"Dermatologists Target Ethnic Skin Woes" | Carla Johnson | AP

Two interested things about this article. First, it shows that there are still some times and places where it is not only okay, but actually advisable to target people because of their skin color. Secondly, it brings to mind some things that entertainer Michael Jackson and Michael Richards have in common other than the same first name and fair skin: neither of them will be asked to endorse the products of L'Oreal, a major sponsor of a yearly "ethnic skin research symposium at Howard University, a historically-black college in Washington, D.C.

John Edwards' folly: A book signing gone wrong | Manchester Union-Leader

This story about a Senator hawking his book speaks volumes:

(Senator John) Edwards is holding his book signing at Barnes & Noble instead of Wal-Mart. Which is too bad for his anti-low-wages campaign, because in Manchester Wal-Mart pays hourly employees more than Barnes & Noble does. The Barnes & Noble where Edwards will hawk his book pays $7 an hour to start. The Wal-Mart that sits just yards away pays $7.50 an hour. Oh, the humanity! From 7 to 8 p.m., Edwards will bring business to a retailer that pays wages he thinks are so immorally low that they should be illegal. Meanwhile, right behind him, thousands of Granite Staters will be supporting a business that pays an Edwards-approved starting wage, but which Edwards wants everyone to boycott.

“We are at a point where the Reagan era might finally be over, including the eight years of Bill Clinton,” said Jeff Faux, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research group partly financed by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “The historic juncture here is whether the Democrats can come up with policies that get to the level of the problem.”

The "problem" of which Mr. Faux speaks is an economy that is too globalized and whose industries are not sufficiently regulated.

Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices | Louis Uchitelle | New York Times

Another fine article by L. Uchitelle about how many doctors are being lured away from research medicine for careers on Wall Street, where they can apply their hard won skills for much higher pay, and as management consultants. For seven years at MIT I taught strategic management to scientists, engineers, technologists who had aspirations towards careers in business. The combination of domain-specific expertise and and appreciation for rigorous logic and the scientific method has a place in management and increasingly people like the ones mentioned in this article are finding it.