1
Science
Baffling 400,000-Year-Old Clue to Human Origins
DNA from a fossil in Spain most closely matches another extinct human lineage, Denisovans, whose remains have been found thousands of miles away in Siberia.
2
Opinion
Shameful Profiling of the Mentally Ill
America turned back a Canadian who was traveling for a vacation cruise because she had been hospitalized for depression the previous year.
3
U.S.
Bishops Sued Over Anti-Abortion Policies at Catholic Hospitals
The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of a Michigan woman, is suing Catholic bishops, arguing that their anti-abortion guidelines to affiliated hospitals are leading to medical negligence.
4
Opinion
Can Foreign Aid Help This Girl?
Haiti has been Exhibit A for foreign aid skeptics. But one Haitian woman, backed by California high school students, is an example of what can be achieved.
5
Style
How Much Would You Pay to Have a Baby?
We were sad when our first I.V.F. failed. But we were also surprised at how quickly so much of our savings could disappear.
6
Health
Muscle Aches From Statins? Drug Interactions May Play a Role
Many people who take statin drugs complain of muscle pain and soreness. A new study suggests that these side effects may sometimes be a result of combining statins with other medications.
7
Education
Urban Schools Aim for Environmental Revolution
Six big-city school systems are combining their purchasing power to persuade suppliers to sell healthier and more environment-friendly products, like compostable food trays, at low prices.
8
World
Hong Kong Gets First Case of Avian Flu Virus
The virus’s spread to Hong Kong is alarming given the city’s status as an international transportation hub and its history as the epicenter of the SARS epidemic.
9
Opinion
The Poor Need Cheap Fossil Fuels
Coal may be dirty, but so are dung fires used for heat and cooking.
10
U.S.
Underachieving Congress Appears in No Hurry to Change Things Now
The House straggled back to the Capitol on Monday night with just two weeks left before its likely entry into the Congressional record book for underachievement.The Punishment Cure
Merry Christmas.
Now, the G.O.P.’s desire to punish the unemployed doesn’t arise solely
from bad economics; it’s part of a general pattern of afflicting the
afflicted while comforting the comfortable (no to food stamps, yes to
farm subsidies). But ideas do matter — as John Maynard Keynes famously wrote,
they are “dangerous for good or evil.” And the case of unemployment
benefits is an especially clear example of superficially plausible but
wrong economic ideas being dangerous for evil.
Here’s the world as many Republicans see it: Unemployment insurance, which generally pays eligible workers between 40 and 50 percent
of their previous pay, reduces the incentive to search for a new job.
As a result, the story goes, workers stay unemployed longer. In
particular, it’s claimed that the Emergency Unemployment Compensation
program, which lets workers collect benefits beyond the usual limit of
26 weeks, explains why there are four million long-term unemployed workers in America today, up from just one million in 2007.
Correspondingly, the G.O.P. answer to the problem of long-term
unemployment is to increase the pain of the long-term unemployed: Cut
off their benefits, and they’ll go out and find jobs. How, exactly, will
they find jobs when there are three times as many job-seekers as job vacancies? Details, details.
Proponents of this story like to cite academic research
— some of it from Democratic-leaning economists — that seemingly
confirms the idea that unemployment insurance causes unemployment.
They’re not equally fond of pointing out that this research is two or
more decades old, has not stood the test of time, and is irrelevant in
any case given our current economic situation.
The view of most labor economists
now is that unemployment benefits have only a modest negative effect on
job search — and in today’s economy have no negative effect at all on
overall employment. On the contrary, unemployment benefits help create
jobs, and cutting those benefits would depress the economy as a whole.
Ask yourself how, exactly, ending unemployment benefits would create
more jobs. It’s true that some of the currently unemployed, finding
themselves even more desperate than before, might manage to snatch jobs
away from those who currently have them. But what would give businesses a
reason to employ more workers as opposed to replacing existing workers?
You might be tempted to argue that more intense competition among
workers would lead to lower wages, and that cheap labor would encourage
hiring. But that argument involves a fallacy of composition. Cut the
wages of some workers relative to those of other workers, and those
accepting the wage cuts may gain a competitive edge. Cut everyone’s
wages, however, and nobody gains an edge. All that happens is a general
fall in income — which, among other things, increases the burden of
household debt, and is therefore a net negative for overall employment.
The point is that employment in today’s American economy is limited by
demand, not supply. Businesses aren’t failing to hire because they can’t
find willing workers; they’re failing to hire because they can’t find
enough customers. And slashing unemployment benefits — which would have
the side effect of reducing incomes and hence consumer spending — would
just make the situation worse.
Still, don’t expect prominent Republicans to change their views, except
maybe to come up with additional reasons to punish the unemployed. For
example, Senator Rand Paul recently cited research suggesting that the
long-term unemployed have a hard time re-entering the work force as a
reason to, you guessed it, cut off long-term unemployment benefits. You
see, those benefits are actually a “disservice” to the unemployed.
The good news, such as it is, is that the White House and Senate
Democrats are trying to make an issue of expiring unemployment benefits.
The bad news is that they don’t sound willing to make extending
benefits a precondition for a budget deal, which means that they aren’t really willing to make a stand.
So the odds, I’m sorry to say, are that the long-term unemployed will be
cut off, thanks to a perfect marriage of callousness — a complete lack
of empathy for the unfortunate — with bad economics. But then, hasn’t
that been the story of just about everything lately?"
