Jews and Hindus ... God must be named Krishna!.

It's no secret that the distribution of wealth is inequitable in the United States across racial, regional, and socio-economic groups. But there is a distinct variance among and within America's faiths as well. This transparency takes a look at the income levels of America's major religious groups, as compared to the average U.S. income distribution.

Read more: http://www.good.is/post/transparency-america-s-wealthiest-religions/#ixzz0gTEZO6ek
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

The UW as Animal Farm

From the AAUP listserve:  The Seattle Times reports that "Among the donors are President Mark Emmert, Provost Phyllis Wise, the head football and basketball coaches, as well as the athletic director, vice presidents and vice provosts, deans and chancellors." are going to make donations for ine year of 5% of their incomes to assoreted UW causes .... my reply:

While any charitable contributions in a time of need are to be applauded, this gesture of good will has a sad limitations. The amount given and the conditions are so meager that the UW management appears to be a separate class from the faculty and staff. This management class, however well intended, seems to being cutting itself off from the ability to serve as credible leaders for a broader based effort to encourage faculty, staff, the community and the legislature to contribute to our shared enterprise.

Please note that the designation of the recipients of this money is discretionary, there likely will be no public record, the amount pledged is considerably less than the amount Dr. Wise claimed she has already given, and ... of course the contribution is a useful tax write-off.

Wouldn't it have been far better to make a more considerable contribution to a fund devoted to scholarships and ask the entire faculty and staff to join together behind the effort?

story from Seattle Times

Some college staff to give part of salary back to UW
Amid tuition hikes and budget cuts, some of the University of Washington's highest-paid higher-ups are tithing a portion of their incomes back to the school. Actually, half of a tithe: Senior UW leaders will donate 5 percent of their salaries to student scholarships and academic programs, the university announced Thursday.

By Mark Rahner

Seattle Times staff reporter

Amid tuition hikes and budget cuts, some of the University of Washington's highest-paid higher-ups are tithing a portion of their incomes back to the school. Actually, half of a tithe: Senior UW leaders will donate 5 percent of their salaries to student scholarships and academic programs, the university announced Thursday.

Among the donors are President Mark Emmert, Provost Phyllis Wise, the head football and basketball coaches, as well as the athletic director, vice presidents and vice provosts, deans and chancellors.

The contributions are expected to be more than $600,000.

"People throughout the university are working extraordinarily hard," Emmert said in a statement Thursday. "Our senior leaders decided to demonstrate their support for our people who have taken on extra work and larger classes to serve our students. The funds we are donating will help students and faculty in these difficult times. I am very proud of my colleagues' commitment and generosity."

Emmert is the second-highest paid public-university president in the country, with a compensation package of $905,000, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Emmert also sits on the board of two local Fortune 500 companies.

Wise, UW's No. 2 administrator, makes $535,000 annually in salary and deferred compensation, and holds a seat on Nike's corporate board.

UW football coach Steve Sarkisian makes $1.833 million.

The donations are for one year only, said UW director of media relations Norm Arkans — who pointed out that most of the donors routinely give money back to the university. Each of the donors will decide how his or her money is spent. "That's really their decision based on their philanthropic interests," Arkans said.

How much of a difference will the 5 percent make in light of the tuition hikes and budget cuts?

"It doesn't make up for it because there's nothing that replaces the state dollars that we've lost — $90 million this biennium," Arkans said. "What private funds do is support student scholarships, faculty endowments, professorships and chairs."

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com

RN-T.com - E28098NonprofitE28099 doesnE28099t apply to hospital CEOs

RN-T.com - E28098NonprofitE28099 doesnE28099t apply to hospital CEOs: "‘Nonprofit’ doesn’t apply to hospital CEOs
by Kris Hundley
1 day ago | 696 views | 0 0 comments | 11 11 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Nobody would ever suggest it is easy to run a 950-bed hospital that employs 5,000 people and brings in close to $1 billion in revenue annually.

