Trivia (should have been 24 January)

A Case of the Mondays: 1925
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

There’s no caption for this yellowing print of a lady at an office desk with postage stamps (quite possibly on October 19, 1925). Yet there must be some reason it’s in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
View original post

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The Hierarchy of Disagreement, by Paul Graham
via Stephen’s Lighthouse

No comment is required but if you would like to see this in a more readable form here is the place to be.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Travelling corpse
What the story of one dead man pulled through the snow by another man says about history, historical fiction, and the human imagination… more

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Which Endangered Species Would You Save?
via 3 Quarks Daily by Carrie Arnold in Nautilus

You have just been appointed Conservation Czar. But there is a catch. You can only save three animals...After you make your choices, you will learn about the endangered status of each animal.
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Museum switches on historic computer
via BBC Technology

A project to recreate one of Britain’s pioneering computers has reached a key milestone. The first recreated parts of the re-built Edsac machine have been switched on at The National Museum of Computing. The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator first ran in 1949 and was created to serve scientists at Cambridge University.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Electric shock studies
Stanley Milgram’s studies endure not because they clarify our capacity for evil, but because his work doesn’t prove what he claimed it does… more

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Humans Really Have Seven Senses (Don't Forget Proprioception and Vestibular Sensation)
via Big Think by Orion Jones

The way we understand the world is mediated by our five senses: touch, taste, sound, smell, and sight. Right? Well it turns out that humans have more than five senses, if by sense you mean way of knowing about the physical world. Here are two additional senses that don’t easily fit into the customary five:
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The literature and history of Chaucer
via OUP Blog by Stephen Rigby

To read Chaucer today is, in some measure, to read him historically. For instance, when the poet tells us in the ‘General Prologue’ to the Canterbury Tales that the Knight’s crusading experiences include service with the Teutonic Order in ‘Lettow’ (i.e. Lithuania), comprehension of the literal sense or denotation of the text requires some knowledge of fourteenth-century institutions, ideas and events. More generally, discussions of whether the Knight’s crusading activities are being held up for approval or disapproval in the ‘General Prologue’ (i.e., of the text’s connotations), are likely to cite the various, and sometimes conflicting, ways in which the morality of crusading, and in particular of campaigns mounted by the Teutonic Order against the Lithuanians, were regarded in Chaucer’s own day.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Artists under Hitler
Art and the Third Reich. Why did artists cooperate with the régime? Their motivation came down to – what else? – self-interest and ego… more

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Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor
via Boing Boing

As with other books from DK, Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor is filled with high quality photographs along with neatly organized informative captions.
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Legal structure and outcomes of social enterprise: The case of South Yorkshire, UK

an article by Walter Mswaka and Olu Aluko (University of Huddersfield, UK) published in Local Economy Volume 29 Number 8 (December 2014)

Abstract

Over the past two decades a discourse has emerged on social enterprise as a powerful intervention for addressing socio-economic deprivation in communities across the globe.

Although the concept is increasingly attracting academic interest, there are still several areas requiring further scrutiny. One such key area is how the legal structures of social enterprises influence their outcomes.

Drawing on a qualitative case study approach in South Yorkshire UK, this study contributes to the ongoing debate on social enterprise by providing insights into the nature of legal structures and related operational issues across the region.

The findings revealed that type of legal structure is intricately linked to social enterprises’ ability to achieve their objectives. Rather than rely on traditional legal structures, social enterprises in South Yorkshire have adopted innovative legal vehicles that help them to achieve financial sustainability while at the same time maintaining their social ethos.

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Determinants for the transition from work into retirement in Europe

an article by Monika Riedel and Helmut Hofer (Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna) and Birgit Wögerbauer (Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria and Vienna University of Economics and Business) published in IZA Journal of European Labor Studies Volume 4 Number 4 (2015)

Abstract

We use the labor force ad hoc module “transition from work into retirement” to analyze the link between individual as well as pension system characteristics and planned retirement age within the European Union.

