Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Doing well in school and at work - Creative Communities - Richard Florida What cities are the ones that are attracting the creative? Why are creative people leaving cities like Pittsburgh that have symphonies, galleries, universities restaurants, museum etc? Richard Florida tells us what type of community and social environment spurs on learning and creativity 4:44:27 PM    comment []

Doing well in school - A Series - Social Capital and Education - Robert Putnam What are the factors that help our children do well in school? We fuss alot about the school, the teacher and the curriculum. Here is the first of three articles that will take a different tack. They draw on new research that show clearly a link between the environment and the attainment. The first article is by the King of Social Capital - Robert Putnam He makes the case for a gradient showing that parts of the US with high Social Capital - which tracks TV watching - have better educational results. The gradients are steep. Great graphs in the text as well - see how your state does! 4:37:01 PM    comment []

Politically Correct - The world of Weird Am episodic series of the PC world. This week two Gems from The Week (www.theweek.co.uk) - You can only get content on paper. The British Government has been accused of racism for excluding coconuts from its "five a day" campaign to persuade people to eat more fruit and veg. Coconuts, which are widely used in Afro-Caribbean cooking, are high in saturated fat, full of calories and are a poor source of nutrients. However campaigners say that it is racist to exclude them when traditional British crops such as carrots are included. "The Government is ignoring an essential part of society" says Milena Buyum of the National Assembly Against Racism. Councils across Britain have told schools not to serve hot cross buns this Easter for fear of offending children of non Christian beliefs. The Muslim Council of Britain described the decision as "very very bizarre" 2:06:53 PM    comment []