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John Munson/The Star-LedgerN.J. state Sen. Nicholas Sacco is pictured in this file photo. Sacco has accrued 445 unused sick days, which are worth $331,970.

TRENTON — If state Sen. Nicholas Sacco stepped down today as the assistant school superintendent in North Bergen, his 445 unused sick days would be worth $331,970.

The parting check is so large that each North Bergen property owner would have to come up with $26.68 to cover the bill, among the highest payouts in state history.

Sacco — the acknowledged political boss of his hardscrabble Hudson County township — says that although the payout may be tough for taxpayers to swallow, he works hard and the generous perk is part of his contract.

“I have been in education for 43 years with a nearly perfect attendance record,” said Sacco, who also has been North Bergen mayor since 1991. “Is that fair to people? maybe not, but that is the contract that existed.”

Then there are two veteran Jersey City police detectives recently elected to the Assembly who have compiled more than $225,000 worth of unused time in a city where the bill for these sort of paydays — derisively dubbed “boat checks,” because the money would be enough to buy a boat — has forced officials to take out millions of dollars in emergency loans.

In Essex, County Executive Joe DiVincenzo has amassed about $59,000 in unused vacation time but says he does not plan on cashing in all of his time. instead, he says, he has banked it as a way to show voters that he rarely takes a day off.

These figures were obtained as part of a Star-Ledger analysis of sick and vacation time records for lawmakers and other public employees across the state. Taken together, they show that politicians can reap generous rewards from the same system they are charged with policing. The payouts also take sizable chunks out of local budgets that are already under duress.

Sacco is one of 15 lawmakers — 14 Democrats and one Republican — along with DiVincenzo, arguably the state’s most influential county executive, who have accrued about $850,000 worth of unused time that they could turn into cash, the analysis shows. nearly all of the legislators supported a 2010 law that capped payouts at $15,000 for new employees but preserved their own payouts and allowed them to continue to amass even more time.

The newspaper’s review found Sacco also has traded in 91 of his unused vacation days for $101,504 over the past five years. That’s in addition to his annual district salary of $233,725.

When told about size of the potential payout, Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, called Sacco “the poster boy of what is wrong with this system.”

“I can’t say the words I’m really thinking,” Drewniak added. “That’s just crazy.”

NORTH BERGEN PARADOX

Sacco, 65, runs one of the most powerful political machines in the state, transforming his influence within the township and the school district into landslide victories. last year, his slate of candidates received 82 percent of the votes, a routine margin of victory in the two decades under Sacco’s rule.

Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerEssex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo is pictured in this 2009 file photo. Records reveal that DiVincenzo has stockpiled 101.5 vacation days, and at his current salary, he could trade in those unused vacation days for a $59,691 payout.

His political allies include other highly paid school administrators, an alliance that critics say helps fuel the machine’s dominance over nearly every aspect of life in the city.

“Democracy doesn’t exist in North Bergen,” said Mario Blanch, an outspoken critic of the administration who has tried to oust Sacco from power. “He controls so many jobs, and people are so scared to cross him. That makes it nearly impossible to win here.”

In the modern age of austerity, Sacco is an anachronism. he earns a combined $298,725 salary from his three public jobs, putting him in line for one of the richest pensions in the state’s history. and state and local taxpayers have paid Sacco $1.5 million in total compensation over the past five years, records show.

Asked whether he thought his total compensation package was excessive, Sacco said, “Not after 43 years.”

Sacco and the other lawmakers who enjoy the generous perks that accompany their public jobs are part of fading breed in New Jersey, still being paid under a system that has been replaced by years of taxpayer-friendly reform in Trenton. The next generation of public employees can’t collect more than $15,000 in unused sick time and they are forbidden from cobbling together multiple jobs to boost their pension.

But old habits die hard.

In 2007, after a string of headlines about six-figure payouts, lawmakers tried to rein in the practice within school districts. Yet, as lawmakers enacted the reforms, the school district sweetened Sacco’s payout, records show.