We find that timing of retirement is correlated between partners who are already at the stage of retirement planning. In richer countries of the EU15, standard retirement age seems to have a larger effect on planned retirement age than in poorer EU15 states or in new EU member states.

The effect of pension wealth is largest in the new EU member states and smallest in rich EU15 countries. Furthermore, industry and occupation effects differ by country type.

Full text (HTML)

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Trivia (should have been 17 January)

Louisville Wharfboat: 1905
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Circa 1905
“Ohio River levee at Louisville, Kentucky”
Note the “U.S. Life Saving Station”
8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
View original post

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Martin weaves more magic in a welcome trip to Westeros
via 3 Quarks Daily by Neela Debnath in The Independent

From the Dawn Age all the way through to the Glorious Reign, every entry is like embarking on a new journey through Martin's world.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
What is an author?
Think again, Barthes. The author is not dead. He is tweeting, Facebooking, YouTubing. And that’s a problem for critics of contemporary literature… more

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AbeBooks' 50 Most Expensive Sales of 2014
via AbeBooks.co.uk
This is the only end-of-year list that places Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone next to Das Kapital, and a postcard from Ghandi next to the works of Voltaire. Discover the most expensive books and ephemera sold by booksellers on the AbeBooks marketplace during 2014.
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Why be rational (or payday in Wonderland)?
via OUP Blog by Michael Allingham
Please find below a pastiche of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that illustrates what it means to choose rationally.
Please read the whole thing – it really is great fun.
http://blog.oup.com/2014/11/choice-theory-wonderland-vsi/

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On Walter Pitts
How a wealthy, wild-bearded philosopher-poet and a shy, homeless runaway determined how the mind knows what it knows… more

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Ants And Us
via 3 Quarks Daily by JM Ledgard in Intelligent Life
They work together, share food and send their elders into battle to protect the young. And the world authority on them thinks they have a lot to teach us. J.M. Ledgard goes to Harvard to discuss ants, and more, with E.O. Wilson
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Mesmerizing rebuild of a mechanical Fourier calculator
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Albert Michelson's harmonic analyzer -- a 19th century mechanical calculator that can do Fourier analysis with just gears, springs and levers -- was found at the University of Illinois, and then lovingly restored by a trio of makers who lavishly documented it in a book (free PDF / paperback / hardcover) and a mesmerizing video series.


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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Leonard Bernstein
“Whatever the music means, it is not the story,” said Leonard Bernstein. Except that his music is fundamentally story time… more

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How the Enigma code-machines worked
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
With the release of the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, interest in the Enigma cipher used by the Axis powers and broken by Turing and the exiled Polish mathematicians at Bletchley Park has been revived.
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Housing: trends in prices, costs and tenure

IFS Briefing Note (BN161) by Chris Belfield , Daniel Chandler and Robert Joyce

This briefing note looks at changes in the cost of housing for different groups, distinguishing between the purchase price of houses, regular spending on housing costs, and concepts of ‘affordability’ with respect to both house purchases and regular housing costs.

It then looks at changes in housing circumstances, with a focus on tenure and dwelling size, and considers how these might be related to trends in prices and the balance of demand and supply. It concludes by reflecting on the policy challenges that these trends present.

This briefing note forms part of the IFS election 2015 analysis, funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Download full version (PDF 27pp) ISBN: 978-1-909463-79-0

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Negative emotions in informal feedback: The benefits of disappointment and drawbacks of anger

an article by Genevieve Johnson and Shane Connelly (University of Oklahoma, USA) published in Human Relations Volume 67 Number 10 (October 2014)

Abstract

Using the emotions as social information (EASI) model, this study investigated the emotional, attitudinal and behavioral reactions to failure feedback by manipulating negative emotional displays (angry, disappointed or none) and the position level and relational distance of the feedback source.

Undergraduate students (N = 260) responded to an organizational failure feedback vignette and completed a subsequent performance task.

