response to the challenge.

At stake is the productivity of a core part of the rural economy in the Asia-Pacific, which accounts for about 85 percent of the global supply of the commodity that goes into food, fuel, soaps and cosmetics. In the Philippines, among the three biggest growers, one in five people depends on the crop to some extent, according to the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community. The Jakarta-based group, which represents growers, predicts that harvests could be increased to benefit millions of smallholders."

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Living Wage, U.K.

More than 5 million people in the UK are paid less than the living wage | Society | The Observer: "The number of people who are paid less than a "living wage" has leapt by more than 400,000 in a year to over 5.2 million, amid mounting evidence that the economic recovery is failing to help millions of working families.

A report for the international tax and auditing firm KPMG also shows that nearly three-quarters of 18-to-21-year-olds now earn below this level – a voluntary rate of pay regarded as the minimum to meet the cost of living in the UK. The KPMG findings highlight difficulties for ministers as they try to beat back Labour's claims of a "cost of living crisis"."

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Friday, November 01, 2013

Salt Lake: The climate is changing

Warmer climate, less water for Salt Lake City | The Salt Lake Tribune: ""Our concern is that it is going to get warmer in the Intermountain West and in our particular region," said Laura Briefer, water resources manager for the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. "As water managers, a warming climate demands our attention. We anticipate changes to water demands and supply."

Among the most telling results of the report is a finding that every 1 degree Fahrenheit increase could mean an average decrease of 3.8 percent in annual water flow from watersheds tapped by Salt Lake City.

That’s according to the study "Planning for an Uncertain Future: Climate Change Sensitivity Assessment Toward Adaptation Planning for Public Water Supply," published in the journal Earth Interactions."

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