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Today's NewWork News Web Tip: National Governors Association (Sunday, 12/1/02)
Being a governor right now may be less fun than nearly any other job, given all the new responsibilities for homeland security at a time when state budgets are in their worst shape since World War II. The National Governors Association maintains a site through which the governors keep in touch with each other as well as the rest of us.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Re-envisioning the Ph.D. (Monday, 12/2/02)
The Philadelphia-born Pew Charitable Trusts support a broad array of projects. Their Re-envisioning the Ph.D. effort is intended to examine possible changes in doctoral education that might broaden career choices for those who complete university Ph.D. programs.
We're curious about the extent to which this project may be missing the point in a very contemporary American way. America's founders regarded the de-emphasis of titles in selection processes as a key attribute distinguishing the new United States from tired, old aristocratic Europe. The key issues had to do with people's competencies, however acquired, not their titles or pedigrees, and this attitude was reflected in the membership of the "exclusive club" made up of the founders themselves, as well as in their attitudes toward each other. Some were Harvard or William and Mary grads, while others were entirely self-educated. As we've reported recently, Jefferson didn't even want the University of Virginia to award academic degrees.
If many people with Ph.D. degrees expect to be hired BECAUSE they have Ph.D.s, and are disappointed, while many other people who haven't attended graduate school at all are not having those difficulties, shouldn't this tell us something? Maybe the solution is for many persons with degrees to stop talking about them, and, instead, simply emphasize the competencies and solutions they can bring to the problems of prospective employers. If their doctoral program isn't helping in this regard, they are free to go wherever other people go to prepare for work, including the work world itself.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: European Telework Online (Tuesday, 12/3/02)
European Telework Online claims to be the principal portal for those interested in telework, telecommuting, and related topics, particularly in Europe. The site comes from the United Kingdom.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: ArabNet (Wednesday, 12/4/02)
ArabNet offers news and opinion from journalists in the Middle East. Also, if you're interested in doing business in that region, simply click on a country for more information.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: World Scientists' Warning to Humanity (Thursday, 12/5/02)
This World Scientists' Warning to Humanity has 1,500 prominent signatories, including a good many famous names. In short, the scientists claim that "human beings and the natural world are on a collision course."
Are recent climate changes due to human activity, particularly the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath, including the population explosion of the past 150 years or so? Against high-amplitude, long-term natural variation, it's not easy to detect the effects of one or a few factors over a fairly brief period of time.
Also, it does appear that there have been times in the fairly recent past (i.e., a thousand years ago or so) when the earth's atmosphere was warmer overall than it's been recently. There also appear to have been times when there was more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there is now, long before the internal combustion engine was invented and long before industrial societies emerged which depend on fossil fuels.
However, most scientists already know about these things, and they still feel there is strong basis for serious concern. Is it possible to find scientists who do not believe that available data justify this "scientists' warning?" Yes, but they are in a distinct minority.
Moreover, we know that it's easy for people to believe things which are in their personal self-interest, so if you benefit from the status quo, you may be more likely to pay attention to whatever "expert" you can find who seems to support your views, even if the preponderance of professional opinion is otherwise. If nearly all scientists claim they believe in gravity, you may be motivated to find that one guy someplace with a Ph.D. who is willing to say that he doesn't.
Is there a liberal academic or journalistic bias? Maybe, but if the major media were to report a similar level of consensus among mathematicians on some question having to do with arithmetic, would that constitute an unfair bias against people who believe two plus two equals five?