But is it really a job that should pay more than twice as much as a hospital that’s half the size? And should the pay be equivalent to that of somebody running a seven-hospital system with more than twice the revenue?"

Obama is sending a wrong message

Obama is sending a wrong message: "What would the US government feel and react if Chinese leaders meet someone who has been carrying out activities for the independence of one of its state, say Alaska? ......

If Obama put himself in Chinese people's shoes, he would not meet Dalai Lama. He insisted on meeting Dalai Lama despite China's strong opposition because he gauges the question of Tibet and the Dalai Lama with a different yardstick.

With the Cold War mentality in his sub-conscientiousness, he can hardly shake off the obsession that China is a Communist state and is an enemy of the United States when it comes to ideology. As a result, he has turned a blind eye to the fact that Tibet has been part of China for hundreds of years and the history of Tibet as part of China is much longer than the history of the United States.

If Dalai Lama has any reason to claim sovereignty for Tibet as an independent country, the Indian tribes have far more reasons to drive most of the Americans out of the United States.

Obama has also turned a blind eye to the fact that peace and religion are a cover Dalai Lama uses for covert activities for his attempt to split Tibet from China. The Chinese government has said, for many times, that the door for negotiation is always open to Dalai Lama as long as he gives up his attempt to split Tibet from the motherland.

By meeting Dalai Lama, Obama is sending a message to those separatists that they have the support of the world's only superpower for their illegal activities.

By meeting this man who does not mean what he says, Obama is doing something detrimental to the Sino-US relations and has showed disrespect for the Chinese people.

By doing so, he is portraying himself as a man of double standards and of no principle in Chinese people's eyes.

By doing so, he is giving the impression that he told lies or at least did not speak from the bottom of his heart when promising to promote Sino-US relations."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

We Need Medical Prostitution!

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Follow-up to Monday’s DOC Post: "

Roger Rabbit at HA celebrates the right of prosecutors t decide NOT to enforce laws vs. marijuana. .....


As for the medical MJ issue, the whole argument is worthy of a Church lawyer! The prohibiton against THC is not based in any science. But many laws we have are not based in science. MJ is banned because of a taboo … along with polygamy, incest (with birth control), sodomy (until recently), public exposure, using the N word, burning a cross, and dozens of other things our society has created as taboos.

Which is more harmful to you … sex for pay or inhaling MJ? Maybe we need to legalize medical prostitution? I am certain there as many “patients” who would benefit from a good fuck as would benefit from smoking weed.

So, my question for Roger Rabbit, NP, JD (Nobelist of Pookahs and Divinity of Jurisprudence) is this:

Are there ANY limitations on prosecutorial justice? Could a prosecutor, in effect, legalize prostitution?"

Will Washington miss out on federal education money?

Will Washington miss out on federal education money?: "Will Washington miss out on federal education money?

By BRIAN SLODYSKO
SPECIAL TO SEATTLEPI.COM

The federal government will soon dispense billions of dollars to states that undertake serious efforts to reform their flagging school districts, and Gov. Chris Gregoire says Washington ought to be among those who get a cut."

Who and How Much the State Pays for Education and for Medical Care

Response to a comment at AAUP listserv (see below)

Good post.

I do think, however, that you conflate issues.

Your comments about college are all too true. Personally I would expand your comments by asking are we even sending the right kids to college?" many who now go to college in effect are getting remedial high school at a huge price.

The Med Ed seems to me to be another affair entirely. First, I have seen no data that the says the existence of specialists is the major cause of UW overcostly medicine. Second, I am not sure that it is even true that Americans get fewer procedures than Swedes. Third, the Swedish retirement and job security systems make it impossible to compare the value of salaries here with the salaries in Sverige.

A bigger question here is why we need 16 years post secondary school to train someone for the functions of a general medical officer? Military medics, nurse practitioners, etc are as useful as full MDs for a lot of the care you are discussing. To make matters worse we are now taking these 16 years educated folks and restricting them form hospitals practice. As a result, they are way overeducated for what they do.

