The Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janerio was the busiest of all slave ports in the Americas and has been buried for almost two centuries.
? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
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Not far from here at least 500,000 Africans took their first steps into slavery in colonial Brazil, which took in far more slaves than the United States and where now half of its 200 million citizens claim African descent.
The ?Cais do Valongo? ? the Valongo Wharf ? was the busiest of all slave ports in the Americas and has been buried for almost two centuries under subsequent infrastructure projects and dirt.
That is, until developers seeking to turn Rio?s shabby port neighborhood into a posh tourist center allowed teams of archaeologists to check out what was being unearthed.
?We knew we had found the wharf,? says archaeologist Tania Andrade Lima, showing a ramp made up of knobbly, uneven stones used by slaves. It lay beneath a layer of smoother cobblestones from a dock installed later for the arrival of a Portuguese royal.
Ms. Lima and other community leaders are creating a walking tour that will include the wharf, a nearby cemetery for Africans who died soon after their arrival, and a holding pen called the ?Lazareto,? derived from Jesus? parable about a beggar named Lazarus, where newly arrived Africans were checked for diseases.
The wharf alone is nearly 22,000 square feet. ?This gives a dimension to how huge the influx of slaves was,? says Lima.
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What?s the point of the humanities? I mean, in addition to supplying jobs for humanities teachers? I am a faculty member within the College of Arts & Letters, a.k.a. CAL, of Stevens Institute of Technology, a university dedicated primarily to engineering and the hard sciences. And so naturally I and my CAL colleagues?who include professors of history, philosophy, psychology and social science as well as the literature, music and art?frequently fret over our purpose.
I think our purpose is, or should be, to sow skepticism in students? minds, to encourage them to doubt society?s dominant belief systems, whether political, economic, religious or scientific. After all, our certainty arguablygets us into trouble more than our skepticism does. When look at our country and the rest of the world, I see fanatics, not the diffident, causing most of the mayhem. Hence I?m always on the lookout for works that can undermine my students? faith, whatever forms it might take.
Lately, I?ve been urging them to check out the writings of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, (and a week ago I brought him to my school to give a talk). Just a few months ago, I thought I knew all I needed to know about Taleb. He was a guy who graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, made moola as a Wall Street trader and wrote a couple of books, notably The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Random House, 2007), a bestseller about the unpredictability of the stock market.
I knew some big shots were impressed with Taleb. New York Times columnist David Brooks credited Taleb with predicting the economic crisis of 2008. The Sunday Times of London ranked The Black Swan as one of the most influential books since World War II. Harvard historian Niall Ferguson called Taleb ?idiosyncratically brilliant.?
But I still assumed that Taleb was basically a Wall Streeter who wrote about Wall Street for other Wall Streeters. Then I read The Black Swan, and I discovered that my assumptions about the book and its author had been wrong. Taleb is not a Wall Street guy. He is really a philosopher, or what used to be called a free thinker, devoted to figuring out the world.
In The Black Swan, Taleb explores the limits of knowledge, and not just economic knowledge but knowledge of all kinds. Taleb contends that scientists, engineers, doctors, economists, politicians, journalist and all of us overestimate our ability to comprehend and foresee events; our models of reality can never account for ?black swans,? events that cannot be foreseen based on extrapolations from the past. Our excessive confidence in our knowledge can lead to all sorts of problems, including depressions, wars, nuclear meltdowns and medicine that makes us sicker.
Taleb rubs a lot of people the wrong way, understandably so. He can be almost comically arrogant and dismissive of other wisdom dispensers, including journalists and economists in general and Tom Friedman and Paul Krugman in particular. Taleb reminds me of one of his heroes, the philosopher Karl Popper, who was also mightily certain about his own uncertainty.
Perhaps because he is a more entertaining writer, Taleb pulls off the trick of being an egomaniacal preacher of epistemological humility more effectively than Popper. I often tell my students that their papers will be more compelling if they let their personalities shine through. The Black Swan exemplifies this kind of writing. The narrative is driven both by reason and by passion, and as a result it engages readers?or at least this reader?on all levels. The book is outrageous, angry, exuberant and very funny.
Taleb embeds his arguments in a kind of memoir, a tale of personal discovery. He begins by describing his childhood in Lebanon, during which he survived a civil war that made him acutely aware of life?s fragility. He also takes us through his experiences as a businessman and, even more, as a voracious reader, who responds on a personal, visceral level to other free thinkers, from Plato to Popper.? This is philosophy with heart and guts.
During his visit to Stevens, Taleb previewed his next book, Antifragility, which proposes how we can reduce the threat of black swans and reap their potential benefits?in the realms of engineering, medicine, business and politics as well as economics. Taleb defines antifragility (his coinage) as the capacity of a system to thrive in response to randomness, disorder, the unexpected?that is, black swans. As Ashley Hiller reports in my school?s student newspaper, The Stute, Taleb?s next book ?promises to uphold the spirit of his work and elaborate on the same thought-provoking ideas he sparked with The Black Swan.?
Here?s a quote from the prologue of Antifragility, which should give you a sense of Taleb?s substance and style: ?This book is about how to domesticate, even dominate, even conquer, the impenetrable, the unseen, the non-understood, the opaque, the perplexing, and the inexplicable. Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire. Likewise with randomness: you want to use it, not hide from it. You want to be the fire and wish for the wind. This summarizes my non-sissy attitude toward randomness and uncertainty.? Non-sissy uncertainty? That?s a message I?ll enjoy imparting to my students.
NEW YORK ? Frankie Heck settled into the driver's seat of a new Volkswagen on a recent episode of ABC's "The Middle," caressing the steering wheel as celestial music played. Her face was a mask of such pure pleasure that you almost wanted to avert your eyes.