11
Business Day
Large Companies Prepared to Pay Price on Carbon
More than two dozen major American corporations are preparing to pay climate-related taxes, departing from conservative orthodoxy and exposing divisions between the Republican Party and its business supporters.
12
Science
In New Jersey Pines, Trouble Arrives on Six Legs
A beetle invasion of New Jersey’s Pinelands, said to be caused by global warming, has drawn little attention, and scientists say the state has been too slow in its response.
13
Fashion & Style
But Who Am I Now?
Thanks to the ever-tightening web of the Patriot Act, it has become almost impossible for a woman to juggle two last names.
14
Technology
Internet Firms Step Up Efforts to Stop Spying
After surveillance by the National Security Agency, major Internet companies like Microsoft and Yahoo have moved to strengthen protections of users’ data.
15
Arts
Swiss Open Inquiry Into Collection That Was Transferred to Unicef
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into how one of the world’s largest private art collections was transferred from a private foundation to the global charity Unicef."Gustav Rau was born on January 21 1922 at Stuttgart. His father ran the family company manufacturing parts for motor cars, which prospered due to its connections with Mercedes-Benz.
Gustav grew up fascinated by painting and scuplture, especially that of the Dutch and Flemish artists whose works he saw on visits to museums with his parents.
After school, he began reading Political Science at the University of Tubingen, but at 19, on the outbreak of the Second World War, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht.
He later deserted, escaped from Germany and joined the British Army in 1944. On demobilisation he returned to Tubingen to complete his degree before going to work for the family business.
His heart did not lie in the motor trade, however, and in 1962, at the age of 40, Rau began to study medicine, specialising in tropical diseases and paediatrics. He graduated in 1969 and a year later sold the business that he had inherited from his father and went to work as a doctor in Nigeria.
He then moved to the Belgian Congo (later Zaire), where he built a hospital at Ciriri, near the eastern town of Bukavu, and served as a doctor for the surrounding community.
The hospital treated 2,000 patients each year. He also established a centre for malnutrition which was feeding up to 15,000 people each day during the Rwandan civil war."
Five or six years service in the wartime Wehrmacht. Able to join the British
Army in 1944. The month is important.
"D-Day, the date of the initial assaults, was Tuesday 6 June 1944"
It could have been North Africa.
A haunted life.
16
Opinion
Sex and the Single Priest
There are hints that Pope Francis may take up the issue of a celibate, and lonely, clergy.
17
N.Y. / Region
Christie Ally Resigning From Port Authority
After New Jersey lawmakers questioned whether lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in September were politically motivated, the transportation official who ordered them said he would leave Jan. 1.
18
Books
The Somme
In a wordless, 24-foot-long panorama, Joe Sacco illustrates the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
19
Automobiles
Hyundai, BMW, McLaren, Dodge and Mercedes-Benz Issue Recalls
The recalls involve various safety problems, from rusting control arms on Hyundais to an engine control software problem on BMW motorcycles.
20
N.Y. / Region
A Maniac Fights to Prove Murder by the Police
“Accidental Death of an Anarchist,” by Dario Fo, is based on a real event, a suspicious fall from the window of a Milan police station.
1
Opinion
Shameful Profiling of the Mentally Ill
America turned back a Canadian who was traveling for a vacation cruise because she had been hospitalized for depression the previous year.
2
World
Hong Kong Gets First Case of Avian Flu Virus
The virus’s spread to Hong Kong is alarming given the city’s status as an international transportation hub and its history as the epicenter of the SARS epidemic.
5
Business Day
Large Companies Prepared to Pay Price on Carbon
More than two dozen major American corporations are preparing to pay climate-related taxes, departing from conservative orthodoxy and exposing divisions between the Republican Party and its business supporters.
8
12
Science
An Older Buddha, and Disease Numbers Good and Bad
The World Health Organization increased its estimate of 2009 swine flu deaths, while researchers in Pittsburgh may have put a number on the cases of contagious disease prevented by vaccines.
13
U.S.
Bishops Sued Over Anti-Abortion Policies at Catholic Hospitals
The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of a Michigan woman, is suing Catholic bishops, arguing that their anti-abortion guidelines to affiliated hospitals are leading to medical negligence.
14
Sports
Thursday’s Matchup: Texans (2-10) at Jaguars (3-9)
The Jaguars will probably win a home game for the first time in more than a year.
15
Magazine
Video: Capturing America at Its Plainest
To create his large-format photographs of the Great Plains region, Andrew Moore chartered a two-person plane and attached his camera to the wing.Yes.
16
Magazine
Life Along the 100th Meridian
The middle of the country is gorgeous from the air — and a very hard place on the ground.
17
Opinion
A More Open Myanmar
The military relaxes its grip, but foreign investors should push for greater democracy.
18
World
Kurds’ Oil Deals With Turkey Raise Fears of Fissures in Iraq
Iraqi Kurds are selling oil and natural gas directly to Turkey, upsetting Baghdad and Washington, which fear a broader independence for Kurds in Iraq’s north.
19
The crack in the G.O.P. coalition could use some wedging.
20
U.S.
Underachieving Congress Appears in No Hurry to Change Things Now
The House straggled back to the Capitol on Monday night with just two weeks left before its likely entry into the Congressional record book for underachievement.
1
11
Opinion
The Case for Filth
The only possible solution to the gender divide on housework is for everyone to do a lot less of it.
12
I have no doubts.
You can deal with our government as you must.
13
14
This is not about art but about guilt and trust.
16
Afghanistan is an Islamic nation ruled under Sharia law.
I expect the role of women will be traditional.
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