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Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Monticello Explorer (Monday, 5/1/06)
Was Thomas Jefferson America's prototypical Renaissance Man or its most outrageous dilettante who shaped his historical image by entertaining the right people lavishly while spending himself deeply into debt? At this point, it's now widely recognized that, rather than being the author of the Declaration of Independence when he was only thirty-three, it's probably more accurate to say that he was the author of the Declaration's first drafts. Others, including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, had quite a lot to do with creating its final form.
In fact, while Jefferson has lost some stature among historians during recent years, Adams has gained, and it's at least interesting to ask the hypothetical question of whether there would be a Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D. C. or an Adams Memorial if it were being done today.
At any rate, there are at least two trees at Monticello that Jefferson himself planted, so visitors can still have a living physical connection to America's third president. Jefferson's greatly restored home is still a great place to visit, and curators there insist that he would likely recognize it and feel at home if he were to walk in now. In fact, if you are unable to visit in person, or even if you've been there multiple times, the Monticello Explorer is likely to be of great interest.
While perhaps not all that admirable in his personal life, Jefferson contributed greatly because of his ability to think very large thoughts, attributes he shares in common with contemporary political figures such as Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich. Both of America's major political parties like to trace themselves back to Thomas Jefferson.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: 100 most influential people (Tuesday, 5/2/06)
Here's Time magazine's idea of the 100 most influential people in today's world, which is no doubt dedicated to the proposition that lists help sell magazines and ads. The magazine's editors don't provide much insight into their views about the nature of the processes by which these people are actually causing things to happen in the world, as opposed to simply being present and well-known. The basic issue seems to be one usually dealt with in the first few pages of college textbooks in most of the social sciences; i.e., the distinction between correlation and causation and what it takes to tell the difference.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Pew Global Attitudes Project (Wednesday, 5/3/06)
American marketers, including those who market big-time political candidates, want to be able to tell prospective customers or voters what they want to hear, so they rely greatly on polls and focus groups. In the new, highly "globalized" world, however, local attitudes may not be as important as diversity and the distribution of attitudes around the world. It's much harder to do surveys across cultures, but the Pew Global Attitudes Project has been making attempts.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Home Buying Tips (Thursday, 5/4/06)
The housing market has slowed a bit, which means that speculators, who helped bid up the price of houses, have been leaving the market. On the other hand, mortgage rates have been rising for several weeks, and the rate of interest that you're paying can make a big difference in determining the size of your mortgage payment each month. Still, it has been becoming more of a buyer's market than a seller's market lately, and, if you want houses to look at, drive through nearly any American neighborhood now and look for the signs. Yahoo! offers some home buying tips.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: What is Your Mom Worth? (Friday, 5/5/06)
Salary.com offers a "wizard" for calculating what your mother's in-home work is worth. They tell how they arrived at their conclusions that "stay-at-home moms" would earn $134,121 if paid at current market rates for each of the things they do. Of course, anyone who really is prepared to pay that much for the job surely would have no difficulty finding takers.
Moreover, if a mother who works inside the home is worth that much, think of what Michelangelo's famous fresco in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would be worth. On the other hand, who's going to buy it?
In a market economy, something is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it, and that's the problem. In fact, the owner of the Sistine Chapel, the Roman Catholic Church, is often said to be fabulously wealthy because of the treasures it owns. On the other hand, there is no way the Church could turn many of these things into cash, even if it wanted to. Is St. Peter's Basilica really a fabulously valuable asset, or a priceless treasure that is very expensive to maintain?
Despite everything, the Catholic Church frequently has cash flow problems, in part, because most of the world's Catholics now are located in Latin America, which, on average, is poor, and most of the money that is collected to maintain the international Church comes from North America, where it has incurred tremendous costs and has suffered diminished contributions because of the recent wave of child molestation cases.
At any rate, we think it's silly to try to estimate what mothers are worth in the home. Instead, what they do is more like the Sistine Chapel. Their value exceeds any financial calculation. Mothers are priceless, so they certainly shouldn't be treated as if they were sweatshop labor.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Ancestry.com (Saturday, 5/6/06)
From all indications, if you're Native American, your ancestors were immigrants too, but came to the Americas quite a lot earlier than if they were European, African, Latin American, or Asian.
Well, actually, research in population genetics indicates that your Native American ancestors came from Asia too. For instance, Dr. Spencer Wells believes that he has identified their Asian points of origin, and other research indicates that Asians migrated to the Americas in multiple waves to become what we refer to as "Native Americans."