The gleaming Passat appeared throughout the half hour. Dad Mike found it a comfortable refuge for a nap, daughter Sue studied for driver's ed and the whole family used it as a restaurant by driving around with a bucket of chicken.
Welcome to the world of product "integration" on prime-time television. Advertising within programs has gone beyond the mere placement of soda bottles on the table in front of "American Idol" judges. The Passat didn't just pass by on the street during "The Middle," it was a key part of the comedy's story line.
Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, who has long protested the encroachment of unmarked ads within entertainment programming, called the episode "astounding," and he wasn't being complimentary. Final reviews of consumer attitudes aren't in yet, but ABC and VW considered the placement very effective, illustrating another way to satisfy advertisers who are concerned about the growing number of people watching programs on their DVRs and fast-forwarding through commercials.
Product integration isn't difficult to find. On Thursday's "30 Rock" on NBC, Jenna posed for paparazzi in front of a restaurant, saying, "Make sure you get the `Outback' sign in the picture or I don't get paid."
In "Desperate Housewives" last year, a woman suspected her husband was cheating. She spied on him with his new Sprint phone, checking through it for missed calls, text messages and calendar items.
Even to the experts at ABC, "The Middle" episode that aired Jan. 18 stretched the concept to an unusual extent.
Frankie, played by Patricia Heaton, was asked by neighbors to back their new Passat from the driveway into the garage because they were going to be away for a week. Enthralled by the vehicle, Frankie instead puts it in her own garage and the Heck family secretly finds ways to enjoy it, driving around together by the end of the week. Throughout the episode, family members show off the car's features such as its sound and navigation systems.
Son Brick pops open the trunk, exposing dozens of books. "It can hold my entire library," he says. "Darn this roomy trunk."
By contrast, their own car is dirty, dented and the driver's side door creaks when it opens.
"It's amazing how one nice thing actually made us a better family," Frankie says. "More compassionate, more considerate. We were in better moods."
The Hecks find out with five minutes' warning that their neighbors are returning home early, and rush to clean garbage out of the car.
The episode's other central story involved Frankie volunteering to help at the Super Bowl (the show is set in Indiana and the Super Bowl is being held in Indianapolis this year). That also worked well for Volkswagen, which used a real commercial break for a sneak preview of an ad they plan to run during the game.
ABC and VW began working on the product integration last spring when they were negotiating an overall deal for advertising this TV season. The example is more valuable than a traditional ad, although neither ABC nor Volkswagen would say how much.
"The Middle" seemed like a perfect venue, said Justin Osborne, Volkswagen's general manager for marketing strategy. Its characters are solid middle class from middle America, for whom a new Passat would be nice enough to want but not so expensive that it's out of reach, he said.
Even though VW worked with ABC, writers had some latitude. Osborne said the scene about the trunk came as a surprise and wasn't something the car company requested.
"We're very into authentic and organic integrations that don't seem too heavy-handed or obvious," he said.
ABC discusses potential integrations with show creators and does not force situations upon them, said Jerry Daniello, the network's senior vice president for integrated marketing. More requests are turned down than approved. Regular, big-ticket advertisers are those considered for integration opportunities, as opposed to one-shot clients, he said.
"We like to do things in a very streamlined, very classy, very strategic and very focused way," Daniello said. "It has to make sense. There's really not much value in seeing a product just placed on the counter."
Some advertisers seek a very seamless integration so that it is almost subliminal. In other cases, such as the "30 Rock" riff on "Outback," networks call attention to the pitch by essentially mocking it. That's an approach Volkswagen will take on IFC later this year, with an in-show ad considered so ridiculous it ends with a fiery crash of a VW into the company logo, Osborne said.
For ABC, however, there's less value in characters that are seen primarily as shills. Network programmers help create fictional worlds and hope viewers can get lost in them. They make the characters less real to viewers at their own peril.
The Writers Guild of America, West has publicly supported proposed federal regulations that would make it more explicit to viewers that they are the targets of advertising by, for example, running a printed message on the screen identifying an advertising pitch.
"People are being advertised to when they don't realize it," Weissman said. "One of the core principles of fair advertising laws is you can't be lied to. You have to know when someone is pitching you."
The proposal, however, has been kicking around for several years with no action, and the trend away from live television viewing would seem to make the Volkswagen episode a harbinger of more things to come.
Authorities are investigating the death of a passenger aboard the Carnival Fantasy who fell from an upper deck to a lower deck while the cruise ship was docked in the Bahamas.
The 26-year-old victim, whose identity was not released, fell from one of the upper levels of the ship's atrium to the lobby level late Friday night, ?Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement Saturday. The ship was docked in Nassau at the time.
Bahamas police said the man was from South Carolina and that initial reports indicate he may have jumped. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The ship was cleared by authorities to sail Saturday morning,?but?because of the delay due to the investigation a?scheduled visit to Freeport was canceled.??????
Carnival Fantasy was sailing on a five-day Bahamas cruise that departed Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday and is scheduled to return to Charleston on Monday.
FRIDAY, Jan. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Inlyta (axitinib) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma in people who haven't responded to another drug.
Renal cell carcinoma is a form of kidney cancer that begins in tissue that lines the kidney's small tubes. Inlyta blocks proteins that help fuel tumor growth in this area, the FDA said in a news release.
Six medications had been sanctioned previously for advanced kidney cancer, the agency said.
In a study of 723 people with the advanced form of kidney cancer, the most common side effects of Inlyta included diarrhea, high blood pressure, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, loss of voice, weight loss, weakness and constipation.
