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"ScienceDaily (Feb. 7, 2010) — Although children can be depressed for many reasons, new evidence suggests that there are physiological differences among depressed children based on their experiences of abuse before age 5. Early abuse may be especially damaging due to the very young age at which it occurs."read complete article : Early abuse tied to more depression in children
"CNN) -- Dubai on Monday officially inaugurated the centerpiece of its decade-long construction boom, with the surprise revelation that the world-beating 168-story skyscraper -- seen by some as a symbol of the city's economic excess -- was even bigger than previously thought.read complete article : Debt-hit Dubai opens world's tallest tower - CNN.comIn a glitzy firework-lit ceremony, the city-state's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum unveiled a plaque commemorating the event and also announced that the $1.5 billion structure has a new name: the Burj Khalifa.
Named after Khalifa Bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates -- and ruler of Abu Dhabi, which recently bailed out debt-ridden Dubai to the tune of $10 billion -- the tower was officially recorded as 828 meters tall, adding 10 meters on to previous height claims."
Labels: middle east, world
* The Implications of Water and Electricity Supply for the Time Allocation of Women in Rural Ghana
Authors: Joana Costa, Degol Hailu, Elydia Silva and Raquel Tsukada
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper59.pdf
* Water Supply in Rural Ghana: Do Women Benefit?
Authors: Joana Costa, Degol Hailu, Elydia Silva and Raquel Tsukada
Author: Francesca Bastagli
Series: Working Paper # 60
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper60.pdf
| Alongside other initiatives in the area of social assistance, the adoption of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) represents an opportunity to develop inclusive social policy. At the same time, particular CCT features risk promoting the further residualisation and fragmentation of safety nets. Drawing on the experience of six countries in Latin America, this paper identifies the variations and recent trends in CCT parameter design and implementation. It then considers the contribution of CCTs to the potential transition from a largely absent or minimal safety net to a coordinated system of social policies. |
“David Attenborough presents the amazing lyre bird, which mimics the calls of other birds - and chainsaws and camera shutters - in this video clip from The Life of Birds. This clever creature is one of the most impressive and funny in nature, with unbelievable sounds to match the beautiful pictures. From the BBC. “
Labels: world
by Olivier Blanchard Marianna Riggi: "In the 1970s, large increases in the price of oil were associated with sharp decreases in output and large increases in inflation. In the 2000s, even larger increases in the price of oil were associated with much milder movements. This column attributes the difference in the US to more flexible labour markets and more credible monetary policy during the Great Moderation."read complete article : The price of oil and the macroeconomy | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists
Labels: finance, middle east, united states, world
"Zimbabwe's failing economy, along with the high number of parents dying from HIV-Aids, are being blamed for an alarming rise in child sexual abuse. It is so prevalent, one clinic has treated close to 30,000 children in just four years. And its feared that is not even close to the true number of cases. Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa reports from Harare. "
"Say you're a world leader and you want your country's economy to prosper. According to this Clark Medal winner from MIT, there's a simple solution: start with free elections."
http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/Q1/world-poverty-map-GDP-per-capita-esquire.jpg
read complete article : World Poverty Map - Creating a World Without Poverty - Esquire
read complete article : Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives - NYTimes.com"MIAHUATLÁN, Mexico — During the best of the times, Miguel Salcedo’s son, an illegal immigrant in San Diego, would be sending home hundreds of dollars a month to support his struggling family in Mexico. But at times like these, with the American economy out of whack and his son out of work, Mr. Salcedo finds himself doing what he never imagined he would have to do: wiring pesos north.
Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States. "
Labels: finance, united states, world
Author/Editor: Loko, Boileau; Diouf, Mame Astou
Summary: This paper studies the main determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) growth using principal component analysis and a dynamic panel data model and, through a case study, explores key areas where accelerated reforms in the Maghreb countries would boost TFP gains. The results reveal that reforms targeted at attracting foreign direct investment and rationalizing government size, shifting resources from low-productivity sectors to higher ones, and encouraging women to enter the work force, could accelerate TFP gains. Equally important are reforms aimed at strengthening human capital, increasing the volume of trade, and improving the business environment.
Author/Editor: Christiansen, Lone Engbo; Prati, Alessandro; Ricci, Luca Antonio; Tressel, Thierry
Summary: This paper offers a coherent empirical analysis of the determinants of the real exchange rate, the current account, and the net foreign assets position in low income countries. The paper focuses on indicators specific to low income countries, such as the quality of policies and institutions, the special access to official external financing, and the role of shocks. In addition to more standard factors, we find that domestic financial liberalization is associated with higher current account balances and net foreign asset positions, while capital account liberalization is associated with lower current account balances and net foreign asset positions and with more appreciated real exchange rates. Negative exogenous shocks tend to raise (reduce) the current account in countries with closed (opened) capital accounts. Finally, foreign aid is progressively absorbed over time through net imports, and is associated with a more depreciated real exchange rate in the long-run.
read complete article : A special report on telecoms in emerging markets: : Mobile marvels | The Economist"In 2000 the developing countries accounted for around one-quarter of the world’s 700m or so mobile phones. By the beginning of 2009 their share had grown to three-quarters of a total which by then had risen to over 4 billion (see chart 1). That does not mean that 4 billion people now have mobile phones, because many in both rich and poor countries own several handsets or subscriber-identity module (SIM) cards, the tiny chips that identify a subscriber to a mobile network. Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chief executive of Ericsson, the world’s largest maker of telecoms-network gear, reckons that the actual number of people with mobile phones is closer to 3.6 billion."
Labels: technology, world
" Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a report into the usefulness of gross domestic product as an economic indicator. The study, from a panel chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize-winning economist, was commissioned by the French president last year. It suggests that GDP could be improved by including factors that contribute towards individual well-being, such as holidays, and relying less on pure measures of market output." See article "Economics focus: Measuring what matters | The Economist
Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. Available at www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr.
cited major points:
* "American teachers spend on average 1,080 hours teaching each year. Across the O.E.C.D., the average is 794 hours on primary education, 709 hours on lower secondary education, and 653 hours on upper secondary education general programs."
* "The average public primary-school teacher who has worked 15 years and has received the minimum amount of training, for example, earns $43,633, compared to the O.E.C.D. average of $39,007."
* ""Comparing each country’s teacher salaries to the wealth of that country makes United States educational salaries appear lower. In the United States, a teacher with 15 years of experience makes a salary that is 96 percent of the country’s gross domestic product per capita. Across the O.E.C.D., a teacher of equivalent experience makes 117 percent of G.D.P. per capita."
note: OECS is Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with 29 member Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States.
read full article at Teacher Pay Around the World - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com
Labels: education, united states, world
"A Sept. 10 report from the Census Bureau shows that the child poverty rate rose to 19.0% in 2008, from 18% in 2007. That translates to 14.1 million children living in poverty in the richest nation on earth.read complete article : Child poverty: a lost decadeIn 2008, more than one in three - 35.3% - of all people living in poverty were children. EPI projects that with the continuing deterioration in the labor market, by 2009 a quarter of all children in this country will be living in poverty and by 2010 the child poverty rate will be 26.6%.
