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Commentary: Lyle Goldstein: Sunshine Returns to the Korean Peninsula?

By Guest PostDecember 21, 2012Politicsamerican strategists, axis of evil, Beijing, blue house, China, china maritime studies, cold war, east asian nato, east asian security, inter korean tension, iraq war, Japan, korean peninsula, lee myung bak, lyle goldstein, military contingency, naval war college, new president, north korea, northeast asia, park geun hye, pivot to asia, President Bush, President Obama, pro american, pyongyang, recent missile test, relief, republic of korea, seoul, south korea, strategic reassurance, strategists in washington, sunshine policy, superpower, trilateral alliance, united states, US, us china relations, yalu river

On Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, Park Geun-hye was elected South Korea’s new president, making her the first woman to hold the title. It’s a victory some say signals the beginning of a new era for the tension-riddled region. Lyle Goldstein, International Relations program visiting faculty and associate professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute of the U.S. Naval War College, comments on what Park’s election means for the future of South Korea and the country’s relationship with the United States and China.

Park Geun-hye’s election will come as a major relief to many strategists in Washington, given her pro-American credentials. Her opponent was inclined to fully reinstate the “sunshine policy” of a decade ago, a disposition that would have no doubt entailed a more discriminating look at the newly invigorated U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance. Irrespective of which candidate came to occupy the Blue House, South Koreans seemed to be looking for more sunshine and less inter-Korean tension. (more…)

Frontline Employees Can Make or Break Retail and Service Companies

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012EconomyAmazon, analyst, best buy, chris derose, commercial workforce, company leader, down, employee, Google, hewlett packard, j c penney, management structure, michigan, noel tichy, retailers, ritz carlton, service companies, shopping cart, top, university, US, zappos

ANN ARBOR — Retailers and service companies still utilizing a top-down management structure likely don’t see the connection between the frontline and the bottom line until it’s too late, according to University of Michigan professor Noel Tichy.

In the U.S. alone, retail and service workers are estimated to total more than 15 million people, or nearly one-fifth of the U.S. commercial workforce. Despite the common corporate tag line about “people are our most important asset,” we don’t see many company leaders tap into more than a tiny percentage of the knowledge, creativity and judgment of their largest group of employees. (more…)

comScore Reports $41.9 Billion in Q3 2012 U.S. Retail E-Commerce Spending, Up 15 Percent vs. Year Ago

By Guest PostNovember 7, 2012Technology2012, apparel, Comscore, comscore chairman, double digit, ecommerce sale, ecommerce sector, Economy, estimate, event tickets, gian fulgoni, growth, growth rate, macroeconomic environment, q3, rate, retail, showrooming behavior, US, us consumer

comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni to Present Overview of Q3 2012 E-Commerce Trends in Upcoming Webinar

RESTON, VA, November 7, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q3 2012 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, showing that online retail spending reached $41.9 billion for the quarter, up 15 percent versus year ago. This represents the twelfth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. (more…)

Female Pulitzer Prize Winners Require Higher Qualifications, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostOctober 29, 2012Culture, General, Mediachinese university, compensational equality period, exclusionary period, female, formal equality period, francis lee, gender disparities, hong kong, ivy league, journalism, journalistic industry, male, metropolitan city, missouri, new york times, prestigious awards, pulitzer prize, society, statistical difference, stratification, university, US, winner, yong volz

Gender disparity in journalism still exists, but is improving

COLUMBIA, Mo. —The Pulitzer Prize in Journalism is one of the world’s most prestigious awards. Despite progress in the last few decades, gender disparities in the field of journalism have existed as long as the profession has. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that female Pulitzer Prize winners are more likely to have greater qualifications than their male counterparts in order to win the coveted award.

