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More and more of our students earning a coveted degree from one of America’s great universities are doomed to an uncertain future.
The worldwide financial meltdown has, we know, gutted the job market but when the dust settles, surely we face a jobless recovery.
The problem is more acute, however.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, an academic journal covering post-secondary education in the U.S., recently raised the question whether university majors are “silos” inhibiting learning.
Let’s be honest.
The university majors that exist today are not necessarily job related. More importantly, a degree of any kind is no guarantee of a

A recent article criticizing my work contained this multifaceted gem of fallacies:
Let’s take this apart, step-by-step.
1. The idea that modern global supply chains have abolished international economic rivalry is trivially false. Even if aircraft, say, are now made out of components manufactured all over the world and brought together for assembly, this doesn’t change the fact that the steps of the supply chain with high value-added per man-hour will take place in some nations and not others. And high value-added per man-hour is the only possible basis of sustainable high

Just six and one half years ago, a young state senator spoke for 16 minutes and 11 seconds (just 4 seconds longer than the real “King’s Speech,” Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream,” the greatest in modern American history), launched a presidency and established himself as one of America’s greatest orators.
Tonight, we will see the maturation of the extraordinary qualities that make Barack Obama America’s third greatest presidential orator since 1933. It was those qualities that, in October of 2006, caused me to predict, amidst overwhelming skepticism and doubt, that the young US Senator was ready, would run and would likely win, and the qualities that did, in fact, sweep him to the White House.
In the wake of a profoundly presidential and politically “seismic” moment in Tucson, we approach a speech that I believe will firmly establish Barack Obama as the 3rd greatest presidential orator in modern American history… the era that started with the president who first used the new electronic media to forge a different kind of relationship with the American electorate.
The Top Presidential Orators (since 1933)

For much of my young life I had felt the emptiness of existence. At the age of 18, I found yoga.
Over the years, yoga has slowly served to fill much of that emptiness with meaning.
Through the amazing Tara Stiles, I have been able to identify and articulate the top 10 reasons why Yoga is so meaningful.
1)Yoga is about hot sex. My American Apparel sex clothes are in the mail.
2)Yoga is a modern, American

I talk a lot about the incredible opportunities we have to change the lives of women and children around the world. The main reason for my enthusiasm has been that we already have many of the key tools to save the lives of mothers and their newborns. Now, I have another reason for optimism–new research proves that countries can integrate these tools into their existing health systems and save lives at a large scale without using new technology.
Last year I visited a research project in the rural community of Shivgarh in India, shown in this video tour of my trip:
By empowering the community with knowledge about lifesaving methods such as skin-to-skin care and immediate breastfeeding, the project cut the mortality rate for newborns in half in only 16 months without introducing any new technology. Not a single tool used in the Shivgarh project was developed in a scientific laboratory.
I was blown away by what I saw, but I still wanted to see proof that results like this could also happen outside of the confines of a controlled study environment.
Recently, The Lancet published a piece that proves that these same cost-effective, low-tech community- based interventions I saw in Shivgarh can be effective as part of a country’s regular health

I’m going to say something to my fellow professionals over 30. You probably don’t want to hear it, but you should: Quit whining about how the next generation is ruining the workplace.
My grandparents’ parents were looked upon by their elders as being headed for big trouble because of their newfangled, non-traditional ways of living. Something about immigrating to America, I think. It was bound to end in disaster.
My parents were chastised by their parents — the children of those same wacky, devil-may-care immigrants — for listening to overly suggestive, inappropriate music, destined to be the downfall of modern

On Christmas Day, Josh and I landed in Seattle, the starting point of our 10-day road trip through the Pacific Northwest, and the first place of many on our journey (including a few unintentional stops, in a few unexpected states along the way) that I have never been to.
After telling the man at Enterprise that we were married in order to save paying extra insurance, we set out in our silver Chrysler Sebring in search of the impossible: a restaurant serving Seattle’s finest that was open on Christmas.
Wild yellow foot chanterelle mushrooms from Foraged & Found Edibles
The initial iPhone research did not prove fruitful. But, being the geniuses that we are, we decided a likely gamble would be a hotel restaurant. (We were staying at Josh’s cousin’s apartment in Capitol Hill.) Our wandering brought us to Shuckers, at the swanky Fairmont Olympic hotel, where we felt it was only suitable to order a dozen oysters and a flight of microbrews. Our untrained palate favored the Fanny Bays, however until reading the signs on our way out, we did not realize it was because they were “medium-bodied with a subtle honeydew aftertaste.”
After our first course of traif, we headed to Chinatown-like Jews on Christmas everywhere-in Seattle’s International

