Monday, February 23, 2009

How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity

There's a great article in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review penned by Ed Catmull, Creative Director of Pixar Animation, discussing the creative process that the company fosters:
"While I’m not foolish enough to predict that we will never have a flop, I don’t think our success is largely luck. Rather, I believe our adherence to a set of principles and practices for managing creative talent and risk is responsible. Pixar is a community in the true sense of the word. We think that lasting relationships matter, and we share some basic beliefs: Talent is rare. Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur. It must be safe to tell the truth. We must constantly challenge all of our assumptions and search for the flaws that could destroy our culture."
To read the entire article online, follow this link to the library's online Harvard Business Review subscription:

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.ggu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=33982981&site=bsi-live

You will need to supply your last name and GGU ID number. If you have problems, be sure to check the Database Troubleshooting Guide.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Resources on the Financial Crisis

Greetings, today while helping a student find overviews of the Financial Crisis, I came across

"Credit Crisis: The Essentials" from the New York Times.

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/index.html

I like this source because of the way it organizes information regarding the US aspects of the crisis into a coherent overview.

I especially like this source because it links to
The U.S. Financial Crisis: The Global Dimension with Implications for U.S. Policy, from the Congressional Research Service.
Dick K. Nanto, Specialist in Industry and Trade at CRS coordinated the report, which is dated January 29. 2009.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/02/02/business/CRSGlobalDimension.pdf

To locate more excellent resources on the Financial Crisis, including Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and IMF portals, see Gene Springs excellent LibGuide
on the Current Economic Recession


GGU University Library staff will be glad to help members of the GGU community find more resources on the financial crisis and other topics.

Congratulations to Terry Connelly, Dean of the Ageno School of Business, for his chapter “The Unintended Consequences of the New Housing Recovery Act,” in the new book "The Financial Crisis, A Thomson Reuters/West Report," published by Thomson Reuters/West 2008. We are rush ordering a copy for the University Library.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Your PhD as interpretive dance

Strange but true: last year saw the first ever "Dance your PhD" Contest. A scientist named John Bohannon came up with the idea inspired by his friend Christoph Campreghe, a PhD candidate by day and a DJ by night.

Sadly, the deadline for the 2009 contest submissions passed last November 18th. But that gives all you doctoral candidates time to start working on your submission for next year!

Official Dance your PhD contest page: rules and submissions
(with a few videos too)

For what it's worth, my personal favorite: The role of vitamin D in beta cell function (all PhD research starts in the dark, please be patient).

Watch them go: Dance your PhD at Youtube Select from a wide variety of fascinating PhD dance topics.

For those who care about such trivial matters: Can Scientists Dance? an article in Science magazine telling you all you ever wanted to know and more than you ever wanted to know about the Dance your PhD contest.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Financial Data Statistics Turned into Music by Microsoft Songsmith

Greetings, Though I have a zillion other things I should be doing, have to share with you a resource our local data guru just sent to me:
Financial Data Statistics Turned into Music

http://fromthedeskofthemayor.blogspot.com/2009/02/world-crisis-charts-fed-into-microsoft.html

He found it through Information Aesthetics http://infosthetics.com/

Now I'm a believer.

Monday, February 9, 2009

State Health Facts Database

Looking for health statistics broken down by state? Try the free State Health Facts web site:

http://www.statehealthfacts.org/
"Statehealthfacts.org is a project of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and is designed to provide free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states. Statehealthfacts.org provides data on more than 500 health topics and is linked to both the Kaiser Family Foundation website and KaiserNetwork.org." (text from web site)
For more information about the site, or for citation instructions, please visit their "About" page: http://www.statehealthfacts.org/about.jsp

Outsourcing

There's an interesting article over at sfgate.com about outsourcing:

Web-based hiring halls filling workforce gaps
"Outsourcing started as a corporate trend, driven by large companies that had the sophistication to shift factory and office work to English-speaking locations overseas. Now new online tools are giving small businesses and entrepreneurs the same ability to assemble and manage teams of workers anywhere in the world, providing lower-cost, skilled labor without the benefits that come with full-time jobs."

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Podcast: Galbraith (Jr.) on the economy

Bloomberg News Podcast on the economy this week features an interview with economist James Galbraith (son of John Kenneth Galbraith). He discusses the failure of de-regulation and monetarism as well as possible long term solutions to the present financial situation.