This would represent an increase of 10.4 percentage points from 2000 to 2010 – truly a lost decade. "
"In 2005, the United Nations effectively adopted Mayange, Rwanda selecting it as one of 80 model villages across Africa, where tourism strategies intended to cut poverty in half by 2015 are being tested. It's Mayange's status as a "Millennium Village" that draws crowds down from Kigali. But the full-day tour of a local farm, school, and health clinic, among other sites, exemplifies a fast-growing trend in global travel." (CSMonitor100 on YouTube)
read complete article : YouTube - Witnessing how the poor live
"Staff writer Matthew Clark and photographer Mary Knox Merrill report on a women's advocacy group trying to stop rape by soldiers and militiamen in Congo." (CSMonitor100 on YouTube)
read complete article : YouTube - Rape in Congo: Women for Women International
read complete article : YouTube - Walking with a purpose
"Two and half million people in India are HIV positive. But it is a subject people do not like to talk about.The stigma associated with the illness means there is a lack of understanding about the virus. So India's health authorities are using catchy commercials to spread a "safe-sex" message.Al Jazeera's Hamish Macdonald reports from New Delhi." (Aljazeera on YouTube)
"Each year, tens of thousands of migrant workers travel to Singapore hoping for a better life. When the economy was booming, those promises were largely fulfilled. But as a global recession takes hold, horror stories are emerging." (Aljazeera on YouTube)
Labels: world
"In this talk His Holiness turns to one of his favorite themes: the importance of compassion. Far from being a uniquely Buddhist concern, the Dalai Lama explains why caring for others can be the basis for a rich and rewarding life for all people. Whether one is a Buddhist or not, whether one is religious or not, a concern for the welfare of others is just good common sense. Compassion changes egotism into empathy, and transforms fear into freedom. It is the basis for both personal and communal peace. Series: Voices [9/2009] [Humanities] [Show ID: 17091]" (UCTelevision/YouTube)
"I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians," said Hal Varian, chief economist at Google. "And I’m not kidding."For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word - Statistics - NYTimes.comThe rising stature of statisticians, who can earn $125,000 at top companies in their first year after getting a doctorate, is a byproduct of the recent explosion of digital data. In field after field, computing and the Web are creating new realms of data to explore — sensor signals, surveillance tapes, social network chatter, public records and more. And the digital data surge only promises to accelerate, rising fivefold by 2012, according to a projection by IDC, a research firm."
"How important is nutrition to economic development? This column shows that the introduction of the potato can explain 22% of the rise in population and 47% of the rise in urbanization during the 18th and 19th centuries."Potatoes, the fruit of the earth | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists
"Arlington, VA- July 7, 2009- Through Tweets, e-mail and Web sites, job hunters are being told that they can make lots of money from the comfort of home using Twitter and Better Business Bureau warns that the large print for such offers may promise big returns but the fine print can cost them every month.BBB Warns Against Twitter Money-Making Schemes - BBB News CenterCurrently 14.7 million Americans are out of work and looking for a way to bring home a paycheck according to the most recent jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Work-at-home schemes have often preyed on unsuspecting job hunters and now Twitter is being used as a way to convince cash-strapped individuals that they can make quick and easy money. "
Labels: technology, world
Extract from executive summary:
“ From the submissions, IC3 referred 72,940 complaints of crime to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of cases were fraudulent in nature and involved a financial loss on the part of the complainant. The total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $264.6 million with a median dollar loss of $931.00 per complaint. This is up from $239.1 million in total reported losses in 2007. Other significant findings related to an analysis of referrals include:
* Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment was, by far, the most reported offense, comprising 32.9% of referred complaints. Internet auction fraud accounted for 25.5% of referred complaints. Credit/debit card fraud made up 9.0% of referred complaints. Confidence fraud, computer fraud, check fraud, and Nigerian letter fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.
*Of those complaints reporting a dollar loss, the highest median losses were found among check fraud ($3,000), confidence fraud ($2,000), Nigerian (west African, 419, Advance Fee) letter fraud ($1,650).
* Among perpetrators, 77.4% were male and half resided in one of the following states: California, New York, Florida, Texas, District of Columbia, and Washington. The majority of reported perpetrators (66.1%) were from the United States; however, a significant number of perpetrators where also located in the United Kingdom , Nigeria , Canada , China, and South Africa.
* Among complainants, 55.4% were male, nearly half were between the ages of 30 and 50 and one-third resided in one of the four most populated states: California, Florida, Texas, and New York. While most were from the United States (92.4%), IC3 received a number of complaints from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, and France.
*Males lost more money than females (ratio of $1.69 dollars lost per male to every $1.00 dollar lost per female). This may be a function of both online purchasing differences by gender and the type of fraudulent schemes by which the individuals were victimized.
* E-mail (74.0%) and webpages (28.9%) were the two primary mechanisms by which the fraudulent contact took place.”
click here for the full report
Labels: finance, society, technology, united states, world
THE BILLIONAIRES
“After a successful touchdown of Apollo 11 on 20th July 1969, the Pope asked for a color television to be installed in his summer residence, while West Germany announced they were calling the day of the landing ‘Apollo Day’ and schoolchildren in Bavaria were given the day off. Meanwhile some 40 years later some still think the landing was filmed on a Hollywood backlot.
You can lead a fool to proof, but you can't make him think: right now six per cent of Americans believe that the moon landings, one of the most impressive achievements in the history of mankind, were faked - and short of radical surgery there's no way to change their mind. If you can find it.” - Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff Jul 17
Labels: world
"Information and communication technologies (ICT) can serve as fundamental enablers for the global economic recovery according to the World Economic Forum whitepaper ICT for Economic Growth: A Dynamic Ecosystem Driving the Global Recovery."Forumblog.org - The World Economic Forum Blog: Information and Communication Technologies Vital for Global Economic Recovery
Labels: technology, world
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression writes:
“In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.”
Just finished watching 2008 documentary, Bloodline The Movie. The movie is very nice and the story is fascinating. Discoveries of a chest and a tomb with a mummy claims to support the Da Vinci Code storyline that Jesus Chris and Marie Magdalene were married and had children. The documentary features an amateur archeologist, Ben Hammott, who discovered all the clues at Rennes-le-Chateau that are believed to belong to Bérenger Saunière, a 19th century priest who is believed to have kept the secret but later murdered. I enjoyed the movie and have strong belief in what is being presented, but it remains to be proven academically and scientifically. Moreover, when goggling the discoveries mentioned in the documentary, you do not see any breaking news around the story which makes you wonder if the documentary findings are only as controversial as the UFO sights or simply just another profitable movie for those who made it or were part of it.
from YouTube:
BLOODLINE investigates the popular belief that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, who fled to southern France with their child.