At any rate, with all the talk about immigration lately, you may be interested in checking out the previous generations of your own family, and you may be able to do so with the help of Ancestry.com. Today's NewWork News Web Tip: StartUpNation (Sunday, 5/7/06)
StartUpNation is one of the growing number of sites that may be able to help you start your own business.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Antiquities Act (Monday, 5/8/06)
The first of America's national parks was Yellowstone, established in 1872. However, the Antiquities Act, which determined that archaeological sites on public lands are valuable public resources, is 100 years old this year.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research (Tuesday, 5/9/06)
The European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research focuses on affordable housing, disability welfare, and other issues. It is affiliated with the United Nations.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Law Library of Congress (Wednesday, 5/10/06)
To some extent, the mission of the Law Library of Congress is similar to that of the big national library's Congressional Research Service--to serve members of Congress. However, the Law Library also provides information to the public, mostly through their web site.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Distance Education Clearinghouse (Thursday, 5/11/06)
For working adults, in particular, "distance education" has taken on new meaning in recent years because of the Internet. However, some universities have been in the business of taking higher education to people in widely dispersed geographical regions for many years. For instance, the University of Maryland has been offering regular university courses to U.S. military personnel and their families in Europe since shortly after World War II and in Asia since after the Korean War. The University of Wisconsin has long been a leader in distance education as well, and, for the past eleven years, has maintained the Distance Education Clearinghouse web site.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Eleven Most Endangered Places (Friday, 5/12/06)
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has released its latest list of the Eleven Most Endangered Places of historical significance in the United States.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The State of the World's Refugees 2006 (Saturday, 5/13/06)
Among many other things, the State of the World's Refugees 2006 report from the United Nations can help clarify the distinction between refugees and migrants.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Geospatial and Statistical Data Center at the University of Virginia (Sunday, 5/14/06)
Recent surveys have indicated that many young people aren't able to find Iraq on a world map, but, then, earlier surveys found that many American adults of all ages were shown to be a little uncertain as to where the United States is located too. For those who don't know where on earth they are, as well as those who are very confident about the location of nearly everything, the Geospatial and Statistical Data Center at Jefferson's university in Charlottesville, Virginia will be of great interest.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Losing Louisiana (Monday, 5/15/06)
It may be that Hurricane Katrina permanently changed New Orleans and that another major hurricane could destroy the historic city altogether. Moreover, the old city was not unique in the damage it suffered last year. Losing Louisiana conducts an interesting examination of the whole region in the wake of one of America's greatest natural disasters.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Make Mine a $Million Business (Tuesday, 5/16/06)
It is true that a major portion of American jobs are in small businesses, not large corporations, and, yes, it is true that women and minorities have been starting businesses at a higher rate than the population overall. But there is a downside. Many new businesses fail, and many that succeed start out as "micro-businesses" and stay that way. Many small businesses are extensions of their owner-operators, meaning that there is no accumulated value that can be sold when the entrepreneur decides to stop working.
While a million dollars isn't what it used to be, a million dollars gross is still an unattained goal for many small business operators. Typically, generating a million dollars in yearly revenues can't be done single-handedly, so achieving that level of operation typically means having reached an important threshold that often results in a qualitatively different kind of business. Make Mine a $Million Business attempts to help women achieve this level in their businesses and has enlisted the endorsement and assistance of some big-name companies and individuals.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Book TV (Wednesday, 5/17/06)
Many academics like to brag about how little television they watch, which may simply provide evidence, possibly redundant, that universities are not necessarily centers of rationality to the extent that they like to claim. Some of the same people seem to favor books over computers because words are printed on paper rather than appearing on electronic screens, even when they're the same words. The academic culture can be irrational, fraudulent, or corrupt in its own very special ways, and occasionally even a little humorous.
Newton Minnow famously remarked in 1961 in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters that television was a "vast wasteland," but he seemed to be referring to commercial prime-time programming. He certainly hadn't had an opportunity to watch the Charlie Rose program or anything else on PBS at that point, because PBS started in the late 1960s, or, for that matter, any of C-SPAN's three television networks, because C-SPAN started in the late '70s. Nonetheless, many academics don't seem to have moved beyond 1961.
If Charlie Rose were to interview, say, the Secretary General of the United Nations on a campus, most of the school's professors probably would want to attend. However, when Rose interviews Kofi Annan on his program, many of the same academics will miss it because they "haven't watched television for years" and seem proud of it.
