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Suppose you could eliminate the factors often blamed for the shortage of women in high-paying jobs. Suppose that promotions and raises did not depend on pleasing sexist male bosses or putting in long nights and weekends away from home. Would women make as much as men? Economists recently tried to find out in an experiment in Pittsburgh by paying men and women to add up five numbers in their heads. At first they worked individually, doing as many sums as they could in five minutes and receiving 50 cents for each correct answer. Then they competed in four-person tournaments, with...

BOSTON -- NStar has canceled the health benefits of more than 1,900 striking workers -- a tactic one labor expert called unusually aggressive and an indication that the electric and gas utility is digging in for a long strike. NStar linemen, engineers and other workers walked off the job Monday after a five-year contract expired and negotiations toward a new agreement collapsed. That same day, the company canceled union members' medical, dental and vision benefits through Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts, NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen said Wednesday. SNIP "When employees do not report for duty and instead strike the company,...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations chose a State Department finance expert as its new management chief Tuesday and announced a series of reforms in response to the oil-for-food and sexual exploitation scandals and staff concerns about the organization's leadership. The package announced Tuesday includes protection for whistleblowers, an anti-fraud and corruption policy, a unified standard of conduct for peacekeepers to prevent sexual abuse, and expanded financial disclosure requirements for senior officials. Christopher Bancroft Burnham, currently acting undersecretary of state for management, was hired as the world body's management chief and charged with strengthening "accountability, ethical conduct and management...

The American public recognizes that the United Nations has major ethical and leadership problems. This same American public is growing more frustrated with the United States membership in the UN each day. To help this floundering world body, the President of the United States has nominated a man with the two missing elements that the United Nations sorely needs. The Secretary of State on the United States has said that he is the best man for the job. The former Prime Minister of Great Britain has said that he is an extremely good choice for America. On the other hand,...

Finally, more than four years after its hideous birth, the Clinton "Roadless Rule" is dead. The Bush administration and the Forest Service just announced a final rule that effectively undoes Clinton's reckless decree. Dying with the "Roadless Rule" are the following: - threats of catastrophic wildfire - threats of forest infestation and disease - lack of public access to public lands - improper resource management - unhealthy forests - top-down federal overreach Recall that Bill Clinton, just eight days before he left office, in the dark of night, penned his infamous, unilateral, executive order that locked up over 58 million...

The intellectual force behind President Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security, the man the president calls his favorite "Democrat economist," is not an economist. He is Robert C. Pozen, a lawyer and mutual fund executive who serves as chairman of MFS Investment Management in Boston. A registered Democrat, Mr. Pozen donated money to the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry last year and voted for him on Nov. 2. He was a classmate of Hillary Rodham Clinton at Yale Law School. But all that has not stopped President Bush from embracing Mr. Pozen's main idea to bring the nation's public...

Forty-three of John Bolton's former colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute want to set the record straight: They've sent a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, defending Bolton's conduct and management style. "We were colleagues of John Bolton during his tenure as senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute from January 1997 through May 2001. We are writing to tell you and your colleagues that the various allegations that have been raised before your Committee, concerning Mr. Bolton's management style and conduct in other organizations and circumstances, are radically at odds with our experiences in more than four...

The average salary offered to Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad students saw a steep jump this year, with the highest being HSBC's $152,000 for a position at its London office. Also, around 250 students graduated this year, up 47 per cent from last year. The placement season, which began on March 14 and closed on Monday, saw a total of 477 jobs being offered to 247 students (three students opted out of the placements sessions). GECIS, an arm of GE Capital International Services, offered the highest salary -- Rs 14.50 lakh (Rs 1.45 million) -- for placement in the country. The...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Nearly four years have elapsed since the Oslo process (1993-2000) between Israelis and Palestinians foundered in bloodshed. Over that period, two U.S. administrations have tried to forge policies that would reduce the violence and point toward a solution to the conflict.It has not been a single-minded pursuit. Since September 11, 2001, the prime focus of Washington has been the management of unprecedented U.S. military interventions in the region, which removed regimes from power in Afghanistan and Iraq. The notion of Israeli-Palestinian peace as the key to regional stability has been replaced by the war on terror and the insistence on...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he wants a plan on his desk in 90 days on how the state can better manage state waters and seashore. California, with 1,100 miles of coastline, is among the most economically dependent on the tourists drawn to its beaches and on ports that serve as gateways to Mexico, Canada and Pacific Rim nations. The state's shore, ports and oceans account for an estimated $60 billion in direct spending and $15 billion in annual tax revenues. "The health of our ocean resources and the economy they support benefits not only California, but...