Does it really makie sense to set very high admissions criteria, then require 16 years of school and then tell someone they can not take inb the more intellectually challenging part of their profession?

--
Stephen M. Schwartz
Pathology



Comment by John Sahr on an editorial by two presidents of pricey private colleges bemoaning loss of state support for their stu8dents...

The problem with asserting 'the one thing the state can't afford' is this: it assumes that we are all right-thinking people.

It's interesting that Thomas and Anderson are the presidents of two (very nice) private colleges, with tuitions far in excess of those charged by the public baccalaureates in WA. ($35,000 and (approximately) $26,000 (quick web search)). Note that those tuitions exceed even the non-resident tuition of the UW.

upshot: the UW is a bargain, at least relatively.

[ note that the OSPI subsidy to public K-12 schools is about $4700/year/student. No wonder that local school levy bonds perpetually exist. ]

But is the UW a bargain, in an absolute sense? How much should a college education cost? Are UPS and PLU and Harvard just over-the-top?

-------

Think about medical school for a moment: Med Schools can charge just about anything they want to charge: why?

(a) because students will pay it, to become docs.
(b) because banks would *love* to lend money to docs at the start of their careers.
(c) ... and thus the med schools don't have any real brakes on the tuition they charge.

At the output end, we get docs (*very* well trained) who emerge from their training and residency, at age 30-35, somewhere around a quarter million dollars in debt.

These proto docs need to make a lot of money. They really do have to make a lot of money. It's not an option. It totally works for the banks to have these docs start their careers deeply in debt. It also explains why 'docs' may seem to be pretty hawkish about the medical finance system.

It also explains why we are long on specialists, and short on General Internal Medicine docs, Family Practice Docs, and ObGyn docs, docs in exurb and rural communities --- because (loosely speaking) GIs are not specialized enough to pay for their debt. Even though the GIs and FPs are arguably the most cost efficient docs we can have.

------

Suppose we had a higher education system in which proto docs emerged

(a) through pure merit, and
(b) without much debt, and
(c) at age 30.

They wouldn't need to aggressively look for jobs that pay $200k and up per year.
They wouldn't have to accept exotic careers like that of Paul Farmer.

Sweden, for example; one of a dozen countries where the average lifespan exceeds that of the US. Of course, the demographics of the US are much more complicated than Sweden, ... but we are spending $2.5T/year or ($8k per capita) on health care. And for what?

jds

HELP

CLICK HERE FOR HELP!

On Buggy Whips

Gmail - [Aaup] How a world university dies, not with a bang but many whimpers - stephenm.schwartz@gmail.com: "Ira

It is not obvious that the librarian profession or the libraries are apt for the new technology. This may be a labor and professional issue as much as it is a budget issue.

The budget issue goes beyond campuses and libraries. Both publishers and professional societies have made their way around income tied to the book/library model. Despite the obvious (to me) fact that new technologies make reference works and textbooks obsolete, they continue to be a big cost because publishers make profits and librarians are employed.

Subscriptions are a great example. As web publications there really would be no technological reason not to have open access .. as Larry Yaffe suggested. Access is restricted because someone is making money off of the restriction. Google and even better tools are qualitatively different than the disciplines we think of as ,libraries and the profession of librarians.

Leaving aside the corporate and society money issues, imagine a world where all science and even humanities and social science was published via the web. With no one to control subscriptions or access, why would there be libraries?It seems to me that new instituions and professions are beginning to evolve as we speak."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Cat Toys

Found: Pet Toys From the Future | Magazine

Swiss Values

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten: "The World from Berlin
'Isolation is No Longer an Option for Switzerland'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said her government might pay a hefty sum -- again -- for stolen banking details on potential German tax cheats. Her attitude has riled the Swiss, who consider private banking to be a sacred business tradition. more..."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

SLU, the BLOG for UW and biology at SLU: The Editor: Hal

SLU, the BLOG for UW and biology at SLU: The Editor: Hal: "The Editor: Hal
Meet Eureka!