Results demonstrated that guilt was the complementary emotional experience following displays of disappointment, while reciprocal anger followed displays of anger.

These emotional reactions served as important mediators between the emotional displays paired with the feedback message and participant responses of social behaviors, creative task performance and perceptions of the feedback source.

In addition, our findings indicated that negative emotions can have positive organizational and interpersonal outcomes. Guilt in response to disappointed displays resulted in beneficial behaviors and attitudes, while anger in response to angry displays was socially detrimental. The emotion displayed during feedback provision also served as a consistent contextual factor that did not interact with the position level or relational distance of the feedback source to impact behavioral and attitudinal reactions.

Overall, this study indicates that discrete negative emotions have unique social-functional properties that require further investigation.

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The relational self and the political engagements of young adults

an article by Nathan Manning (University of Bradford) published in Journal of Sociology Volume 50 Number 4 (December 2014)

Abstract

This article explores the recent concern over young people’s apathy and disengagement from politics. It critically addresses this, first, by examining and contesting some of the literature addressing this alleged apathy and dissociation, revealing a particular, narrow and regulatory model of politics and an accompanying liberal notion of self. In contrast, a relational model of self is posited as more sociologically robust and suited to contemporary social life.

Second, the article describes a qualitative Australian study of young people aged 18–30 years, recruited from across the political spectrum.

In contrast to the key liberal principles, participants highlight interconnectedness, permeable public/private divides and the important role of friends and family in fostering and sustaining their political engagements. It is argued that the relational interconnected model of self presented by the participants reflects the conditions of contemporary social life.

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Trivia (should have been 11 January)

New England Fish Inc.: 1904
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

“Fisher schooners at ‘T’ wharf, Boston. George H. Lubee at left.”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
View original post

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via Big Think by Big Think Editors

Yo-Yo Ma (b. 1955) is a world-renowned cellist and recipient of numerous awards including 17 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Born in Paris but raised in the United States, Ma is a graduate of both Julliard and Harvard University. His repertoire includes classical, folk, traditional Chinese, bluegrass, and many other genres of music. He currently plays with the Silk Road Ensemble.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
English and science
Science used to be polyglot. Now it’s monoglot: English rules. Surely that’s more efficient, right? Probably not… more

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Indoor Flameless Marshmallow Roaster – all the tasty goodness of camping, none of the fire
via Red Ferret by Donyae Coles

Cold weather is perfect for s’mores, the most perfect of foods. The problem with s’mores is that you generally need a campfire to make them really good. And it’s really cold out right now. So cold. The Indoor Flameless Marshmallow Roaster is here to give you yummy s’mores from the warmth and safety of your own home.
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New online library aims to ‘equalise’ science education
via Research Buzz by Alecia D McKenzie in University World News
The World Library of Science, launched by UNESCO and two partners on 10 November, will give students and teachers around the world access to the latest science information and the opportunity to create a “global community for science education”, the developers say.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
What is book reviewing?
Tyranny of the smart take. On the Internet, book critics feel pressure to stand apart and perform. They should merely inform… more

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Gut-brain link grabs neuroscientists
via 3 Quarks Daily by Sara Reardon in Nature
Companies selling ‘probiotic’ foods have long claimed that cultivating the right gut bacteria can benefit mental well-being, but neuroscientists have generally been sceptical. Now there is hard evidence linking conditions such as autism and depression to the gut’s microbial residents, known as the microbiome. And neuroscientists are taking notice — not just of the clinical implications but also of what the link could mean for experimental design.
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Plush undersea creatures
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Parisian crafter Big Stuffed makes beautiful, cuddly, handmade undersea creatures -- the big ones are huge, like the 90 cm whale made from fun-fur and jersey.
(via Crazy Abalone)

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Abortion and the Western mind
If free speech is contingent on hurting no one’s feelings, then it isn’t free speech. It’s paternalism, and it’s insidious – especially in a university… more