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: PollingReport.com (Friday, 12/6/02)
PollingReport.com is the online version of The Polling Report and summarizes findings from major public opinion polls and covers a variety of topics, including economic issues.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Fiscal Survey of States (Saturday, 12/7/02)
It's probably less fun being a governor now than for many years. State budgets are in their worst shape in decades, many the worst since World War II. Here's a recent Fiscal Survey of States from the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Leapfrog Group (Sunday, 12/8/02)
The Leapfrog Group analyzes voluntarily provided data from nearly 700 of the nation's 3,000 urban hospitals in an effort to identify problems and propose ways of improving hospitals for the benefit of patients.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: HIV/AIDS and the World of Work (Monday, 12/9/02)
The International Labor Organization, an agency of the United Nations, routinely focus much attention on issues relating to AIDS and work throughout the world.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Recent Nobel Peace Prize Winners (Tuesday, 12/10/02)
Former President Carter is the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Here's a list of the winners over the past three decades.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Labor Union Directory (Wednesday, 12/11/02)
Here are names and addresses of labor unions with more than 25,000 members from something called BrainBank.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Internet Archive (Thursday, 12/12/02)
The people behind the Internet Archive intend for it to become an historically important digital library of enormous proportions, and it already contains far more cultural material than you will be able to examine in a lifetime.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Asian Population 2000 (Friday, 12/13/02)
Researchers at the US Census Bureau have prepared this report on the distribution of the Asian and Asian-American population in the United States, according to 2000 Census data.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Labor Arts (Saturday, 12/14/02)
Labor Arts presents the art of working people and the labor movement in a virtual museum.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Contract Employee's Handbook (Sunday, 12/15/02)
In the increasingly competitive, globalized economy, flexibility is rewarded, so employers like a "just-in-time" workforce. This has led to increased reliance on temps, part-timers, and contract workers. Dr. James Ziegler, Executive Director of P.A.C.E., maintains the Contract Employee's Handbook.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: America's Children 2002 (Monday, 12/16/02)
What is the condition of children in the United States? Here's the sixth annual report from the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics: America's Children 2002.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: PEWS (Tuesday, 12/17/02)
PEWS stands for "Programs for Employment and Workplace Systems" and offers consulting, training, and other services from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Quick trivia quiz: What famous astronomer was on the faculty at Cornell University for many years until his death in the 1990s? Hint: He wrote a book upon which a movie was based which starred Jody Foster. Winners of this contest will receive absolutely nothing except a nanosecond of our admiration.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Health Care Choices (Wednesday, 12/18/02)
If you're a position of being able to choose the hospital in which to have your surgery done, particularly in New York City, Health Care Choices from attorney Susan Rosenfeld can assist your comparisons.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: 2002 Advocates' Guide (Thursday, 12/19/02)
Here's the 2002 Advocates' Guide from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Industry at a Glance (Friday, 12/20/02)
Here's information about relative employment levels in the nine principal divisions of American industry from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the United States Department of Labor.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress (Saturday, 12/21/02)
Here is biographical information about every person who has served in the United States Congress from 1774 until the present.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Left Behind in the Labor Market (Sunday, 12/22/02)
Left Behind in the Labor Market: Recent Employment Trends Among Young Black Men is a report from Paul Offner and Harry Holzer, Professors at the Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: A closer look at Marriage, Poverty, and Public Policy (Monday, 12/23/02)
When A and B are correlated, is it because A influences B, or because B influences A? Or, is it because C influences both A and B?
Basically, it is because the underlying reasons for relationships among variables usually are not obvious that scholars know that careful research is necessary in order to sort things out. The public and their political representatives often aren't as discerning when advocating or designing public policy. Leaping to conclusions is a popular sport in which large numbers of people, including government officials, participate.
So, when you find that the likelihood of a family's being below the poverty line is far less when two parents are present than when there is only one, how should we explain this correlation, and what should we do in order to reduce poverty? Should we simply insist that more people get married?
In their report, Marriage, Poverty, and Public Policy, Professors Stephanie Coontz and Nancy Folbre call into question common assumptions about what is cause and what is consequence.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Poles and Italians then, Mexicans Now? (Tuesday, 12/24/02)
Bard College Professor Joel Perlmann examine the question of whether recent Mexican immigrants will enjoy the economic progress similar to that of earlier immigrants. Here's his working paper, Poles and Italians then, Mexicans Now? Immigrant-to-Native Wage Ratios, 1910 and 1940.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Guides to Healthcare (Wednesday, 12/25/02)
Consumers' Checkbook is a nonprofit organization that publishes various guides to healthcare facilities and services.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management (Thursday, 12/26/02)
Peter Drucker is credited as the principal inventor of modern management as well as the profession of management consulting, so his impact on the nature and functioning of corporations throughout the world has been enormous. However, he's had a major impact on non-business organizations as well. Here's the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: No Child Left Behind (Friday, 12/27/02)
No Child Left Behind is what the Administration calls the new education law signed by President Bush on January 8, 2002.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: China Labor Watch (Saturday, 12/28/02)
China Labor Watch is a domestic network of labor activists formed in China in 1997. It intends to work toward improving working and living conditions for China's workers and hopes to pave the way for future independent labor unions throughout the country.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Working in the 21st Century (Sunday, 12/29/02)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the United States Department of Labor offers a sliced, diced, and analyzed portrait of the American workforce in Working in the 21st Century.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: U.S. Budget (Monday, 12/30/02)
Here's the report on the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2003 from the Office of Management and Budget.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Tuesday, 12/31/02)
Here's the United States EEOC's online newsletter.
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