Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Links 20/01/10

1. Having caused somewhat of a minor world event by joining twitter, Bill Gates now has a webpage sharing his thoughts on a number of global issues. Some of the essays are very interesting, not least because a man with his intelligence and resources is likely to be in a position to recommend good ways of learning. His thoughts on how to learn from the web are interesting

2. Gerard O'Neill on the latest Freedom Index statistics  Ireland remains one of the freest countries in the world but declines in up to 40 countries.

3. A nice summary on Mostly Economics blog of Boston Fed chief speech on employment recovery from previous recessions

4. Economix blog report on another false CV experiment by Booth and Leigh, demonstrating discrimination against men in female dominated sectors. Whether such experiments are an unfair infringement on employers has been discussed a number of times here before. On the one hand, the processing costs of CV's is a burden and thus the distribution of thousands of fake applications incurs a cost on the economy. On the other hand, the experiments point to real discrimination and potentially help to reform unfair labour markets. Would be interested to hear opinions on what is fair use of such experiments.

5. NYT moving to an online fee model . Don't worry folks. We will never sell out here on the Geary blog.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

BTW, use Wifi blocker to block all spy devices in your room or office.

Anonymous said...

The Data Protection Commissioner, last year issued advice to job seekers to take great care when supplying their personal details for job applications.

http://bit.ly/djIeQ9

"I am very concerned that in the current economic climate criminals are trying to take advantage of job applicants. They seem to be seeking personal details for identity fraud purposes. Job seekers are being asked to supply details that are totally unnecessary and likely to be used to perpetrate fraud either against that person or in their name. I am asking all job applicants to be extra careful when supplying personal details and to verify the identity of any potential employer that seems to be seeking a lot of personal data."