Even though he’s based in Los Angeles, artist Josh Peters is living somewhere else. His large, other-worldly paintings speak of a different place and time. Dream-like and enchanting, his work, often done on large canvasses, are simply mesmerizing.
1.Can you discuss important themes that you have explored in your work? What are some themes you hope to tackle?
In some ways, I feel that it’s almost up to the viewers and critics to decide on or find the themes in the

Talking Points Memo gives a terrific account of the factual errors in a recent speech by Rep. Michele Bachmann about our nation’s founding:
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Bachmann’s story has more shameful errors than one can recount, but the most disturbing thing about her speech is that these errors appear deliberate, in service of a whitewashed, Tea Party vision of the American founding, where the Founders could do no wrong.
Bachmann makes no mention of the Founders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who owned and sold slaves throughout their lives. Nor does she bring up those stinging phrases from the Constitution such as “three-fifths of all other persons” that enshrined the institution of the slavery in our Nation’s charter until it was amended after the Civil War. Rather, she, like her colleagues on the House floor recently, left these portions out, and she ended her story about John Quincy Adams (age 8 when his father, John Adams, signed the Declaration of Independence) with the admonition that “Instead of continuously going back and looking at the weaknesses and stains of America, let’s look at the greatness of America

January is National Mentoring Month, with January 25 marking “Thank Your Mentor Day.” According to the Harvard School of Public Health, 15 million young people in the United States are in need of a mentor.
Have you ever thought about mentoring? You’ve probably heard that mentor programs help decrease youth violence, lessen drug abuse, reduce the high school dropout rate, and help send thousands of young people to college each year. This evidence alone could be what motivates you to call up your local nonprofit today and sign up as a mentor. However, for those of you still sitting on the fence, you may want to know that mentoring not only helps a young person advance in their life, but it also helps you.
Jenni Luke, executive director of Step Up Women’s Network, enjoying the day with a Step Up Teen in Los

Manpower Inc. believes that the global economy has fundamentally changed. The focus is now on you.
A global corporation that connects temporary workers with businesses, Manpower keeps up to date on employment

You would think that, as educated New Yorkers, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg would read The New York Times. Apparently they don’t. In their state of the state and state of the city addresses they speak about responsible government, but they have both ruled out tax increases, including tax increases on the banks that created the current national economic crisis and wealthy people who have managed to prosper despite the economic downturn.
They are really more concerned with showing how tough they can be with supposedly pampered public sector workers (How many pothole repairmen, health aides, and elementary school teachers get to fly to the Bahamas to avoid snow storms?) and poor people who they claim take advantage of the governments beneficence (Do welfare queens still drive Cadillacs? Did they ever?). Both “your excellencies” are busy using their public platforms to establish fiscally conservative credentials for Presidential runs, even when it means ignoring the facts and unfairly attacking state employees, unions, and unemployed people desperate for

There was a time when children were thought of merely as possessions. Parents could do what they wanted with them, as could teachers and factory bosses, with complete impunity. It wasn’t until 1938 that a law prohibiting children as young as five from working in factories was enacted in the United States. (It had failed to pass in Congress twice before that, just in case you think the present Congress is the worst one you’ve ever heard of.)
Today, corporal punishment in schools is prohibited in 30 of the 50 United States, and corporal punishment by parents in their own home is even prohibited in countries and regions as diverse as Spain, Scandinavia, Kenya, New Zealand, Uruguay, Greece, Israel, Germany, Iceland and many other places around the

Any self-respecting Scandinavian food writer must have a good Swedish Meatballs recipe. We are after all talking about a dish that can only be described as The King Of Swedish Cuisine. Brought to the world – in a horrible version – by Swedish furniture giant IKEA, there is much more to this lovely dish than prefabricated and thawed out miniature ping pong balls accompanied by boiled to death potatoes and industrial “cream” sauce en masse.
Served homemade – this ultra classic has a very special place in the hearts of most Swedes.And why shouldn’t it? It is after all a miniature version of the entire Swedish cuisine, with many of the classic ingredients that we see across not only Swedish, but Scandinavian food culture. Ground