Lawmakers capped future payouts at $15,000 and said school administrators could keep whatever time they had accrued, but they would be barred from accumulating any more. That meant Sacco got to keep his 445 unused sick days, which are worth $331,970, records show.

“I can’t guarantee I’m going to take the money. I might get sick and need to use the days,” Sacco said. “When I retire, I will sit down with the board and attorneys and figure it out. I don’t want to hurt the taxpayers of North Bergen.”

For decades, Sacco worked under a contract that paid him a year’s salary for every 600 unused sick days that he cashed in at retirement. But the math was altered in his 2007 contract, giving him a year’s salary for every 260 unused sick days and padding his payout by $187,856, records show.

“I can’t change what it is,” said Sacco. “It wasn’t something that I devised or even asked for.”

Blanch chuckled when told that Sacco insisted that the sweetened contractual provision was forced on him. “How can he say it was thrust upon him when he’s the one who got the school board elected?”

REWRITING POLICY

DiVincenzo earns an annual salary $153,207, but also has been collecting an annual pension of $68,856 since 2010 under a controversial state law that allows elected officials to “retire” while still in office. The 59-year-old politician took advantage of the loophole even as he worked behind the scenes with the governor to successfully roll back the health and pension benefits of public employees across the state.

DiVincenzo, a Democrat, defended the move in a Star-Ledger article in the fall, arguing that he was playing by the rules and merely cashing in on his nearly three decades as an employee in the county.

The county executive has also come under fire recently for using his campaign account to pay for lavish meals, rounds of golf and annual trips to Puerto Rico. he says the spending was for legitimate political purposes.

And despite a county policy enacted in 1997 that prohibits him and other administrative employees from amassing any more than 40 vacation days at one time, DiVincenzo is sitting on a stockpile of 101.5 vacation days, according to county personnel records. At his current salary, he could trade in those unused vacation days for a $59,691 payout, records show.

The county’s policy states that nonunion employees may carry over more than one year’s worth of vacation days, but they must take the unused days in the next year or lose them. DiVincenzo gets 20 vacation days a year, which means he can only carry a maximum of 40 vacation days at one time.

DiVincenzo has ignored the policy and banked multiple years of vacation days anyway to show the public how much time he spends at work and not at the beach, said a spokesman, Anthony Puglisi. and DiVincenzo pledges to follow the policy when he leaves.

“Joe D. never planned on getting paid for more than 40 vacation days,” DiVincenzo said in a recent phone interview.

There is precedent for cashing in all the vacation days.

DiVincenzo’s immediate predecessor was James W. Treffinger, a Republican who had cashed in 118 unused vacation days when he left in 2003. The DiVincenzo administration forced Treffinger to repay $21,161 worth of the time, arguing that he was only entitled to accrue 40 days under county policy, financial records show.

Treffinger initially vowed to fight the move, arguing that the policy didn’t apply to elected officials. But he was facing federal charges of swapping county contracts for campaign contributions and padding the county payroll with campaign staffers and eventually relented.

The two county executives before that also cashed out more than 75 days each, but they left before the 40-day policy was in place.

In addition to his unused vacation time, DiVincenzo will also get paid for one out of every five sick days he trades when he retires. Today, the value of his 130.5 banked sick days is $16,664, records show.

DiVincenzo outlined the county’s policy in a recent memo to The Star-Ledger. The final line reads, “Working together, we will continue putting Essex County first.”JERSEY CITY STRAPPED

Charles Mainor and Sean Connors, both state assemblymen, are veteran detectives in the Jersey City Police Department, where they have worked almost a quarter-century. If they retired today, city taxpayers would owe them a combined $226,919 for 559 unused days, records show.

The payouts include a generous contractual provision that gives veteran officers like Mainor and Connors an additional five days to cash in for every year of service. That provision would boost the current payouts to both officers by a combined $67,920, records show.

