Brave new world of foundations
By Johanna Niegel
Private foundations are attracting a lot of attention as far as international asset protection and estate planning are concerned.
Gray matter, part 2, or, going to the dogs again
By Anatoly Liberman
I am returning to greyhound, a word whose origin has been discussed with rare dedication and relatively meager results. The component –hound is the generic word for “dog” everywhere in Germanic, except English. I am aware of only one attempt to identify –hound with hunter (so in in the 1688 dictionary by Rúnolfur Jónsson).
The Thirteenth Amendment
By Richard Striner
On 18 December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, thus ending the epochal struggle to kill American slavery. But the long struggle to achieve full equality regardless of race was just beginning. When Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, he knew very well that it might eventually be overturned in court as unconstitutional.
Ten things to understand about the Molly Maguires
By Kevin Kenny
On this day 135 years ago, John Kehoe was hanged. Convicted in 1877 of murdering a Pennsylvania mine boss 15 years earlier, he was almost certainly innocent of that crime. But Kehoe also stood accused of being the mastermind in a nefarious secret society called the Molly Maguires.
Performance pay and ethnic earnings
By Colin P. Green, John S. Heywood, and Nikolaos Theodoropoulos
The British labour market shares two important trends with that in the US. Wage inequality has increased dramatically since the 1980s and there has been increased use of performance pay, earnings that vary with worker job performance.
The migration-displacement nexus
By Khalid Koser
International Migrants Day is intended to celebrate the enormous contribution that migrants make to economic growth and development, social innovation, and cultural diversity, worldwide. It also reminds us of the importance of protecting the human rights of migrants.
The G20: policies, politics, and power
Five years after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the world waits for recovery. Last time it took a world war and forty million deaths to achieve. In 2008, a domino — Lehman Brothers — fell over, sparking a financial crisis that quickly threatened to bring the developed economies of the world crashing down. “This sucker could go down” was President George W. Bush’s pithy summary.
I’m dreaming of an OSEO Christmas
By Daniel Parker
Snow is falling and your bulging stocking is being hung up above a roaring log fire. The turkey is burning in the oven as you eat your body weight in novelty chocolate. And now your weird, slightly sinister Uncle Frank is coming towards you brandishing mistletoe. This can mean only one thing. In the wise (and slightly altered) words of Noddy Holder: It’s OSEO Christmas!
Wrap contracts: the online scourge
Nancy S. Kim
Can you enter into a contract without knowing it? According to many judges, the answer is yes. “Wrap contracts” are contracts that can be entered into by clicking on a link or on an “accept” icon and they govern nearly all online activity. Most of us enter into them several times a day and few of us think twice about it.
Sir John Tavener, saintly and controversial composer
The recent death of renowned British composer Sir John Tavener (1944-2013) precipitated mourning and reflection on an international scale. By the time of his death, the visionary composer had received numerous honors, including the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, the 2005 Ivor Novello Classical Music Award, and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
Non-belief as a moral obligation
By Michael Ruse
In 1981, a professor from a small university in Canada, I found myself headed south to the state of Arkansas, to appear as an expert witness for the American Civil Liberties Union, in its attack on a new law that mandated the “balanced treatment” of the teaching of evolution and something known as “Creation Science” (aka Genesis read literally) in the science classrooms of that state.
Around the world in eighty mouse clicks
Are you a geography buff? Are the facts and figures of the world your forte? Make the new year’s resolution to learn something new about the world we live in. We’ve have drawn up a quiz culled from the wealth of geographic knowledge contained within the borders of the beautiful Atlas of the World. Broaden the horizons of your global perspective, levitate above the labyrinthine veins of London, or study the wake of a sailboat as it cuts through the deep, cerulean waters off the coast of Sydney. But, first, put your knowledge to the test below.
International Law at Oxford in 2013
Throughout 2013 the dimensions and reach of international law have continued to change at a fast pace, and Oxford University Press have been honoured to play a role in some of its scholarly highlights. Like the discipline, this has been an exciting year for our team at OUP. We’ve taken a step back to review all that has unfolded this year below.
Three reasons why we’re drawn to faces in film
If we were to measure looking time (for instance, with an eye-tracking device), we would probably find that most people would scan all the pictures, but focus mostly on the frames with the faces. Even though the exterior shots and full-figure frames are more complex and colorful, our gaze would tend to fix on the faces.
Orwell in America
By Robert Colls
The man wants to admit his rebellious thoughts and reveal the deception but knows that by doing so he is going to make the rest of his life difficult, not to say short, and there will be no going back. He does it all the same. He has no accomplices, except his girlfriend. The world has yet to decide what will happen to him. I am of course talking about Edward Snowden.
Our kids are safer than you might think
By Eric Rossen PhD, NCSP
“Our society has run amok.” ; “What is happening in our schools?” ; “You aren’t safe anywhere these days.”
Whether through conversation with my family, friends at dinner, or concerned parents talking to me as a mental health professional, I have heard these statements with growing frequency.