How to avoid a cold

Hands mostly.

Not sneezing, not airborne stuff.

Those alcohol wipes don't work btw.

As for those increasingly popular alcohol-based sanitizing gels, sorry, but they may not measure up to plain soap and water. "Rhinoviruses like alcohol. They think it's tasty," says Hendley. For whatever reason, adds Zachary of MGH, "cold viruses are not as susceptible to alcohol-based hand disinfectants as other viruses and bacteria."

And what of the common assumption that the same nasty cold virus can get passed back and forth endlessly within a couple or family? Not true. Most of the time, the next round of colds is because of a new virus.

But if you find that you are recovering from a cold, only to feel sick again, it does not necessarily mean a new virus is at work. "Some cold viruses can be biphasic," says Hirsch, which means that the sufferer can feel sick, then feel better, and then feel sick again - all with the same viral infection. In addition, other microbes, including bacteria, can cause secondary infections such as sinusitis and ear infections.

On the other hand ... who's getting laid off? Men, mostly

Men. >1M men layed off last year, and 12K more women have jobs.

Men are losing jobs at far greater rates than women as the industries they dominate, such as manufacturing, construction, and investment services, are hardest hit by the downturn. Some 1.1 million fewer men are working in the United States than there were a year ago, according to the Labor Department. By contrast, 12,000 more women are working.

This gender gap is the product of both the nature of the current recession and the long-term shift in the US economy from making goods, traditionally the province of men, to providing services, in which women play much larger roles, economists said. For example, men account for 70 percent of workers in manufacturing, which shed more than 500,000 jobs over the past year. Healthcare, in which nearly 80 percent of the workers are women, added more than 400,000 jobs.

"As the recession broadens, the gap between men and women is going to close somewhat," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. "But right now, the sectors that are really getting pounded are intensely male."

Probably has something to do with the gender gap in pay - men make more so they are more of a target in cost cutting times ....

More encouragement - there are jobs out there!

I like this report - jobs are out there. Not that this is a problem here in town, where we have only around 4% unemployment. And not that there's anything new in there but some good old advice - focused training yields $2 more per hour for trainees. They quote this study in there. You need to focus your training to target local industries and employers. Here's the free download for those interested.

More fodder to fight doom and gloom on the part of our fearful leaders - it's what I do ;)

Ma unemployment rate up slightly

We're still below the nation by a point though. Mass rate is 5.5%, national rate is 6.5%. Here's the latest release.

Tech jobs are up for the year actually in the state ... here's a link to the latest rate.

Auburn is 4.1% - pretty low, the area is below the state average at 5.3%.

You can slice and dice the info a lot of ways - including by geographical area and job category.

Study of travel patterns started

I missed the boat on the first one unfortunately.

But there are ongoing meetings continuing in January, a $300000 study of traffic and travel patterns in our immediate region. With the impact of so many crossroads, it's something local residents should be involved in and involved in early, to make sure we have our voices heard.

Not enough male teachers

Yet another in the stories calling for more men in education, particularly early on.

If you read some of the comments, they make the suggestion that there is an institutional bias against it, as well as social stigma, which is probably true. This presents a problem for male children because they have no same gender role models to show them how to learn. It may well explain the declining test scores for boys in recent years.

Compound the issue with the number of single parent female households and I think you have an unbalanced situation getting amplified at home and in the classroom.

In our own system, as I counted we have 1 man as an instructional assistant in the whole district Grades K-2 unless you count custodial staff. Go to grades 3-5 and we have 2.

When I went to school as a child we had more - I want to say at least 2-3 before grade 5 and that was in one school. As the article points out, traditionally there have been more male administrators but because of the paucity of representation in instruction that has been going down. It may have something to do with the obsession with child protection in recent years but it's really a shame if that's the case.

I think this is something that needs obvious improvement and I'd hope the district would seek out qualified male instructional staff to fill the gaps and provide more balance for our children.

Canada's hundreds of wind projects

Hundreds of MW of capacity here. Smart - those Canadians, not conservative like here ....