Among some patients, Inlyta also caused significant bleeding, which in some cases proved fatal. The FDA also warned that people with high blood pressure should make sure the problem is well controlled before taking the twice-daily drug.
People with untreated brain tumors or gastrointestinal bleeding should not take Inlyta, the FDA said.
LOS ANGELES ? A 911 recording revealed frantic efforts by friends of Demi Moore to get help for the actress who was convulsing as they gathered around her and tried to comfort her.
Moore was "semi-conscious, barely," according to a female caller on the recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.
The woman tells emergency operators that Moore, 49, had smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and that she had been "having issues lately."
"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asks.
"No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up," the friend says as she hurries to Moore's side, on the edge of panic.
Another woman is next to Moore as the dispatcher asks if she's responsive.
"Demi, can you hear me?" she asks. "Yes, she's squeezing hands. ... She can't speak."
When the operator asks what Moore ingested or smoked, the friend replies, but the answer was redacted.
Asked if Moore took the substance intentionally or not, the woman says Moore ingested it on purpose but the reaction was accidental.
"Whatever she took, make sure you have it out for the paramedics," the operator says.
The operator asks the friend if this has happened before.
"I don't know," she says. "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out."
Moore's publicist, Carrie Gordon, said previously that the actress sought professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. She would not comment further on the emergency call or provide details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.
The past few months have been rocky for Moore.
She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, 33, following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.
Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.
Meanwhile, Millennium Films announced Friday that Sarah Jessica Parker will replace Moore in the role of feminist Gloria Steinem in its production of "Lovelace," a biopic about the late porn star Linda Lovelace. A statement gave no reason for the change. The production, starring Amanda Seyfried, has been shooting in Los Angeles since Dec. 20.
During the call, the woman caller says the group of friends had turned Moore's head to the side and was holding her down. The dispatcher tells her not to hold her down but to wipe her mouth and nose and watch her closely until paramedics arrive.
"Make sure that we keep an airway open," the dispatcher says. "Even if she passes out completely, that's OK. Stay right with her."
The phone is passed around by four people, including a woman who gives directions to the gate and another who recounts details about what Moore smoked or ingested. Finally, the phone is given to a man named James, so one of the women can hold Moore's head.
There was some confusion at the beginning of the call. The emergency response was delayed by nearly two minutes as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills dispatchers sorted out which city had jurisdiction over the street where Moore lives.
As the call is transferred to Beverly Hills, the frantic woman at Moore's house raises her voice and said, "Why is an ambulance not on its way right now?"
"Ma'am, instead of arguing with me why an ambulance is not on the way, can you spell (the street name) for me?" the Beverly Hills dispatcher says.
Although the estate is located in the 90210 ZIP code above Benedict Canyon, the response was eventually handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
By the end of the call, Moore has improved.
"She seems to have calmed down now. She's speaking," the male caller told the operator.
Moore and Kutcher were wed in September 2005.
Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly.
Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" and is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve."
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) ? Sudan will free ships carrying cargos of crude it seized from South Sudan to ease tensions between the former civil war foes and help the two states agree on a deal over oil revenue, Sayed El-Khatib, deputy head of negotiating team said on Saturday.
"President Bashir is ready to make this gesture. Sudan is going to release the vessels detained in Port Sudan," he told a media conference in the Ethiopian capital.
South Sudan became independent in July under a 2005 peace agreement with Khartoum that ended decades of conflict but both sides have failed to agree how to untangle their oil industries.
The new landlocked nation needs to use a northern pipeline and the port of Port Sudan to export its crude but has failed to reach an agreement with Khartoum over a transit fee, prompting Sudan to start seizing oil as compensation.
South Sudan said on Monday it had started shutting down oil production and accused Sudan of seizing $815 million worth of crude.
South Sudan's top negotiator said on Friday his country would complete the shutdown by Saturday, after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and South Sudan's President Salva Kiir met on the sidelines of a meeting of East African officials in Ethiopia.
Sudan said it was freeing the ships to help end the deadlock.
"By doing this step, we expect the cover agreement to be signed, the shutdown to be halted, and the terms of the cover agreement to be respected," said El-Khatib.
"Before the end of today, we could be able to sign the cover agreement. We, at least, are ready to sign."
Officials said in November South Sudan was producing about 350,000 barrels of oil per day.
China is the biggest buyer of oil from the two countries, some 12.99 million barrels last year. That amounted to five percent of last year's crude imports by China, which is also the top investor in South Sudan's oilfields.
(Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Starbucks Corp's reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street's view after global economic worries failed to weaken demand for drinks and other products from the world's biggest coffee chain.
Based on its better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results, the company raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast to a range of $1.78 to $1.82 per share from $1.75 to $1.82.
Starbucks shares, up roughly 45 percent from a year ago and hovering near all-time highs, were off 1.1 percent at $47.79 in extended trading.
Global sales at cafes open at least 13 months jumped 9 percent, helped by an increase in customer visits and spending per transaction. That beat the 7.7 percent gain analysts, on average, expected, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Net income was $382.1 million, or 50 cents per share, for the quarter ended January 1. That was up from $346.6 million, or 45 cents, in the year earlier period.
Analysts, on average, were looking for a profit of 49 cents per share in the latest quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total revenue rose 16 percent to $3.4 billion.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Teardown fans rejoice! Samsung's chosen to dissect the Galaxy Note for all to see -- and on its official blog, no less. Strangely, the pictures show the global Galaxy Note with its physical home button but the specs match those of the Galaxy Note LTE that we played with at CES and which is supposed to launch on AT&T and Telusreal soon now. There are no major surprises here -- Samsung outlines some of the over 1000 components within, including the glorious 5.3-inch 1280x800-pixel HD Super AMOLED display, the unspecified 1.5GHz dual-core processor (likely a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3), the eight megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash plus other bits and pieces like sensors and radios. What's particularly interesting is that Samsung confirms NFC support (with the antenna inside the battery cover) and the use of a Wacom digitizer for the S Pen. Want more? Hit the source link below for the pr0n gory details.