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25 Genre Novels That Should be Classics
via Flavorwire by Emily Temple
There’s been a lot of talk about genre in the air recently (well, really, when isn’t there?) – what it means, whether it’s changed, whether it’s even useful or important anymore. But no matter what is said, there’s still that lingering stigma that keeps worthy works of genre (for clarity, we’re mostly talking fantasy and science fiction, with a little historical fiction, mystery and crime thrown in for good measure) from ascending to full classic status: being taught in high schools, appearing on all-time best-book lists, etc.
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Do unions redistribute income from capital to labour? Union density and wage shares since 1960

an article by Erik Bengtsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) published in Industrial Relations Journal Volume 45 Issue 5 (September 2014(

Abstract

The income distribution between capital and labour is understudied within industrial relations.

This article investigates the relationship between union density, taken as an indicator of the bargaining power of unions, and the wage share of national income in 16 advanced capitalist economies since 1960. It is shown that overall there is a positive relationship between union density and the wage share, as one would expect.

But the relationship is weak or non-existent in the Nordic countries, and in some specifications in Germany and Anglo-Saxon countries, and overall it is weak in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The article discusses the differences between countries in relationship to the literature on corporatism and wage moderation, and the decreasing effect over time with reference to increased global competition and conservatism of monetary policy from about 1980 on, increasing unions' incentives for wage moderation policies.

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Dual careers, time-use and satisfaction levels: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

an article by Daniel Wheatley and Zhongmin Wu (Nottingham Trent University, UK) published in Industrial Relations Journal Volume 45 Issue 5 (September 2014)

Abstract

This article empirically examines time-use and its impact on satisfaction levels among dual career households in a post-industrial economy, the UK.

Analysis explores the 1993–2009 British Household Panel Survey using panel probit regression.

The evidence reveals distinctions in time-use relative to gender, occupations and employment sector. Long hours persist among managers and professionals. The uneven division of household labour, further, continues to burden women with extensive amounts of housework and care.

Satisfaction with working hours and amount/use of leisure time are lower among women, especially the public sector professionals. Provision of care, occupation and partner employment characteristics represent important satisfaction determinants present among women, while income (including partner's income) only has relevance among men.

Housework does not itself generate dissatisfaction. It is the overload of household tasks, due to inequality in the household division of labour, which constrains many highly skilled working women reducing satisfaction with time-use and life overall.

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Trivia (should have been 10 January)

Human Roulette: 1908
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

The Jersey Shore circa 1908
“Atlantic City bathing beach and Steeplechase Pier”
Who out there can fill us in on “Human Roulette” and “Human Niagara”?
8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
View original post (where, in the comments, you find suggestions about what human roulette is).

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How to Measure Planck’s Constant Using Lego
via MIT Technology Review

If you’re searching for the perfect present for the physicist who has everything, how about a Lego kit for measuring one of the universe’s fundamental constants?
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Bio-Riffing on Freud
Biography in the age of psychoanalysis. Some lives – Freud’s, for example – resist neat explanation. Enter the “bio-riff”… more

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The Community of Lush: Wine, Alcohol, and the Social Bond
via 3 Quarks Daily by Dwight Farrow

Food begins as a necessity and we tame it so it becomes a civilized want that can be appreciated for its aesthetic qualities. But wine is a different matter. Wine is not a necessity. Many people neither drink wine nor any sort of alcohol, and for most people who do indulge, it doesn't play the organizing role in life that food does. (Unless of course you write about wine) Yet, the relationship between wine and sociality seems obvious. People get drunk or at least tipsy from drinking alcohol, which loosens tongues, sheds inhibitions, and functions as a social lubricant.
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The Ultimate History Of Card Games
via MakeUseOf by Dave LeClair
At some point in your life, you’ve probably sat down and played a card game. Whether it’s a little poker or some solitaire, card games have been since a staple since the playing card was invented. The history of card games is long, dating all the way back to 617 AD. Of course, playing cards and the games around them have evolved a lot over the years, and that’s just what this fascinating infographic explains. If you want to know a little bit more about the history cards games, you’ve come to right place!
Ultimate? The very last? Doubtful but do please go and look at the infographic. No point in reproducing it here as it would be far too small to read.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Romantics, Romanticism and history
Romantics after Romanticism. Did the aesthetic movement have a political afterlife? Consider the French Revolution, National Socialism, and 1960s student rebels… more

