April 2007

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Barbados Slave Register (Sunday, 4/29/07)
Were any of your ancestors victims of the British slave trade? Ancestry.co.uk has listed 100,000 names of slaves and their owners in Barbados in 1834 in order to help you trace your genealogy. The listing is a breakthrough because slaves during the lingering transatlantic slave trade were even commonly buried in unmarked graves.

Modern research clearly indicates that people are people; we're all made out of the same stuff. For instance, an examination of a person's DNA doesn't even reveal what "race" s/he is.

In fact, "race" is a concept, not necessarily an empirical attribute. As the late Librarian of Congress, Daniel Boorstin, says in one of his books, The Discoverers, it's important not to take the word for the thing. The late Sigmund Freud also warned against "reifying concepts" when discussing his psychoanalytic vocabulary, advice that successive generations have tended to ignore.

When you think about a cat, you have to use a concept of "cat" to think with. That's how the human brain works, and the concept of "cat" is quite different from the living thing curled up on your lap and purring. In this case, it's easy to identify an empirical referent that goes with the concept. In the case of concepts like "race" or "unconscious," however, it's not so easy. Research must be conducted in order to determine if there are any corresponding empirical referents at all for many commonly used concepts. Some of these concepts are greatly useful; others are simply misleading because of humanity's common tendency to confuse concepts with things.

No one has ever observed "energy" or "gravity," yet these concepts have been among the most useful in modern history--they're what empirical researchers call "hypothetical constructs." The concept of "race," however, has been one of history's most influential and destructive bugaboos. In fact, a three-part documentary recently ran on PBS called "Race--The Power of an Illusion."

It's easier for people to think in terms of discrete categories than continuous dimensions, but, at the level of experience, at least, nature more commonly presents continuous dimensions. The categories are mostly in our heads, reinforced by social interaction.

There's no doubt that there are observable differences among people, but are these differences truly categorical? For instance, are there really only two kinds of people--"short" and "tall?" "Young" and "old?" "Black" and "white?"

Research has shown that we tend greatly to underestimate differences among individuals and greater overestimate differences among groups. In the case of "race," variability is greater within the perceived categories than between them, and this is the sort of statistical reality that calls the validity and usefulness of concepts themselves into question.

MIT dean resigns under fire (Friday, 4/27/07)
Let's make sure we've got this right. Former Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones claimed on her resume to hold degrees that she doesn't have, but in TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF OBSERVING HER JOB BEHAVIOR, NOBODY AT THE UNIVERSITY NOTICED?

Ms. Jones probably did the right thing, given that she lied, but MIT also might owe the world an apology for participating so long in the academic culture's tendency to emphasize shadows at the expense of substance.

Only two questions seem significant: "Do I really KNOW anything, and can I really DO anything?" If the answer to these questions is "yes," there aren't any other important questions. If the answer is "no," there aren't any other important questions either.

The rich are different--they're smarter. No, F. Scott Fitzgerald was right after all (Thursday, 4/26/07)
They just have more money, that's all. Ohio State University researchers find no correlation between wealth and intelligence. This means that there is no reason to believe that wealthy people are more intelligent than those who aren't wealthy. There is a correlation between intelligence and earnings, but not overall wealth. Moreover, the very intelligent are just as likely to get into financial trouble as people of average intelligence. We would hypothesize that the self-made wealthy tend to be of fairly high intelligence, but that's just an hypothesis.

Also, we can say that researchers clearly have demonstrated that it doesn't make sense to try to line up all the members of the human race on a single dimension from low to high, and call that dimension "intelligence." There are multiple types of intelligence. There is no reason to expect that Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare were intelligent in the same ways, for instance, even though both are commonly regarded as geniuses.

Moreover, nearly everybody has known people whom they regard as very alert, very bright, but who do not score exceptionally high on standard measures of "intelligence."

The Dow hits a new record high, but... (Wednesday, 4/25/07)
...The fact that it closed over 13,000 for the first time can be misleading if you ignore inflation. Remember that the U. S. dollar was worth about as much as six or seven current dollars within the memory of many people who are still active in the market. The psychological impact of this milestone on economic activity can be significant, though.