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerAssemblyman Charles Mainor (D-Hudson)

In the past three years, the city has taken out $27 million in short-term loans to help make such payments to retiring city employees. Most of the money went to police officers and firefighters who fled the department as Trenton lawmakers weighed changes to their benefits, financial records show.

At the same time, the police department has not hired an officer in more than three years to replace the 103 officers who have retired. and to balance the budget, Police Chief Tom Comey — himself in line for a six-figure payout — has shut the police academy and the community affairs department and trimmed the traffic control unit.

Mainor dismissed the notion that the perks financially crippled the department, saying the culprit is the governor’s cuts in state aid to cities.

“It starts from the top down,” said Mainor, who added that he has heard more complaints from residents about the big bonuses paid to bank executives than “boat checks” to departing public employees.

The governor’s spokesman called Mainor’s comments “ludicrous” and said they show just how out of touch some public employees are with the financial struggles of the residents who must foot the bill for the perk.

“It’s an obvious waste of taxpayer resources,” said Drewniak. “The fact that a state lawmaker can’t see that really underscores the problem.”

John Lynch, 51, a lifelong resident of Jersey City and frequent critic of the current administration, said the lack of financial resources has contributed to spikes in crime and a sense of fear in the city’s neighbors that lie outside the gentrified downtown.

“We don’t have enough policing. I’ve never felt more unsafe in the city,” said Lynch. “I mean $27 million is a lot of money and that could go a long way here. The city is going broke, but the people are suffering.”

POLITICAL PROPOSALS

The disclosures come amid a political tug of war on the issue between Christie and the Democrats who control the Legislature.

In 2010, shortly after taking office, Christie and lawmakers capped the payments for new employees and permitted local officials to issue debt to cover the costs of the payouts, which were hitting record highs as a graying workforce reached retirement age and panic-stricken workers fled in droves while lawmakers considered rolling back benefits.

But the bipartisan bill did little to stem the tide of crippling payouts, which rose alongside a surge in retirements and layoffs across the state. Atlantic City has to set up a payment plan to pay its departing police officers and firefighters $7.1 million in 2010, while Newark taxpayers had to cover $6.1 million in payouts to firefighters.

In response, Democrats passed a much more restrictive bill last year. This time, they said, current employees could keep what they accumulated, but no more.

Christie vetoed the measure, saying it didn’t go far enough. he said employees should use sick time only when they’re ill and not treat it as a retirement check. he also wanted to trim the size of future payouts by forcing employees to draw down their banked time first when taking a vacation or sick days.

Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerGov. Chris Christie is pictured in this March file photo. Christie vetoed a Democratic bill that would allow current employees could keep what sick time they accumulated, but not accrue any more. The measure did not go far enough, Christie said.

Like it or not, Democrats said Christie’s attempt to take away public employees’ accrued time is illegal and would be immediately challenged in court.

“If a person earns something fairly, then they should get it,” said Connors, whose unused time in Jersey City is currently worth $101,836, records show.

With the issue unresolved, veteran employees — including many state lawmakers — continue to amass time, and the bill for local governments is growing. Republicans said the fact that a group of Democratic lawmakers have a financial stake in the outcome may have something to do with the slow pace of reform.

The lawmakers and others said local leaders had offered the bigger retirement payments to defer short-term costs like pay raises.

“I don’t think they fully appreciated the down-the-road consequences of their actions,” said Bill Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities. “There are government officials at all levels who looked short-term and not long-term, and now in 2012, taxpayers and citizens have to pay for the decisions made decades ago.”

This article is the second in a three-part series on global financial inclusion based on data collected for the new World Bank Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thirty-six percent of the world's adults reported saving or setting aside money in the past year, according to a new study by Gallup and the World Bank. Adults living in high-income countries — those countries classified by the World Bank with a GDP of $12,276 or more — are most likely to save money, with 58% of adults in these countries saying they set aside funds. Four in 10 adults in sub-Saharan Africa and the East Asia and Pacific region say they saved money in the past year, while half as many adults in South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa say they did so.