In a an adventure worthy of Indiana Jones, filmmaker Bruce Burgess and team make connections between the Knights Templar, the legend of Mary Magdalene, hidden clues found at the famed church at Rennes-le-Chateau and make some stunning discoveries: a buried chest with artifacts that date to first century Jerusalem and a tomb with a mummified corpse draped in a shroud bearing a distinctive red cross.
http://www.bloodlinethemovie.com
"Over his career Michael Jackson produced 13 No. 1 hits and earned 13 Grammys Awards, not to mention a legion of fans around the world. Below are eight of his biggest hits, with commentary by Sia Michel, The Times's pop music editor. Vote for your all-time favorite and tell us why here."
"EPI President Lawrence Mishel addresses the human toll of this recession with an analysis predicting that, even using conservative forecasts for future job loss, the poverty rate for children could increase from an already high 18% -- where it stood in 2007, -- to more than 27% by next year. Poverty among African American children, currently at a staggering 34.5%, could reach 50% before the employment picture starts to turn around."
"Economies Still Contracting, Gradual Recovery Expected in 2010 The global economy continues to slow. The world's largest economies are seeing their sharpest contractions in several decades, and many developing and emerging markets that showed resilience until late last year are now in decline. First quarter 2009 GDP growth numbers were dismal, and a further drop is expected for the remainder of this year (Chart 1). Contributing to the deterioration are the prolonged global demand slump, the fall in asset prices and wealth, and the continued crunch in trade and investment financing. Among the consequences of the protracted decline are weakened labor conditions and an uptick in protectionism. Efforts to shore up the economy include aggressive fiscal stimulus packages and the continued easing of monetary policies."
" The paper provides estimates of global relative poverty trends from 1970 onwards. Relative poverty is shown to have decreased significantly, but at the same time there has been a worsening poverty outcome among up to one billion of the world's poorest citizens. The paper also proposes a straightforward method for dividing an income distribution into classes of poor, rich, and middle-class"
Author/Editor:
Nielsen, Lynge
Authorized for Distribution:
April 1, 2009
Electronic Access:
Free Full Text (PDF file size is 654KB)
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/23/42602587.pdf
The present crisis, the deepest and most widespread in our lifetimes, is causing economic hardship worldwide. As governments respond with emergency measures, their main concern other than restoring
financial stability is to preserve employment in the face of a sharp economic contraction worldwide. In such a climate, governments need to remain mindful of the long-term and international repercussions of
short-term remedies and risks of retaliation by other governments in face of protectionist measures. An open environment for international investment will not by itself bring about recovery, but it is an essential
element of a return to growth and sustainable development in the future. This paper reviews the experience of earlier crises – whether national, international or sectoral – to understand better both the nature of the various investment policy responses and their implications for international investment and long-term sustainable growth. These policy responses are then compared with recent measures announced to mitigate the current crisis.
EXECUTIVESUMMARY ...............................3
I.INTRODUCTION......................................5
II. A REVIEW OF ASTRISES ...................6
The Great Depression ...................................................7
Banking crises .............................................................10
The Korean financial crisis ..........................................11
Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia ...............................12
Argentina ....................................................................13
New protectionism in the 1970s ..................................14
III. EMERGENCY MEASURES DURING THE CURRENT CRISIS WITH A POTENTIAL IMPACT
ON INVESTMENT ........................................................16
Policies towards inward investment ............................. 16
Discrimination against foreign-owned firms ............... 16
Automotive sector ................................................... 16
Greater government involvement in the operations and investment decisions of firms ....17
REFERENCES .................................................20
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
OECD Regions at a Glance measures national and regional competitiveness:
Table of contents
Defining and Describing Regions
Research and development expenditures
Personnel employed in research and development activities
Regional concentration of patents
Student enrolment in tertiary education
Regions as Actors of National Growth
Distribution of population and regional typology
Geographic concentration of population
Regional contribution to growth in national GDP
Regional contribution to change in employment
Geographic concentration of the elderly population
Making the Most of Regional Assets
Regional disparities in GDP per capita
Regional disparities in labour productivity
Regional disparities in specialisation
Key Drivers of Regional Growth
Regional factors and performance
Regional factors: Population and GDP per capita
Competing on the Basis of Regional Well-being
Health: Age-adjusted mortality rate
Health resources: Number of physicians
Safety: Reported crimes against property
from YouTube: "Ten Auckland students are likely to have contracted swine flu testing has found.
Three teachers and 22 senior students from North Shore's Rangitoto College have been kept in isolation following their return yesterday from a three week language trip. "
Labels: world
"American health officials on Sunday declared a public health emergency over increasing cases of swine flu, saying that they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United States and expected to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of the outbreak."
WHO is coordinating the global response to human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) and monitoring the corresponding threat of an influenza pandemic. Information on this page tracks the evolving situation and provides access to both technical guidelines and information useful for the general public.
Latest information from World Health Organization
WHO: Swine flu illness in the United States and Mexico - update 2
26 April 2009 -- As of 26 April 2009, the United States Government has reported 20 laboratory confirmed human cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 (8 in New York, 7 in California, 2 in Texas, 2 in Kansas and 1 in Ohio). All 20 cases have had mild Influenza-Like Illness with only one requiring brief hospitalization. No deaths have been reported. All 20 viruses have the same genetic pattern based on preliminary testing. The virus is being described as a new subtype of A/H1N1 not previously detected in swine or humans.
Also as of 26 April, the Government of Mexico has reported 18 laboratory confirmed cases of swine influenza A/H1N1. Investigation is continuing to clarify the spread and severity of the disease in Mexico. Suspect clinical cases have been reported in 19 of the country's 32 states.
WHO and the Global Alert and Response Network (GOARN) are sending experts to Mexico to work with health authorities. WHO and its partners are actively investigating reports of suspect cases in other Member States as they occur, and are supporting field epidemiology activities, laboratory diagnosis and clinical management.
On Saturday, 25 April, upon the advice of the Emergency Committee called under the rules of the International Health Regulations, the Director-General declared this event a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
WHO is not recommending any travel or trade restriction
26 April 2009
WHO statement on swine influenza, Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General
25 April 2009
Virtual press briefing - swine influenza (25 April 2009) [mp3 15 Mb]
Listen to the audio file from the briefing
Virtual press briefing transcript - swine influenza (25 April 2009) [pdf 514kb]
Read the transcript from the briefing
WH Press Briefing: Video Available Shortly 
Telenews Conference On Swine Flu 
AP: Swine Flu Crisis A Health Emergency
Labels: world
Deadly new flu strain erupts in Mexico, U.S.
