Friday, November 16, 2007

Carnival of Podcasts

Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist (CATO Event)or Watch it here

Should American Workers Fear or Embrace Globalization?
- Bhagwati

Nassim Taleb Says Banks Repeat `Same Mistake' on Risk

Election 2008 Debate
The economic advisors to the top presidential candidates debate on November 9, 2007. Participating were: Gene Sperling, Economic Adviser to Hillary Clinton; Michael Boskin, Economic Adviser to Rudolph Giuliani; Leo Hindery, Economic Adviser to John Edwards;Doug Holtz-Eakin, Economic Adviser to John McCain; Austan Goolsbee, Economic Adviser to Barack Obamain. Where is Mankiw?

Cato Institute 25th Annual Monetary Conference

Reforming U.S. Foreign Aid

The Future of Radical Islam in Europe

The Pursuit of Black Gold: Pipeline Politics on the Caspian Sea

Muslim Life in America

Lucy Hawking
Her father has just taken a spin on the 'Vomit Comet': Stephen Hawking left his wheel chair where he's been trapped for 35 years and flew weightless care of NASA. Now he's joined with his daughter Lucy in writing a book about George who explores black holes and outer space in a similarly adventurous way. Lucy Hawking talks about her novel for kids and the activities of her famous father - George's Secret Key To The Universe.

Invitation to Terror: the expanding empire of the unknown

Dr Mindfulness: science and the meditation boom

Krishna
The most popular God of Hinduism, and the 8th avatar of Vishnu, Hinduism's highest God, Krishna famously appears as Arjuna's charioteer and counsellor in the Bhagavad-Gita

Economic embrace: China and the US
China holds around $1.5-trillion in foreign currency reserves and economists estimate that about 75 per cent of that could be US debt. Americans are also hooked on cheap Chinese-made consumer goods, causing a huge imbalance in trade between the two countries. What are the implications of this now volatile economic embrace?

A test in ethics and politics, and America's religious right
The Centre for an Ethical Society has just released its ratings of the main political parties going into the federal election. The Democrats and the Greens scored high on the CES 'Good Samaritan Index', but the Coalition scored a big F. Also, find out why ageing US television evangelist Pat Robertson has endorsed cross-dressing, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual candidate, Rudy Giuliani, for the Republican presidential nomination

The power of blogging


Musharraf's media
Social commentator and blogger Manan Ahmed about the crackdown on the media in Pakistan.

Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit: The Best Curses, Put-downs and Invective from around the World

Talking Norf'k
The spoken language known as 'Norf'k' came into being, then declined. It is currently undergoing something of a revival but this may have come too late, as it was recently declared 'endangered' by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.

Abolition of British slave trade
Although actual slavery continued for longer, in 1807 the Slave Trade Act was abolished, making it illegal to carry slaves in British ships to the colonies.
We look at a new gallery opening this month in London which traces the history of Britain's long and lucrative involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

A conversation with Don Stewart
This week, we revisit a conversation with a man who has spent most of his life fighting corruption. Don Stewart started his career as a police officer, then went on to be a barrister, a judge, a royal commissioner, and the founding chairman of the National Crime Authority.

John Buchanan: The cricket coach
If cricket is a team game played by inidividuals, what does a coach do? The Australian cricket team has enjoyed an extraordinary purple patch over the past decade, and for much of it the man with the clipboard was John Buchanan.

Tennis Cheats

THE DISCOVERY OF OXYGEN
In 1772, the British chemist, Joseph Priestley, stood in front of the Royal Society and reported on his latest discovery:

“this air is of exalted nature…A candle burned in this air with an amazing strength of flame; and a bit of red hot wood crackled and burned with a prodigious rapidity. But to complete the proof of the superior quality of this air, I introduced a mouse into it; and in a quantity in which, had it been common air, it would have died in about a quarter of an hour; it lived at two different times, a whole hour, and was taken out quite vigorous.”

Priestley had discovered Oxygen, or had he? Soon a brilliant French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier, would claim the gas for himself. And so began a rancorous dispute between the British and French chemical establishments, undertaken as chemistry itself was in the process of being rediscovered, even revolutionised.


The history of working men's clubs
At the height of their popularity there were more than 4,000 working men's clubs across the UK. Now there are just over half that number.

Positions, Activities and Organisations: strategy, from conception to implementation
Luis Garicano is professor of economics and strategy at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago and scientific director of research at LSE’s Department of Management

The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India, the Emerging 21st-Century Power

Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life

The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations

BIG BROTHER GOOGLE?

THE 'GROWTH' OF INDIA
Ranging over a period from the 19th century until today, this lecture examines various aspects of India’s ‘growth’ including its population, its economic output, its media, its middle class, its spread into a globalised world and its level of political participation. Professor Jeffrey will analyse the tensions between a huge population and hugely unequal, but expanding, wealth in a time when India speaks unceasingly to itself, and to the rest of the world, in ways unthinkable at the time of independence in 1947. How might such immense political activity and social change unfold?

Professor Robin Jeffrey first went to India in 1967 and taught for two years in a government high school. He did a D.Phil. in Indian history at Sussex University and was a research fellow at ANU from 1973-78. He taught at La Trobe University from 1979-2006. He has done research in both north and south India and on Indian newspapers and media.


America's economy, strikes in France, Somalia, and sex and stress
- The Economist

Luxury and Suicide Bombers
Once upon a time – about 15 years ago – luxury brands were distinctive for being small, often family owned with a dedication to traditional craftsmanship. Dana Thomas tells Laurie that has all changed and now they are more likely to be part of massive international conglomerate. What does that mean to the concept of luxury. Also what can classic sociologist Emile Durkheim tell us about suicide bombers?

Mason of Drexel Expects Subprime Crisis Into 2012

Savonarola at the stake: the rise and fall of Professor Sir Roy Meadow
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Robert Kaplan from Wollongong talks about the case of Professor Sir Roy Meadow who was the leading British doctor who pursued mothers and fathers who abused their children, particularly those suffering from Munchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy, a condition where mothers of children kept visiting doctors claiming that their children were ill and who were found to harm them to maintain illness symptoms.

Health effects of exercise
One of the top researchers in the world on the health effects of exercise, Professor Steve Blair from the University of South Carolina in the US, talks about his work. One of his more recent studies looked at the effects of doses of exercise in obese, menopausal women, who are otherwise basically healthy.

Improving alertness and performance in emergency departments
The rotating shift work performed by health professionals in hospital emergency departments and the long working hours can result in extreme fatigue and present a serious concern for patient safety. Researchers at Stanford University in California have investigated this issue and looked at the effectiveness of planned naps.

New method of transplanting livers
Presently, livers are kept on ice during transplant. They can last like that for up to 15 hours. A new method involves connecting the liver to apparatus to keep it operating outside the body. This extends its life after removal from the donor to 72 hours. This would increase the number of livers available by up to 100 per cent.

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