These results come from a new global study of financial inclusion, which measures how adults in 148 economies save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. the findings reflect more than 150,000 interviews with adults, aged 15 and older, conducted in 2011. Gallup collected the data for the new World Bank Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

There are marked differences in how adults save. Worldwide, nearly one in four adults (22%) reports having saved formally at a bank, credit union, or microfinance institution in the past 12 months. Residents of high-income countries are the most likely to save formally (45%), while adults in Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa are the least likely to have saved formally (7% and 5%, respectively).

Men, adults with higher incomes, and those with more education are more likely to report having saved at a bank, credit union, or microfinance institution in the past year. In developing economies, adults in the richest income quintile are, on average, more than three times as likely to save formally as those in the poorest income quintile.

Savings behaviors vary even among account holders. Worldwide, 43% of account holders report having saved or set aside money at a formal financial institution. In Europe and Central Asia, 14% of account holders report this.

In many regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, community-based saving arrangements are common alternatives (or complements) to saving at a formal financial institution. Worldwide, 12% of adults save money using methods other than a formal account. Savings may take place through an informal savings club or a family member outside the home. Savings clubs are most common in sub-Saharan Africa, where 19% of all adults and 48% of savers report having used a community-based savings group.

Other adults save using neither formal financial institutions nor community-based methods. These adults account for 29% of all savers worldwide (and more than 50% of savers in 55 countries). These savers are likely using alternative methods such as saving money at home or in commodities such as livestock and gold.

Implications

Lacking a formal account, savers may resort to risky measures such as putting money under the mattress, where it could be stolen. Saving in this way makes it harder to build reserves, build a credit history, and use credit, insurance, and other risk-management tools.

While informal savings clubs can fill an important gap in places where traditional banking is prohibitively expensive or unavailable, there are nontrivial downsides to these arrangements. Their essential characteristic — informality — is accompanied by risks of fraud and collapse. In addition, the seasonality of payments and receipts from such accounts may not align with financial needs and prohibit individuals from accessing money in times of emergency.

The physical, bureaucratic, and cost barriers to opening a formal account may be especially problematic to informal savers. Policymakers and practitioners can use these data to identify market segments that save informally and develop new products and technology, such as mobile technology, to encourage greater formal savings.

Access the complete country-level data set, report, and questionnaire at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.

For complete data sets or custom research from the more than 150 countries Gallup continually surveys, please contact SocialandEconomicAnalysis@gallup.com or call 202.715.3030.

Survey Methods

Results are based on face-to-face and telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults per country, aged 15 and older, conducted in 2011 in 148 countries. For results based on the total samples, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error ranges from ±2 percentage points to ±5.1 percentage points.

For more complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details.

Oh. Em. Gee. Round 3 of our celebrity battle between Beliebers and Directioners literally shocked us to no end. the amount of votes! and comments! but we’ll get to the specifics in a minute. first, we think it’s about time we announced the winner. This competish has been three weeks in the making, you guys! and now, drumroll please, the celebrity who has the most fans on Teen.com and reigns as the most popular Teen celeb ever is…

Ha! Jk! It’s JUSTIN DREW BIEBER! the Biebs won with 51.78 percent of votes. but Directioners put in an amazing effort, making it super close with 48.22 percent. but if we may chime in here, Beliebers had a bit of an advantage:

He tweeted it! the Biebs himself noticed us! we feel so special now! Freaking out! Fan girl moment!

But ok, we’re done. After 2,439 comments and 102,915 votes, this epic celeb battle is over. and we are sad. but we are currently celebrating in the Teen.com office with a Bieber cake and purple hoodies.

Oh, and for the Directioners who don’t believe Justin won? the proof is riiiight here:

Are you happy Justin won? or did one Direction deserve it? you know what to do — tell us if you’re happy or sad with the results below!

Check out a Snippet of Justin Bieber’s new Music Video!

You can probably name the CEOs of many global corporations–but you might not be able to name the people who serve on the boards. nor might you be able to say how many women serve on the boards. 

