Hospital work is thought to be recession-proof. No
matter what the economy, people get sick and need care.
The work is there, but at a cost: hospital workers and
researchers say some hospitals are churning through a
round of reorganization, strapping on more work,
skimping on training, and trying to stuff contract
concessions through.
Increased hospital workloads are linked to bad
economies: the last big push started in the early '90s
downturn, says Judy Shindul-Rothschild, who researches
nursing at Boston College.
While the Left Party in Germany scored 12 per cent in
the recent Bundestag elections, in the rest of eastern
Europe the left still languishes in the post-Soviet
doldrums. Leigh Phillips spoke to Stefan Zgliczynski
and Jane Hardy about its prospects
Poland is the country where the seeds of the fall of
communism were first sown. Stefan Zgliczyski, the
publisher of the Polish edition of Le Monde
Diplomatique, remains quite pessimistic about the state
of the left in the former Soviet bloc. But Jane Hardy,
the author of Poland's New Capitalism, just published
by Pluto ...
The conviction of the Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia
Siddiqui in New York last week of trying to kill
American military officers and FBI agents illustrates
that the greatest danger to our security comes not from
al-Qaida but the thousands of shadowy mercenaries,
kidnappers, killers and torturers our government
employs around the globe.
The bizarre story surrounding Siddiqui, 37, who
received an undergraduate degree from MIT and a
doctorate in neuroscience from Brandeis University,
ofte...
We've always known that America's reign as the world's
greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us
imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be
something grand and tragic.
What we're getting instead is less a tragedy than a
deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of
imperial overstretch, we're paralyzed by procedure.
Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome,
we're re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century
Poland.
Reader Submissions
1. Temple Grandin Film Glosses Over a Destructive Industry
2. Join the Climate Trial
3. Reportback from Copenhagen, Event in Beacon, N.Y.
===
1.
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010
From: Bill Crain
Subject: Temple Grandin Film Glosses Over a Destructive Industry
Temple Grandin Film Glosses Over a Destructive Industry
William Crain*
On February 4, HBO premiered its film, "Temple
Grandin," about the widely admired autistic woman who
has designed more humane slaughterhouses for cattle.
The film is well-acted and movingly portrays Grandin's
struggles to develop her personal potential. The film
has received highly favorable reviews, including praise
from food production scientists. But its triumphant
ending is misleading. The film gives the impressio...
This report reviews unionization rates, the size and
composition of the unionized workforce, and the wage and
benefit advantage for union workers in each of the fifty
states and the District of Columbia, using the most
recent data available and focusing on the period
2003-2009. Pooling data from the monthly Current
Population Survey (CPS) over that period yields a sample
size large enough to look at the experi...
How the mighty have fallen. Just a few years ago, an
overconfident Bush administration expected to oust Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein, pacify the country, install a
compliant client government, privatize the economy, and
establish Iraq as the political and military
headquarters for a dominating U.S. presence in the
Middle East. These successes were, in turn, expected to
pave the way for ambitious goals, enshrined in...
When I write about US foreign policy in places such as
Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who
find it difficult to believe that the US government
would care enough about these countries to try and
control or topple their governments. These are small,
poor countries with little in the way of resources or
markets. Why should Washington p...
The Dawn of Civilization: Writing, Urban Life, and Warfare
An extraordinary ancient Syrian settlement shines a
light on one of the most important moments in human
history.
by Andrew Lawler
Discover Magazine
From the December 2009 issue
published online February 3, 2010
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/dec/03-dawn-of-civilization-writing-urban-life-warfare
Joan Oates's sharp blue eyes spotted something that was
not right. Standing on the windy summit of a vast,
human-made mound in northeastern Syria, the wiry 81-
year-old archaeologist noticed an ugly scar that had
been left by a backhoe on one of the smaller mounds
ringing the ancient city of Nagar, w...
Melissa Rose Mitchell was discouraged. After taking the
Medical College Admission Test, she was uneasy about
applying to medical schools. In prep courses for the
exams, she had glimpsed her future as a doctor, and she
didn't like the environment she saw. "People were like,
'What kind of doctor do you want to be?' and it was all
based o...