About | Eureka! Science News: 'Meet Eureka!
Meet our editor

There is no human editor behind e! Science News; it is powered by the Eureka! news engine,

Its sole purpose is to ensure that you have access to the very latest and popular science breakthroughs. To achieve this, it constantly surfs the web to gather, regroup, categorize, tag and rank science news from all major science news sources.

It computes relationships between science articles and news found on the web using a vector space model and hierarchical clustering. It then automatically determines in which category each news item belongs using a Naive Bayes classifier. Finally, it examines multiple parameters (such as timeliness, rate of appearance on the web, number of sources reporting the news, etc) for each news group. The result is an e! score which represents the relative importance of a news item.

Thanks to Eureka!, you now have a smart way to keep up to date with fast-evolving science!

e! Science News was built and is maintained by Michael Imbeault, PhD student in Retrovirology & Bioinformatics"

Clothing Choices, 1941 and Today | The New York Public Library

Clothing Choices, 1941 and Today | The New York Public Library: "Clothing Choices, 1941 and Today

by Jessica Pigza, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Rare Book Division
January 24, 2010

There's much being written (Cheap and A Year Without 'Made in China' are two recent examples) these days about the ethics behind the quality and quantity of what we buy and consume--including clothing. So when I came upon this 1941 wardrobe survey in Design for Living, I wanted to share it."

The Ticker - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Ticker - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Yale President Warns of the Rise of Asia's Universities

China is pumping so much money into the expansion of its higher-education system that its universities will rival the best in Britain and the United States within a generation, Yale University's president, Richard C. Levin, said in an interview with The Guardian, a British newspaper. But Mr. Levin, who delivered a speech on Monday at the Royal Society on 'The Rise of Asia's Universities,' told The Guardian that he does not consider the rise of Asian universities as a threat. 'Competition in education is a positive sum game,' he said. 'Increasing the quality of education around the world translates into better informed and more productive citizens.'"

Message from The Deity

Do not take My Name in vain.

What a small God I would be if I insisted that you call me by My “real” name. As I told Moses, “I am that I am.” I am called by many names but have no name other than the Names you call me by.

Not all people hear me in the same way. But the law is My voice. The make as law for you, I make for you to give to others as a gift. To do else is to take MY name in vain.

You say you have read My word. but perhaps you read only a corrupted text. Here are My words again, in American … no need for translation into your tongue.

First, you shall not make wrongful use of My name, for the I will not acquit anyone who misuses My name for ends not of My law. Do not take My Name in vain.

Second, My law is the only Name you need. Show love to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments. strong> To do else is to take My Name in vain.


Third Do not have any other gods before me. I say “before” because the only worship I need is your love for each other. That is My law. My law is as simple as this: do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. To do else is to take My name in vain.

This simple law has many forms:


Fourth, Ninth Do not worship a statue or a name but honor your father and your mother, your teachers and benefactors. They do my will. To do else is to take my name in vain.

Fifth, do not murder. To do else is to take MY name in vain.

Sixth, do not not steal what belongs to others,To do else is to take MY name in vain.

Seventh Do not steal the love of those in love with each other or trespass between the commitments of those who have committed to each other. To do else is to take My Name in vain,


Eighth Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. To do else is to take MY name in vain.

Ninth, Preserve and better My creation. For six days you shall labor and do all your work. To waste what I made is to take My Name in vain.

Tenth On the seventh day, My Sabbath, I have told one of My chosen people, the Jews, not do any work nor impose work on their children, their employees or slaves, their livestock, or the alien resident in their towns. This is mM gift to the Jews, it is a gift you should treasure. To do else is to take My name in vain.

Nor have I given special access to some who claim to know My Name. That is your choice, not Mine. Do not call unto Me through the glare of your hatred of your fellows. To do else is to take MY name in vain.

Beware .. some of what is written IS not of My law:

I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.