And yet, corporate boards make decisions that affect shareholder value, company brand and reputation, global economies and industries, employment, the environment, human rights, the fortunes of suppliers and distributors, health care and pensions, and much more. And studies show that companies with more women on boards and in leadership positions outperform–financially and otherwise–companies with fewer women. Knowing that companies with gender diversity perform best, you’d imagine that all investors would factor this information into their investment decisions. unfortunately, not yet. but the investment firms that are leading the way tend to be those with sustainable investing solutions that integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment analysis and decision-making.  Pax World Investments, for example, established a Global Women’s Equality Fund.

“This is the only mutual fund in America that is focused on investing in companies that are global leaders in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace and beyond,” says Joe Keefe, President and CEO, said in an interview. “We look at gender equality as an investment concept. we invest in companies with at least two women on the board, and preferably three, and management teams with at least 30% women.” Recent top holdings include companies like Pfizer, Roche, and BlackRock.  For all 13 of its funds, Pax World focuses on companies with women friendly work policies; recruiting, hiring, promoting, and advancing women; and family friendly work policies. “These are all indicators of effective management,” says Keefe. “The research bears this out.”One challenge to ESG investors is the inadequacy of gender reporting.

Aditi Mohapatra is senior sustainability analyst at Calvert Investments, a leader in sustainable and responsible investing. “Few companies disclose data regarding the percentage of women in their workforce,” Mohapatra told me in an interview. “Only eight out of the S&P 100 publicly reported by race and gender.” 

Mohapatra added that while companies indicate whether they have work-life balance programs and retention programs, they fail to report how many people participate.  “As a result, as investors, it’s difficult to assess the effectiveness of the programs.” To address the lack of information, Calvert launched the Calvert Women’s Principles in partnership with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2004. This statement formed the basis for UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, which are use by business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace, and community, says Mohapatra. they were adopted in 2009 by the UN Global Impact and UNIFEM.  “As investors, we need a way to assess a company’s performance related to women’s empowerment,” she says. “The principles also provide companies with a set of goals to measure their performance and progress.”Keefe and Mohapatra recently addressed the Fourth Annual Women’s Empowerment Event at the U.N. Keefe urged companies to adopt the Women’s Empowerment Principles, while Mohapatra talked about “Demystifying the Metrics: Overcoming Obstacles to Increase Transparency.”Not satisfied to being reactive with regard to board composition, Pax World is proactive by voting their proxies to advance gender diversity on corporate boards. “If, as investors, we don’t exercise our proxy votes to say no to all male boards, then we are part of the problem,” said Keefe.  not only does Keefe encourage mutual funds, pension funds, and other money managers to withhold support for slates of directors that are all male, Keefe also urges fund managers to write follow up letters explaining their opposition.Mohapatra told me that Calvert not only votes their proxies against slates lacking women or minorities, but they have also filed shareholder proposals to sixty companies to date. their request is not simply for companies to add women and minorities to the board, but to change the director-selection process. Calvert has achieved success with Netflix, Apple, True Religion, and Under Armour.we all want companies to be accountable for their practices. Calvert, Pax World, and other ESG investment firms like Walden Asset Management, Trillium Asset Management, and Domini Social Investments provide lessons about the roles we can play in advancing corporate behaviors that are good for business and good for the world.  Check out the boards of the companies where you invest. Check out the policies of the mutual funds where you invest, and encourage them to vote their proxies only for slates of directors with significant gender diversity.

[Image: Flickr user Victor1558]

ANDERSON —On Easter Sunday, Lanada Silva’s 9-year-old son was diagnosed with liver cancer.

A week ago, she returned to the north state with her husband and daughter. she returned to battles over bills and with pharmacies.

But Saturday afternoon, the family had a chance to spend time together with her son, Chad Silva. He got toys from his favorite video game, a chance to ride in big rigs and make crafts, a spaghetti lunch and dessert. they spent the day having fun and meeting with the families of 12 other children fighting serious illnesses.

