via Arts & Letters Daily

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On a side note, the U.S. presidential election wrapped on the night of November 4th, but it took until November 16, for the major news outlets to report on the rise of hate crimes in the U.S.

That said, one should still not deride energy efficiency.

Vietnam’s laborers earn an average of 1.669 million dong ($104) a month, 41 percent less than China’s lowest-paid workers in the central province of Jiangxi, according to World Bank data.

India’s wages are lower than Vietnam’s, averaging 3,843 rupees ($87) a month, according to CEIC. India is copying China’s special economic zones, building more than 400 that will provide low-cost land and rents, five- to 10-year tax breaks and duty-free imports.

Whether speaking to a group of young softball players or plying her teammates with literature, Jessica Mendoza, a 27-year-old outfielder on the United States Olympic softball team, does not hesitate to speak her mind about the killings in Darfur.

But Mendoza stops short of publicly condemning China, which has close ties to the government of Sudan, because she says it is impolite to criticize her Olympic hosts and because one of her sponsors, Nike, has a major marketing presence in China.

With growing protests in Tibet and pressure mounting on Olympic sponsors to denounce China for its policy on Darfur, socially conscious athletes said they were struggling to figure out how to honor their beliefs while also respecting the purpose of the Olympic Games — the celebration of athletic excellence.

The complexity of this comes not only from internal views, but external pressures such as a country’s own Olympic body or perhaps even an athlete’s sponsor:

Rule 51 of the Olympic charter, the constitution of the Olympic movement, forbids athletes from participating in a “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” at Olympic sites. When the International Olympic Committee identifies a possible violation of Rule 51, it asks the Olympic Committee of the athlete’s country to investigate. Depending on the outcome, Olympians can be disqualified or sent home.

The question of whether Olympic athletes will have the right to express political views in Beijing erupted in February, after news that Britain and New Zealand were planning to require that athletes sign contracts barring them from speaking about politically sensitive issues. Both countries quickly reversed course.

The principles of universal design tell us that products should be functional for the broadest possible spectrum of users. But designers and manufacturers have long targeted two distinct niche markets: men and women. (Just think of razors: women’s versions look like plastic flowers, men’s like props from The Terminator.) Lately, however, we’ve noticed a handful of products and projects that toy with traditional gender roles.

While the thesis is intriguing and raises an interesting question, this mini-mini essay comes up short in its execution and rationale.

Barred from a third four-year term, Putin said in his last annual presidential press conference on Feb. 14 that the prime minister will have the “highest executive power.” He had arranged for Medvedev to promise him that job to retain his influence, and said he plans to keep it as long as his protege is in the Kremlin.

Four days later, Medvedev insisted he’ll have ultimate authority. “The president rules Russia, and according to the constitution, there’s only one president,” he said in an interview that his campaign paid Itogi magazine to publish and posted on his Web site.

“The conflict has already started,” said Alexei Mukhin, director of the Moscow-based Center for Political Information, an independent research group. While Putin allies still occupy key government posts, Mukhin predicted that Medvedev will be in a stronger position before long.

That’s because Russia has been governed by strong centralized authority for centuries. In czarist times, the monarch had absolute power. After 10-year-old Peter the Great and Ivan V both were given the title in 1682, Ivan’s sister Sophia ran things until Peter asserted himself in 1689. In the Soviet era, the Communist Party general secretary was supreme.

Under Russia’s current constitution, the president controls both domestic and foreign policy and presents his nominee for prime minister to parliament for approval. The president has the power to dismiss that premier at any time.

The differences between the groups aren’t great, but the results do go some way in explaining the Yahoo conundrum. Although a distance second in search, Yahoo has remained the number one traffic destination online ahead of Google, so you’d think with more traffic Yahoo would convert that traffic into similar returns to Google. But alas we know that not to be the case, and that would appear in part to be related to people using Yahoo not spending as much online and being in poorer demographic categories than Google users, providing a lower return per user.

via Smart Mobs

The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes’ contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games.

It is contained in a 32-page document that will be presented to all those who reach the qualifying standard and are chosen for the team.

From the moment they sign up, the competitors – likely to include the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips and world record holder Paula Radcliffe – will be effectively gagged from commenting on China’s politics, human rights abuses or illegal occupation of Tibet.

This is simply astounding.