President Obama put American manufacturing literally at the front and center of his State of the Union speech. American manufacturing was at the front of the speech and at the center of a "blueprint" for bringing back jobs and strengthening our economy. By placing manufacturing front and center he has taken this conversation further than any president before him.
There is good reason to cheer, but also good reason to ask for even more. He outlined steps to stop the outsourcing and start the insourcing, but there is not yet a comprehensive, overall government strategy to fix trade and capture the industries of the future.
The Speech
Right up front the president talked about building "an America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs." Then,
"Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last, an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.
This blueprint begins with American manufacturing."
Bob Borosage, in "The Obama State of the Union: A Progressive View,"
On the economy, the speech led with more discussion of manufacturing than anyone has heard in years. The president wanted and deserved credit for saving Detroit -- a key to his campaign in the Midwest -- and wanted to highlight the uptick in manufacturing jobs and "insourcing," the movement of some jobs back to the U.S.
Again, his agenda focused on mostly symbolic measures of populist appeal. In addition to the tax on multinationals, he promised a new trade enforcement effort to challenge China and others who trample global trade rules. With Romney promising to cite China for currency violation on day one if elected, the administration seems likely to finally challenge China, at least symbolically.
Steps, But Not an Overall Picture
The President outlined steps to stop the outsourcing and start the insourcing. There are things that the Congress can do right now. These include but are not limited to,
Eliminate existing tax deductions for outsourcing
Big multinational corporations should pay a minimum tax
Use some of the money this brings in to cover the expenses of bringing jobs home
Pass tax cuts for manufacturing here
A trade enforcement unit to look at bringing cases against countries like China that cheat, use piracy, give subsidies
Steps to train skilled workers, with a national commitment to train 2 million with skills that will lead to a job
Do something about the maze of confusing training programs
Turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system
Instead of bashing teachers and laying them off, give schools resources to keep good teachers
Reduce the cost of college. Stop student loan interest rates from doubling in July. Condition federal assistance on lowering tuition.
This "blueprint" has a number of good, solid steps that will help stop the outsourcing and start the insourcing. But it is not a comprehensive national industrial/economic strategy that addresses the overall picture of all of the components of a national manufacturing ecosystem. To begin to address this, the president has established a cabinet-level Office of Manufacturing Policy to coordinate efforts of various government agencies.
Coordinating the efforts of various government agencies to help American exports is important, but this does not address the development of a national plan, like other countries have. We need this, too. A national plan would seek to cover all the elements of a healthy "industrial commons" -- meaning all of the components of a healthy manufacturing ecosystem. These include government efforts to make sure the components are ready, funded and functioning:
The necessary educational components to provide people ready to do all of the jobs an industry requires;
The financing to build factories and obtain inventory;
The modern infrastructure of roads, electrical power, Internet, posts and airports, to support the companies;
Trade and tax policies to help these companies locate and export;
R&D facilities and researchers for innovation and design;
Local suppliers to support the companies;
Legal structures and fully-funded and staffed court systems to support the industry;
The entire "chain of experience" located in an area, often around a "cluster" of businesses, required for an industry to develop and thrive. Countries like China are engaged in national efforts to get all of these components lined up to capture industries like the new green energy revolution that is taking place. China is working to capture solar and wind energy manufacturing. They are working to capture high-speed rail manufacturing. The news about the reasons Apple and other high-tech manufactures have had to locate in China show how hard China has worked to capture that industry -- and not without quite a bit of cheating that we are not stopping.
Our competitors are engaging in national efforts to line up all of these components to capture other new industries as they emerge. We are not.
Ideology Holds Us Back From Competing
This list of components of a national industrial/economic policy describes the kind of national effort that competitors like China are engaged in, and is the reason they are bringing in such a share of new industrial growth. To address this we have to see ourselves as a country, as China does, mutually supporting each other to be able to embark on an undertaking like this. We have to abandon the "each of us on our own" and selfish, "in it only for ourselves" mentality that has set us apart, preventing national government efforts like other countries engage in.
Some of us hold on to an ideological fantasy that government is only in the way, but other countries do not. So the result is that we keep sending our companies out on their own against national systems. Even our largest companies cannot compete on their own against countries with national efforts to put all of these components in place. It takes a unified government effort.
We have to move to a "we are in this together" understanding of ourselves and our country if we want to bring back the shared prosperity we used to have, and can have again.
Update -- White House fact sheet: FACT SHEET: President Obama's Blueprint to Support U.S. Manufacturing Jobs, Discourage Outsourcing, and Encourage Insourcing.
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
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WASHINGTON ? Senate Republicans are returning to Washington in an angry mood over President Barack Obama's appointments to two key agencies during a year-end break.
More than 70 nominees to judgeships and senior federal agency positions are awaiting the next move from Republicans, who can use Senate rules to block votes on some or all of Obama's picks.
While Republicans return Monday to discuss their next step, recess appointee Richard Cordray is running a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board ? with three temporary members ? is now at full strength with a Democratic majority.
Obama left more than 70 other nominees in limbo, well aware that Republicans could use Senate rules to block them.
The White House justified the appointments on grounds that Republicans were holding up the nominations to paralyze the two agencies. The consumer protection agency was established under the 2010 Wall Street reform law, which requires the bureau to have a director in order to begin policing financial products such as mortgages, checking accounts, credit cards and payday loans.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the five-member NLRB must have a three-member quorum to issue regulations or decide major cases in union-employer disputes.
