Archive for February, 2009
February 28, 2009 at 11:56 pm
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Municipalities across the U.S. may be headed for the same grim recessionary spiral dragging down this once prosperous California exurb
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RNP works to make the Northwest's clean energy potential a reality.
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Half of the 6,700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing before the century ends, a process that can be slowed only if urgent action is taken by governments and speaker communities. UNESCO’s Endangered Languages Programme mobilizes international cooperation to focus attention on this grave situation and to promote innovative solutions from communities, experts and authorities. Languages are humankind’s principle tools for interacting and for expressing ideas, emotions, knowledge, memories and values. Languages are also primary vehicles of cultural expressions and intangible cultural heritage, essential to the identity of individuals and groups. Safeguarding endangered languages is thus a crucial task in maintaining cultural diversity worldwide.
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February 27, 2009 at 11:56 pm
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Will the Obama deficit-spending plan work? Will throwing $800 billion—$500 billion in extra government spending, and $300 billion in tax cuts—at the economy produce a world in which production and employment are higher and unemployment lower than would otherwise have been the case?
The short answer is yes. The short reason is that spending works—eras when some group or other gets excited about future prospects and starts
spending money like water are eras in which production and employment are high and unemployment low. And the government, in this respect, is just like any other group of starry-eyed optimists whose eagerness to spend pulls the economy into a high-employment high-pressure boom. Between 2003 and 2005 the assembled investors of the world discovered the American housing market. Low interest rates produced by the Federal Reserve allowed them to borrow and leverage up cheaply—and the promise of financial engineering that would greatly help them diversify risk made them…
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In a series of papers, Martin Weitzman has proposed a Dismal Theorem. The general idea is that, under limited conditions concerning the structure of uncertainty and preferences, society has an indefinitely large expected loss from high-consequence, low-probability events. Under such conditions, standard economic analysis cannot
be applied. The present study is intended to put the Dismal Theorem in context and examine the range of its applicability, with an application to catastrophic climate
change. I conclude that Weitzman makes an important point about selection of distributions in the analysis of decision-making under uncertainty. However, the
conditions necessary for the Dismal Theorem to hold are limited and do not apply to a wide range of potential uncertain scenarios.
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For the March 2009 issue, Vanity Fair sat down with the members of Spinal Tap, whose genre-defining mock-umentary (directed by Marty DiBergi) just turned 25. Here is an extended remix of the interview with Nigel, David, Derek, and Marty—with audio. Related video: “The Tap Sell Out.”
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As climate change accelerates, policymakers may have to consider "geoengineering" as an emergency strategy to cool the planet. Engineering the climate strikes most as a bad idea, but it is time to start taking it seriously.
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Executive produced by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, HBO's latest groundbreaking series is an experimental fusion of reality and fiction–an entertaining, fly-on-the-wall look at government, filmed in and around the corridors of power in Washington. Starring Beltway insiders James Carville, Mary Matalin, Michael Deaver–and a host of political celebrities.
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February 26, 2009 at 11:56 pm
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College is viewed by many people these days as a diploma factory. You show up go to certain classes in a certain order, and eventually receive a diploma. There’s not a lot of love for learning for learning’s sake anymore. But that hasn’t stopped many colleges from offering plenty of quirky unique classes that go over non standard educational topics. A lot of the odd courses we found sound like lots of fun, but with tuition costs skyrocketing is it really worth it to spend thousands of dollars on fun diversions? Read on and decide.
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Northern Economics has over 25 years of experience in Alaska and beyond—providing clarity for our clients through impartial analysis. We seek challenging work in which we use creativity, knowledge, and experience to solve complex issues. Simply put, our expert staff knows where to look and how to weigh multiple variables to interpret data without bias.
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Did the woman who sang "Unpack Your Adjectives" ever get together with the guy who sang "I'm Just a Bill"? It turns out the answer is yes! Sort of…
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Anthropologist David Graeber argues that it is only with a general historical understanding of debt and its relationship to violence that we can begin to appreciate our emerging epoch. Here he begins to fill in our historical knowledge gap.