While PBS has changed American society, there's also nothing else quite like C-SPAN either, and it comes from the commercial cable TV industry. Members of the academic culture who like to talk about the books they read but refuse to watch television will miss the three-hour sessions with major authors on C-SPAN's "In Depth" program, and they'll miss Book TV as well. Pity.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Dartmouth Atlas Project (Thursday, 5/18/06)
The Dartmouth Atlas Project has been in the news a lot lately because of data showing the highly uneven distribution of medical costs and Medicare payments across states. However, the project provides detailed information, not only about states, but also localities, including particular hospitals and physicians.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: National Academy of Engineering (Friday, 5/19/06)
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964 and is 101 years older than its parent, The National Academy of Sciences, which was created during the Lincoln administration. Among things the NAE web site encourages the general public to believe that it's particularly important for Americans to be technically literate now, and that girls should aspire to technical careers.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Economic Statistics Briefing Room (Saturday, 5/20/06)
Is it real, or is it metaphorical? The Economic Statistics Briefing Room site comes from the White House and draws on data from a number of federal agencies.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: National Institutes of Health: Office of Science Education (Sunday, 5/21/06)
Americans love hi-tech gadgets as much as any people in the world, but most don't have a clue as to how they work or what a knowledge of natural processes can mean, not only for understanding technology, but also most of life.
Contrary to common assumptions, "science" is defined, not in terms of its subject matter, and certainly not in terms of any conclusions at a particular time, but, instead, by its METHODS. Moreover, these methods apply to empirical questions of all types, whether we call the activity "science," historical study, or something else.
In fact, "science" is just another name for the best available methods at a particular time for providing trustworthy answers to empirical questions of all kinds. If you develop or discover better methods, they don't become an alternative to science, but, instead, PART of science.
There's a lot more to science than what the National Institutes of Health deal with or, for that matter, what the Institutes present to the public through their excellent Office of Science Education.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Oral Histories of the American South (Monday, 5/22/06)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been documenting the American South for years. Its Oral Histories of the American South, available online, has a number of people explaining in their own words how environmental changes affected their lives between 1985 and 2000.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Virtual Visit of the Canadian Space Agency (Tuesday, 5/23/06)
People in the Bush administration have begun talking about returning to the Moon or even taking trips to Mars again, now that China has a space program and appears to be intending to become the dominant society on Earth by the end of this century. However, other nations have space programs too. For instance, here's where you can enjoy a Virtual Visit of the Canadian Space Agency
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Great Seattle Fire (Wednesday, 5/24/06)
You're more likely to have heard of the huge fires that consumed so much of Chicago and London, but Seattle nearly was destroyed by fire in 1889 as well. Here's the Great Seattle Fire from which the city rose, phoenix-like, to become the great metropolis of the American Pacific Northwest.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Senior Job Bank (Thursday, 5/25/06)
There are thousands of jobs sites on the Internet, but Senior Job Bank focuses on older Americans seeking employment as well as employers who may benefit from this underused resource.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Archive of European Integration (Friday, 5/26/06)
Does commerce lead to peace? Former British Prime Minister John Major has pointed out that, after centuries of wars between Britain and France, the idea of armed conflict between the two countries now seems inconceivable, if for no other reason than the enormous number of ongoing business relationships between the two countries.
Similarly, now that there is such vigorous daily commerce going on between individuals and companies on Taiwan and those on the Chinese mainland, war seems far less likely. If this is true, many in the United States have reason to celebrate, because the U.S. is still obligated by treaty to defend Taiwan. An invasion of the island from the People's Republic of China could lead to war between the largest country on Earth with the world's fastest-growing economy, on the one hand, and the richest, most militarily powerful country, at least in terms of conventional armaments, on the other.
European leaders have expressed frustration with many young Europeans who have known nothing but European peace and don't seem to understand what all the fuss is about, as European countries inch toward a "United States of Europe" level of integration. Considering that more than 60 years of peace has followed centuries of European wars, including the two most devastating wars in all human history, both occurring within the 20th century, many people who have been working so hard on the development of a viable European community feel they've been doing a pretty good job.
Economic relationships do seem have an importance that extends beyond economics itself. Here's the interesting and instructive Archive of European Integration site.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Promoting Miami (Saturday, 5/27/06)
The University of Miami's Professor Robin Bachin examines boosterism over the past 200 years to encourage development in the Miami area. Here's Professor Bachin's Travel, Tourism, and Urban Growth in Greater Miami: A Digital Archive.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Yale Center for the Study of Globalization (Sunday, 5/28/06)
Scholars at Yale University have been getting together to study and discuss the globalization phenomenon for about five years now, although it became a major media and political topic sometime more recently. Here's the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Earth Institute (Monday, 5/29/06)
The Earth Institute at Columbia University focuses on environmental issues, including those having to do with sustainable development and the world's poor.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920 (Tuesday, 5/30/06)
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920 is made up of 900 photographs from two collections originating at the Institute for Regional Studies at North Dakota State University and made available by the Library of Congress.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Computer History Museum (Wednesday, 5/31/06)
Given the rate at which hi-tech developments have occurred during recent history, it's possible that some of the items in the Computer History Museum are newer than the shoes you're wearing. Nonetheless, the Museum claims to be the largest of its kind in the world, and attempts to preserve tangible records of information technologies that continue to transform the world, including the global economy. The Museum is located in Mountain View, California, in the middle of California's famed Silicon Valley.
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