Several agencies contacted by The Associated Press, including banking regulators, said they were conducting their normal business despite vacancies at the top. In some cases, nominees are serving in acting capacities.
At full strength, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has five board members. The regulation of failed banks "is unaffected," said spokesman Andrew Gray. "The three-member board has been able to make decisions without a problem." Cordray's appointment gives it a fourth member.
The Comptroller of the Currency, run by an acting chief, has kept up its regular examinations of banks. The Federal Trade Commission, operating with four board members instead of five, has had no difficulties. "This agency is not a partisan combat agency," said spokesman Peter Kaplan. "Almost all the votes are unanimous and consensus-driven."
Republicans have pledged retaliation for Obama's recess appointments, but haven't indicated what it might be.
"The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama's blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the Constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush administration refused to make," said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is his party's top member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Grassley wouldn't go further, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky hasn't tipped his hand after charging that Obama had "arrogantly circumvented the American people." Before the Senate left for its break in December, McConnell blocked Senate approval of more than 60 pending nominees because Obama wouldn't commit to making no recess appointments.
Republicans have to consider whether their actions, especially any decision to block all nominees, might play into Obama's hands.
Obama has adopted an election-year theme of "we can't wait" for Republicans to act on nominations and major proposals like his latest jobs plan. Republicans have to consider how their argument that the president is violating Constitutional checks and balances plays against Obama's stump speeches characterizing them as obstructionists.
Senate historian Donald Ritchie said the minority party has retaliated in the past for recess appointments by holding up specific nominees. "I'm not aware of any situations where no nominations were accepted," he said. The normal practice is for the two party leaders to negotiate which nominations get votes.
During the break, Republicans forced the Senate to convene for usually less than a minute once every few days to argue that there was no recess and that Obama therefore couldn't bypass the Senate's authority to confirm top officials. The administration said this was a sham, and has released a Justice Department opinion backing up the legality of the appointments.
Obama considers the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a signature achievement of his first term. Republicans have been vehemently opposed to the bureau's setup. They argued the agency needed a bipartisan board instead of a director and should have to justify its budget to Congress instead of drawing its funding from the independent Federal Reserve.
Cordray is expected to get several sharp questions from Republicans when he testifies Tuesday before a House Oversight and Government Reform panel.
The NLRB has been a target of Republicans and business groups. Last year, the agency accused Boeing of illegally retaliating against union workers who had struck its plants in Washington state by opening a new production line at its non-union plant in South Carolina. Boeing denied the charge and the case has since been settled, but Republican anger over it and a string of union-friendly decisions from the board last year hasn't abated.
Los Angeles, CA (January 20th, 2012) - Managers encouraging employees to be more proactive and flexible do make gains in performance and productivity. But this is at the expense of employee job satisfaction, according to the latest research in the journal Human Relations, owned by The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and published by SAGE. Increased expectations from their employers may lead employees to perceive a less secure and more demanding work environment.
Researchers led by Stephen Wood, from the University of Leicester, set out to test a widely held assumption - that direct employee involvement methods can lead to high levels of worker job satisfaction, which in turn lead to a better performing organization. Armed with data from the UK's Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 survey, the researchers used statistical methods to look at in the effects of two distinct management models: enriched job design and high involvement management (HIM).
Statistical analysis of data from 14,127 employees and 1,177 workplaces shows that HIM is directly and positively related to labour productivity, financial performance, and quality, but not to absenteeism. The researchers also found a direct relationship between HIM and job satisfaction and anxiety but surprisingly, it was a negative: HIM may be a source of dissatisfaction with the job and of anxiety. In fact, the negative effect of HIM on job satisfaction depresses its overall positive effects on organizational performance.
The enriched job design approach to management also had a positive relationship with labour productivity, financial performance and quality but this was positively related to job satisfaction, though not workplace anxiety. Moreover, the job satisfaction explains how the enriched job design affects performance.
The enriched job design approach offers employees discretion, variety and high levels of responsibility; while the HIM model encourages wider organizational involvement such as team working, idea-capturing schemes or functional flexibility (the ability to take on aspects of others' roles). Enriched job design concentrates on the employee's core job, while HIM is about organizational involvement, which entails workers participating in decision-making beyond the narrow confines of the job.
HIM originated in the 1990s, and a lot of research has followed on how this approach improves performance. However, to date most of this research has focused on the outcomes for organizations, with little attention to the effect on employees' satisfaction and well-being.
According to the authors, HIM entails a qualitative change in demands, not a simple quantitative change in effort levels. It may be that management's approach toward encouraging employees to be proactive and flexible creates anxieties and dissatisfaction. Increased expectations associated with involvement may actually make employees more stressed. In enriched job design, individuals have greater responsibility and autonomy, possibly offering more choices and pleasurable experiences that contrast with feelings evoked by a pressured environment.
"Treating enriched job design and HIM as discrete has certainly been vindicated by our findings, as has taking a multi-dimensional approach to well-being," Wood says. "The study offers further grounds for encouraging policy makers and managers to put job quality high on their agendas."
Workplace data were collected by face-to-face interview with a manager in each workplace, and through a survey of employees.
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Enriched job design, high involvement management and organizational performance: The mediating roles of job satisfaction and well-being by Stephen Wood, Marc van Veldhoven, Marcel Croon and Lilian M de Menezes is published today, January 20th in Human Relations.