The Chinese dragon continues to breath fire (Tuesday, 4/24/07)
From most estimates, it appears that China has much work ahead before its economy matches the $13 trillion size of the American economy. Still, China's blazing growth rates during the past several years have meant that its economic and geopolitical influence throughout the world has increased dramatically.

It's not all a rosy scenario for the Chinese, though. In fact, Chinese government authorities began worrying about economic "overheating" several years ago when growth rates were quite a lot less than they are today. According to their latest data, the Chinese GDP grew during the first quarter of this year at an annualized rate of 11.1 percent. The government has taken action several times, trying to cool things a bit, but, as Brian Bremner reports in BusinessWeek, it's a tricky task, and he explains why.

The Summers invasion (Friday, 4/20/07)
According to many people who know Larry Summers, he's one of the brightest people they've ever known, and only fools would ignore what he has to say, particularly about economics. However, sometimes he can be a little hard to take, and many people aren't surprised that he got himself into so much trouble when he was President of Harvard. Heather Timmons writes from New Delhi that the former U. S. Treasury Secretary is very popular across much of Asia these days, where economic leaders are hanging on his every word.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Richest Americans (Friday, 4/20/07)
Bill Gates is he richest American now, but is he the richest American there ever has been? Not hardly, if you consider his wealth as a percentage of the U. S. gross domestic product.

On CNN/Money's ranking of the richest Americans, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Jacob Astor, and Stephen Girard come out ranked first, second, third, and fourth, respectively, with Gates in the fifth position.

The dollar amounts aren't meaningful because of a little complicating factor called "inflation." Of course, using "percentage of GDP" as a standard measure is only one way of doing it, and depends, not only on the individual's wealth, but also on the size of the GDP at the time.

You can use an inflation calculator, if you like, but it's still difficult to compare what a dollar was worth, say, in 1850 with what it's been worth more recently. Inflation calculators are most helpful if you're interested in comparing current buying power with buying power a few decades ago.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (Sunday, 4/15/07)
If you think that the problem of poverty among Native American peoples has been solved with Indian-owned casinos, think again. The majority of American Indians still make up the most disadvantaged economic group in American society.

Among other things, it shows the enormous power of culture and people's dependence on it, as well as what happens when ancient cultures are disrupted or destroyed by outside forces and how long the effects persist. It also reflects the bigoted attitudes still maintained by members of the more powerful elements of American society which function to assist these persons in justifying their privileged position to themselves.

Since 1987, Harvard's Project on American Indian Economic Development has been attempting to address these issues.

The International Monetary Fund may be in for some major restructuring (Saturday, 4/14/07)
Many persons in South Asia might wonder why France holds a permanent seat on the U. N. Security Council, but not India. Some of the same people may see the International Monetary Fund's structure as representing a previous geopolitical system, rather than current realities. In fact, according to India's Daily News & Analysis, the Indian government has been among those demanding that IMF voting rights be realigned. In fact, financial officials from a number of countries seem to be preparing to do just that.

Another finalist for "jackass of the month" (Friday, 4/13/07)
If you're sick of thinking about the stupid actions of Don Imus, you can think about those of Paul Wolfowitz.

Paul Wolfowitz is still President of the World Bank, but he might not be much longer. He tried to apologize and explain to World Bank staff his "mistake" in helping his girlfriend get an increase in salary, but was booed and finally retreated. The World Bank staff has asked him to resign.

Dr. Wolfowitz might get a similar reception from many Iraqis or American service personnel and their families if these people had been in the audience. Before becoming president of the World Bank, the former Johns Hopkins dean had served in a wide variety of governmental roles and was Assistant Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld. Wolfowitz was one of the "neo-cons" thought to be most responsible for convincing the President that the U. S. should go to war in Iraq.

Incidentally, when stupid people do stupid things, there's nothing to explain. However, when smart people like Imus or Wolfowitz do stupid things, it provides quite a lot to think about.

Slim he is, but slim his wealth isn't (Friday, 4/13/07)
Only two months after Forbes magazine published its listing of the world's billionaires, it has had to revise the list at the top. Mexican engineer Carlos Slim is no longer the third-richest man in the world. Instead, he's now number 2, displacing the "Oracle of Omaha," Warren Buffett. In fact, during the past two months, Mr. Slim's wealth increased by $4 billion. At this rate, it may not be long before he surpasses Bill Gates and becomes the wealthiest person in the world.