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In the hyper-modern emirate, an over-the-top resort channels an ancient legend (minus the cautionary tale)
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Macedonia is a relative success story in a region scarred by unresolved statehood and territory issues. International engagement has, since the 2001 conflict with an ethnic Albanian insurgency, brought progress in integrating Albanians into political life. This has been underpinned by the promise of European Union (EU) and NATO integration, goals that unite ethnic Macedonians and Albanians. But the main NATO/EU strategy for stabilising Macedonia and the region via enlargement was derailed in 2008 by the dispute with Greece over the country’s name. Athens claims that, by calling itself “Macedonia”, it appropriates part of the Hellenic heritage and implies a claim against Greece’s northern province. At summits it blocked Macedonian membership in NATO and EU accession talks until the issue is settled. Mystifying to outsiders, the dispute touches existential nerves, especially in Macedonia, and has serious regional implications.
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The Centre for European Reform is a think-tank devoted to reforming the European Union. It is a forum for people with ideas to discuss the many social, political and economic challenges facing Europe.
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February 25, 2009 at 11:55 pm
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Have you ever come across a web site that you could not access and wondered,"Am I the only one?" Herdict Web aggregates reports of inaccessible sites, allowing users to compare data to see if inaccessibility is a shared problem. By crowdsourcing data from around the world, we can document accessibility for any web site, anywhere.
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An important question in the entrepreneurship literature is whether peers affect the decision to become an entrepreneur. We exploit the fact that Harvard Business School assigns students into sections, which have varying representation of former entrepreneurs. We find that the presence
of entrepreneurial peers strongly predicts subsequent entrepreneurship rates of students who did not have an entrepreneurial background, but in a more complex way than the literature has previously suggested. A higher share of students with an entrepreneurial background in a given
section leads to their peers to lower rather than higher subsequent rates of entrepreneurship. However, the decrease in entrepreneurship is entirely driven by a reduction in unsuccessful entrepreneurial ventures. The relationship between the shares of pre-HBS and successful post-
HBS peer entrepreneurs is insignificantly positive. In addition, sections with few prior entrepreneurs have similar enrollment rates in elective…
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February 25, 2009 at 12:00 am
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A year ago, it was hardly unthinkable that a math wizard like David X. Li might someday earn a Nobel Prize. After all, financial economists—even Wall Street quants—have received the Nobel in economics before, and Li's work on measuring risk has had more impact, more quickly, than previous Nobel Prize-winning contributions to the field. Today, though, as dazed bankers, politicians, regulators, and investors survey the wreckage of the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, Li is probably thankful he still has a job in finance at all. Not that his achievement should be dismissed. He took a notoriously tough nut—determining correlation, or how seemingly disparate events are related—and cracked it wide open with a simple and elegant mathematical formula, one that would become ubiquitous in finance worldwide.
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February 23, 2009 at 11:59 pm
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In their seminal 1985 paper, Katz and Shapiro study systems compatibility in settings with one-sided platforms and direct network effects. We consider systems compatibility when competing platforms are two-sided and there are indirect network effects to develop an explanation why markets with two-sided platforms are often characterized by incompatibility with one dominant player who may subsidize access to one side of the market. Specifically, we model competitive interaction between two platform providers that act as intermediaries between developers of platform-based products (applications) and users of such products. We show that the unique equilibrium under platform compatibility leads to higher profits than the symmetric equilibrium under
incompatibility. Notwithstanding, incompatibility naturally gives rise to asymmetric equilibria with a dominant platform that captures all users and earns more than under compatibility.
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For the past four years, significant U.S. attention has been devoted to the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, in which roughly two hundred thousand have died and more than two million have been displaced. A hybrid African Union/United Nations peacekeeping force remains only partially deployed, and peace negotiations have stalled. Meanwhile, clashes in South Sudan have raising fears that the fragile peace brought by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement will collapse and the country's civil strife will expand to disastrous levels. The Bush administration treated Darfur and South Sudan as separate issues. But experts say both situations can be traced back to Khartoum's central government, which has historically maintained control of the country's periphery through divide-and-rule policies. There is wide disagreement about the best policy course for the United States to pursue in Sudan, but analysts agree that any effective policy will have to consider Sudan's internal politics…
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Now in its third decade, PRAXIS provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and seeks to promote innovative research in the field of human security. Together with the Institute for Human Security at The Fletcher School, the journal explores the intersections between the historically separate fields of humanitarianism, development, human rights, and conflict resolution.