The article will be free to access for a limited time here: http://hum.sagepub.com/
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com
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The general link between worker happiness and productivity challengedPublic release date: 23-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Los Angeles, CA (January 20th, 2012) - Managers encouraging employees to be more proactive and flexible do make gains in performance and productivity. But this is at the expense of employee job satisfaction, according to the latest research in the journal Human Relations, owned by The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and published by SAGE. Increased expectations from their employers may lead employees to perceive a less secure and more demanding work environment.
Researchers led by Stephen Wood, from the University of Leicester, set out to test a widely held assumption - that direct employee involvement methods can lead to high levels of worker job satisfaction, which in turn lead to a better performing organization. Armed with data from the UK's Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 survey, the researchers used statistical methods to look at in the effects of two distinct management models: enriched job design and high involvement management (HIM).
Statistical analysis of data from 14,127 employees and 1,177 workplaces shows that HIM is directly and positively related to labour productivity, financial performance, and quality, but not to absenteeism. The researchers also found a direct relationship between HIM and job satisfaction and anxiety but surprisingly, it was a negative: HIM may be a source of dissatisfaction with the job and of anxiety. In fact, the negative effect of HIM on job satisfaction depresses its overall positive effects on organizational performance.
The enriched job design approach to management also had a positive relationship with labour productivity, financial performance and quality but this was positively related to job satisfaction, though not workplace anxiety. Moreover, the job satisfaction explains how the enriched job design affects performance.
The enriched job design approach offers employees discretion, variety and high levels of responsibility; while the HIM model encourages wider organizational involvement such as team working, idea-capturing schemes or functional flexibility (the ability to take on aspects of others' roles). Enriched job design concentrates on the employee's core job, while HIM is about organizational involvement, which entails workers participating in decision-making beyond the narrow confines of the job.
HIM originated in the 1990s, and a lot of research has followed on how this approach improves performance. However, to date most of this research has focused on the outcomes for organizations, with little attention to the effect on employees' satisfaction and well-being.
According to the authors, HIM entails a qualitative change in demands, not a simple quantitative change in effort levels. It may be that management's approach toward encouraging employees to be proactive and flexible creates anxieties and dissatisfaction. Increased expectations associated with involvement may actually make employees more stressed. In enriched job design, individuals have greater responsibility and autonomy, possibly offering more choices and pleasurable experiences that contrast with feelings evoked by a pressured environment.
"Treating enriched job design and HIM as discrete has certainly been vindicated by our findings, as has taking a multi-dimensional approach to well-being," Wood says. "The study offers further grounds for encouraging policy makers and managers to put job quality high on their agendas."
Workplace data were collected by face-to-face interview with a manager in each workplace, and through a survey of employees.
###
Enriched job design, high involvement management and organizational performance: The mediating roles of job satisfaction and well-being by Stephen Wood, Marc van Veldhoven, Marcel Croon and Lilian M de Menezes is published today, January 20th in Human Relations.
The article will be free to access for a limited time here: http://hum.sagepub.com/
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan was hospitalized on Sunday night in Park City, Utah, where he was attending an awards ceremony as part of the Sundance Film Festival.
The "30 Rock" star?was taken to the Park City Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Amy Roberts confirmed to NBC News.
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
Actor Tracy Morgan attends a gala awards dinner at the Sundance film festival Sunday.
Morgan, 43, was being honored at the Creative Coalition Spotlight Awards.
Entertainment news website TMZ quoted unidentified?sources as saying the actor "appeared extremely intoxicated during his award acceptance speech".
However,?TMZ later?posted a statement from?Morgan's publicist, Lewis Kay, which said: "Any reports of Tracy consuming alcohol are 100 percent?false. From a combination of exhaustion and altitude, Tracy is seeking medical attention."
Morgan?was diagnosed with?diabetes in 1996. In 2010, he had a kidney transplant.
("30 Rock"?is broadcast?on NBC. Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and NBC Universal.)
NBC News?and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
GREENVILLE, S.C. ? Mitt Romney is heading into primary day conceding that he'll win some and lose some.
Romney on Friday acknowledged the contest here is "neck-and-neck" and said he expects to lose "some primaries" to rival Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker.
As voters head to the polls Saturday, Romney and Gingrich both planned to appear at the same breakfast restaurant in the morning. Both campaigns refused to change their schedules Friday night, potentially setting up a face-off between the two men ahead of the polls closing.
The past week has been an abrupt reversal of fortune for the former Massachusetts governor, who landed here last Wednesday after a big victory in New Hampshire and what was then a narrow win in Iowa.
But this week the Iowa GOP reversed his win there after problems with the vote count, and he's been dogged by questions about releasing his tax returns. And instead of emerging from South Carolina with three wins and a seeming lock on the GOP nomination, Romney and his team are now acknowledging they could lose here. That would leave the putative front-runner with just one early state win heading into Florida's Jan. 31 primary.
Romney's campaign planned at least two campaign stops Saturday ahead of polls closing. He planned to visit his campaign headquarters and Tommy's Country Ham House, where Gingrich also planned to stop. Romney was to end the day in Columbia, the state capital.
RALEIGH, N.C.?Bone-hunters and anthropologists typically guard their fossils as priceless specimens. I?ve learned to ask: ?Is that real or a cast?? when shown a specimen. Often it?s a replica. So, I was as thrilled as a 12-year-old today when I saw two real, contemporary human skeletons and several human skulls during a tour here of forensic anthropologist Ann Ross?s Osteology Lab in the Park Shops building at North Carolina State University (NCSU). (See Anna Kuchment?s longer article on this lab in the September 2010 issue of Scientific American, as well as this slide show and video that reveals other comparisons made by forensic anthropologists.) I admit to taking a ghoulish but also scientifically curious delight in learning about forensic science, and I?m clearly not alone given all the TV crime shows that trade on such details.