Carlos Slim is a tremendously successful telecommunications magnate. On the other end of the global telecommunications industry is Vonage, which is cutting jobs after its CEO jumped overboard and swam for shore.

Chasing the buck at your friendly neighborhood university (Thursday, 4/12/07)
During recent days, the news has been filled with stories about the widening student loan scandal, but it may not be the only example of how the academic culture can be fraudulent and corrupt in many of its own very special ways.

We've also been concerned for years with the fact that, at many major universities, the football coach is paid several times as much as the university president. What big-time quasi-commercial sports has to do with scholarship is difficult to understand.

In case, you're not aware of how much money is involved in the finance-saturated world of intercollegiate athletics, Ryan Foley reports from the University of Wisconsin in Madison on the new $76 million marketing agreement that one of America's leading universities is prepared to sign.

Is everybody on the make? Is money more important to everybody than anything else? What do so many Americans WANT with all that money? Are many people assuming that the size of their houses or bank accounts somehow adds value to them personally? Would Mother Teresa have been chasing the buck too if she had been an American? Aren't there any other more important things in life?

We believe that all of our personal choices and priorities must be predicated on the FACT that we'll all be dead in a few years. If you live for 80 years--and most people don't--you will have lived only 29,200 days. Most people sleep about a third of that time, and everybody spends about 7,000 days simply reaching their 20th birthdays.

How many waking days do you have left, and how do you plan to use them? If you're willing to sacrifice nearly all of your precious life's possibilities simply in order to increase your income, good luck, and we hope that works out for you.

Still, it's important not to confuse current academic institutional arrangements with knowledge itself. For instance, even if your math professor was a complete jackass, and even if every math major you've known has gotten nothing out of his/her university education, this in no way diminishes the importance of mathematics itself or the fact that the modern world we see all around us could not have been possible without calculus and statistics.

MacUnions to grow in China (Tuesday, 4/10/07)
McDonald's intends to follow Wal-Mart's lead and not-so-subtle suggestions from the Chinese government and allow the unionization of more of its 750 stores in China. In case you're assuming that people who work for these companies in China are better off than those who work for them in the United States, it's important to recognize that China's unions are the opposite of independent. This is still an authoritarian and relatively centralized country, and the Chinese government attempts to control unions as well as everything else.

Fake irony (Sunday, 4/8/07)
With the weather the way it's been across much of the country during the past couple of days, it's easy to find people who say, with a laugh, "So much for global warming."

In fact, there is nothing about a cold snap that disproves the climate change conclusions reached by most climatological researchers, and there is nothing about cold weather than is inconsistent with an overall warming of the atmosphere and oceans. Among the principal features of global warming are more moisture in the atmosphere, more and more extreme storms, and greater weather extremes, including drought and cold.

Still, Errin Haines reports from Atlanta that many people in the United States had wondered this morning if children would be searching for frozen eggs. The U. S. makes up a relatively small part of the globe, though, and, in this area, as well as most others, it's important not to generalize inappropriately from the experience of Americans to the world's people as a whole.

Also, the fact that it is cold in some places doesn't mean it's not warm in others. John Heilprin in Bend, Oregon reports that mountaineers have been bringing back stories about things melting that haven't been before.

Achievement training (Sunday, 4/8/07)
Rebecca Kahlenberg writes in the Washington Post that women shouldn't be too modest in their goals, which may be good advice for men too, given the large number of people who have experienced major social mobility and are doing things now that they couldn't have imagined when they were younger. At any rate, Kahlenberg says that speakers at a recent conference also had additional advice for women aspiring to major success.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Resources for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (Sunday, 4/8/07)
Yes, both China and India are still graduating more engineers than the United States, and, unless young Americans start seeing technical careers as "cool" again, America's leadership in scientific and technological areas is threatened. The Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus is attempting to assist in this effort by making resources available to educators.

