Trivia (should have been 2 May)

The Antikythera Wreck
via A Don’s Life by Mary Beard

One of my favourite “assemblages” (as archaeologists say) of ancient material from the Greco-Roman world is the stuff from the “Antikythera Wreck”, a cargo boat that went down between Crete and the southern tip of the Peloponnese probably in the 60s BC (dated by coins), on its way with a load of prestige (and some not so prestige) goods for the Roman market, trade not loot almost certainly.
Continue reading

==========================================
Computational Anthropology Reveals How the Most Important People in History Vary by Culture
via MIT Technology Review by Julia Greer

Data mining Wikipedia people reveals some surprising differences in the way eastern and western cultures identify important figures in history, say computational anthropologists.
Continue reading
“They” say that you learn something new every day but this item taught me two things, the cultural differences that are the subject of the item and that there exists such a profession as a computational anthropologist (another one to add to the occupations thesaurus).

==========================================
The Healthiest Typeface
via Stephen's Lighthouse: Cari Romm in The Atlantic

In a New York Times column in July 2012, the filmmaker Errol Morris took a few paragraphs to ponder the likelihood of death by asteroid.
“NASA issued reassuring public statements [after an asteroid flew close to Earth in 2011], but I’m not so sure,” he wrote. “It’s about the size of an aircraft carrier. Okay. That seems pretty big to me. Do you mean I shouldn’t worry about being hit by a meteor the size of an aircraft carrier?”
Continue reading

==========================================

Astronomers Investigate “Stillborn” Galaxies 300 Million Light-years Away

via Big Think by Robert Montenegro

It never ceases to amaze me the wonders astronomers are able to observe and calculate. For instance, this story at Space.com reports on a team of astronomers in New Mexico that has determined that a group of 48 galaxies located within the Coma Cluster are so saturated with dark matter that they may be what one expert describes as “stillborn” galaxies.
Continue reading

==========================================
How Our Brains Respond When We Read Harry Potter
via Big Think by Natalie Shoemaker

How do our brains resolve the supernatural descriptions we read in fantasy literature compared to more mundane descriptions? It's a loaded question, but Tom Jacobs from Pacific Standard has the scoop. He recently wrote on a new study that has found portions of our minds associated with emotion processing are quite tickled by the fantastic and supernatural – more specifically, when we read Harry Potter.
Continue reading

==========================================
Infinite variety: Archiving the Arts
via National Archives by Melinda Haunton
What links a springboard , a sonnet, a commode, a peacock, many hairpins and a sad lack of teleportation facilities? Read on to find out:

Way back in December 2012, when the world was young, I was pleased to introduce on this blog a new arts archives initiative, supported by The National Archives and Arts Council England. We called it Archiving the Arts. Since then, we’ve checked in with the project a couple of times – hearing about its development last spring and about one workshop held here at Kew to engage artists with the archive.
Continue reading

==========================================
Calligrapher of the Rings
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

New Zealand-based artist Daniel Reeves created the calligraphy and cartography seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy along with several other big fantasy films, and merchandise associated with the movies.
You can purchase his work, including fonts, prints, and commissions via his site: DanielReeve.co.nz (via Laughing Squid)
Beautiful

==========================================
England’s immigrants 1330-1550
via National Archives by Dr Jessica Lutkin and Dr Laura Tompkins
This month [February 2015]sees the launch of England’s Immigrants 1330-1550, a major new research database by the University of York, in partnership with the Humanities Research Institute (University of Sheffield) and The National Archives.
The vibrant nature of the population of the British Isles owes a great deal to the steady flow of immigrants over the past two millennia. Invasions by the Romans and Normans, sanctuary sought by the Protestant Huguenots, or the need for a workforce encouraging West Indians to immigrate all have had a part to play in making Britain the nation it is today.
Continue reading
The one fact that stuck with me from reading this is that non-English people were referred to as aliens in the official documentation. And at this time that included the Scots and Irish.

==========================================
A master of miniatures’ incredible small town
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

Michael Paul Smith's Elgin Park is a town that does not exist except in the mind and miniatures of this master of tabletop photography. It is “a 1/24th-scale recreation of everyday scenes from mid-20th century America, ranging from the 1920s to the mid-1960s”.
Continue reading

==========================================

Add nature, art and religion to life’s best anti-inflammatories

via 3 Quarks Daily from Science Daily

Taking in such spine-tingling wonders as the Grand Canyon, Sistine Chapel ceiling or Schubert's “Ave Maria” may give a boost to the body’s defence system, according to new research from UC Berkeley. Researchers have linked positive emotions – especially the awe we feel when touched by the beauty of nature, art and spirituality – with lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are proteins that signal the immune system to work harder. “Our findings demonstrate that positive emotions are associated with the markers of good health,” said Jennifer Stellar, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study, which she conducted while at UC Berkeley.
Continue reading

Understanding Gamification

John Kirriemuir reviews the ALA Tech Report Understanding Gamification by Bohyun Kim, and finds a high quality introduction to the subject.

If this is an area which interests you then do, please, go to Ariadne and read the review for yourself.

---

My Name Is Sue. How Do You Do! (Names and Identity)

an article by Irina Perianova (University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria) published in Issues in Social Sciences Volume 3 Number 1 (2015)

Abstract

The paper aims to give an overview of the functions of proper names as a complex multi-dimensional phenomenon. While implying certain conceptual characteristics proper names reflect the way people see themselves, or what others might infer about them, and thus shapе their attitude.

As part of the cultural discourse they serve as determinants of social identity. An important feature of personal names is their potential to be used metaphorically – as characterizers and signifiers. Naming conventions depend on culture, generation, status and existing linguistic forms. Avoiding a name as a form of address is culture-based, or expresses attitude and affect. Furthermore, names are an instrument of control, submission and otherisaton.

They are also a marker of memory and trust as well as a signifier of status. The disparity of addressing when, for example, one of the speakers uses the first name and the other one the surname, always implies some kind of inequality.

The drift of the current changes in naming/addressing in the West is egalitarian and characterized by greater informality and reciprocity.

Full Text: PDF

---

Exploring the growing link of ethnic entrepreneurship, markets, and Pentecostalism in London (UK): An empirical study

an article by Ayantunji Gbadamosi (University of East London, UK) published in Society and Business Review Volume 10 Issue 2 (2015)

Abstract

Purpose
This paper aims to unravel how membership of Pentecostal fellowships aids the entrepreneurial activities of African-Caribbean (AC) members. While many issues about the entrepreneurial engagements of AC people have been discussed in the literature, there are far less studies documented about the link of these activities to faith, especially in the context of Pentecostalism.

Design/methodology/approach
Adopting the interpretive research paradigm, a total of 25 tape-recorded, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with AC entrepreneurs who are members of Pentecostal faith-based organisations in London, and pastors in this same sphere. Sixteen of the respondents are entrepreneurs running and managing their businesses, seven are pastors and the remaining two fall in both categories, as they are both entrepreneurs and still serving as pastors in churches in London. Rather than merely serving as gatekeepers for information, the pastors are active participants/respondents in the study.

Findings
The paper highlights the challenges confronting the AC ethnic entrepreneurs, but also suggests that those in the Pentecostal faith are motivated and emboldened by the shared values in this religion to navigate the volatile marketing environment. It unveils participants’ faith in God as their key business survival strategy. It also shows the unwavering confidence of the respondents that this religious stance results in outstanding business successes like increase in sales and profits, competitive edge, divine creativity and innovation, opportunity recognition, networks, institutional support and other factors that underpin entrepreneurship.

Originality/value
This study unpacks the thickly blurred link between Pentecostalism as a thriving religious orientation among the AC ethnic group in the UK and their entrepreneurial engagements.