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 10:20PM UTC
By Alistair Bell and Noel Randewich
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A strain of flu never seen before has killed up to 60 people in Mexico and has also appeared in the United States, where eight people were infected but recovered, health officials said on Friday.
Mexico's government said at least 20 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 40 other deaths.
Mexico reported more than 1,000 suspected cases and four possible cases were also seen in Mexicali, right on the border with California.
The World Health Organization said tests showed the virus from 12 of the Mexican patients was the same genetically as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas.
"Our concern has grown as of yesterday," U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing.
Global health officials were not ready to declare a pandemic -- a global epidemic of a new and deadly disease such as flu. "So far there has not been any change in the pandemic threat level," Besser said.
But the human-to-human spread of the new virus raised fears of a major outbreak and Mexico's government canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding areas. All large public events like concerts were suspended in Mexico City.
Close analysis showed the disease is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC.
Most of the Mexican dead were aged between 25 and 45, a Mexican health official said, in a worrying sign. Seasonal flu can be more deadly among the very young and the very old but a hallmark of pandemics is that they affect healthy young adults.
Mexico has enough antiviral drugs to combat the outbreak for the moment, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said.
The WHO said the virus appears to be susceptible to Roche AG's flu drug Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, but not to older flu drugs such as amantadine.
"In the last 20 hours, fewer serious cases of this disease and fewer deaths have been reported," Cordova told reporters.
Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people.
NO CONTAINMENT
The CDC's Besser said it was probably too late to contain this outbreak. "There are things that we see that suggest that containment is not very likely," he said. Once it has spread beyond a limited geographical area it would be difficult to control.
But there is no reason to avoid Mexico, CDC and the WHO said. "CDC is not recommending any additional recommendations for travelers to California, Texas and Mexico," Besser said.
Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year, but the flu season for North America should have been winding down.
The U.S. government said it was closely following the new cases. "The White House is taking the situation seriously and monitoring for any new developments. The president has been fully briefed," an administration official said.
Mexico's government cautioned people not to shake hands or kiss when greeting or to share food, glasses or cutlery for fear of infection. Flu virus can be spread on the hands, and handwashing is one of the most important ways to prevent its spread.
The outbreak jolted residents of the Mexican capital, one of the world's biggest cities with 20 million residents.
One pharmacy ran out of surgical face masks after selling 300 in a day.
"We're frightened because they say it's not exactly flu, it's another kind of virus and we're not vaccinated," said Angeles Rivera, 34, a federal government worker who fetched her son from a public kindergarten that was closing.
The virus is an influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1. It contains DNA from avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses, the CDC has said.
The CDC is already working on a vaccine.
Scientists were working to understand why there are so many deaths in Mexico when the infections in the United States seem mild, Besser said.
The CDC said it will issue daily updates at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/investigation.htm.
The last flu pandemic was in 1968 when "Hong Kong" flu killed about a million people globally.
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Maggie Fox in Washington)
Labels: world
"Planet Forward PBS Show"
from http://www.planetforward.org/ : "Planet Forward" is an innovative, viewer-driven program that debuts on the web first and then moves to television, in a primetime PBS special on April 15th (check local listings for exact show times) just a week ahead of Earth Day, and then moves back to the web. Hosted by Emmy Award-winning CNN veteran Frank Sesno, Planet Forward is driven by the power of ideas, as citizens make their case for what they think about the nation's energy future.”
Labels: world
"TALK FOR AN HOUR. CHANGE CANCER FOREVER. Go Public: the first-ever Global Community Conversations on Cancer Control invites people everywhere to come together and take part in a groundbreaking series of informal yet crucial conversations about cancer and cancer control. Starting February 4th, 2009 (World Cancer Day), hundreds of conversations will be taking place around the world between people whose lives have been touched by cancer in many different ways: oncologists, radiologists, nurses, researchers, patients, survivors, family members, and many more. Held in boardrooms, living rooms, kitchens and community centres worldwide, these people-powered conversations, which anyone can host, will help shape the agenda of the Global Leadership Forum for Cancer Control (taking place in Ottawa, Canada in September 2009). The Forum is dedicated to understanding and harnessing the power of public engagement in bringing about change for cancer control."
"Europeana: think culture Europeana.eu is about ideas and inspiration. It links you to 4 million digital items. * Images - paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects * Texts - books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers * Sounds - music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts * Videos - films, newsreels and TV broadcasts Some of these are world famous, others are hidden treasures from Europe's * museums and galleries * archives * libraries * audio-visual collections"
Thanks to An Apple A Day Blog , World Digital Library writes:
"The World Digital Library will launch on April 21, 2009 The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research."
Title: How Does the Financial Crisis Affect Developing Countries?
Authors: Diana Alarc�n, Stephany Griffth-Jones, and Jos� Antonio Ocampo
Series: One Pager # 81
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager81.pdf
Title: The Financial Crisis and its Impact on Developing Countries
Authors: Stephany Griffith-Jones and Jos� Antonio Ocampo
Series: Working Paper # 53
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper53.pdf
International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG)*
Poverty Practice, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP
URL: http://www.ipc-undp.org
"Summary -- The international financial crisis has thrown the forward march of globalization into question. If the United States and others can learn from the crisis and control borrowing, then the positive potential of global trade and finance may be restored” – RAWI ABDELAL& ADAM SEGAL
RAWI ABDELAL is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. ADAM SEGAL is Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations."
Labels: world
Title: The Role of Gender Inequalities in Explaining Income Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Evidences from Latin American Countries
Author: Joana Costa, Elydia Silva, and Fábio Vaz
Series: Working Paper # 52
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper52.pdf
The authors find that, among several gender related policies, promoting female labour participation has the biggest impact on reducing poverty and inequality.
ABSTRACT: This Working Paper investigates the possible link between gender inequalities in the labour market and significant economic outcomes such as income growth, poverty and inequality indicators. Our analysis is based on microsimulations for eight Latin American countries. We consider four aspects of gender inequalities: differences in labour market participation, differences in occupational status, wage discrimination and differences in characteristics. Our findings highlight the relevance of gender equality, especially an increase in women’s access to the labour market, in bringing about a reduction in poverty and inequality.
Related publication
Title: Eliminating Gender Inequalities Reduces Poverty. How?
Authors: Joana Costa and Elydia Silva
Series: One Pager # 73
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager73.pdf
Labels: world
Medieval manuscripts give linguists clues about more recent changes
Some of the oldest words in English have been identified, scientists say.
Reading University researchers claim "I", "we", "two" and "three" are among the most ancient, dating back tens of thousands of years.
Their computer model analyses the rate of change of words in English and the languages that share a common heritage.