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The countries of Central Asia that formerly were Soviet republics—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—continually rank among the lowest in the world on every index evaluating democracy and human rights, even though their governments have tolerated modest democracy programs funded by the U.S. government. Why have U.S. government programs supporting democratic development in Central Asia been so unsuccessful? Sean Roberts, professor of international development at George Washington University and one-time aid administrator in Central Asia, argues that the obstacles to democratic development in the region are far greater than simply the determination of ruthless autocrats to perpetuate their power. Observing that “the citizens of the Central Asian states also have expressed little demand for democracy,” Roberts explores historical and cultural reasons behind Central Asians' ambivalent and suspicious attitudes toward democracy…
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In 1992-94 Italy was widely held to have been reborn. The parties that had long ruled – latterly misruled – the country were all but wiped out, after their corruption had been exposed by a fearless group of magistrates, in an election under a new and, so it was felt, more functional system, even if the government that emerged from the polls was a surprise to many who celebrated the end of the old regime. The country could now make a fresh start, in its way comparable to that of 1945. Today the Second Republic, as it has come to be called, is 15 years old, equivalent to the span of time stretching from Liberation to the arrival of the centre-left in the First Republic. An era has elapsed. What is there to show for it? For its promoters, who commanded an overwhelming consensus in the media and public opinion in the early 1990s, Italy required a comprehensive political reconstruction, to give the country government worthy of a contemporary Western society.
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February 22, 2009 at 11:59 pm
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This new database of indicators of financial development and structure across countries and over time unites a range of indicators that measure the size, activity, and efficiency of financial intermediaries and markets. Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine introduce a new database of indicators of financial development and structure across countries and over time. This database is unique in that it unites a variety of indicators that measure the size, activity, and efficiency of financial intermediaries and markets. It improves on previous efforts by presenting data on the public share of commercial banks, by introducing indicators of the size and activity of nonbank financial institutions, and by presenting measures of the size of bond and primary equity markets. The compiled data permit the construction of financial structure indicators to measure whether, for example, a country's banks are larger, more active, and more efficient than its stock markets.
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The leading organization for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial and mixed-use real estate. NAIOP provides unparalleled industry networking and education, and advocates for effective legislation on behalf of our members. NAIOP advances responsible, sustainable development that creates jobs and benefits the communities in which our members work and live.
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The Annual Energy Outlook presents a midterm projection and analysis of US energy supply, demand, and prices through 2030. The projections are based on results from the Energy Information Administration's National Energy Modeling System. The AEO2009 Early Release includes the reference case. The full publication, to be released in early 2009, will include complete documentation and additional cases examining energy markets.
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The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public. An independent, nonprofit organization, EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, health, safety and the environment. EPRI also provides technology, policy and economic analyses to drive long-range research and development planning, and supports research in emerging technologies. EPRI's members represent more than 90 percent of the electricity generated and delivered in the United States, and international participation extends to 40 countries. EPRI's principal offices and laboratories are located in Palo Alto, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Lenox, Mass.
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The function of the State Climatologist is to collect, disseminate, and interpret climate data. This web site provides links to sources of climate data and seasonal forecasts for the state of Washington. Most data on the site are available for free; a charge may apply for additional data or interpretation, or for testimony in a legal case. OWSC is called by the State of Washington to serve as a credible and expert source of climate and weather information for state and local decision makers and agencies working on drought, flooding, climate change, and other related issues. When interpreting climate information or analysis, OWSC will rely foremost on peer-reviewed literature and on best practices, sometimes consulting with other experts as needed, and is willing to revise public statements in light of solid new analysis or information. Our on-going goal is to provide information to the public that is reliable and meets the highest quality standards.