---

Gender, work orientations and job satisfaction

an article by Min Zou (Bain & Company, London, UK) published in Work Employment & Society Volume 29 Number 1 (February 2015)

Abstract

This article studies the gender gap in job satisfaction and argues that the observed gender difference is a consequence of the heterogeneity in work orientations between men and women. Using data from the 2006 Skills Survey, the analysis yields three major findings.

The first shows that women, either in full-time or part-time employment, report significantly higher levels of job satisfaction than men.

Secondly, work orientations are closely associated with one’s job satisfaction and their relationships vary significantly across men, women full-time and part-time workers.

Finally and most importantly, the observed gender satisfaction differential is eliminated once work orientations are taken into consideration.

A cross-cultural analysis of factors influencing choice in volunteering activities

an article by Evan H. Offstein and Rebecca M. Chory (Frostburg State University, Maryland, USA) and J. Stephen Childers Jr (Radford University, Virginia, USA) published in Competitiveness Review Volume 25 Issue 1 (2015)

Abstract

Purpose
This study aims to offer insights into the contextual and situational variables that influence volunteering choices.

Design/methodology/approach
An analysis of European and US business students’ volunteering experiences is performed. Cross-cultural and experiential outcomes are compared and contrasted at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Findings
A majority of volunteering decisions are made without thoughtful reflection, based on convenience in an effort to reduce personal hardship, and influenced heavily by institutional and organizational structures.

Originality/value
These results call into question the notion that volunteering-related choices are deeply personal, purposeful and/or reflective decisions. Moreover, the findings begin to explain why volunteerism continues to be dogged by labels such as “ineffective”, “inefficient” or “lacking in value” when benchmarked against expectations.

---

A fiscal job? An analysis of fiscal policy and the labor market

an article by Elva Bova, Christina Kolerus and Sampawende J.A. Tapsoba (International Monetary Fund, Washington DC) published in IZA Journal of Labor Policy Volume 4 Issue 1 (2015)

Abstract

This paper examines the role of fiscal policies in the dynamics of the labor market. Through the lenses of Okun’s Law, we assess how fiscal policy instruments as well as fiscal consolidation and expansion episodes affect labor market outcomes.

Using a panel of 34 OECD countries over the period 1985-2013, we find that fiscal consolidation has a sizeable, positive and robust impact on the Okun’s coefficient. This effect is particularly strong for expenditure-based consolidations, suggesting that a reduction in the size of the government increases the responsiveness of employment to output and is not altered by an expansionary or recessionary position in the business cycle.

Interestingly, we find no impact of fiscal expansion on the Okun’s coefficient nor for specific fiscal instruments.

JEL codes: E24, E32, E62

Full text (HTML)

---

A change in the climate: Online social capital and the spiral of silence

an article by Kim Sheehan (University of Oregon, USA) published in First Monday Volume 20 Number 5 (May 2015)

Abstract

This study explores the connection between online social capital and the Spiral of Silence.

Online social capital is an individual’s network of social connections, a network that enables and encourages social cooperation. The Spiral of Silence theory suggests that an opinion can become dominant if those who perceive their opinion to be in the minority do not speak up because society threatens them with isolation.

A study of 550 individuals explored their willingness to speak up on an issue, and assessed whether they thought they held a majority or a minority opinion. This study compared both their bonding social capital (via homogeneous networks) and bridging social capital (via heterogeneous networks) to their willingness to speak up and their perceptions of whether others held their opinions.

Regression analyses shows that bridging social capital is a key influencer in people’s willingness to speak up in social media and other online venues.

Full Text: HTML

---

Making work pay for the indebted? Assessing the effects of debt services on welfare recipients

an article by Pierre Koning (VU University Amsterdam, IZA and Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) published in Labour Economics Volume 34 (June 2015)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of an intervention that was targeted at a specific group of Dutch Social Assistance (SA) recipients with debt problems. Since a large share of the income gains of work resumption is earmarked for creditors, these individuals generally experienced a strong a priori disincentive to resume formal work.

The intervention had three aims: restructuring personal debts, preventing the occurrence of new debt problems, and increasing the direct incentives to resume work.

The paper uses the Timing-of-Events method to identify the effects of debt programs on SA spells.

Our main finding is that the debt program substantially increased the exit out of the SA schemes, but this was mainly due to exits out of the labor force.

With a large share of assigned individuals who did not participate in the scheme, it appears that individuals perceived or experienced the program as unpleasant and opted to exit without work. Our results suggest the presence of threat effects, particularly for individuals who were assigned by their caseworkers but did not participate in the debt program.

JEL codes: C21, D14, H75, I38, J18, K35

---

Precarious lives, precarious labour: family support and young men’s transitions to work in the UK

an article by Abby Hardgrove and Linda McDowell (University of Oxford, UK) and Esther Rootham (National University of Singapore) published in Journal of Youth Studies Volume 18 Issue 8 (2015)

Abstract

This research is about young people, family support and transitions into the workforce.

We provide the results of a comparative, qualitative study with young men in two southern English towns. We argue that relationships of support in families are vital to young people’s ability to ‘navigate’ precarious labour market opportunities.

As Youth Studies has become increasingly preoccupied with individualism, we are compelled to draw attention to the collective support that is necessary to ‘launch’ the life trajectories of young people who are transitioning into an economic environment marked by insecurity and uncertainty.

We conclude with recommendations for future research.

---

Which industries are most likely to demand a 2:1 or better?

Charlie Ball’s blog post on this issue is sufficiently concise to make creating a précis very difficult.

I will, therefore, provide you with the link and leave the reading up to you.

The View from HECSU

---

Creating a Good Local Economy: the role of anchor institutions

a policy paper by Matthew Jackson and Neil McInroy (Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES)) published April 2015

Introduction

We need good local economies.

We need local economies where wealth creation improves the economic and social fortunes of people and communities – bringing benefits for all.

A good local economy is one where there are strong networks across the of public, commercial and social sectors. Networks and leadership which stewards investment, so that it brings a range of economic, social and environmental benefits.

Over the last eighteen months, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) working in partnership with Preston City Council has been working on improving and developing a good local economy.

The action research work has sought to engage with and influence anchor institutions based in the local authority boundary so that their behaviour and activities bring maximum benefit for the local economy and creates wealth for the local community. This paper reflects upon the findings of the work and the change it has instigated; together with exploring how the impact of the anchor institutions can be maximised in the future.

The work is framed by a much wider discussion and debate about how the economy of places operate and perform.

The paper comprises the following sections:

• Section 2 outlines the challenges our local economies face and the theoretical underpinnings of more progressive local economies including components which enable a good local economy;
• Section 3 outlines the activities which have been undertaken in Preston with the anchor institutions including supply chain analysis and the core findings of these activities;
• Section 4 details the key changes in the behaviour of the anchor institutions as a result of their engagement in the project and wider influences;
• Section 5 details the means by which anchor institutions can maximise the impact they bring in the future, notably through the process of procurement.
• Section 6 details the next steps for activities with anchor institutions and wider, which need to happen to maximise community wealth and ensure a good local economy is progressed.