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Off the Beaten Path Bookshops
via AbeBooks.co.uk by Richard Davies
Booksellers in more than 50 countries can be found on the AbeBooks marketplace.
Thousands of easy-to-find bookshops are concentrated in the great cities of the world - London, New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Sydney and Berlin – but there are also countless sellers located in places that take some finding. Remote islands, tiny villages, small towns that are barely a speck on the map and locations so isolated that they don't even count as a hamlet.
Enjoy our selection of bookshops off the beaten track.

Continue reading (and looking)

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How to recycle old milk jugs and bottle caps into colorful plastic bricks
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder

Peter Brown grinds up plastic jugs and bottle caps in a blender, then melts them into bricks. He uses the bricks as stock to turn on his lathe. I want to make one just to admire it.
Find out how

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Technicolor and storytelling
Technicolor turns 100 this year. It was supposed to make films more lifelike. Instead, its over-the-top palette made movies more dreamlike… more

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Scientists Find Link Between Gut Bacteria and How the Brain Works
via Big Think by Orion Jones
A week from today [which was, I think, 11 November], researchers will gather for a neuroscience conference in Washington D.C. titled “Gut Microbes and the Brain: Paradigm Shift in Neuroscience”. As the name suggests, new evidence will presented by the scientific community to help establish an emerging link between the health of your gut and the health of your brain.
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Self-perceived job insecurity across Europe over time: Does changing context matter?

an article by Christiane Lübke and Marcel Erlinghagen (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 24 Number 4 (October 2014)

Abstract

Self-perceived job insecurity is characterised by a considerable variation across European countries; this is mostly attributed to different labour market conditions and welfare-state institutions. In addition to the previous, often static examination of these determinants, this study asks how labour market dynamics and changes in welfare-state interventions are linked to individuals’ perceptions of job insecurity.

It is argued that the changing context represents a set of shared experiences that serves as a frame of reference for the perception of job insecurity. Hence, time series of context indicators provided by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and data from the European Social Survey are used to conduct multilevel analyses.

The results reveal that job insecurity is dynamic, as it increases in countries facing an economic crisis, such as Greece, but decreases in countries with prosperous development like Poland.

Furthermore, the results reveal that the past development of the labour market and changes in welfare-state interventions contribute to the explanation of individuals’ perceptions of job insecurity.

The response to these changes differs, however, depending on the dimension of job insecurity and the socio-economic characteristics of the workers.

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Work-Related Communication Technology Use Outside of Regular Work Hours and Work Life Conflict: The Influence of Communication Technologies on Perceived Work Life Conflict, Burnout, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intentions

an article by Kevin B. Wright (George Mason University, Fairfax, USA), Bryan Abendschein (University of Illinois at Urban–Champaign, USA), Kevin Wombacher (University of Kentucky, USA) and Michaela O’Connor, Megan Hoffman, Molly Dempsey, Christopher Krull, Audrey Dewes and Audrey Shelton (Saint Louis University, USA) published in Management Communication Quarterly Volume 28 Number 4 (November 2014)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate employee perceptions of the influence of communication technology use outside of regular work hours on perceptions of work life conflict, burnout, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction.

An online survey of 168 employees from more than 30 companies in a Midwestern city was conducted to assess relationships among these variables.

The results indicated that hours of work-related communication technology use outside of regular work hours contributed to perceptions of work life conflict.

However, positive attitudes toward communication technologies predicted decreased work life conflict. Controlling for worker age, perceived life stress, and attitudes toward communication technologies, work life conflict was found to predict job burnout and job satisfaction, but not turnover intentions.