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The Center for Science in the Earth System (CSES), part of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) at the University of Washington, performs integrated research on the impacts of climate on the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) by combining and integrating expertise in climate dynamics, ecological dynamics, hydrologic dynamics, and institutional and policy analysis. The CSES also researches the application of climate information in regional decision-making processes in support of the regional aspects of an eventual Climate Service. The CSES is comprised of two groups: the Climate Impacts Group and the Office of the Washington State Climatologist.
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February 21, 2009 at 11:59 pm
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Those who saw the results of the first ever "Dance Your Ph.D." contest know that the human body is an excellent medium for communicating science–perhaps not as data-rich as a peer-reviewed article, but far more exciting. Since then, emails have poured in from scientists around the world asking how they can take part in the next event.
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Not to be confused with the slogan of the Philadelphia Phillies, "Why Can't Us?"
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Details of how police in the Irish Republic finally caught up with the country's most reckless driver have emerged, the Irish Times reports. He had been wanted from counties Cork to Cavan after racking up scores of speeding tickets and parking fines. However, each time the serial offender was stopped he managed to evade justice by giving a different address. But then his cover was blown.
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February 20, 2009 at 11:59 pm
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February 19, 2009 at 11:58 pm
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Over the next ten weeks, FRONTLINE and FRONTLINE/World will unfold an online investigation of international bribery. Covering a practice estimated at $1 trillion worldwide, the team will report on some of the largest bribery investigations in corporate history, leading up to a FRONTLINE documentary, Black Money, airing April 7th. The site will investigate the global impact of bribery, including complex financial systems to hide payments, and the systematic corruption of high-ranking foreign officials that contributes to the destabilization of the developing world. It will also examine U.S. and international efforts to police illegal acts of bribery once considered "the cost of doing business." Stay with us as we bring you new video and print reports each week, including in depth interviews with middlemen, prosecutors, whistleblowers and former presidents.
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The events of September 11, 2001 have caused speculation that the U.S. stock market may crash when trading resumes. History, however, suggests that there is no uniform pattern in which bad news is followed
by a stock market plunge. This report presents data on the stock market response to four episodes: Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, the October 1987 stock market crash, and the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
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California is staring into the economic abyss, with the state's $41 billion deficit threatening to bring mass layoffs and service cuts. As home to the nation's largest economy, the Golden State has long been considered a bellwether for the rest of the country. So which states are following California into economic disaster?
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An Ivy League scholar breaks the rules, waives the fees, and welcomes the workaday residents of Harlem into his politically charged classroom
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The U.S. Green Building Council is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation.
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In this preliminary study and call for further research we provide some comparison data on energy star versus non-energy star rated office property from the entire US using CoStar data. These results are promising for the benefits of investment in energy savings and for the
green movement now sweeping our society. In the appendix we provide some definitions as well as a call for research for a new monograph on sustainable real estate.
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Why am I evil? Well, I'm not, but that's the perception of all of us in HR. Need to fire someone? Come to HR. Need to explain to someone why, even after working their rear end off all year, that their annual increase is 2.7%? Come to HR. Need to come up with new mountains of paperwork? Come to HR. So, come join me on the Evil Side. Oh, and send me your HR questions.
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When the Seattle Mariners announced last Nov. 2 that Ken Griffey Jr., one of the greatest players in baseball history, had requested a trade, local fans reacted with shock, disbelief and cynical acceptance. After all, Griffey wasn't the first star athlete who had indicated he'd rather not play in Seattle, even if he was the most noteworthy and popular. The announcement triggered months of one bizarre revelation after another as Junior became peeved when the Mariners began talking to teams not on his short list, rejected a trade to the New York Mets and decided he'd accept a trade only to the Cincinnati Reds. Throughout it all, many fans' emotions began to turn to anger as they perceived Junior to be just another petulant, spoiled professional athlete. With Griffey's future finally becoming clear, here's a look at his career, his trade and dispatches by P-I columnists Art Thiel and Laura Vecsey.
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Companies are always looking for a superstar athlete to help push their product. Sometimes the pairing just leaves you wondering who exactly is calling the shots. Here are 10 of the weirdest and strangest. Make sure to check out the commercials at the end to relive a couple classics.
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