In a study to be published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Yong Volz, an assistant professor of journalism studies in the MU School of Journalism, along with Francis Lee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, studied biographical data from all 814 historical winners of the Pulitzer Prize from 1917 to 2010. They found that the majority of the 113 female Pulitzer Prize winners enjoyed access to greater resources than the average male winner. (more…)

Not-So-Permanent Permafrost

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Environmentalaska, arctic permafrost, atmosphere, carbon, chemical cycles, climate change, climate prediction, climate warming, director, earth, ecosystems, Environment, fairbanks, frozen ground, gelisols, geological survey, jennifer harden, lakes, marcia mcnutt, mikhail kanevsiy, model, nitrogen, organic matter, peaty, rivers, scenarios, scientist, soil scientist, university, US, usgs, warmer planet, warming phenomenon, water resources

MENLO PARK, Calif. — As much as 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 billion tons of carbon stored in arctic permafrost, or frozen ground, could be released into the environment as the region begins to thaw over the next century as a result of a warmer planet according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. This nitrogen and carbon are likely to impact ecosystems, the atmosphere, and water resources including rivers and lakes. For context, this is roughly the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere today.

The release of carbon and nitrogen in permafrost could exacerbate the warming phenomenon and will impact water systems on land and offshore according to USGS scientists and their domestic and international collaborators. The previously unpublished nitrogen figure is useful for scientists who are making climate predictions with computer climate models, while the carbon estimate is consistent and gives more credence to other scientific studies with similar carbon estimates. (more…)

Science Working to Combat Deadly White Nose Syndrome in Bats

By Guest PostOctober 24, 2012Naturebat disease, bat hibernation, canadian provinces, cave, deadly, delicate ecology, diversity, ecohealth alliance, Environment, fungal ecology, fungus, fws, geological survey, geomyces destructans, growth rate, hibernation, humidity variation, marcia mcnutt, microclimate, mine, mycologia, new york, pasteurs quadrant, physiology, syndrome, temperature, underground ecosystem, US, white nose, wildlife disease, wns

New findings on white-nose syndrome are bringing scientists closer to slowing the spread of this deadly bat disease, according to recent and ongoing studies by the U.S. Geological Survey.

WNS has killed more than 5 million bats since it first appeared in New York in 2007, and the disease, caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans, has spread to 19 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces (view map). (more…)

State-Mandated Planning, Higher Resident Wealth Linked to More Sustainable City Transportation

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2012Environmentanna mccreery, columbus, ecosummit 2012, environmentally friendly, income, index, las vegas, los angeles, metropolitan area, new orleans, ohio, per capita, pittsburgh, population density, public transit, seattle, socioeconomic factor, solo commuter, span, state university, sustainability, time, transportation ecoefficiency, transportation practice, transportation system, US, wealthier

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Transportation practices tend to be more environmentally friendly in wealthier metropolitan areas located within states that mandate comprehensive planning, new research suggests.

The study involved an examination of 225 U.S. metropolitan areas between 1980 and 2008 to gauge how sustainable their transportation practices were and determine what kinds of socioeconomic factors appeared to influence those practices. (more…)

USGS Releases First Assessment of Shale Gas Resources in the Utica Shale: 38 trillion cubic feet

By Guest PostOctober 7, 2012Environmentappalachian basin, barrel, brenda pierce, conventional oil, domestic, first assessment, gas liquid, geological survey, greater, green, hydrocarbon, marcellus shale, maryland, methodology, natural gas, new york, ohio, Pennsylvania, petroleum basin, protocol, recoverable oil, river basin, rock formation, source rock, southwestern wyoming, tcf, unconventional oil, united states, upper ordovician, US, usgs, utica shale, virginia, west virginia

The Utica Shale contains about 38 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas (at the mean estimate) according to the first assessment of this continuous (unconventional) natural gas accumulation by the U. S. Geological Survey. The Utica Shale has a mean of 940 million barrels of unconventional oil resources and a mean of 208 million barrels of unconventional natural gas liquids.

The Utica Shale lies beneath the Marcellus Shale, and both are part of the Appalachian Basin, which is the longest-producing petroleum province in the United States. The Marcellus Shale, at 84 TCF of natural gas, is the largest unconventional gas basin USGS has assessed. This is followed closely by the Greater Green River Basin in southwestern Wyoming, which has 84 TCF of undiscovered natural gas, of which 82 TCF is continuous (tight gas). (more…)

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