To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing. - The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, Ch 22
Quote: Mark Twain
April 14, 2007 at 3:33 am (Quote)
Picture: Tulip in Spring
April 14, 2007 at 3:04 am (Picture)
Kyoto: Tulip in Spring, originally uploaded by micpohling.
Gene: Language
April 14, 2007 at 2:37 am (Gene)
Source: From Squeak to Syntax: Language’s Incremental Evolution, 11-04-2006
Most of the genes involved in language have some sort of close and ancient counterpart in other species. As a case in point, consider the first gene to be unambiguously tied to language, known as FOXP2, discovered by Simon Fisher and Anthony Monaco, Oxford geneticists.
Participation in motor control in turn placed FOXP2 in a prime position for evolving a role in vocal learning, as it did both in songbirds and in humans. FOXP2 is thus not a gene that was invented purely for the purpose of language, but rather, just as Darwin might have anticipated, a gene that has evolved over time — millions of years — adding new functions in successive generations.
Using the tools of molecular biology, a team of German and British scientists led by Svante Paabo probed further, discovering that the variants of FOXP2 found in other animals are remarkably similar to our own: the difference between the human and mouse version is just three amino acids; between human and chimpanzees, it is only two.
More: wikipedia source.
Countries without Minimum Wage Law
April 14, 2007 at 2:24 am (Economic, World)
- Austria: none by law; instead, nationwide collective bargaining agreements set minimum wages by job classification for each industry; the accepted unofficial annual minimum wage is €12,000 to €14,000.
- Brunei
- Denmark
- Finland: not in law; however, the law requires all employers, including nonunionized ones, to meet the minimum wages agreed to in collective bargaining agreements in each sector of the workforce; almost all workers are covered under such arrangements
- Germany: none by law (but in discussion); collective bargaining agreements set minimum wages by job classification for each industry and region; however, these agreements apply only to employers who are full members of an employers’ association (the vast majority of German employers are members)
- Hong Kong: applies only to foreign labor.
- Iceland: none; minimum wages are negotiated in various collectively bargained agreements and applied automatically to all employees in those occupations, regardless of union membership; while the agreements can be either industry- or sector-wide, and in some cases firm-specific, the minimum wage levels are occupation-specific.
- Italy: none by law; instead set by a collective bargaining agreements on a sector-by-sector basis; when an employer and a union fail to reach an agreement, courts may determine fair wages on the basis of practice in comparable activities, although this rarely occurs in practice.
- Norway
- Singapore
- Sweden: none by law; set by collective bargaining contracts every year.