The focus in Ross?s lab, however, is as serious as murder. Anthropologists, entomologists and other experts at NCSU tackle about a dozen complicated cases a year referred to the Osteology Lab by the state medical examiner?typically dismemberment or child abuse cases. Ross?s lab will conduct analyses to determine the tool used by a criminal to cut apart bones. In fact, she casually pointed to several sawed-up pig bones set out on a lab bench. Their job: to help analysts determine whether a hand saw or powered saw was used in a recent human dismemberment case.
In Ross?s wet lab, tissue is removed from bones by boiling them in water for 30 minutes, or letting borax, bleach or laundry detergent go to work on them. Ross had set out a disarticulated skeleton on an exam table to show a group of us from the ScienceOnline2012 conference. Holding up a femur, then the skull, a radius and the pelvic girdle, she showed us some of the features used to identify corpses and determine the probable cause of death?worn-down processes, muscle-marked upper humerus, a retreating chin. DNA, radiographic, morphometric and dental data also contribute, when available. In this case, two bullet holes through the skull and an exit blast made the cause of death clear. Patterns of radiating fractures in the skull revealed which bullet struck first and gave clues about the caliber of the firearm used. Skull bone suture patterns accumulated over the first couple of decades of the victim?s life revealed clues to his ancestry?MesoAmerican. Missing teeth indicated poor nutrition.
Forensic anthropology has also been put to systematic use by Ross to help identify risk factors for genocide. Her studies have shown that genocide victims typically suffer from such conditions as poor nutrition, spina bifida, middle-ear infections and severe dental enamel defects. Preventive policy could be implemented in areas where a high presence of these factors confirms other social data to suggest an increased probability for regional genocide. She has conducted such analyses on bodies collected in Rwanda, Bosnia and Croatia.
Ross stresses that her role as a forensic anthropologist is to present the facts as clearly and as objectively as possible. ?I sit up nights and think about a case?did I miss something?? she said. Her goal is to ?bring resolution to someone who had no voice,? to people, often children, whose cases fell through the cracks of the criminal justice system.
Image caption: Case of human skulls in NCSU forensic anthropologist Ann Ross?s Osteology Lab. Can you tell which one is not a cast/replica? Credit: Robin Lloyd
NEW YORK ? Rihanna and Coldplay sing together on the group's latest album, and they'll do so again at next month's Grammy Awards.
Rihanna, who is nominated for four Grammys including album of the year for "Loud," tweeted the news to her followers Wednesday night, calling it "BONKERS."
Coldplay is up for three awards.
Paul McCartney was announced Thursday by The Recording Academy as another performer on the Feb. 12 broadcast.
McCartney is being honored during Grammy week as the MusiCares person of the year. His new album, "Kisses on the Bottom," will be released Feb. 7.
LL Cool J will host the show, to be broadcast on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Other performers include the Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and Jason Aldean.
Weekly unemployment benefit applications plunged last week to the lowest level in nearly four years, the latest sign the job market is improving.
Here are the states with the biggest changes in unemployment benefit applications, and some reasons for the changes. The state data are for the week ending Jan. 7, when applications rose. That's one week behind the national data.
States with the biggest increases:
New York: Up 29,389, due to layoffs in the transportation, education, and construction industries
California: Up 22,168, due to layoffs in services agriculture and fishing
Texas: Up 13,946, due to layoffs in manufacturing and services
North Carolina: Up 7,865, due to layoffs in the textiles and electronics industries
Georgia: Up 7,225, due to layoffs in the manufacturing, services, trade and construction industries
Pennsylvania: Up 6,441, due to layoffs in construction, services and retail
Tennessee: Up 6,289, due to layoffs in the service, construction and recreation industries
States with the biggest decreases:
Wisconsin: Down 7,657, no reason given
Michigan: Down 5,208, no reason given
Iowa: Down 4,675, due to fewer layoffs in manufacturing
New Jersey: Down 4,667, due to fewer layoffs in services, transportation and warehousing, and manufacturing
[unable to retrieve full-text content]DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ? The Bangladesh military said Thursday it foiled a plot by a group of hardline officers, their retired colleagues and Bangladeshi conspirators living abroad to overthrow Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration is providing senior state and local police officials with its analysis of homegrown terrorism incidents, including common signs law enforcement can use to identify violent extremists.
The warning signs identified for police include someone joining a group advocating violence, receiving support from a network that plans attacks or seeking out charismatic leaders who encourage violence. The analysis was conducted by the Homeland Security Department, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center. An overview of the findings was shared with The Associated Press.
The conference Wednesday at the White House marks the first time this unclassified analysis will be presented to 46 senior federal, state and local law enforcement officials, many of whom are police chiefs and sheriffs. The conference will also include sessions on other programs the federal government has for countering violent extremism and a briefing from a deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department about what the city has done on this front.
"Engaging local communities is critical to our nation's effort to counter violent extremism and violent crime, and this meeting brings together many of our partners," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and the president's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, planned to attend the White House conference.
There has been an uptick in attempted attacks by Americans and other legal U.S. residents in the past few years, prompting the Obama administration to place a priority on finding ways to stop this type of violence. The administration rolled out a thin strategy last year that put local communities ? not Washington ? in charge of countering violent extremism in the U.S. That strategy was short on details and did not focus on threats from Islamic extremists.
The White House has encouraged law enforcement to reach out to Muslim communities to build relationships, insisting that these communities are partners in the fight against terrorism. At the same time, the government is trying to develop ways to help local law enforcement detect behavior that could indicate someone is plotting a violent attack. The challenge has been to provide behavioral indicators that indicate the potential for violence rather than religious beliefs or other constitutionally-protected rights.
