I’d like to poll for time of day, but I don’t even know where to start with timezones. Due to scheduling issues, this and more articles are cross-posted at the orange. (fix link when available)
Collection of stuff tweeted to me recently:
Forty years ago, the Navajo Nation and Southern Ute tribes languished side by side, mired in high unemployment and poverty.Today, worth billions, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe is one of the richest in the United States, while the Navajo still suffer as one of the most impoverished communities in the country.
The difference? Energy.
While the Southern Utes have natural gas, the Navajo Nation has coal, which has for decades been extracted to feed various large-scale power plants, including in the Four Corners. But that revenue has come under threat by tightening air-quality regulations. At the same time, natural gas, a cleaner fuel source for generating electricity, has grown cheaper and more abundant because of hydraulic fracturing.
The shift has left Navajo leaders in a quandary: either continue investing in coal in the hopes it will remain a significant fuel source, or cut their losses and choose another investment.
Divesting In Fossil Fuels Shouldn’t Harm Endowments
College-endowment managers who resist the growing call to divest their holdings in fossil-fuel companies may be doing so for little or no financial reason, according to a new report.
An analysis released on Tuesday by the Aperio Group, an investment-management firm that offers its clients a “socially responsible index,” among other investment strategies, found that while divesting from fossil-fuel companies does not necessarily add value to a portfolio, it does not subtract value from it either, and it increases the risk to investors at such a modest level as to be negligible.
In recent months, student groups at more than 200 colleges across the country have begun pushing their institutions to divest from fossil-fuel companies. A handful of smaller institutions, including Unity College and Hampshire College, have recently adopted strategies to reduce their investments in such companies, but most colleges have responded warily to the notion.
Not from twitter News:
Clothing retailer outsources jobs to India
One of Australia’s leading online clothing retailers, which boasts of having local staff, has been relocating its customer service centre to India.
The Iconic, a fast-growing online company, has been outsourcing parts of its email customer service to Hyderabad since December, with redundancy announcements expected on Thursday, internal emails obtained by Fairfax Media show.
It is understood some full-time and casual customer service staff could be made redundant.
On the clothing website, the company claims it has an “excellent team of local customer service consultants [located in our Sydney offices]”.
AdvertisementA customer service employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said staff were told in late November “not to worry” about their jobs. “Don’t worry you’re needed,” they were told.
The Iconic is the name of the store, apparently. Outsourcing, it’s not just for/from the USA anymore.
Vishwaroopam ban: emotional Kamal Haasan threatens to leave India
Upset over the hurdles caused by the ban on the release of mega budget Vishwaroopam, an emotional Kamal Haasan on Wednesday said Tamil Nadu does not want him to stay in the state and he might seek a “secular” place in the country or overseas. “When M F Hussain can do it, Kamal Haasan will do it… I am fed up. I am an artiste. After that, I will have to seek a secular state for my stay… Secular state from Kashmir to Kerala, excluding Tamil Nadu… Tamil Nadu wants me out,” he said in a choked voice as the fate of the movie is still to be decided in the court.
The actor said he had pledged all his property to make the trilingual movie, estimated to have cost around Rs. 100 crore. He said he might lose his house because of the losses incurred by the delay in the release of the movie.
Haasan said he was still to get interim relief as the film shows were “started and stopped” by police on Wednesday, who sought a physical copy of the single judge’s order passed last night, giving clearance of the film.
It seems: a Muslim man made a movie in a Hindu country, and it may not be shown? Any other ideas out there?
Softer News
Improving Bathrooms h/t Peter
Improving Bathrooms
They Could Be so Much Better!
Peter Flom
Peter Flom, Yahoo! Contributor NetworkThe bathroom is badly designed.
In particular, the typical home or apartment bathroom is badly designed. The typical home bathroom could be safer, less wasteful and more pleasurable.Overall design of the home bathroom
First, let’s look at overall design. The typical American bathroom has a toilet, a sink and a tub, probably with a shower, all in one small room. The floor is usually tile. What’s wrong with this? A lot!Tile is slippery when wet and bathroom floors get wet. Putting all those hard surfaced items in a small space means that if you slip you are likely to hit something hard, perhaps with your head. Need the floor be tile? Why? Why couldn’t it be covered in a thin sheet of rubber or some similar material?
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