The team says it can predict which words are likely to become extinct - citing "squeeze", "guts", "stick" and "bad" as probable first casualties. "
by Josh Bivens
“The claim is often made that unions are a potential drag on a country’s international competitiveness. Although there is no single, generally accepted measure of competitiveness with which to test such claims, many analysts use a country’s trade balance as a proxy for competitiveness. The figure below, which includes the United States and several of its rich industrial peers, examines the relationship between union coverage rates (the share of a nation’s workers covered by a union contract) and the current account balance (an indicator that captures the amount by which a country’s exports exceed its imports). "”1
"
" Many Religions, One Community is a nationwide grassroots dialogue project, offering the award-winning PBS film Cities of Light to organizations and groups interested in screening the film and hosting a community dialogue. Once you sign up to host a community dialogue, 20,000 Dialogues and Public Agenda will help you identify partners, plan your event program and facilitate your dialogue. After you sign up, you will be eligible to apply for financial support and technical assistance in hosting and facilitating your dialogue.
"A study published in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine reports that a highly reliable depression screening tool known as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) used across the United States and Europe can be effectively administered in resource poor Africa to HIV/AID patients, a population whose mental health needs have been underserved. The work also confirms that Kenyans with HIV/AIDS suffer depression at as high or higher a rate than those with HIV/AIDS in developed countries."
Eurostat News releases: “In 2006, GDP per inhabitant, expressed in terms of purchasing power standards, in the EU27's 271 NUTS-2 regions ranged from 25% of the EU27 average in the region of Nord-Est in Romania, to 336% of the average in Inner London in the United Kingdom.”
1-19022009-EN-AP.PDF (application/pdf Object)
Labels: world
" According to a new analysis of data about the U.S. foreign-born population from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS), a higher percentage of people born in India have a bachelors degree or higher (74 percent) than people born in any other foreign country. Egypt and Nigeria had rates above 60 percent. … Meanwhile, among the nation’s foreign-born, Somalis and Kenyans living in the United States are the most likely to be newcomers, and Somalis are among the youngest and poorest …The new data reveal the diversity among the 38.1 million foreign-born living in the United States in 2007, not only by where they were born, but also by where they live now.
Other findings available for foreign-born populations of 65,000 or more in areas with a total population of 500,000 or more include the following : click here to route to the Census Report
Labels: education, united states, world
"Nouriel Roubini | Feb 19, 2009It is now clear that this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the worst economic crisis in the last 60 years. While we are already in a severe and protracted U-shaped recession (as the deluded hope of a short and shallow V-shaped contraction has now evaporated) there is now a rising risk that this crisis will turn into an uglier multi-year L-shaped Japanese style stag-deflation (a deadly combination of stagnation, recession and deflation). The latest data on Q4 2008 GDP growth (at an annual rate) around the world are even worse than the first estimate for the US (-3.8%): -6.0% for the Eurozone; -8% for Germany; -12% for Japan; -16% for Singapore; -20% for Korea. The global economy is now literally in free fall as the contraction of consumption, capital spending, residential investment, production, employment, exports and imports is accelerating rather than decelerating."
" by Tony AvirganThe U.S. economy is not suffering alone. According to projections by the International Monetary Fund, an international organization that oversees the global financial system, the economies of all developed countries are also likely to shrink substantially this year. The United Kingdom, which was hit hard by the financial collapse of Iceland, will probably contract the most, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). (See Chart) ..The International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, predicts that 50 million jobs could be lost and 200 million more people could fall into absolute poverty around the globe in 2009.
"
"The 2009 Development Co-operation Report calls upon the international community to stand by its commitment to fight poverty and promote economic development in poor countries. Donor countries should see development co-operation as a strategic part of successful - and stable - globalisation, benefiting all sides. And emerging economies must assume responsibility for their share of the partnership."
The full report is available at www.sourceoecd.org/developmentreport
“This is the first recent photo to have crossed my desk with an unmistakable Great Depression look and it's a little bit haunting. Check that. It's very haunting. Disturbing, actually.”"
"ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2009) — Eating a Mediterranean diet appears to be associated with less risk of mild cognitive impairment—a stage between normal aging and dementia—or of transitioning from mild cognitive impairment into Alzheimer's disease, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals."
Labels: world
"The Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History is the first true encyclopedic reference on world history. It is designed to meet the needs of students, teachers, and scholars who seek to explore -- and understand -- the panorama of our shared history of humans. Anyone who loves history -- including those who are making history today -- will find this work an endless source of fascinating, thought-provoking coverage of events, people, patterns, and processes.
The encyclopedia takes a dynamic world history perspective, showing connections and interactions and change over time and place. Major articles by leading scholars, including Martin Marty and Immanuel Wallerstein, examine essential themes and patterns such as Art, Disease, Government, Religion, Science, and War and Peace. Branching out from these overviews are hundreds of articles on processes, movements, places, events, and people. Students and teachers at the high school and college levels, as well as scholars and professionals, will turn to this definitive work for a connected, holistic, view of world history -- the story of humans and their place in the universe."
"A Summary of Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press, 1974)In his book, The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century, Immanuel Wallerstein develops a theoretical framework to understand the historical changes involved in the rise of the modern world. The modern world system, essentially capitalist in nature, followed the crisis of the feudal system and helps explain the rise of Western Europe to world supremacy between 1450 and 1670. According to Wallerstein, his theory makes possible a comprehensive understanding of the external and internal manifestations of the modernization process during this period and makes possible analytically sound comparisons between different parts of the world."
Labels: world
"The global financial crisis could cause poverty to rise in Latin America by as much as 15% this year, a senior UN official has warned."
Rebeca Grynspan, regional head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said Latin American governments needed to take action urgently.
She expressed particular concern about smaller countries, saying they might not cope with such a big shock.
Analysts fear 2.4 million Latin Americans may lose their jobs.
Labels: world
"Online search powerhouse Google launched a new service Monday to allow Internet users to explore the depths of the world's oceans from the comfort of their homes on dry land."
Labels: technology, world
"Children's lives are more difficult now than they were in the past, according to the largest survey into childhood ever to be conducted in the UK.The finding comes despite the authors saying children have better education, health and more possessions.
It states children need to be loved and sets out recommendations to parents, teachers and the government on how they can better care for children.
The Sunday Times says the Children's Society report had 35,000 contributors. "
"It was just after dawn when the rebels seized Josephine Munda, grabbing the schoolgirl and her two sisters from their sleepy farming village in South Sudan.
Josephine is still waiting to hear news of her sisters
All night they had lain hidden in the thick surrounding forest, after Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas shot a policeman in her village of Bangolo.
The girls had been laughing as they made their way home.
Then the rebels struck. " … read more
Labels: world
"Fifty-year-old Mahbuba has four sons, but she always wanted to have a daughter.Faced with a complex adoption procedure, she decided to take the easier option - to buy a baby.
