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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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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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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