Departments
In the News
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7 August 1998 |
Vol. II, No. 3 |
In the News
Labor relations specialist David Weil, SMG assistant professor of finance and economics, is featured in articles in USA Today, the L.A. Times, and the Detroit News on the General Motors strike settlement. In the July 29 L.A. Times, Weil says the strike probably did not affect GM's customer or dealer loyalty. "This wasn't like the UPS strike, where customers were hurt immediately," Weil says. "There were enormous inventories," and reports say dealers are only starting to feel the effects. "It is critical that [GM and the Union of Auto Workers] rebuild their relationship now rather than wait until the national agreement expires," Weil says in the July 30 Detroit News.
James Joyce's Ulysses was recently voted the best English-language novel of the century by a panel of experts. In a July 26 New York Times article, CAS Associate Professor of English John Kidd, director of BU's James Joyce Research Center, says, "It is not the best novel. It is simply the most influential novel." Kidd is working on a new edition of the book.
"Personally, I think a childhood without ice cream just isn't worth it," says Dr. Steven Parker, MED assistant professor of pediatrics, in a July 27 Boston Globe article on the seventh edition of Dr. Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care, which endorses a vegan diet for children over the age of two. Parker, who coauthored the edition with Spock, disagrees with the late pediatrician's "advocacy of what amounts to a vegan diet for kids -- no meat, fish, dairy, or eggs." Parker thinks a diet of all vegetables for kids is silly, especially because there is little evidence that the eating habits formed in childhood remain for life. When it came time for the issue to be resolved for the printing of the book, however, "Spock trumped Parker," Parker says.
Robert Levine, a California social psychologist and professor at California State University in Fresno, claims in a recent book, The Geography of Time, that Boston is the fastest paced city in the country. New York City, generally considered the fastest paced, came in third. The results were based on how fast people could buy a stamp at the post office or get cash from a bank teller, how quickly they walked 60 feet, how accurate clocks in public areas were, and how many people wore wristwatches. In a July 19 Boston Herald article on the study, Daniel Monti, CAS associate professor of sociology, says, "I don't think it's worth much. I don't think it makes any substantial difference whatsoever in the quality of life, nor does it say anything about the moral content of life." When asked if he had read the book, Monti jokingly says, "I don't have enough time."
Companies are increasingly manufacturing products with parts that can be reused rather than recycled, according to a July 14 New York Times article. "The [remanufacturing] industry has grown and grown, yet it's been completely overlooked," says Robert Lund, ENG adjunct professor of manufacturing engineering. In 1996, the last year Lund gathered figures, companies that rebuild parts comprised a $53 billion business employing 480,000 people.
"In the News" is compiled by Laura Raichle, Office of Public Relations.