The authors discuss implications of the study findings for management practices, limitations of the study, and directions for future research.

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Trivia (should have been 4 January)

Rotorua Express: 1909
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

New Zealand in 1909
“The Rotorua Express leaving Auckland, alongside Customs Street East”
Glass negative by A.P. Godber
View original post

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Don’t Believe the Hype. Microwave Ovens are Safe.
via Big Think by Robert Montenegro

Ellie Krieger at the Washington Post has a terrific piece up right covering almost everything you’d ever want to know about microwave ovens. I understand that may not seem like the most exhilarating topic, but the sheer ubiquity of these appliances (you can find one in over 90% of American homes) lends itself to the fulfillment of curiosity.
Continue reading

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Seneca philosopher-fixer
Seneca, ancient hypocrite without peer, never let philosophical commitments interfere with his devotion to conspicuous consumption… more

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The Science of Fireworks
via 3 Quarks Daily by S. Abbas Raza

Over an hour of relaxation with some wonderful science and beautiful pictures. You can almost smell the explosions!

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Forgiveness makes late-life sweeter
via OUP Blog By Jessie Dezutter, Loren Toussaint, and Mia Leijssen
“Forgiveness”, does the word still exist in the vocabulary of modern-day individuals?
Does this moral virtue guide people’s intentions, beliefs, and behaviours?
Or has forgiveness died a silent death between the brick walls of centuries-old convents and monasteries?
The word is steeped in religious traditions and is indeed central in several world religions and spiritual traditions. But is forgiveness relevant today, how so, and for whom?
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Take me to the death café
How a Swiss sociologist gave rise to the café mortel, where the talk is of good deaths and bad deaths, near deaths and grief… more

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Nine 90s Computer Games You Can Play For Free
via MakeUseOf by Christian Cawley
One thing that can be said for PC gaming is that you’re almost always guaranteed a memorable and in-depth gaming experience. This has been true for over 25 years, and during that time an impressive collection of games have been released.
If you’re a fan of PC gaming from way back, you might have been there in the 1990s, when gaming on mostly business machines started going mainstream. You might well have some fond memories of sitting up late pointing, clicking, strafing and shooting.
You’re not alone.
You might think that revisiting those times would require scouring eBay and second hand game stores for your old favourites, but what if we told you that you needn’t spend anything more than your usual monthly Internet bill?
Yep, we’re talking free games, a collection of nine retro PC classics from the 1990s that you can play in your browser or download and run in DOSBox or Windows today!
Continue reading

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Rarities and Readables from William Shakespeare
via AbeBooks.co.uk by Lily King

Considered the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare's works are among the world's most widely read, most intensely studied, and most passionately collected. Early editions are also some of the most valuable.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Young T S Eliot
Eliot in love. The poet’s first wife called him “Wonkypenky”: not a term of endearment. Sexual difficulties weren’t the worst of it… more

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A history of functional toy cameras
via Boing Boing by Carla Sinclair
Written by pop-culture authors Buzz Poole and Christopher D. Salyers (who is also a toy camera collector), Camera Crazy is an attractively photographed collection of functioning toy cameras, which were popularized in the 1960s when the plastic 120 film “Diana” hit the market for only $1 a pop. Although always a hit with children, toy cameras have also been revered by collectors and photographers who welcome the artistic challenge of shooting with a plastic box that offers only a fixed focus and single shutter speed. From 1970s Mick-A-Matics and Gobots Cameras (1985) to Tamagotchi Cameras (1997) and Lego Digital Cameras (2011) – and everything in between – this book pays homage to over one-hundred of these cameras as well as many photographs produced by these “toys.” With a camera now included in every smart phone, I hope toy cameras don’t become a thing of the past.
Continue reading or, given the range of pictures, is it “looking”?