Full text (PDF 22pp)

---

Trivia (should have been 25 April)

Weld Black: 1943
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

May 1943
“Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards, Baltimore, Maryland. Liberty ship construction. Welding on a hatch assembly at night.”
Medium format negative by Arthur Siegel for the Office of War Information
View original post

==========================================
The Monkey Queen: Researching a Family Secret for a Family Novel
via An Awfully Big Blog Adventure by Tess Berry-Hart
This Thursday [18 February 2015] the great wheel of the Chinese zodiac will spin to welcome in the Year of the (Wooden) Ram; a year of calm, creativity and goodness (according to my online resources!) The five elements of the Chinese calendar – Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth – intersect with a zodiac animal only once every sixty years. In an interesting coincidence, during the last days of the Year of the Wooden Ram in 1896 (Chinese New Year starts mid-February to our calendars), my grandmother Mimi was born in China, to English missionary parents in a small white church on the marshy banks of the Yangtze River.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On romantic love
Is love a choice? Philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists think it’s an involuntary phenomenon. Clancy Martin thinks they’re wrong… more

==========================================
Forget Buckyballs, Here Comes Volleyballene
via Technology Review

Buckyballs are all the rage these days given their stability and unique chemical properties. The classic football-shaped molecule consists of 60 carbon atoms arranged in 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons, but chemists have observed various other configurations. C72, C76, and C84 are fairly common, and some buckyballs have up to 100 carbon atoms.
Continue reading

==========================================
Slow Down the Conversation to be a Better Listener
via Big Think by Orion Jones

We think much faster than we talk. Neurons in the brain can fire 200 times a second, while the mechanics of the human mouth permit just 125 words to be spoken each minute. When we don’t slow down and don’t allow our thoughts to be expressed completely, we end up talking past each other. Our ability to listen (and therefore to respond) suffers as a result.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
History of psychoanalysis
On a November evening in 1977, Barbara Taylor, a Ph.D. student, had an epiphany. By 1981 she’d written a dissertation. And gone crazy… more

==========================================
Religion and the social determinants of health
via OUP Blog by Susan R. Holman

Woodcut illustration by Jacob Locher, used by Silvan Otmar of Augsburg (d. 1540).
From the “Provenance Online Project” (at Penn Libraries). CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.
Is religion a plus or minus when it comes to global health and the “right to health” in the twenty-first century? A little of both, I’d say, but what does that look like? For me the connection is seen most clearly in the “social determinants of health”; that is, “the everyday circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.” This post considers a selection of photos that shape how I see social determinants intersecting with religion.
Continue reading

==========================================
The Book of Beetles: A life-size guide to 600 of nature’s living gems
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder

The white fog-basking beetle dwells in the Namib desert. It climbs “to the top of a dune during the early-morning fog, orienting its body with the tip of the abdomen pointed upward and the head angled downward. Water vapour from the fog condenses on the abdomen and runs down the body and into the mouth.”
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Defence of physical books
“You read all those books?” The question occurs only to non-readers. For bibliophiles, a personal library of unread books is a reminder that they will never be smart enough…more

==========================================
Jumping DNA and the Evolution of Pregnancy
via 3 Quarks Daily by Ed Yong in Not Exactly Rocket Science

About a decade ago, Vincent Lynch emailed Frank Grutzner to ask for a tissue sample from a pregnant platypus. He got a polite brush-off instead.
Then, around eight years later, Grutzner got back in touch. His team had collected tissues from a platypus that had been killed by someone’s dog. They had some uterus. Did Lynch still want some?
Continue reading

An investigation into the prevalence of cyberbullying among students aged 16–19 in post-compulsory education

an article by Dean West (Centre for Education Studies, The University of Warwick, Coventry, UK) published in Research in Post-Compulsory Education Volume 20 Issue 1 (March 2015)

Abstract

Young people in society are able to use information and communication technology with ease and exploit the opportunities and benefits of social interaction that has become ingrained in their daily routines. However, as the use of technology has risen, so too has its misuse to harm others.

The phenomena of bullying and, more recently, cyberbullying, continue to be of interest to scholars, practitioners and policy makers. To date, the vast majority of research into bullying and cyberbullying has been contained to compulsory education contexts, leaving a dearth of literature in post-compulsory education.

The present study explores cyberbullying in the context of post-16 education in England and reports prevalence levels of perpetration and victimisation. The data presented are part of a larger research project that considers other aspects of cyberbullying such as reasons for cyberbullying, groups disproportionately involved in cyberbullying and the impact that cyberbullying has on feelings, learning and social integration.

The results of some of these areas are outlined briefly and do not feature as the focus of this article due to word limits. Previous research on cyberbullying is considered, including a brief outline of key concepts such as the definition and criteria of bullying and cyberbullying.

An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 5,690 students from 41 colleges. The results show that 7.9% of those aged 16–19 who study in colleges in England reported being victims of cyberbullying and 1.9% admitted cyberbullying others.

---

Active labor market programs - employment gain or fiscal drain?

an article by Alessio JG Brown (IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Germany) and Johannes Koettl (The World Bank, Washington DC, USA) published in IZA Journal of Labor Economics Volume 4 Number 1 (2015)

Abstract

This paper provides a new perspective by classifying active labor market programs (ALMPs) depending on their objectives, relevance and cost-effectiveness during normal times, a crisis and recovery. We distinguish ALMPs providing incentives for retaining employment, incentives for creating employment, incentives for seeking and keeping a job, incentives for human capital enhancement and improved labor market matching. Reviewing evidence from the literature, we discuss especially indirect effects of various interventions and their cost-effectiveness. The paper concludes by providing a systematic overview of how, why, when and to what extent specific ALMPs are effective.

JEL codes: J08, J22, J23, J38, E24

Full text (HTML)

---

Care and Repair and the Politics of Urban Kindness

an article by Tom Hall and Robin James Smith (Cardiff University, UK) published in Sociology Volume 49 Number 1 (February 2015)

Abstract

This article considers the possibility that small acts of urban care, maintenance and cleaning might make for a good city.

This might seem a slim possibility, given the vast sociology of hopelessness to which the contemporary city is home. But it can also be argued that a politics, and a sociology, of hope are best looked for not in big picture or utopian thinking but in the practical instances of everyday care and kindness that are as much a part of the urban everyday as anxiety, insecurity and damage.

We explore this possibility through a critical assessment of Nigel Thrift’s recent writings on urban repair, drawing (but not reporting) on our own research with street cleaners and outreach workers tasked to look out for the rough sleeping homeless.

---

DWP Work Programme: how is it performing?

In the June 2015 Inclusion Comment Duncan Melville, Inclusion Chief Economist, said

“This month marks the fourth year anniversary of the start of the Work Programme in June 2011. Hence, it is timely to look back and consider how the programme has performed and lessons for the future.

The Work Programme can be considered a success for those who are more job ready and in receipt of JSA. However, for those more distanced from the labour market, the programme has been much less successful. For claimants of ESA, less than 15%, and in some cases less than 10%, have achieved a sustained job outcome within two years.

With the nature of the follow on to the Work Programme currently under consideration, the needs of the most disadvantaged workless need to be addressed if the UK is to achieve Full Employment.”

Read the full Inclusion briefing here. (.docx)

Copyright © 2015 Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion, All rights reserved.