“It’s like having a continual nightmare,” Silva said. “Thank God they are here for us.”

Chad joined around 26 other kids at a Reverse Birthday, organized by Gina and Darrell Farley and the Alyssa Araiza Wings of Angels Organization. they held the event on what would have been the 11th birthday of their son, Matt Farley.

Matt died Oct. 18 after a battle with leukemia and a rare bone marrow disease.

“We thought about Matt’s birthday coming up, realized it was going to be a tough day for us. should we go out of town? Spend some time with friends?” Darrell Farley said. but a friend of the family commented on Facebook about how much Matt loved sharing his gifts with others.

Darrell Farley said Matt would dump his toys on the floor and share with others in the hospital. “Except for Batman. He’d never give Batman away.”

Those memories of their son spurred the Farleys to put together a celebration for parents whose children are fighting battles against serious diseases.

They partnered with Wings of Angels, which had helped them with Matt’s health struggles, to put on the event. they handed out gifts, ranging from action figures to games and iPads.

“It’s a great tool (iPad) — not just for games but pictures and videos,” he said. “After Matt passed away, we found several videos he’d recorded that we didn’t know about. … He was trying to figure out how to run it; he put it on video. He said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m recordering myself.’ He’d set it on his lap, videoing his underwear and he freaked out. ‘Why is this recording my underwear?’

“Those are priceless.”

Chad, who’s played every version of Halo except the original, said he loved “everything.”

Heather Grant, 34, brought her three sons and 7-year-old daughter, Rachel, who is undergoing treatment for leukemia.

The Grants lost Rachel’s twin, Rebekah, in 2007 to rhabdomyosarcoma.

“I’ve never seen nothing like this,” said Jared Grant, 19.

He said his sister Rachel is an active tomboy, though she likes to catch and keep ladybugs in jars. she also likes singing music by Adele and watching “American Idol.”

Jared Grant said the family has acted differently after learning of Rachel’s illness. They’ve kept themselves upbeat and optimistic; with Rebekah, people told the family “just, like, prepare for her to die.”

Heather Grant said the family pulls together for Rachel to keep living each day, and the Reverse Birthday helps families suffering through such ordeals to support one another and focus on celebrating life.

“We choose to live. we decide we’re going to beat this,” she said. “They don’t talk about love, the Farleys. they show love. … I don’t have any other words other than amazing.”

Silva said her family is going to get through it, taking each day at a time.

Thought it might be instructive to look at the three boxscores and Ron Tillery game stories for the games the Grizzlies and Clippers played during the regular season. the Clippers won two of three, with both victories coming in Los Angeles.Jan. 26: Clippers 98, Grizzlies 91: the Griz fell behind by 12 after a quarter, but this was a tight one, with 19 lead changes and 14 ties, as Tillery wrote. March 24: Clippers 101, Grizzlies 85: This came at the end of probably the worst stretch of basketball the Grizzlies had all year and marked their fifth loss in six games. the Clippers again jumped to a double-digit first-quarter lead, but this time they didn’t encounter much resistance. something must have sunk in, though. the Griz beat the Lakers the next day and won 16 of their final 20 games.April 9: Grizzlies 94, Clippers 85: Zach Randolph was in a fender-bender on the way to morning shoot-around, but put up a double-double in helping the Griz knock off the Clippers for their third straight victory.For those of you who find the plus-minus ratings of interest, here are the plus-minus ratings for every player who played in at least two of the three games. the numbers are listed in chronological order, beginning with the first game of the series:GRIZZLIESMike Conley: -13, 1, 5Tony Allen: -13, -10, DNPRudy Gay: -4, -21, 2Mo Speights: -8, -9, 6Marc Gasol: -7, -3, 4Zach Randolph: DNP, 0, 6Quincy Pondexter: 6, 7, 7 (only Griz in positive numbers each game)O.J. Mayo: 0, -8, 9Gilbert Arenas: DNP, -15, 4Dante Cunningham: 0, -16, 3Hamed Haddadi: -2, -4, -1Jeremy Pargo: DNP, -2, 0CLIPPERSChris Paul: 18, 28, -6Randy Foye: -4, 16, -17Blake Griffin: 5, 20, -4Caron Butler: 10, 11, 0DeAndre Jordan: 17, 9, -2Kenyon Martin: DNP, 12, -12Eric Bledsoe: DNP, -12, 1Nick Young: DNP, 5, -5Reggie Evans: -1, -8, DNP