Neoliberalism and violence: The Big Society and the changing politics of domestic violence in England

an article by Armine Ishkanian (London School of Economics, England)published in Critical Social Policy Volume 34 Number 3 (August 2014)

Abstract

Focusing on the domestic violence sector as a case study, this article examines how the Big Society agenda, coming alongside public spending cuts, is affecting the independence and ability of women’s organizations to engage in progressive policy shaping.

By situating the analysis of the Big Society agenda within the broader context of international civil society strengthening programmes, the article considers how the processes currently unfolding in England, share certain similarities to what has happened globally wherever neoliberal policies aimed at instrumentalizing civil society for service delivery have been implemented.

It contends that the policies of the Big Society agenda, which are aimed at strengthening the ‘capacity’ of civil society, are instead creating a situation where the independence and ability of civil society organizations to engage in progressive policy making is weakened.

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Postretirement Career Planning: Testing a Model Based on Social Cognitive Career Theory

an article by Anne M. Wöhrmann (Institute for Strategic HR Management Research and Development (SMARD), Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany), Jürgen Deller (Institute for Strategic HR Management Research and Development (SMARD), Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany and Silver Workers Research Institute, Berlin, Germany) and Mo Wang (Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA) published in Journal of Career Development Volume 41 Number 5 (October 2014)

Abstract

Many countries are exposed to challenges due to demographic change. Keeping employees in the workforce beyond retirement age could help counter these challenges. Thus, extending the knowledge on the process of post-retirement career planning is important.

Therefore, drawing on social cognitive career theory, we develop and test a model for post-retirement career planning in this study.

An online survey including measures of occupational self-efficacy, interest in occupation-related activities as well as post-retirement career outcome expectations, intention, and planning activity was completed by 124 individuals working in different occupations in Germany.

Participants were aged 49–65 years and 54% were male.

Findings suggest that self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest are important factors in post-retirement career planning. Altogether the predictors accounted for 37% of variance in post-retirement career intention and 9% of variance in planning activity.

Based on our findings, we discuss options to foster post-retirement career planning.

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Trivia (should have been 3 January)

Sternwheeler Staples: 1910
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Circa 1910
“Packet steamer Jas. T. Staples”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
View original post

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20 great books about bullying
via The Telegraph by Rebecca Hawkes
As the TV adaptation of David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress airs on BBC One, we list 20 powerful books that tackle the subject of bullying.
Continue reading
This does not appear to be available online at the moment.
Maybe through BBC publications.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Ukulele
From emasculated, irrelevant kitsch to YouTube sensation: The ukulele has its long-overdue moment. Chunk-a-chunk!… more

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Photos of forgotten brains in a mental hospital

via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
In the basement of the University of Texas Mental Hospital, photographer Adam Voorhes stumbled upon hundreds of strange brains in formaldehyde that had been abandoned for decades. Voorhes and journalist Alex Hannaford photographed and researched the specimens, resulting in a fascinating new book titled Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital.[link to Amazon.com]
You can see more of the images in this Washington Post photo essay.

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Digital archive unlocks canal secrets
from the Canal & River Trust via Research Buzz by Tara Calishain
“We’ve digitally published over 37,000 archive records and over 22,000 historic images from our archives for the first time ever. The £50,000 project is the first phase of a major project to open up public access to the national waterways collection.”
Read all about it

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Animal with human voice
Montaigne thought that animals could speak but that man was too arrogant to hear them. So if your dog spoke up, what would she say?… more

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Humans and baboons share cumulative culture ability
via 3 Quarks Daily From PhysOrg

Baboon using a touch screen. Credit: Nicolas Claidière
The ability to build up knowledge over generations, called cumulative culture, has given mankind language and technology. While it was thought to be limited to humans until now, researchers from the Laboratoire de psychologie cognitive (CNRS/AMU), working in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh (UK), have recently found that baboons are also capable of cumulative culture.
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Stop Bashing Microsoft: 5 Ways In Which They’re Awesome
via MakeUseOf by Harry Guinness
Microsoft doesn’t always get fair treatment. When it comes down to it, they’re a pretty awesome company. They invest huge amounts in research, create innovative hardware and software, develop great applications while supporting everything that’s come before. There’s been enough Microsoft bashing, now it’s time for some love.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
History of democracy
Democracies lurch from crisis to crisis without ever addressing root causes – but also without collapsing. The result: complacency and drift… more