---

Trivia (should have been 19 April)

Shipshape, 1897
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

March 16, 1897
“U.S.S. Brooklyn, office of executive officer”
Note the ancient typewriter
8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Photographic Co.
View original post

==========================================
Ikea flat-pack furniture: The game
via BBC by Dougal Shaw
To build your dream home, you have to live through the nightmare of constructing flat-pack furniture.
That is the sad truth now acknowledged by many.
But for one group of American students, this was also the realisation that led to a video game that has generated a lot of buzz.
Home Improvisation was developed in 48 hours by students in Atlanta, as part of the annual Global Game Jam competition.
Continue reading and watch the video

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Bring back the serialized novel
The novel is in the doldrums. Sales are down, something called “snackable content” is in demand. The solution? A return to the past: serialization… more

==========================================
Inside the University of Oxford's Museum of Natural History
via the Guardian by GrrlScientist

Dinosaurs are really amazing, but natural history museums contain – and do – far more than show off the wonders of these animals. Today’s “Museum Monday” video tags along with several employees at the University of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. As we follow them, we catch a glimpse of the many, varied, roles of a Natural History Museum within its local and scientific communities: public outreach and public education; providing young people with hands-on experience for how scientists do basic lab-based research; documenting and conserving the collections and making them freely available to the scientific community, artists, photographers and others for research and educational purposes. In this video, we also watch museum researchers use the latest modern technologies from laser scanning and high-tech photography to dentists’ drills and paintbrushes to uncover the stories contained within millions of animal, plant and mineral specimens.
Continue reading

==========================================
A history of paleontology in China
via OUP Blog by Zhonghe Zhou

Life is the most exquisite natural outcome on our planet, arising as an evolutionary experiment that has persisted since the formation of this planet 4.5 billion years ago.
The enormous biodiversity we see today represents only a small fraction of life that has existed on earth. As the most intelligent (and probably lucky!) species, we humans, with our unique and conscious minds, have never stopped inquiring where we came from.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Rethinking extinction
Extinction is not a helpful way to think about conservation. It’s alarmist, simplistic, and inaccurate. Nature is as robust as it ever was – maybe more so, says Stewart Brand… more

==========================================
The forgotten women who helped build Waterloo Bridge
via the Observer by Yvonne Roberts

The Kinks immortalised it in Waterloo Sunset, it has formed the backdrop to films such as Alfie, and Wendy Cope used it as a setting for a poem.
For the millions of Londoners and tourists who use it each year to cross the river and gaze at the famous views along the Thames, it is Waterloo Bridge. But for the boat men who ferry tourists up and down the Thames, it is known as the Ladies Bridge because of the key role women played in its construction. Now a campaign is to be launched to celebrate the efforts of dozens of women who worked in stone, steel, timber and concrete on construction of the bridge after replacing Irish labourers who went home at the outbreak of war.
Continue reading

==========================================
People throwing pennies changed the color of a Yellowstone hot spring
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

Yellowstone National Park’s Morning Glory thermal spring used to be deep blue but its current yellow and green hues were caused in part by tourists throwing coins, rocks, and assorted crap into the pool. The detritus has the effect of “partially blocking the underground heat source and lowering the temperature of the spring to a range habitable by photosynthetic microorganisms that probably didn’t live there before” and produce pigments that result in the yellow and green color, according to a Science Friday article.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Moral of Caesar
The assassination of Julius Caesar failed in its stated purpose, to end tyranny. “The world without Caesar was still a world about Caesar”… more

==========================================
Pope Francis, Radical Leftist?
via 3 Quarks Daily by Elizabeth Stoker Breunig at The New Republic

In any analysis of a public figure, partisan interests will influence one’s opinion, and there isn’t anything particularly productive about pointing out that conservatives tend to forgive in conservative leaders what they don’t in liberals. A more helpful question is this: Why has Pope Francis addressed political issues, such as climate change, inequality, poverty, and overpopulation? Is it evidence of abject partisan interest, or a covert dedication to communism, Marxism, or some other insidious ideology?
Continue reading

The Paradoxes of Decent Work in Context: A Cultural Political Economy Perspective

an article by Felix Hauf (Goethe University, Frankfurt) published in Global Labour Journal Volume 6 Number 2 (2015)

Abstract

Scientific discourses of decent work can be roughly grouped into two main lines of interpretation.

The first, optimistic line sees the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) decent work agenda as indicative of counter-hegemonic forces successfully injecting post-neo-liberal norms into global labour regulation. Specifically, feminist scholars have welcomed the emergence of decent work, because of its explicit concern with non-standard work, informal labour and care work.

The second, more pessimistic line is critical of the decent work agenda, seeing it as compatible with or even reinforcing neo-liberal hegemony, especially because of its embrace of soft labour regulation and corporate social responsibility.

This article aims to analyse the paradoxes of decent work by putting this discourse in its historical and theoretical context. The article first draws on the framework of Cultural Political Economy (CPE) to identify competing ‘economic imaginaries’ of decent work.

Two prominent interpretations will be juxtaposed to outline a ‘feminist’ and a ‘business case’ decent work imaginary. Second, the article interrogates two different ILO initiatives, each of which is underpinned by one of these decent work imaginaries, in terms of the ways they may challenge or reinforce neo-liberal hegemony – the Domestic Workers Convention and the Better Work Programme. 

Full text (PDF)

---

The Mental Health Crisis Grows On: A Descriptive Analysis of DOC Systems in America

an article by Kristie R. Blevins and Irina R. Soderstrom (Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, USA) published in Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume 54 Issue 2 (2015)

Abstract

Research has established that a large portion of prisoners have diagnosed mental health problems.

Although the importance of providing mental health treatment for prisoners has been recognized, it is not clear what services state prison systems offer. The current study uses data obtained from content analyses, mail surveys, and phone interviews of mental health chief administrators of state prison systems to describe the norm in terms of mental health care and related services provided to state prison inmates.

Findings indicate that most systems have dedicated and competent mental health staff working in their systems and that state systems are committed to providing needed services to inmates with mental illnesses.

There are, however, also several obstacles, such as a lack of adequate staffing and resources, limited housing and bed space for prisoners with mental illnesses, and a lack of post-release services.

Hazel’s comment:
I wonder if the situation is better or worse in the UK. I suspect worse, probably a lot worse.

---

To work or to care? Working women’s decision-making

an article by Outi Jolanki (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) published in Community, Work & Family Volume 18 Issue 3 (2015)

Abstract

Recent changes in older people's public care services in Nordic countries in particular in Finland and Sweden are based on implicit expectations that family members will increase their involvement in care. In Nordic countries, the care of small children has been acknowledged to be a social matter that concerns gender equality and the work-life participation of both men and women, while the situation of working carers of older people is much less acknowledged.

This study addressed the question of how Finnish working women who give care to their older parents argue for and against their decisions of working and caring and the meaning of work and care in these decisions.

Majority of the interviewees emphasised the importance of work and refuted the idea of leaving work for care. The decision not to leave work for care was justified with worker identity, commitment to work, having no innate skills to be a carer, availability of support services and other carers and financial necessity.

On the other hand, a few interviewees brought forward their willingness to leave work which was justified by constructing care as meaningful and valuable activity as opposed to meaningless paid employment, and with the intensification of work, and with ageing.

Lengthy argumentation and several discursive tools indicate that women anticipated moral blame for the decision of giving work primacy over care, but also for leaving work. Thus, working carers balance between contrasting expectations to care and to work.

---

Youth depression and future criminal activity

an article by D. Mark Anderson (Montana State University, USA), Resul Cesur (University of Connecticut, USA) and andErdal Tekin (American University, IZA, and NBER, Washington, DC) published in Economic Inquiry Volume 53 Issue 1 (January 2015)

Abstract

While the contemporaneous association between mental health problems and criminal behavior has been explored in the literature, the long-term consequences of such problems, depression in particular, have received much less attention.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examine the effect of depression during adolescence on the probability of engaging in a number of criminal behaviors later in life. In our analysis, we control for a rich set of individual-, family-, and neighborhood-level factors to account for conditions that may be correlated with both childhood depression and adult criminality.

One novelty in our approach is the estimation of school and sibling fixed effects models to account for unobserved heterogeneity at the neighborhood and family levels. Furthermore, we exploit the longitudinal nature of our data set to account for baseline differences in criminal behavior.

The empirical estimates show that adolescents who suffer from depression face a substantially increased probability of engaging in property crime.

We find little evidence that adolescent depression predicts the likelihood of engaging in violent crime or the selling of illicit drugs. Our estimates imply that the lower-bound economic cost of property crime associated with adolescent depression is approximately 227 million dollars per year.