"The moment I heard that a woman in a maternity hospital was selling her newborn daughter, I rushed there," Mahbuba said.
"The woman told me she already had five children and she could not afford having another baby. I paid her $100 [£67]." "
"Spanish police have arrested six people on suspicion of perpetrating a £420m ($600m) fraud relating to a London-listed company, it has been confirmed."
…
“According to the BBC's Danny Wood in Madrid: "The suspects are accused of using false advertising to boost the value of Langbar shares without making any deposits.
"Langbar entered the London share market with a value of $300m. Police say the suspects created enough public interest in the company to fraudulently resell shares to a value of $600m.”
"As many as 51 million jobs worldwide could be lost this year because of the global economic crisis, says the International Labour Organization(ILO)."
Labels: world
"Female workers are being hit harder than ever before by the effects of the current downturn, a report suggests.A study by the TUC union showed the redundancy rate among women had risen by 2.3%, almost double the rate for men, since last year.
It said more women were in work and more households depended on a woman's wage than in previous downturns.
It also found many job losses were occurring in retail and hospitality, where more women than men work."
ALLAHABAD: "Some times poverty becomes great motivation as it is the human tendency to grow and evolve by transforming adversity into facility," opined principal secretary (social welfare) RN Mittal while interacting with the budding managers of the School of Management Studies, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology on Saturday….he said that roots of the perennial problems like housing, starvation and others lie in the inadequate management of resources and lack of proper planning. On economic policies he said that economics should have human face because every endeavors circles around human society.
Stanford researchers show adaptation plays a significant role in human evolution : "Geneticists at Stanford now have laid this question to rest. Their results, scheduled to be published Jan. 16 online in Public Library of Science Genetics, show adaptation-the process by which organisms change to better fit their environment-is indeed a large part of human genomic evolution.
"Others have looked for the signal of widespread adaptation and couldn't find it. Now we've used a lot more data and did a lot of work cleaning it up," said Dmitri Petrov, associate professor of biology at Stanford University and one of two senior authors of the paper. "We were able to detect the adaptation signatures quite clearly, and they have the characteristic shape we anticipated." "
It's the first direct experimental evidence of this phenomenon in eukaryotic cells, or cells with nuclei, and it contrasts the widely accepted classical model of evolution, which doesn't account for simultaneously developing beneficial adaptations, she [Katy Kao, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering] said. Instead, that model adopts a linear approach, theorizing that a population acquires such adaptations successively, one after another. Rather than a competition occurring, the model posits a complete replacement of one generation by another better-adapted generation.
..
"Essentially, we were watching evolution in action," Kao said. "We're watching evolution in real time. We're actually seeing a mutation that shows these things have adapted and seeing their population thrive and expand from this adaptation. This is how evolution works.
Speaking at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Mr Justice Beatson described Alfie's death as "truly tragic".
He said: "A young life has been lost and the two of you marked by the consequences of what has occurred for the rest of your lives."
The judge told Goddard: "Alfie wouldn't settle and you became upset.
"You shook him, rocking him from side to side, and grabbed and squeezed him too hard - hard enough to fracture three ribs.
"Then, in a moment of anger, you dropped him from a height of five feet."
Labels: world
BBC NEWS | Health | 'Tragedy' of maternal death : "Women in poor nations are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy complications than those in the developed world, Unicef warns"
The lifetime risk in a developing country was one in 8,000, compared with one in 24,000 in richer countries.
About 99% of the 500,000 maternal deaths in 2005 occurred outside industrialized nations, more than half of them in Africa, Unicef said.
….
A newborn baby has less chance of surviving if its mother dies during or shortly after childbirth. Those born in developing countries are almost 14 times more likely to die during the first month of life.
Labels: world
Labels: world
The boy told police he learned to drive playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam video games.
"He was very intent on getting to school," said Northumberland County Sheriff Chuck Wilkins. "When he got out of the car, he started walking to school. He did not want to miss breakfast and PE."
After spending just two weeks in Nigeria, I had come to a sweeping - and therefore probably wrong - conclusion about the country.I was therefore gratified to find my view confirmed by the Nigerian woman whom I sat next to on the flight back from Abuja to London. I told her that I had spent most of my time in the Delta region filming the consequences of oil exploration.
"Oh, I come from there", she said. "I wish you had come to my country before oil was discovered. Oil has ruined Nigeria."
Academics call it "the curse of the resource-rich country".
Eric Kandel in “Principles of Neural Science” book (2000) writes
“THE TASTE OF THE MADELEINE dipped in tea is one of the most famous evocations of sensory experience in literature. Proust's description of the conscious nature of sensation and memory provides profound insights into some of the subjects that we shall explore in the next few chapters. His description of the shape of the pastries on the plate, the feel of the cup in his hand, the warmth of the tea, and the mingled flavors of tea and cake remind us that knowledge of the world comes through the senses.” (p408)
[Proust writes…']
“…one day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent for one of these squat, plump little cakes called “petites madeleines,” which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell. And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreary day with the prospect of a dreary morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory—this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was me.*”
*Proust M.[1913] 1934. Swann's Way. CK Scott-Moncrieff (transl), p. 34, New york: Random House.
Labels: world
IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms.
To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.
But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid.
Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.
Get news on the go with the Mobile News Network. Visit http://www.apnews.com to learn how to get it for your phone.
Regards,
Tarek Hoteit
http://tarek.hoteit.org
Labels: united states, world
full article hereSince 1995, America has grown faster while enjoying lower unemployment than Europe. Adding to Europe's growth angst are worries about aging populations, its inability to adapt to technical change, the burden of its welfare state, and the pains of labour market deregulation. A particular worry is that Europe is losing its most talented workers to the US. Stories of succesfull expatriates in Silicon Valley and top academic departments abound. European politicians and businesses complain that they cannot compete with the US due to taxes and regulations (François-Poncet 1999, Mahroum 1999).
Is this brain drain for real? While Becker et al. (2002) look at data on the brain drain from Italy to the rest of Europe, this column draws on my research using US census data for 1990 and 2000 to measure the characteristics of European expatriates and see how they fare in the US labour market (Saint-Paul 2004, 2008).
Dallas post office receives around 5000 Santa letters each year, Dallas Morning News reports.
Dear Santa Clause,
I would like for you to give my family a present. Like for my mom is a camera case ... my dad wants a kayak. ... And I would like to give my dad a new job. My dog would also like a pooper-scooper.
From Maya
•
Hi Santa.
Santa, whatever my kids can get for xmas they will be happy because I am not able this year to buy anything.
Wanda
•
Dear Santa,
I also have one Christmas wish. I wish my mother gets better and doesn't do drugs anymore. I love her and don't want her to die.