The great question at the moment is that we know that we have an industrial revolution going on. the internet in short. this allows us to do new things and also to do old things differently. this is pretty much the definition of innovation and of productivity growth. But we’ve a problem: we cannot actually see this in the figures for economic growth.

This piece at the Harvard Business Review gives us a flavour of the arguments:

More prosaically, the 15 years since the Internet became a major part of our lives has been marked here in the U.S. — birthplace of the Internet — by mostly disappointing economic growth.

My own answer to this is that this is simply a problem of measurement. of the way in which GDP itself is a useful but not complete measure.

Firstly, much of what we use the net for is simply not calculated in economic statistics. Because what we do is simply not monetised. When you look at the statistics the internet turns up as the amount of money we spend on our ISPs and really not much else. But we’re all well aware that we’re doing online is worth a multiple of the $30-$50 a month we’re paying for it but the way that GDP is calculated just doesn’t capture it.

Secondly, certain uses of the internet actually reduce GDP: even while making us as individuals richer. perhaps the view is coloured by personal experience but I well recall back in the 1990s working in Russia. We were spending some $5,000 to $6,000 a month purely on telephone calls. I don’t use the phone any less now than I used to then but that huge bill is now replaced by a Skype subscription. I don’t even know how much I spend on it: they come and take €25 every couple of months and that’s it. in the way that GDP is calculated that is a new technology shrinking GDP.

So at least part of the absence of evidence for economic grwoth from innovation is simply that we’re measuring economic growth wrong.

But there is one more point to be made:

Even beyond the technological challenges, there are lots of other obstacles to change. Stephenson, who has “devoted a shocking amount of time” lately to learning about alternative space-launch technologies, said at MIT that “the reason none of them happen turns out to be insurance.”

We have managed to build an economy where trying something new has become increasingly difficult. I’ve long argued, as an example, that space flight would do better to ignore the US as an operating base given the costs the FAA load onto gaining permissions. It’s generally accepted that environmental regulations mean that no one will ever be able to build a new copper smelter in the country: the old ones are grandfathered in and so a new one would face huge costs that they don’t. I looked into a small (5 people, so yes small) plant to test a new method of rare earths separation in my native UK. planning permission, just the licences let alone the actual research work, would have taken 18 months to gain.

So while I do think that some of our lack of recorded economic growth from innovation is simply that we’re not measuring it properly I also think that we really do have a problem. It’s more difficult to innovate simply because the law makes it harder to do so.

Jackson County employees brought their sons and daughters along with them to work for National Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

The day aims to give children a glimpse of what a normal workday is like for their parents or mentors. it also stresses the importance of an education for a rewarding career.

For some students, the day gave them insight to what a day in their future career could look like. Alex Ramos, a 17-year-old exchange student from Mexico, followed his guardian, Betty Blighton, who is in charge of accounts payable with the Jackson County School District. Ramos wants to be an accountant when he grows up and was able to watch Blighton look over vendor contracts. He was surprised at the utility bill at his school, Marianna High School.

Nakeya (Nicky) Lovett, the assistant chief at Marianna fire and Rescue, brought his 10-year-old grandson, Kamrine Saffold, to work. Saffold wants to be a firefighter as well, but Lovett had some additional lessons to teach him besides firefighting.

“I hope that he learns hard work, honesty, integrity and to treat people fairly,” Lovett said.