JEL codes I10, K42

Full text (HTML) 

---

Does competency matter? Competency as a factor in workplace bullying

an article by Karen Rogers McDaniel (Arkansas State University, USA), Florence Ngala (Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, USA) and Karen Moustafa Leonard (University of Arkansas, Little Rock, USA) published in Journal of Managerial Psychology Volume Issue 5 (2015)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection of competency and bullying behaviors, not yet reported in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach
The approach is an examination of the literature available on both topics, and development of a framework related to both.

Findings
The theory is that there is a strong mediating relationship between the victim’s self-perception of competency and outcomes (the victim’s reactions) to bullying behaviors. There are multiple impacts of bullying behaviors, but the authors believe this mediation action of competency might be crucial. There is little research on competency or expertise in terms of behaviors resulting from these self-assessments. Future research should seek to examine the link empirically, and there are implications about the competency levels of bullies themselves that might arise.

Research limitations/implications
As this is a newly developed research stream, the authors plan to continue with work on the topic.

Practical implications
By developing competency, individuals may develop some protection or coping mechanisms when confronted by bullying behaviors. Managers need to be aware of the need to allow employee development to reduce the incidence of such behaviors.

Social implications
Bullying behaviors have become rampant in society. In trying to determine where the problem might be best addressed, the authors feel that they have made a significant impact to allow managers to address competency among those victimized by these behaviors. This should have a flow-on effect for organizational and societal culture.

Originality/value
This is an intersection that has not been explored but holds significant explanatory power in the area. These bullying behaviors are on the rise; therefore, it is an exceptional opportunity to present new ideas in a forum that is well read by both academics and practitioners.

---

Street-level planning; the shifty nature of “local knowledge and practice”

an article by Nina Holm Vohnsen (Aarhus University, Denmark) published in Journal of Organizational Ethnography Volume 4 Issue 2 (2015)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and problematizes one of the oft-cited reasons why the implementation of public policy and other development initiatives goes wrong – namely that there is a mismatch or antagonistic relationship between street-level worker’s decisions and priorities on the one hand and on the other hand the policy-makers’ or administrators’ directives and priorities.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper builds on seven months of ethnographic fieldwork set in a Danish municipal unit which administered the sickness benefit legislation.

Findings
Through the reading of an ethnographic example of implementation of labour market policy this paper suggests that when policy invariably is distorted at the administrative level it is not necessarily due to lack of will among street-level workers to comply with legislation or centrally devised directives but rather because: in practice, planning and implementation are concurrent processes that continuously feed into each other; and that the concerns and the “local knowledge and practice” that guide planning-implementation do not belong to individual people but are dynamic perspectives that individual people might take up in certain situations.

Originality/value
This challenges conventional descriptions of street-level workers as a distinct group of people with distinctive concerns and attitudes to their work. The paper suggests instead the metaphor “vector of concern” to capture the way street-level workers’ changes of perspectives might cause interventions to disintegrate and evolve in potentially conflicting directions.

---

The evolutionary diagnosis of mental disorder

an article by Alfonso Troisi (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy)  published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science Volume 6 Issue 3 (May/June 2015)

Abstract

Medicalization of human behavioral diversity is a recurrent theme in the history of psychiatry, and the problem of defining what is a genuine mental disorder is an unresolved question since the origins of clinical psychopathology.

Darwinian psychiatry can formulate a definition of mental disorder that is value free and based on factual criteria. From an evolutionary perspective, genuine mental disorders are maladaptive conditions. The ultimate function of an adaptation is gene propagation via maximization of survival and reproduction.

It follows that a distressing and/or disabling psychological or behavioral syndrome is a psychiatric disorder only if it impacts negatively on the individualrsquo;s inclusive fitness. However, in many cases, an evolutionary definition of disorder cannot be reconciled with current social values.

Thus, clinicians adopting the evolutionary approach should conform to the prevailing trend of contemporary medicine and accept that their task is to be healers of the distressed, not watchdogs of biological adaptation. These pragmatic considerations do not minimize the scientific validity of the Darwinian definition of mental disorders.

Probably, its major contribution to psychiatric theory is the elimination of the necessity to find a brain lesion or dysfunctional mechanism to validate the distinction between disorders and non-disorders.

---

Social workflows – Vision and potential study

an article by Sebastian Görg and Ralph Bergmann (University of Trier, Germany) published in Information Systems Volume 50 (June 2015)

Abstract

Social workflows pervade peoples’ everyday life. Whenever a group of persons works together on a challenging or multifaceted task, a social workflow begins. Unlike traditional business workflows, such social workflows aim at supporting processes that contain personal tasks and data.

In this work, we envision a social workflow service as part of a social network that enables private individuals to construct social workflows according to their specific needs and to keep track of the workflow execution. The proposed features for a social workflow service could help individuals to accomplish their private goals.

The presented idea is contrasted with established research areas and applications to show the degree of novelty of this work. It is shown how novel ideas for knowledge management, facilitated by a process-oriented case-based reasoning approach, support private individuals and how they can obtain an appropriate social workflow through sharing and reuse of respective experience.

Two empirical studies confirm the potential benefits of a social workflow service in general and the core features of the developed concept.

---

Gender pay gaps among highly educated professionals – Compensation components do matter

an article by Christian Grund (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) published in Labour Economics Volume 34 (June 2015)

Abstract

Making use of panel data from a survey of highly educated professionals, gender pay gaps are explored with regard to total compensation as well as to individual compensation components.

The results indicate meaningful male–female wage differentials for this quite homogeneous group of people working in one specific industry: in particular for more experienced employees in higher positions of firm hierarchies with children.

Gender pay gaps are much more pronounced for bonus payments than they are for fixed salaries.

---

‘We’ll show you gang’: The subterranean structuration of gang life in London

an article by James A Densley (Metropolitan State University, USA) and Alex Stevens (University of Kent, UK) published in Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume 15 Number 1 (February 2015)

Abstract

This article uses data from interviews with 69 self-described members and associates of street gangs in London to explore how young people choose their actions and construct their identities from the material and cultural resources they find in their locales.

It explores ‘drift’ as a potential explanation of actions of gang members and finds it wanting.

It suggests that Giddens’ concept of structuration, when combined with Matza and Sykes’ notion of subterranean traditions, offers a powerful tool for the explanation of how and why some young people in socio-economically deprived urban areas seek association with gangs through the performance of violence.

---

Differential predictors of post-retirement life and work satisfaction

an article by Leena Maren Pundt, Anne Marit Wöhrmann and Jürgen Deller (Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany) and Kenneth S. Shultz (California State University, San Bernardino, United States) published in Journal of Managerial Psychology Volume 30 Issue 2 (2015)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of personal motivational goals and the corresponding occupational characteristics of volunteer, work-related activities in retirement with life and work satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach
Fully retired individuals working for a non-profit organization in their former professional career field on a non-paid basis were surveyed using an online survey (n=661) to assess their motivational goals, the occupational characteristics of their projects, and satisfaction with life and work.

Findings
Results suggested that post-retirement volunteer workers differentiated between perceived life and work satisfaction. The motives of achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity significantly directly affected life satisfaction and indirectly affected work satisfaction. Occupational characteristics assessing achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity had direct effects on work satisfaction but not on life satisfaction except for occupational autonomy.

Research limitations/implications
The study was cross-sectional and based on self-report data of highly educated German retirees working in volunteer professional positions, thus potentially limiting the generalizability of findings.

Practical implications
Organizations should enable post-retirement volunteer workers to meet their motivation goals by designing work opportunities to fulfill the motivational goals of achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity.