The results of the recent Icelandic elections to determine the members of the Constitutional Convention schedule to open next month were nullified today by the Icelandic Supreme Court. The election drew 522 candidates for 25 slots, and the resultant logistical nightmare ruled to have violated Icelandic election law.
The voters’ right to privacy was violated, it said, because the ballots were numbered (presumably to ensure that each voter got only one ballot). This theoretically could have permitted an election official to identify which voter cast which ballot, though there was no evidence that this in fact

I have a confession: I’m fascinated with The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I think it’s because of all the housewives programs in all the land this is the first incarnation that made me wonder: “Could I be on this show?” While I don’t actually live in Beverly Hills, it is close, especially if I take Sunset. And once upon a time, (the 80′s), I was a child actress. I played Diana Fairgate, Michele Lee’s chubby, loud-mouthed teenage daughter on Knots Landing — a domestic-themed nighttime soap opera set in a cul-de-sac, (French for dead

Are you one of the millions of Americans seeking to make the best use of your money? What if that means debunking the old beliefs that have become the guiding principles in how you manage your finances? Do you feel like you may know how to make a living, but not know how to make a life?
You’re not alone. We are in the middle of a serious epidemic in the U.S. — an epidemic I call “lost sense of self.” This epidemic has invaded our culture and has altered our sense of collective consciousness. We live in a culture that has placed inordinate value on outward symbols of our wealth, which dictate our sense of

Mental imagery helped our ancestors survive for millions of years before people developed language. As animals developed the ability to move, they needed a way to take a mental map of their environment along with them. A tiger roaming his territory must have some kind of internal map of the area, in which his prey, their hiding places, water and potential dangers are all represented. A house cat running downstairs when she hears the electric can opener must have a mental image in her brain that helps her navigate the shortest path to her dinner.
At some unknown time in prehistory, the human brain’s ability to map its environment in space developed into an ability to imagine its environment in time, and to be able to imagine a different

There is an ad for Sylvania brand televisions on Fox Soccer Channel. You may have seen it. Real Madrid’s Kaka scores a penalty, looks to God (he is devout) while a voice screams “Ya Beauty!” the overlord phrase deployed in celebrating the ecstasy of goal-scoring. The brogue seems to belong to Andy Gray, a former soccer player and now a leading analyst and commentator on Britain’s Sky TV, the UK’s home of TV

Last week was my first anniversary with my husband. Not the anniversary of the day when I talked my parents into spending too much money on a party, though. Rather, it was our first real anniversary — the first one we have actually earned.
One year ago last week I filed for

This week, more than 30 heads of state will join chief executives from the world’s largest global businesses and leaders of civil society, academia and the media at Davos for the 2011 World Economic Forum. They will work toward developing a global agenda and building solutions to some of the most pressing issues of our time. I am encouraged that this year Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), currently the cause of more than 60% of deaths in the world — of which 80% are in the developing world — are on the agenda. It is my fervent hope that the world leaders will come up with some sustainable solutions to the NCD crisis, which had been highlighted by a World Economic Forum report last year as one of the most severe threats to the economy.
For far too long, global health attention has focused on diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria and must go beyond them to far more common life-threatening diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, cancer and chronic lung

As President Obama discusses our State of the Union with a much needed focus on innovation, education and investment in America’s future, let’s focus on one area that is ripe for radical change: how digital media can be used for education and hands-on, lifelong learning beginning right from the start.
We need to focus more attention on the potential long-term effects of a major investment in the early years, especially in building an entirely new learning equation for the children who will graduate in 2025. New studies and stronger investments in children under 10 are needed because relatively little research or breakthrough program development has been done on the preschool and middle-childhood periods, which scholars in child development, behavioral and cognitive psychology, and neuroscience have pointed to as critical for all that follows.
Last month, we released a new report intended to get this conversation started. Focused on the explosion of mobile media in young children’s lives, Learning: Is there an app for that? found that young children love smart phones, can navigate their use seamlessly and can be engaged by their parents in playtime activities just about anytime,