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WATCH: incredible dark-sky timelapse of Moab Utah
via Boing Boing by Ron Risman
Over the past decade I have visited the Moab, Utah area seven times and have fallen in love with the entire southern Utah landscape. I created this video love letter to let Moab know how much I appreciate the beauty of her landscape and the dark skies above.
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Trivia (should have been 28 December)

Neideffer Camp: 1937
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Spring 1937
“This family without food and work about to be returned to Oklahoma by the Relief Administration. They have lost a baby as a result of exposure during the winter. Had to sell their tent and car to buy food. Neideffer Camp, Holtville, Imperial Valley, California.”
Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration
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Organised Hypocrisy on a Monumental Scale
via 3 Quarks Daily by Robert Wade on the economic occupation of the West Bank in the LRB

Please read it for yourself if you have any interest in equality, regardless of the politics

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Big history
Big Science, Big Data, and now Big History. Is taking the broadest possible view really a panacea, or just another impractical way of relating the past?… more

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Carnal knowledge
via Prospero by L.L.B.
A news exhibition of work by Egon Schiele at the Courtauld Gallery in London offers several rare opportunities. It is just under a century since this Austrian artist died, and yet his creations are not found in any public collection in Britain, and have never been given a dedicated exhibition in any of the country's museums. Most of the 38 drawings and watercolours that comprise this show have been gathered from abroad and from private sources, and many are being exhibited publicly for the first time. It is unlikely that any of London’s hallowed art institutions have ever had so many depictions of labia on such proud display.

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We Are Not the Only Political Animals
via 3 Quarks Daily by Justin E. H. Smith in the New York Times

A political caricature of the United States Senate from 1894 (Library of Congress)
Homo sapiens has long sought to set itself apart from animals — that is, apart from every other living species. One of the most enduring attempts to define humanity in a way that distances us from the rest of animal life was Aristotle’s description of the human being as a “political animal.” By this he meant that human beings are the only species that live in the “polis” or city-state, though the term has often been understood to include villages, communes, and other organized social units. Implicit in this definition is the idea that all other animals are not political, that they live altogether outside of internally governed social units.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
“Wild West” of academic publishing
Scholarly journals first appeared in 1665, and from the beginning they didn’t pay authors, peer reviewers, or editors. Is the economic model coming undone?… more

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There’s more to Matisse’s dancers than meets the eye
via 3 Quarks Daily by Morgan Meis in The Smart Set

In the year 1905, Henri Matisse painted a portrait of his wife wearing a rather extraordinary hat. The painting was displayed at the Salon d’Automne in Paris that same year. Much shock and controversy followed. To many, the hat looked like a giant lump of randomly chosen colours sitting atop the poor woman’s head. What, also, was the point of all the green on the woman’s face? People and hats don’t look like that. The world doesn’t look like that.
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A History of Keyboard Layouts, Is QWERTY Lagging Behind?
via MakeUseOf by Joel Lee
Did you know that modern QWERTY keyboards are inefficient and encourage the onset of repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome? QWERTY is over 100 years old. It’s outdated and outclassed by several alternatives, yet it’s still the most popular keyboard layout in the world.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Curvology
“This is a book about the female body and why it has turned out to be the strangest thing in existence.” Strange? To whom?… more

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Dragon that looks like a tree
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

In Chellah, an abandoned city south of Rabat, Morocco, there lives a dragon that resembles a tree. Photo posted by Seiteta on Reddit. (via Laughing Squid where there's another photo of the tree, sorry, dragon)