Social implications
Post-retirement activities possess the potential to help solve societal problems by countering the shortage of specialists and managers at the same time that the burden on social security systems is reduced.

Originality/value
The paper presents evidence that different personal motivational goals and occupational characteristics are important in post-retirement activities. The findings imply that work designs created for post-retirement activities should provide a variety of occupational characteristics, such as occupational achievement and appreciation.

---

Coaching unemployed managers and professionals through the trauma of unemployment: Derailed or undaunted?

an article by David E Gray (University of Greenwich), Yiannis Gabriel (University of Bath) and Harshita Goregaokar (University of Surrey) published in Management Learning Volume 46 Number 3 (July 2015)

Abstract

The economic crisis of 2008/2009 has increased unemployment among managers, particularly older managers, a group under-researched empirically. This longitudinal study assesses the efficacy of executive coaching for a group of unemployed professionals who participated in an intensive coaching programme aimed at reintegrating them into the economy.

Results suggest that the majority were positive about coaching, a process that helped them to reflect on and learn from their new circumstances. Findings also contradict other studies, indicating cautious, cool and even hostile responses to coaching.

The study highlights the mental fragility of previously successful, now unemployed, managers.

From a policy perspective, interventions should start earlier (before employees leave an organisation) and finish later.

From a social science perspective, executive coaching represents a modest but sometimes effective initiative to help unemployed professionals to re-write their life stories to make sense of their experiences.

---

Where next for post 19 vocational education and training?

via UKCES (UK Commission for Employment and Skills) and Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

In our latest guest blog, Professor Ewart Keep, Director of Oxford University’s Centre on Skills, Knowledge & Organisational Performance discusses the key points from his latest UKCES Masterclass on the future of vocational education and training.

You can watch the session in full on our Youtube channel, and find more information on past and future UKCES Masterclasses on our website.

Post-19 vocational education and training (VET) is a foggy old issue, but certainly a pertinent one. It’s also one to which clarity has not been brought by an undulating policy landscape. The first step to clearing the clouds then is identifying the problems – something I aimed to do at the latest UKCES Masterclass session, asking “Where next for post-19 VET?”.

There is now a (largely-unacknowledged) underlying crisis regarding concerning the basic aims and function of skills policy at government level in England. Over the last 30 years or so, the implicit assumption developed that policy’s function was to deliver ‘world class skills’ as measured by various international benchmarking exercises, such as the OECD’s PISA and PIAAC surveys, and the Leitch Review of Skills’ league tables of qualification stocks.

Continue reading the blog

---

An educational system to help students assess website features and identify high-risk websites

an article by Tomoko Kajiyama (Aoyama Gakuin University, Sagamihara-shi, Japan) and Isao Echizen (National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan) published in Interactive Technology and Smart Education Volume 12 Issue 1 (2015)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an effective educational system to help students assess Web site risk by providing an environment in which students can better understand a Web site’s features and determine the risks of accessing the Web site for themselves.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors have enhanced a prototype visualization system for helping students assess Web site features and use them to identify risky Web sites. The system was implemented with our graphical search interface for multi-attribute metadata called “Concentric Ring View” and was tested using 13,386 actual and dummy Web sites and 11 Web site attributes.

Findings
The testing revealed several distinguishing attributes of risky Web sites, including being related to “play”, having monotone colors, having many images, having many links and having many pages with much text in smaller font size. A usability test with 12 teenaged female students demonstrated that they could learn to identify some features of risky Web sites.

Originality/value
As students cannot live in a safe cyberspace environment forever, they should be taught how to identify risky Web sites. We proposed an educational system to help students assess Web site features and identify high-risk Web site and verified the effectiveness of this system.

---

Trivia (should have been 12 April)

Sleeps Two: 1920
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

San Francisco circa 1920
“Chalmers touring car on Eddy Street”
Equipped with what seems to be a bed
5x7 negative by Christopher Helin
View original post

==========================================
Crayons shaped like Minifigs
via Boing Boing by Jason Weisberger

These Minifig/Crayons [link to Amazon.com but probably available in the UK] are fantastic party favors!

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Reading racist literature
Old books promote old social values. But historical insults can be transformed into artistic strength… more

==========================================
7 Signs You Are a Seasoned Windows User
via MakeUseOf by Joe Keeley

Windows has been around for longer than a lot of you have been alive. Established in 1985, the popular operating system has gone through many iterations since then.
It’s one of the most widely used operating systems out there and chances are that some of you have been running it since the beginning. Windows certainly has changed since the first version, but some elements remain consistent.
This list is a run down of some of the signs that you’re a seasoned Windows user – old features that have since been discontinued, introduction of new features, and more. Be sure to leave your own thoughts in the comments section at the end.
Continue reading

==========================================
On the dark side of devoutness
via OUP Blog by Elisabeth-Marie Richter and Hubert Wolf

The unbelievable story of the Roman convent of Sant’Ambrogio in Rome is about crime and murder, feigned holiness, forbidden sexuality, and the abuse of power over others. Does this controversial story, which casts high dignitaries of the 19th century Catholic Church in a less than flattering light, need to be retold for the 21st century?
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Philosophy and the real world
Studying with Stanley Fish and Richard Rorty, Crispin Sartwell couldn’t help but detect a sense of the end. It was the 80s, and it was an end for philosophy… more

==========================================
How to make a microphone out of a matchbox and a pencil
via Boing Boing by Marl Frauenfelder

Dave Hax shows you how to make a microphone out of a matchbox and graphite from a pencil.

==========================================
Physician-Assisted Suicide Is Socially Corrosive
via Big Think by Orion Jones

As a physician-assisted suicide bill sits before committee in the California state legislature, Ira Byock, MD, urges a critical examination of the way supporters draw attention to their cause.
Terms like “right to die”, “death with dignity”, and “physician aid in dying” are intended to mean the opposite of what the words signify in reality. Byock argues the terms have taken on Orwellian proportions as supporters redefine them to suit their political ends, repeating them until they appear unquestionably true.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Myths of the brain
Neuroscience is booming, but much of it is trivial or even wrong. When it comes to the brain, we still don’t know much… more

==========================================
The rise of the medical humanities
via 3 Quarks Daily by Belinda Jack in Times Higher Education

The cynical account for the rise of the medical humanities – a newish interdisciplinary area that explores the social, historical and cultural dimensions of medicine – would be an economic one. At a time of retrenchment in some subjects at some universities, disciplines are under pressure to demonstrate their practical value. Recent research that claims to show that reading novels promotes empathy would be an example of literature’s utility, particularly for medical students. There’s money in medicine and not so much in the humanities. But how new is this field or set of fields? The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates claimed that “wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity”, suggesting both that medicine is an “art” and that there is a crucial association between medicine and the “human” dimension of the humanities.
Continue reading

Trivia (should have been 11 April)

Boston Marbles: 1920
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Boston circa 1920
“Marble contest on Boston Common”
With a sizable gallery, considering the sport
4x5 glass negative, photographer unknown
View original post

==========================================
Avarice in the late French Renaissance
via OUP Blog by Jonathan Patterson

Greed (avarice, avaritia) has never gone out of fashion. In every age, we find no shortage of candidates for the unenviable epithet, “avaricious.” Nowadays, investment bankers and tax-dodging multinationals head the list. In the past, money-lenders, tax collectors, and lawyers were routinely denounced, although there was a strong feeling that any person, male or female, could succumb to avarice if they did not take the appropriate moral precautions.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Paradox of necktie
“Couldn’t we say that a tie is really a symbolic displacement of the penis, only an intellectualized penis dangling not from one’s crotch but from one’s head”?… more

==========================================
Profile of a rock balancing artist who lives and works on the beach
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder

Everything Happen for a Reason from rossangeles on Vimeo.
"I just need rocks. It's all what I need." Manuel Cisneros is an artist working and living on the beach in Ventura California. Video By Ross Harris.

