New York Times: Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs: “Every downturn pushes some people out of the middle class before the economy resumes expanding. Most recover. Many prosper. But some economists worry that this time could be different. An unusual constellation of forces some embedded in the modern-day economy, others unique to this… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: February 2010
Melodic Intonation Therapy Provides Path Back to Speech for Stroke Patients
Melodic Intonation Therapy: “The technique was developed because a lot of patients who can’t talk can still sing. Gottfried Schlaug, a neurologist at Harvard University, is studying how and why this treatment seems to work for many patients who have failed at other forms of speech therapy. He’s running a randomized clinical trial of the… Continue Reading
FHFA Releases Working Paper "Estimating Median House Prices"
FHFA Working Paper 10-1: Estimating Median House Prices, Andrew Leventis, Senior Economist, Office of Policy Analysis and Research Federal Housing Finance Agency, February 2010. “Nondisclosure laws and other factors have hindered the production and release of median home price in many areas across the country. This paper attempts to fill the gaps and develops a… Continue Reading
This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
Salon – The author of a new book talks about the secret lives of America’s favorite — and endangered — disciplinarians “Marilyn Johnson, a former staff writer for Life magazine…delights in refuting our assumptions about librarians, while making a rock-solid case for their indispensability at a time when library systems are losing an average of… Continue Reading
CDC: Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008
Follow up to related postings on obesity in America, this new study: Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008. Katherine M. Flegal, PhD; Margaret D. Carroll, MSPH; Cynthia L. Ogden, PhD; Lester R. Curtin, PhD. JAMA. 2010;303(3):235-241. Published online January 13, 2010 (doi:10.1001/jama.2009.2014). “Herein we report the results from the latest National Health… Continue Reading
Democracy, Civil Liberties and the Internet – Challenges to Freedom Abound
WSJ: The Digital Dictatorship Evgeny Morozov on the myth of the techno-utopia. – “It’s fashionable to hold up the Internet as the road to democracy and liberty in countries like Iran, but it can also be a very effective tool for quashing freedom…For example, while the American public is actively engaged in a rich and… Continue Reading
Univ. of California Scientists Model Crime Pattern Formation in Urban Areas
Science NOW – The Mathematics of Clumpy Crime: “Even in a sprawling city like Los Angeles, crime still clumps together. Mathematical models of burglars presented…at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW) show that these so-called crime hot spots form when previous crimes attract more criminals to… Continue Reading
The Public Index Tracks and Discusses Google Book Search Settlement
Follow up to previous postings on Google Book Search, this annotated public interest resource: “The Public Index is a project of the Public-Interest Book Search Initiative and the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. We are a group of professors, students, and volunteers who believe that the Google Book Search… Continue Reading
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development – Labour Market Outlook
“The quarterly CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook [February 2010] aims to offer an early indication of future changes to the labour market around recruitment, redundancy and pay intentions. The survey is based on a survey of more than 700 HR professionals, who are mainly drawn from the CIPDs membership of more than 135,000 HR professionals. The… Continue Reading
Contractor UK – Half of IT firms plan to offshore jobs
News release: “Almost half of IT companies plan to relocate jobs abroad, making the technology industry the UKs likeliest private sector employer to build-out operations offshore. In a survey of more than 700 employers, India emerged as the preferred overseas destination for the 10 per cent of respondents looking to export jobs from the UK.… Continue Reading
Study: Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday
Study: Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday, Applied Research in Quality of Life, 10 February 2010 “The aim of this study was to obtain a greater insight into the association between vacations and happiness. We examined whether vacationers differ in happiness, compared to those not going on holiday, and if a holiday… Continue Reading
BLS: Real Earnings – January 2010
News release: “Real average hourly earnings was unchanged from December 2009 to January 2010, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. A 0.2 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was offset by a 0.2 percent increase in average hourly earnings for all employees. Real average weekly earnings… Continue Reading