Love you very much, Elijah
•
Dear Santa,
We kind of need your help this year because mom and dad are having trouble buying us anything this year. Thanks.
From the Barrons
•
Dear Santa,
The reason I am writing this letter in September is because I don't want any Christmas presents this Christmas because I feel like I don't deserve any. So please don't give me any please.
Write back soon, Rachel
But you may give me one present.
•
Dear Santa,
All I want for Christmas is a black lab or yellow lab. I don't want anything else except the puppy. Pleas, pleas, pleas, pleas, pleas get me the puppy. Make sure it has had it shots and doesn't bark a lot. And that it is trained not to go to the restroom in the house. A puppy is all I want.
Love, Katherine
•
Dear Santa Clause,
I would like a hair straightener and a hair curler. Why? Simply because I want to look GOOD. Well I already look good. I guess you could say I want to look HOTTER.
Sincerely, Kelly
Then, underneath scribbling on the lower half of the page:
Christopher wrote this. He is being a bad boy and I don't think he deserves a gift.
•
Dear Santa Claus,
For my mom: She wants to start her resume business online so please give her the strength and knowledge to succeed. This way she'll be home more.
Love, Antonio
•
Santa,
If you run out of both (of the toys I requested), then use Christmas magic and make Dinosaur King real.
Your very best friend, Steven
•
Dear Santa,
Please don't give me much for Christmas. There is a boy or girl who needs more love and deserves more than me. Thank you Santa Claus.
Love, Hope
•
Hi Santa.
Do you play golf? If you do, do you like it? ... I still have not thought about wot I wont. Later that will be on another note.
Love, Caroline
•
Dear Santa Clause,
The one thing I want for Christmas is for everyone to celebrate Jesus birthday and for all the poor sick people to get better. I have been very good this year and can't wait to take a picture with you at the mall.
I love you Santa.
Love, Karsen
•
Dear Santa,
Emily and I want an elf. Any elf. Just make sure it speaks English.
Love, Emily and Mary
To whom it may concern: Santa Clause, Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, ect, ect.
My wish, nay my command, is a cellphone and a go cart. (Possibly a Wii and a dirt bike too.)
Unsigned
•
Dear Santa,
You are a good ole man. Can my presents be wrapped? ... I would like a pet large mouth bass.
Love your good ole boy, Terry
•
Dear Santa Claus,
I've been doing good but I don't know what I should do about us moving to California. What should I do? Because I want mom and dad to be happy, but I want to be happy too.
Kaitlynn
•
Dear Santa,
NO CLOTHES.
Victoria
Labels: united states, world
Labels: world
"In everyday social exchanges, being mean to people has a lot more impact than being nice, research at the University of Chicago has shown.{....}
Feeling slighted can have a bigger difference on how a person responds than being the recipient of perceived generosity, even if the net value of the social transaction is the same, the research on reciprocity—giving and taking—shows.
'Negative reciprocity, or taking, escalates,' said Boaz Keysar, Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper 'Reciprocity is Not Give and Take: Asymmetric Reciprocity to Positive and Negative Acts,' published in the December issue of Psychological Science. The study was based on giving-and-taking games conducted on students and people in downtown Chicago."
The study shows various social exchanges differ from those in the marketplace, where goods are bought and sold, Keysar said. "Acts of giving are perceived as more generous in social exchanges than objectively identical acts of taking," Keysar said. "Taking tends to escalate. Reciprocity appears to operate on an exchange rate that assigns value to the meaning of events, in a fashion that encourages pro-social exchanges."Read full article here
Labels: world
Labels: world
"today’s countries are extremely diverse in terms of the importance of immigration. The fraction of today’s population that has ancestors who lived in their present country in 1500 are:
- 3% for US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand;
- 94% to 98% for Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia;
- 94% for Europe on average;
- 89% for North Africa and West and Central Asia;
- 65% for Mexico and Central America;
- 20% for South America;
- 0%, for the Caribbean.
... the origin of a particular nation’s population today. For example:
- About 4.4% of the current US population’s ancestors lived in France in 1500,
- About 8.5% lived in Ireland,
- About 1.1% in Senegal, and
- About 0.9% in China.
... it also tells us that:
- about 97.9% of the ancestors of today’s Indians lived in India in 1500,
- about 77% of the ancestors of today’s Singaporeans lived in China,
- about 45% of the ancestors of today’s Fijians lived in India.
Why should we care about the apparently powerful influence that population origins exert on country and sub-national incomes levels?
First, if this influence is indeed as significant as our findings suggest it to be, then efforts to sort out the roles that geographic, institutional, and other factors play in explaining income levels and growth rates may produce misleading results unless we properly control for it.
Second, the influence of population origins suggests that there is something that human families and communities transmit from generation to generation -- perhaps a form of economic culture, a set of attitudes or beliefs, or informally transmitted capabilities -- that is of at least similar importance to economic success as are more widely recognized factors like quantities of physical capital and even human capital in the narrower sense of formal schooling. If we understand which culturally transmitted factors are important and what contributes to their emergence and propagation, we might be able to design policy interventions that could help less successful groups and countries to close their developmental gaps."
( Putternam and Neil, 2008)
Labels: world
Labels: world
Happy Thanksgiving...
Gobble Gobble..
Labels: world
EU27 citizens migrating to a Member State, of which they were not citizens, accounted for 40% of foreign immigrants. The remaining 60% of foreign immigrants were almost equally divided between citizens of countries in Europe outside the EU27, Asia, America and Africa, with each accounting for about 15%.click here for complete article
In 2006, the largest foreign immigrant groups in the EU27 were citizens of Poland (about 290 000 persons), Romania (about 230 000), Morocco (about 140 000), the United Kingdom, Ukraine and China (each about 100 000) and Germany (about 90 000).
Labels: world
Key Findings of Growing Unequal
Why is the gap between rich and poor growing?
In most countries the gap is growing because rich households have done significantly better than middle-class and poor households. Changes in the structure of the population and in the labour market over the past 20 years have contributed greatly to this rise in inequality.
Who is most affected?
Statisticians and economists assess poverty in relation to average incomes. Typically, they take the poverty line to be equivalent to one-half of the median income in a given country.
What does this mean for future generations?
Social mobility is generally higher in countries where income inequalities are relatively low. In countries with high income inequalities, by contrast, mobility tends to be lower.
What can be done?
In some cases, government policies of taxation and redistribution of income have helped to counteract widening inequalities, but this cannot be their only response. Governments must also improve their policies in other areas.
* global consumption for oil grew by 1Mb/d
* World natural gas production grew by 2.4% in 2007
* Coal was the fastest growing fuel in 2007
* Global primary energy consumption grew by 2.4% in 2007
IMPORTANT READ....... buy AMERICAN GAS. HERE ARE THE NAMES REASON TO BUY GAS FROM WAL MART
IF YOU ARE TIRED OF HIGH GAS PRICES, THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG!!!!!!