==========================================
SALt – the eco lamp that runs off sea water and charges your phone
via Red Ferret by Nigel

It’s a sad fact that too much of the world still has to live without electricity for basic needs, which is incredible in an age when we’re sending probes to Mars, but what do you do? Well one enterprising eco-activist has set up a small company to manufacture home lamps called SALt which run off salt and water, or just plain old sea water.
It may be basic chemistry class stuff, creating that old electrolytic reaction out of the salt and water, but it’s still good to see someone trying to make a lamp which doesn’t need expensive kerosene, and which can last for a decent length of time.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On August Strindberg
Did August Strindberg, the alchemist and paranoid, cross into insanity when writing The Defense of a Madman? He himself had no idea… more

==========================================
Beautiful Vintage Annuals for Children
via AbeBooks.co.uk

1950, definitely in my era although cinema club was not allowed by my snob of a mother!
In the late 1800s, children's stories were published in periodicals and distributed weekly or monthly to readers. To further capitalise on their market, publishing houses put together annuals filled with the best stories, illustrations and games from the year. The book was released for Christmas, and marketed as the perfect gift (both entertaining and educational) for children. The annuals were generally distributed in Britain and its colonies such as Canada and Australia, although sometimes also in the United States.
Continue reading

==========================================
Welcome to the Swiss film industry
via Prospero by J.W.

The dedicated watcher of the international movie scene may find that “Solothurn” does not roll off the tongue in the way that, say, “Toronto” or “Sundance” or “Berlin” does. But this pretty Swiss town has just held its 50th festival of feature and short films, along with a plethora of documentaries. Indeed, it was a documentary about a martial-arts programme in Marseille, “Spartiates”, that won the Prix de Soleure awarded to the year’s best film. Its maker, Geneva-born Nicolas Wadimoff, and his producers are now 60,000 Swiss francs ($65,000) richer.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
New Age and technology
Max Weber considered rationalism a distinguishing features of modernity. Yet the spirit has always been in revolt against the intellect… more

==========================================
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand
via 3 Quarks Daily by Suzanne Berne at the New York Times

Part of a biographer’s job is to rescue forgotten figures, and in “Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary” Anita Anand has salvaged an extraordinary one. Sophia Duleep Singh was a Punjabi princess and Queen Victoria’s goddaughter, a bucktoothed “docile little thing” who went on to become a celebrated London fashion plate and then a steely suffragist.
Continue reading

Trivia (should have been 5 April)

Far Horizons: 1943
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

March 1943
“Duoro, New Mexico. Rounding a curve in the sheep and cattle country along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico”
Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information
View original post

==========================================
Dog Gone: Forgotten Schemes to Straighten the Thames
via Big Think by Frank Jacobs

I love dogs. Again: Isle of Dogs. A place so abject that it disguises its name as a declaration of affection to man’s best friend. Not to mention that its canine connection is tenuous at best, and that it wasn’t even an island for most of its history. Yet this forlorn corner of East London, famed mainly for its lack of distinction, could have been the focal point of Truly Great Things. If only Willey Reveley’s plan to straighten the Thames had come to fruition.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Madness in civilisation
The history of madness is full of maddening assumptions. Most curious that a set of American diagnostic manuals is considered authoritative… more

==========================================
24 Incredibly Creative And Practical Uses for LEGO
via Lifehack by Siobhan Harmer

Chances are you’ve heard of and even owned some of the incredibly popular children’s toy LEGO in your lifetime! LEGO has been inspiring children for decades, allowing them to be creative and clever all at once, and encouraging kids to imagine what it’s like to be an architect, an engineer, an inventor or one of many other fantastic careers.
Continue reading

==========================================
George Johnson - The Whistling Coon - 1891 (The first recording by an African-American)
via 3 Quarks Daily by Rare Soul
George Johnson’s song Whistling Coon was one of the most popular of the Coon songs of the 1850-90s. While the records and the imagery that goes along with them are offensive, these are pioneering African-American recordings and songs. The amazing thing about the earliest of Johnson’s recordings is that each one was unique. Each record was recorded and cut ON THE SPOT, so he had to do each take perfectly, and was then paid for the session. He made a decent living, but there weren’t any copyright laws, or even any recorded industry at this point. It’s said he did this song 56 times in one day.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Moral urgency of Anna Karenina
Tolstoy was in his time known as a nyetovshcik, a contrarian. His views – on love, family, intellectuals – are even more out of sync today. But they are no less urgent… more

==========================================
Unbroken, Louis Zamperini, and the Power of Forgiveness
via Big Think by Robert Montenegro

Last month [January 2015?] saw the release of the film Unbroken, which tells the real-life tale of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini’s harrowing experiences during World War II. Throughout the movie, Zamperini (played by Jack O’Connell) displays acts of resilience and determination that keep him alive in the face of adversity. It’s an incredibly inspirational story.
Continue reading

==========================================
GIFs of great black and white photographs morphing into color
via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
Have a look for yourself

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On translation
Literary translation is low-paying, painstaking labor. Why bother? It’s the best way to understand how language works… more

==========================================
Van Gogh’s Moment Of Clarity
via 3 Quarks Daily by Olivia Weinberg in More Intelligent Life

Mons is a city steeped in history. Located in the east of the Borinage, an area in the Walloon province of Hainaut in Belgium, it was a military camp for the Romans, a thriving hub during the Industrial Revolution and the site of the first major battle fought by the British and the Germans in 1914. Now, 101 years later, it is back in the firing line—as the European Capital of Culture.
Continue reading

Thinking Critically about Social Responsibility

via The Business Ethics Blog~ A blog about Business Ethics by Chris MacDonald

I recently participated in a conference on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), where I gave a short presentation on the role of critical thinking in leading a company toward better social performance. Basically, I argued that in order to motivate employees to embrace some version of CSR – whatever you take that to mean – you need need to think critically about the way your CSR activities dovetail with the goals of your organization, and with the values and commitments that are already motivating your employees.

Interestingly, I received some push-back, in the form of a question from the audience, from someone who suggested that what CSR efforts really need is passion and a sense of purpose. What’s really needed, this person said, is not critical thinking at all. Indeed, for purposes of pushing the CSR agenda forward, critical thinking is actually a bad idea.

As someone who teaches critical thinking for a living, I was naturally somewhat taken aback.

This person had a point, of course: getting something done – whether it’s opening a new division or launching a new product or strengthening your CSR profile – takes passion. It takes commitment. And sometimes critical thinking, which involves asking questions, could seem like a stumbling block. Now isn’t always the right moment for asking annoying questions and expressing doubt.

But I thought I would take the time to lay out, here, the role that critical thinking can play – indeed, must play – in launching CSR activities and bringing them to fruition.

Continue reading and pick up some interesting links along the way

---

Investing in formal on-the-job training: are SMEs lagging much behind?

an article by Rita K Almeida and Reyes Aterido (The World Bank, Washington DC) published in IZA Journal of Labor & Development Volume 4 Number 1 (2015)

Abstract

In a modern economy, the investment in human capital by firms is crucial to foster technological adoption and foster productivity growth. This paper analyzes the correlation between firm size and the investment in job training by employers.

Using a large firm level data set across 99 developing countries, we show that a strong and positive correlation in the investment in job training and firm size is a robust statistical finding both within and across countries with very different institutions and levels of development. Even though we cannot fully disentangle correlation from causality, we show that the size-training gap is not fully explained by differences across firms in market imperfections or institutional failures impeding the development of smaller firms.