Analysts from the FBI, Homeland Security Department and National Counterterrorism Center reviewed 62 cases of homegrown violent extremists and found basic similarities. The cases included violent extremists who adhered to a mix of ideologies, including people who ascribed to white supremacist beliefs and people inspired by a violent interpretation of Islam. The analysis is not a psychological profile of a homegrown terrorist, but instead offers similarities among cases that could help local law enforcement better understand and detect threats.
In the 62 cases reviewed, the subjects increasingly spoke out against the government, blamed the government for perceived problems and did so in a way that caught the attention of other people in their communities, according to the senior counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private White House event. Subjects became active on the Internet to espouse extremist views. In some cases, the subjects purchased weapons, ammunition or explosive materials.
Analysts found that a person's origin, ethnic background and socioeconomic status are not good indicators for potential violent extremist activity, the senior counterterrorism official said.
Later this month, a training program for local law enforcement on countering violent extremism will be tested in Southern California, and the government intends to roll out the training to the rest of the country through 2012. Part of the training will focus on understanding constitutionally protected activities so law enforcement can distinguish between illegal acts and free speech. The official said the FBI academy plans to incorporate this training into its programs as well.
The FBI came under fire last year for some controversial training sessions that portrayed Islam as a violent religion.
ADDIS ABABA, Jan 18 (NNN-XINHUA) -- Africa's economy continues its strong march towards recovery, defying the global trend, according to the United Nations economic report for 2012.
The World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2012, which was launched on Tuesday, forecasts Africa to see an increase in its overall growth from 2.7 per cent in 2011 to 5.0 per cent in 2012 and 5.1 per cent in 2013.
This marks a pronounced recovery and a return to the solid growth trend which emerged after the peak of 2008 global economic crisis.
With strong recovery in many African countries, it is hoped that progress of social development goals, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular, should be accelerated in 2012 and 2013 towards 2015, said Adam Elhiraika, Chief of Macro-economic Analysis Section at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA), who was briefing journalists about the Report.
The Report says relatively strong commodity prices, solid external capital inflows and a continued expansion of demand and investment from Asia will be the important driving forces for the trend.
Countries across the continent will continue to have widely divergent growth outcomes owing to military conflicts, lack of infrastructure, corruption and severe drought, states the WESP.
In North Africa sub-region, Libya's economy is estimated to have contracted by 25 per cent in 2011 in the wake of the recent regime change, but reconstruction is expected to drive a rebound.
Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia are all expected to see a more pronounced increase in economic growth in 2012. Growth rates in the sub-region will remain constrained by uncertain political conditions, negatively affecting the tourism sector in particular, but the region should see a post-conflict bounce, says the Report.
In East Africa, Ethiopia will reflect continued infrastructure improvements, especially in the energy sector which overshadow the negative impact of drought conditions on agricultural output in some areas.
Kenya will see continued strength in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth figure, driven by infrastructure investment, the expansion of the telecommunication sector and increased banking participation rates. Uganda is also expected to see solid growth on the back of large energy investments, states the Report.
The WESP says there is relatively positive outlook for South Africa and energy producers in the region. South Africa is forecast to see stronger economic growth in 2012, underpinned by favorable external demand, continued fiscal stimulus and rising consumption driven by higher wages.
Elevated oil prices will continue to create significant upside potential for oil-producing economies such as Angola, Ghana and Nigeria. However, infrastructure shortfalls, especially in the energy sector, as well as political instability in the Niger Delta will prevent Nigeria from exploiting its full growth potential.
In Angola, the start of operations at a new liquefied natural gas project will boost growth in 2012, it says.
The Report also says despite the relatively solid expected growth trajectory in Africa, unemployment and poverty remain major problems.
Diversification, particularly into activities generating higher value added, a shortage of skilled workers and low productivity are among the underlying causes of the problems.
The UN notes that its economic outlook for Africa is subject to a number of downside risks.
"Debt crisis in Europe and in the U.S. could push the global economy into stagnation, affecting growth in developing countries. Under these adverse developments, Africa's external sector may contract significantly if commodity demand and prices, as well as tourism receipts, decrease," the report says.
In parallel to this, flows of official development assistance, foreign direct investment and remittance might also fall, negatively affecting Africa's development financing.
Such a scenario would reduce growth in Africa by 1.7 percentage points in 2012 and 1.5 percentage points in 2013, led by a pronounced economic slowdown in major economies such as South Africa and Nigeria.
The possibility of adverse weather conditions pose another significant downside risk, given the larger role of agriculture across the continent, says the Report. -- NNN-XINHUA
I think our purpose is, or should be, to sow skepticism in students? minds, to encourage them to doubt society?s dominant belief systems, whether political, economic, religious or scientific. After all, our certainty arguably gets us into trouble more than our skepticism does. When look at our country and the rest of the world, I see fanatics, not the diffident, causing most of the mayhem. Hence I?m always on the lookout for works that can undermine my students? faith, whatever forms it might take.
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Public release date: 23-Jan-2012
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RALEIGH, N.C.?Bone-hunters and anthropologists typically guard their fossils as priceless specimens. I?ve learned to ask: ?Is that real or a cast?? when shown a specimen. Often it?s a replica. So, I was as thrilled as a 12-year-old today when I saw two real, contemporary human skeletons and several human skulls during a tour here of forensic anthropologist Ann Ross?s Osteology Lab in the Park Shops building at North Carolina State University (NCSU). (See Anna Kuchment?s longer article on this lab in the September 2010 issue of Scientific American, as well as this slide show and video that reveals other comparisons made by forensic anthropologists.) I admit to taking a ghoulish but also scientifically curious delight in learning about forensic science, and I?m clearly not alone given all the TV crime shows that trade on such details.