Archive for the ‘Society and culture’ Category
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
A follow-up to my recent posting on the break-down of national pay talks in Ireland. The unions have now developed guidelines for local bargaining platforms:
Under the guidelines, unions are to seek flat-rate increases of €30 per week for low-paid workers and rises that match inflation - about 5 per cent ...
Posted in Labour issues, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Approximately 225,000 people left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina flooded most city neighborhoods in August 2005. A sizeable number came from the 9th ward. Some 1800 people died during the floods; later, hundreds more succumbed to stress-related ailments. [Saul Landau]
My parents visited the US recently, and we took the opportunity ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Income and poverty, Political activism, Society and culture | Comments Off
Monday, July 21st, 2008
The American Federation of Teachers - with which my union, the GEO, is affiliated - has voted to endorse a bill to provide Universal Healthcare in the United States:
HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system in the U.S. by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident.
HR ...
Posted in Political activism, Society and culture | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
The latest edition of Comreg's Quarterly Report (pdf) is now available, and it's got some interesting nuggets hidden in it. First, VoIP is now showing up in call volumes - although Comreg only tracks certain VoIP services, and not internet-based offerings such as Skype. There's a suggestion in the report that ...
Posted in Computing Technology, Society and culture | Comments Off
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
Back in 2004 I posted an item about an artist who had been arrested and charged with terrorism-related charges. Steven Kurtz had been using (harmless) bacteria as part of various art projects, as part of his work with the Critical Art Ensemble. He has recently - 4 years later - ...
Posted in Political activism, Prisons and crime, Society and culture | Comments Off
Saturday, May 10th, 2008
WRFU had a stand at the Urbana Farmers' Market (video) today, and I was there from 10-12. It's really a nice atmosphere, and a good chance to meet with a range of people. It's still early - no corn that I saw (though of course there was kettle corn), more flowers than ...
Posted in Personal, Radio, Society and culture | Comments Off
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
When I'm talking with my students about their news diet, at least some - though not as many as you might think - will mention the Daily Show or similar satirical content. I've repeatedly commented that my sense is that the Daily Show doesn't inform viewers about what's happening in ...
Posted in Corporate media, International Affairs, Society and culture, Trivia | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
A number of items today, from a range of sources.
First, the picture to the left is of Labour TD Joe Costello, who for the last 5 years has run a weekly protest outside the Mater hospital, calling for better healthcare.
Second, potentially good news for grad employees in private universities in ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Education, Income and poverty, International Affairs, Labour issues, Political activism, Society and culture | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
This from the Comreg list:ComReg was asked by ECORYS for help in identifying consumers who are willing to participate in a short web-survey on customer needs for postal services. This is part of a study that ECORYS is undertaking for the European Commission on The Main Developments in the Postal ...
Posted in International law and structures, Media regulation, Society and culture | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
The latest edition of WPCC, focused on community radio is now available. Some interesting papers for anyone interested in the area.
Posted in Alternative Media, Radio, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