Our findings call for the urgency of collecting better panel data sets to understand how cost-effective are on-the-job training programs in fostering firm productivity and growth in developing countries.

JEL codes: J24, D24

Full text (HTML)

---

Cumulative (Dis)advantage? The Impact of Labour Market Policies on Late Career Employment from a Life Course Perspective

an article by Jenny Bennett (Institut für Sozialforschung und Gesellschaftspolitik, Cologne, Germany) and Katja Mohring (University of Bremen, Germany) published in Journal of Social Policy Volume 44 Issue 2 (April 2015)

Abstract

We investigate the labour market situation of older individuals in Europe in relation to their previous employment history as well as the regulations relating to employment protection legislation and early retirement. Specifically, we look at the competing risks of early retirement and late career unemployment.

The central research question is whether policy effects differ according to the characteristics of an individual’s previous work history. We employ data for twelve European countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARELIFE) and estimate multilevel regression models.

The results show different mechanisms for the risks of unemployment and early retirement. Late career unemployment results from individual factors related to fragmented careers, marginal employment and short tenures.

In the case of early retirement, we find the interplay of individual and policy factors to be crucial. Persons with consistent careers have an increased probability of early retirement, but only in countries with generous early retirement benefits.

However, employment protection legislation appears to counteract early retirement for this group of individuals. We conclude that policy factors do not have uniform effects for older individuals, but should rather be viewed against the background of previous developments in individual career paths.

---

An Evaluation of the Effects of Jail Diversion and Reentry for Mentally Ill Offenders

an article by Christine Tartaro (Richard Stockton College, Galloway, New Jersey, USA) published in Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume 54 Issue 2 (2015)

Abstract

Jewish Family Services (JFS) is a nonprofit agency that assists mentally ill offenders in southern New Jersey. In an effort to steer misdemeanants to treatment rather than jail or probation, JFS established agreements with police to provide pre- and post-booking diversion for misdemeanants whose offenses appear to be a product of mental illness.

JFS also participates in re-entry planning services for incarcerated mentally ill offenders who are serving county jail sentences.

Data were collected for cases involving clients who were diverted or participated in re-entry and people who were referred to JFS and either were ineligible for reasons other than criminal offense type or drug and alcohol addiction or were eligible but unable to be contacted by JFS.

Treatment participants remained in the community before being incarcerated for an average of 218 days longer than the members of the comparison group, and this difference remained statistically significant when controlling for other relevant variables.

---

Music piracy: Bad for record sales but good for the iPod?

an article by Tin Cheuk Leung (Chinese University of Hong Kong) published in Information Economics and Policy Volume 31 (June 2015)

Abstract

Music piracy is a double-edged sword for the music industry. On the one hand, it hurts record sales. On the other hand, it increases sales of its complements.

To quantify the effect of music piracy, I construct a unique survey data set and use a Bayesian method to estimate the demand for music and iPods, and find three things.
First, music piracy decreases music sales by 24% to 42%.
Second, music piracy contributes 12% to iPod sales.
Finally, counterfactual experiments show that, if music were free, the increase in Apple’s profits from iPod can more than compensate the loss of musicians.
The last result implies that a Pareto improving iPod tax is possible.

JEL codes: K42, L82, O34,

---

Supporting the UK’s Workless – An International Comparative Perspective

an article by Mike Danson (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK), Ailsa McKay (Glasgow Caledonian University, UK) and Willie Sullivan (Common Weal, Biggar, UK) published in Social Policy & Administration Volume 49 Issue 2 (March 2015)

Abstract

Within and between nations, spatial inequalities in relation to health, labour markets and employment shape the barriers faced by those trapped on disability benefits, and thus create challenges for public policy.

To provide context for such analyses and policy discussions, this article presents evidence on levels of poverty, welfare support and inequality across Europe. It compares and contrasts especially the position and support for those out of or at the margins of the labour market under different welfare states to reveal the significant differences between the UK on the one hand and the Nordic and Benelux countries on the other hand.

Applying insights from theories and practices of endogenous growth, universalism and inclusion, it is demonstrated that lessons are to be learnt from the better economic and social performances of the more inclusive and coherent nations of northern Europe. In particular, it is argued that the very high levels of poverty and inequality inherent in the neo-liberal policies of the UK cannot generate the conditions for simultaneously reducing public sector deficits and stimulating demand so that worklessness and exclusion inevitably will continue.

The article concludes that an alternative social democratic paradigm is required based on solidarity, equity and fiscal responsibility to address this self-defeating feedback.

---

Trivia (should have been 29 March)

Grant Six: 1920
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave


Somewhere around San Francisco in 1920
“Grant Six touring car”
Pointed straight into the 20th century, although the Grant brand itself was not long for this world, expiring in 1922
5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin
View original post

==========================================
A lovingly curated scrapbook biography of the late Nick Drake
via Boing Boing by Gareth Branwyn

When English singer/songwriter/musician Nick Drake tragically died in 1974 (ironically from an overdose of anti-depressant medication), he was not tremendously well-known. But in death, his hauntingly beautiful compositions have transformed him into a highly influential musical figure who’s inspired generations of musical artists.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On James Wood
James Wood was saved by literature. Son of a minister who maintained a strict home, he found novels an invitation to think beyond the Gospels… more

==========================================
Why can’t we let go of our old tech?
via BBC News by Zoe Kleinman, technology reporter

Looking at some of the latest tech news, it’s tempting to wonder whether we’ve all jumped out of the same DeLorean famously driven by time travellers Doc Brown and Marty McFly in the 1985 film Back to the Future.
Continue reading

==========================================
Beautiful black and red variegated 78 records from the 1920s
via Boing Boing by Andrea James

Portland area archivist Cliff Bolling has curated and digitized thousands of 78 records. One prized addition is this variegated series from Pathé's Chanticleer line. Bolling says this was an attempt by the French company to gain market share in the US.
Continue reading

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Defending Darwin
Half of Americans reject evolution, the second lowest acceptance rate of 34 developed countries. Just try defending Darwin in Kentucky… more

==========================================
A window on Chaucer’s cramped, scary, smelly world
via 3 Quarks Daily by Paul Strohm in The Spectator

Proust had his cork-lined bedroom; Emily Dickinson her Amherst hidey-hole; Mark Twain a gazebo with magnificent views of New York City. Where, then, did the father of English poetry do his work? From 1374 till 1386, while employed supervising the collection of wool-duties, Chaucer was billeted in a grace-and-favour bachelor pad in the tower directly above Aldgate, the main eastern point of entry to the walled city of London.
Continue reading

==========================================
Watch raindrops in slow-motion and learn where that familiar rain smell comes from
via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
From MIT, a video about rain: “Using high-speed cameras, MIT researchers observed that when a raindrop hits a surface, it traps tiny air bubbles at the point of contact. As in a glass of champagne, the bubbles then shoot upward, ultimately bursting from the drop in a fizz of aerosols.”
Continue reading and watch the video

==========================================
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Poetry and truth
We don’t look to poems for factual truths. Poetry is truest when it attends to something beyond facts: the education of our emotions… more

==========================================
When Threatened By Worms, Bacteria Summon Killer Fungi
via 3 Quarks Daily: Ed Yong in Not Exactly Rocket Science

When you’re the size of a human, you worry about lions and tigers and bears [oh my!]. But if you’re a bacterium, a tiny nematode worm, just a millimetre long, can be a vicious predator. Nematodes are among the most common animals on the planet, and many of them hunt bacteria in soil and water. The microbes, in turn, have evolved many defences. Some secrete toxins. Others gather in large, invulnerable swarms.
Continue reading