All available H-1B visas go in a single day (Thursday, 4/5/07)
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it took only one day to exhaust the annual quota of so-called "tech visas." In fact, there were more than twice as many applications as available visas, so a lottery system will have to be employed. According to Anna Gorman of the Las Angeles Times, leaders of America's technology companies seem to agree that the law needs to be changed so that far more technical workers from overseas will be allowed to come to the U. S. to fill available jobs and that America's future depends on it.

In the meantime, economic growth in the U. S. continues to be sluggish, as evidenced by the increase in claims for first-time jobless benefits last week, as well as the decline in the rate of growth in America's important service sector.

Nonetheless, Bloomberg News reports that the head of the International Monetary Fund expects resilience in the global economy, despite slowing growth in the United States.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Future of Coal (Thursday, 4/5/07)
Brian Schweitzer, the current Governor of Montana, is well-known as a leading proselytizer of coal. His state has enormous amounts of it, and, as a scientist himself, he believes he knows how to exploit these reserves, while restoring the landscape and protecting the atmosphere. The Future of Coal, an ambitious report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, seems to agree with Governor Schweitzer about what needs to be done if coal is to continue as a leading source of electrical energy, and as at least a partial replacement for oil, as well.

Brain shift in Silicon Valley (Wednesday, 4/4/07)
Leonard Anderson is in Menlo Park, California, and, no, this is not where Thomas Edison worked. That was Menlo Park, New Jersey. Anyway, Mr. Anderson writes about how some of Silicon Valley's best minds are working on energy issues now, including how to slow global warming.

As the old saying goes, when you're in a hole, it's a good idea to stop digging, so it's important that humanity cut back on its transfer of carbon from below the surface of the Earth to the planet's atmosphere. However, even if carbon emissions were to stop entirely at this moment, global warming would continue for quite some time.

What really is needed is a way to restore the atmosphere to its earlier condition, and that means finding a way to "scrub" CO2 from it. Eoin O'Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor writes about Richard Branson's offer of $25 million to anyone who can demonstrate that he or she has invented or discovered a way to do it. Former Senator and Vice President Al Gore is a member of the panel of judges who will decide, incidentally, which also includes a number of leading scientists.

Can it be done? Some think that it is impossible, even that it is impossible for technology to fix problems created by technology. Still, if, say, George Washington were suddenly to come back to life in any American city, he would be astonished at nearly everything he would see around him (Bystanders might be a little astonished too). He wouldn't even recognize the asphalt, let alone automobiles and television, which he might regard as nothing short of magic.

In the meantime, trees already do what we need to have done, although not to the extent that we need for them to do it, but plant more trees anyway.

Holy Macau, Batman! (Wednesday, 4/4/07)
You don't have to be among the oldest persons on the planet to remember when the view from Victoria Peak was not only spectacular, as it still is, but when Hong Kong Harbor was filled with junks and san pans. Not only that, but the air was crystal clear, shopping was positively bargainous for Westerners, and China was salivating over Hong Kong's economy.

Hong Kong's still a special place, but economically less interesting to government officials in Beijing now that China also has booming places like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Moreover, while Hong Kong used to be a British colony, but is now part of China, Macau, which for a long time belonged to Portugal, is part of China now too, and, suddenly, it's even a bigger gambling and tourist center than Las Vegas itself. Here's more from Stephanie Wong in a part of China that didn't have about 10 percent growth last year. Instead, it was 16.6 percent.

Bullying outside the school yard (Tuesday, 4/3/07)
What are those kids doing now who used to push you around when you were in elementary school? Some of them may be bosses or working right along side you. Jeanna Bryner writes about the new study about the large proportion of workers who feel that they have been bullying targets.

The new food vs. fuel debate (Sunday, 4/1/07)
Demand for corn has skyrocketed now that ethanol is seen as a solution to U. S. dependence on foreign energy sources. In farm regions, you're likely to see corn fields in all directions this year, as corn acreage in the United States increases the most in a century, at the expense of some other crops, such as soy beans and cotton. In fact, the rush to plant more corn in the United States is attracting attention throughout much of the world, in large part, because the global economy is likely to be affected in a variety of ways. For instance, here's more from Richard Luscombe and Jacqui Goddard in The Scotsman.