For other students, they maked some jobs off of their future career list. Jenna Sneads, the daughter of school district finance director, Kathy Sneads, decided accounting was not for her. The lessons Kathy had for her, like office efficacy, can be applied to any work setting, however.

“no matter what position you’re in you have to do grunt work,” Kathy said.

Chephus Granberry, the secretary of student services, had his daughter Cydney Granberry and niece Danielle Baker, filing forms, shredding papers, and cleaning up around the office. He planned to bring them to the warehouse to help straighten up.

“when they leave, they’re going to know that when daddy comes home and is tired, he has a reason to be,” Chephus said with a laugh.

To Celebrate Mother’s Day Your Life After 25 has teamed up with GourmetGiftBaskets.com  to give you a chance to win a Bath & Snack Gift Basket™ and help make Mother’s Day Special for a SPECIAL Mom!

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So, what do you think Mike Brown has to say for Bynum’s outstanding performance for the Lakers today against the Denver Nuggets?

His thought was not to bench him during the fourth quarter this time, that’s for sure.

Andrew Bynum, the 7’0″, 285-pound center for the Lakers, put up a triple-double with 10 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks. His triple double was the first one seen in a Lakers playoff game since the ‘91 finals against the Bulls.

Surprising? No, not at all. With six years of experience, Andrew Bynum should be performing at this level on a regular basis and the fact that he fails to is disappointing. His size is nearly impossible to matchup against as we saw in all three Nuggets’ centers, McGee, Koufos and Mozgov, who all had difficulty scoring and defending. JaVale McGee, who averages 11 points and seven rebounds per game, went 0-6 from the field, scoring only two points from a pair of free throws.

We all know that Andrew Bynum has the potential and ability to have double-doubles in every game. again, he has the experience and the size, but his personality is not quite matching up. We have witnessed all the ups and downs throughout Bynum’s career due to his quick temper.

Recently, Bynum has been at odds with coach Mike Brown because of his decisions to bench him. Because of Bynum’s three-point shot attempt with plenty of time left on the shot clock against the Warriors along with other stunts of immaturity, Brown felt it was best for the Lakers to pull Bynum out of the game. If he’s not going to take the game seriously, then coach Brown will put someone in who will.

Last week, Bynum was also benched against the Oklahoma City Thunder for the fourth quarter and overtime while watching Jordan Hill take his place, scoring 14 points and 15 rebounds. Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol put on game-winning performances combining for 46 points, 17 assists and 20 rebounds, resulting in a 114-106 victory.

Today, however, Bynum responded with a triple-double. alongside him were his fellow starters Bryant, Sessions, Ebanks and Gasol, who all combined for 80 points. together, the Lakers displayed teamwork through their overpowering communication and active ball movement. With a team total of 22 assists, it’s safe to say every player got their hands on the ball.

Jordan Hill was another performer who played an exceptional game today after producing a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes of play.

Teamwork was not quite the game plan for the Nuggets considering their starters. Afflalo, Gallinari, Lawson and Faried combined for an embarrassing 45 points due to the Lakers’ 41 defensive rebounds and 15 blocks. as for their fifth starter, Kosta Kousfos, his contributions were limited to ZERO points, five rebounds, one block, one turnover and three personal fouls. Denver took their name, “No-Gets,” to a new level. 

Of course, it was Bynum who rejected any Denver Nugget who tried to drive to the basket. there is no doubt that Bynum is the best center in the NBA right now, but he needs to be more consistent and not take his coach’s decisions too personally. instead of Bynum acting salty about being benched, he should think for a moment and ask himself, “why?”

Props to coach Brown who has done an outstanding job incorporating every player into the game. He has his starters who have chemistry along with his bench who have learned to play well together.

Mike Brown does know what he is doing. say what you want about him and his coaching strategies, but we must not ignore the fact that the Lakers ended their regular season with a 41-25 record with Mike Brown as their coach. We have also seen the Lakers perform at an explosive, more competitive level which was witnessed in today’s 103-88 win against the Denver Nuggets.