WHERE TO BUY AMERICAN GASOLINE. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW. READ ON.
Gas rationing in the 70's worked even though we grumbled about it.
It might even have been good for us! Are you aware that the Saudis are boycotting American products? In addition, they are gouging us on oil prices. Shouldn't we return the favor? Can't we take control of our own destiny and let these giant oil importers know who REALLY generates their profits, their livings? How about leaving American Dollars in America and reduce the import/export deficit? An appealing remedy might be to boycott their GAS. Every time you fill up your car you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia . Just purchase gas from companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis. Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill up my tank, I'm sending my money to people who I get the impression want me, my family and my friends dead.
The following gas companies import Middle Eastern oil:
Shell.................................... 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco.................... 144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil........................ 130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway............. 117,740,000 barrels
Amoco.................................. 62,231,000 barrels
And CITGO oil is imported from Venezuela by Dictator Hugo Chavez who hates America and openly avows our economic destruction! (We pay Chavez's regime nearly $10 Billion per year in oil revenues!)
The U.S. currently imports 5,517,000 barrels of crude oil per day from OPEC. If you do the math at $100 per barrel, that's over $550 million PER DAY ($200 BILLION per year!) handed over to OPEC, many of whose members are our confirmed enemies!!!!! It won't stop here - oil prices could go to $200 a barrel or higher if we keep buying their produce. Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:
Sunoco......................... 0 barrels
Conoco........................ 0 barrels
Sinclair....................... 0 barrels
BP / Phillips................ 0 barrels
Hess. ............................. 0 barrels
ARC0............................. 0 barrels
Maverick......................... 0 barrels
Flying J. .......................... 0 barrels
Valero............................ 0 barrels
Murphy Oil USA * ............ 0 Sold at Wal-Mart , gas is from South
Arkansas and fully USA owned and produced.
a.. *Not only that but they give scholarships to all children in their town who finish high school and are legal US citizens..
b.. All of this information is available from the U.S. Department of Energy and each company is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing. But to have a real impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas
buyers With the help of the internet, it's really simple to do. Now, don't
wimp out at this point....keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to
reach millions of people!! I'm sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at only ten more ........
I fully agree that any country should rely on it's own resources to fuel growth, and at the same time export abundant resources in return for importing scarce resources. The problem is not with the Middle East oil but because of the rise in oil demand from the United States. The United States receive oil from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Mexico because it cannot meet its own domestic supply to cover up the domestic demands.
Read this link 'http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/funda/Sidebar/OilConsumption.html" which shows that the United States is in bad need of foreign oil when it's not digging enough in its own backyard. I quote:
"Currently, the United States consumes 19.6 million barrels per day, of oil, which is more than 25% of the world's total.. As a result, the U.S produces one fourth of the world's carbon emissions. Despite predictions that the U.S. will exhaust it's supply of oil in as little as forty years, the demand is on the increase, and is predicted to continue increasing, because of the ever increasing population. Increase in resource consumption is caused by three factors: population growth, new uses found for a resource, and increase in demand for a resource to increase living standards. The rate of consumption for oil is increasing at a rate of about 2% yearly.....The demand for oil in the United States is increasing slightly every year but domestic oil production is decreasing. The U.S. is expected to consume an average of 19.6 million barrels per day of oil in 2000. It is estimated that the U.S. imported 10.9 million barrels per day of oil in the first eight months of 2000, (E.I.A. Paragraph 9). At this rate, the U.S. is currently importing about 57% of the oil that is being consumed. The main suppliers of oil to the U.S. at this time are; Canada (1.68 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.49 million barrels per day), Venezuela (1.46 million barrels per day), and Mexico (1.35 million barrels per day). The U.S. has energy sanctions against Iran, Iraq, and Libya, all major oil producers, that prohibit U.S. companies from doing business with them."
Also, there are couple of flaws to this email:
1) " Murphy Oil USA * ............ 0 Sold at Wal-Mart , gas is from South Arkansas and fully USA owned and produced."
If you reach Murphy Oil shareholder report, http://www.murphyoilcorp.com/ir/annualreport/2007/2007_MurphyAR.pdf, you would read the following in page 15
"During 2007, Murphy's principal exploration and production activities were conducted in the United States by wholly owned Murphy Exploration & Production Company – USA (Murphy Expro USA), in Ecuador, Malaysia and the Republic of Congo by wholly owned Murphy Exploration & Production Company – International (Murphy Expro International) and its subsidiaries, in western Canada and offshore eastern Canada by wholly owned Murphy Oil Company Ltd. (MOCL) and its subsidiaries, and in the U.K. North Sea and the Atlantic Margin by wholly
owned Murphy Petroleum Limited. Murphy's crude oil and natural gas liquids production in 2007 was in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Ecuador; its natural gas was produced and sold in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
MOCL owns a 5% undivided interest in Syncrude Canada Ltd. in northern Alberta, the world's largest producer of synthetic crude oil.":
Murphy is now an international company and its crude oil is not only from the United States.
2) Conoco Philips that is listed as 0 barrels below has been working with Saudi - Aramco for a join refinery project. Read the article here http://www.conocophillips.com/newsroom/news_releases/2008news/05-16-2008.htm
3) Hess has been working with Libya, another Middle East and North Africa country for more drilling.
Here's an excerpt from their shareholder information at the link "http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/10/101801/reports/2007AR/exploration_productions/page2/index.shtml"
"Successful exploitation drilling in the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Libya, Indonesia, the JDA, Thailand and the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota will assist in positioning us for growth in the near term.In 2008, our high impact exploration program has a distinctly global footprint and is world class. The program includes drilling deepwater prospects in the Gulf of Mexico, Australia, Libya, Brazil, Ghana, Ireland and West of Shetlands in the United Kingdom."
and if I continue checking each company, I would find that each US company is drilling in other parts of the world as well.
4) As for the Saudi boycott of American products, there are two conflicting stories. One story, published on this link ( http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=105524&d=11&m=1&y=2008 ) says that Saudis wanted to boycott US imports in order to fight inflation or rise in domestic prices. Just as the US has the right to boycott any foreign product, other countries have the right as well. Another story, published from their paper ( http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020508/2002050806.html ) says that Saudis wanted to boycott US products because of the United States support to Israel and the invasion of Iraq.
In all case, the prices in gas is very very high. It is hitting all our pockets. The issue is not with Middle East gas but more with our day to day consumption of oil to fill up the gas tanks of our pickup trucks and large homes.
The focus on alternative energy (see this link http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&safe=off&resnum=0&q=alternative+energy&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=news_group&resnum=1&ct=title) and focus on energy saving would bring the rising costs down.
Labels: united states, world
Labels: finance, united states, world