AT&T Wireless Self-Destructs The story of a botched CRM upgrade that cost the telco thousands of new customers and an estimated $100 million in lost revenue. Hard lessons learned. BY CHRISTOPHER KOCH Executive Summary Last fall, AT&T Wireless frantically tried to complete a CRM upgrade to Siebel 7. It had to be done in time to handle the customer service challenges accompanying a Federal Communications Commission deadline for allowing customers to change carriers without changing their phone numbers. The effort was a failure. Systems crashed and stayed down. Customer reps could not keep up, and angry customers abandoned the...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Sen. Dianne Feinstein is "disappointed" that President Bush has not apologized to relatives of those killed Sept. 11, 2001, and the California Democrat faulted Bush for lacking "hands-on management" in the months leading up to the terrorist attacks. Feinstein, a member of the Intelligence Committee and head of the Technology and Terrorism Subcommittee, said Wednesday that Bush and his advisers failed to "connect the dots" on Aug. 6, 2001. That's when a CIA briefing warned that supporters of Osama Bin Laden were living in the United States, could enter and exit the country as they...

Today I went to Westport, CT to freep Hillary. Though I didn't know the exact house number on Bayberry Lane, I knew there would be tell-tale signs that would let me know which house she's holing up in. I arrived at 10:45am and drove along the entire Bayberry Lane with no signs of hillary. I knew it was early, so I went for a cup coffee and would come back later. While driving along Bayberry Lane I noticed that the road would not allow for a freep. It's only a two lane road and there were no sidewalks. I came...

Supporting Gulf War 2.0 September 2003 By Sgt. Frank N. Pellegrini When Maj. Gen. David E. Kratzer was chosen back in January to take his 377th Theater Support Command (TSC) in Kuwait to lead the support operation for a war in Iraq, one of the first things he did was read Moving Mountains: Lessons in Leadership and Logistics from the Gulf War, which is the theater support memoir of Lt. Gen. William G. Pagonis, the commander of the first TSC--a man who knew what it was to build what Kratzer has likened to a "city in the sand." To launch...

MORGANTOWN (AP) -- Weirton Steel Corp. has asked a federal bankruptcy judge for permission to offer top executives $4 million in bonuses for staying with the company until it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Northern Panhandle steelmaker last week promoted Chief Financial Officer Mark Kaplan to president and named D. Leonard Wise its new chief executive. Wise, 68, replaced former President and CEO John Walker, who resigned in June. Kaplan, 41, could get as much as $1.4 million under the plan, including a $600,000 bonus in three installments and $500,000 when the company's reorganization plan is approved or...

There are only seven or maybe eight themes for fiction, so I've been told. All the stories you've ever read or heard are merely variations of them. Dubious, but what the hell. Who can resist the theme of the reprobate redeemed by love? Is there anything more satisfying than seeing the haughty hoist--blown up--defeated by hubris? Me, I'm fond of a subset of virtue triumphant, goodness rewarded, namely, the defeat of ignorance by intelligence. I recently discovered a fine instance of that theme, and, marvelous to say, it's nonfiction, a true tale. It's the book, Moneyball by Michael Lewis, and...

There are only seven or maybe eight themes for fiction, so I've been told. All the stories you've ever read or heard are merely variations of them. Dubious, but what the hell. Who can resist the theme of the reprobate redeemed by love? Is there anything more satisfying than seeing the haughty hoist--blown up--defeated by hubris? Me, I'm fond of a subset of virtue triumphant, goodness rewarded, namely, the defeat of ignorance by intelligence. I recently discovered a fine instance of that theme, and, marvelous to say, it's nonfiction, a true tale. It's the book, Moneyball by Michael Lewis, and...

Plagiarism Scandal Challenges Top Managers at NY Times By Steve Brown CNSNews.com Staff Writer May 22, 2003 (CNSNews.com) - As the New York Times' plagiarism scandal featuring former reporter Jayson Blair continues to unfold, many experts are quick to point the finger of blame at the Times' senior editorial management, while others say it could have happened anywhere. Washington Times Editorial Page Editor Tony Blankley Wednesday wrote that: "The response of the New York Times management seems dangerously similar to the response of the Catholic Church hierarchy to their recent scandals. "While there was obviously fury at the priests who...