Can you afford to stay home after the birth of your child? In an attempt to answer this question, many folks use too simple an equation -- typically looking at a rundown of major bills, adding the cost of child care, and then comparing the expenses to their income. The trouble with this calculation is that it fails to do a couple of important things, such as (1) factoring in the true cost of working and (2) acknowledging many of the "hidden" financial benefits of employment.
Ann Arbor, Mich. -- A University of Michigan study finds you really can work things out with your college dorm roommates if you try.
Research by psychologists Jennifer Crocker and Amy Canevello at the U-M Institute for Social Research and published in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology concludes trying to be supportive can bring benefits to both sides.
"Roommate relationships can be really good or they can be really bad. And the fear is that they'll go from bad to worse," said Crocker in a Tuesday press release. "But our study shows that you can create a supportive relationship and turn the stranger who's your roommate into a friend."
A National Institutes of Health funded study looked at more than 300 college freshmen who had been assigned to share rooms with other students with whom they were unacquainted. The goal was to see how students own relationship approaches affected their relationships with roommates and ultimately their own emotional health.
Cambridge, England -- A British study suggests a Japanese government-supported trend for arising early each day might be symptomatic of a revival of nationalism.
Brigitte Steger, a Cambridge University lecturer in Japanese studies, said the preoccupation with awakening early, last seen in Japan during the first half of the 20th century, might be a "conscious and coordinated attempt" to foster national identity.
Steger notes recent Japanese governments have taken similar steps, including requiring schools to teach students how to be patriotic. Steger argues the fad for early rising is a more subtle manifestation of the same trend.
"The key reason for the revival in early rising culture is that it teaches people to control their emotions, feelings and desires," said Steger. "It is training in spiritual determination so people feel motivated to contribute selflessly to a common cause.
Washington -- A lawyer who describes himself as a "guy's rights" advocate has filed a lawsuit over the women's studies program at Columbia University in New York
Roy Den Hollander, an alumnus of the Columbia Business School who practices in Manhattan, has already sued New York nightclubs, claiming that "ladies nights" are unconstitutional. Another pending suit is aimed at the federal
Violence Against Women Act.
Den Hollander said that the university is using federal aid to spread a "religionist belief system called feminism," The New York Times reports. He also called women's studies "a bastion of bigotry against men."
In his practice, Den Hollander spends much of his time representing men in litigation, The Times said, and describes himself as specializing in "anti-feminist cases or guys' rights cases."
Washington -- The U.S. space agency and Walt Disney Studios have signed an agreement to promote science and technology to schoolchildren.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the "Space Act Agreement" calls for a series of educational and public outreach activities related to Disney-Pixar's new movie, "WALL-E" that opens June 27.
NASA officials said the collaboration highlights the similarities between the movie's storyline and NASA's real-life work in robot technology, propulsion systems and astrophysics. The movie is set 700 years in the future. The film's main character -- the only rover-robot left on Earth -- meets a new robot named Eve, and together they take a journey through the universe.
"Great ideas for future exploration of the universe start with the imagination," said Robert Hopkins, chief of strategic communications at NASA.
Everyone knows the saying, "It takes money to make money." But how much does it take? It's easy to assume it takes, well, more than we have. Believe it or not, though, the headlines you occasionally come across that say "Minimum-Wage Worker Retires Millionaire" are true.
Mom and Dad were right a lot of the time: Scratching only makes it worse; high school's not the end of the world; and that style (whatever "that style" was in your day) isn't flattering, even if all the popular girls are wearing it.
Austin, Texas -- The University of Texas at Austin says it will join with Pakistan's Aga Khan University in science research collaborations and student exchanges.
The five-year agreement also includes special events, lectures, secondary teaching training programs and faculty exchanges.
William Powers Jr., president of Texas-Austin and Firoz Rasul, president of Aga Khan,signed the agreement during a private ceremony last weekend.
Research areas identified for collaboration include science and technology joint research and training, health sciences and human development.
Founded in 1983, Aga Khan University operates 11 campuses in eight countries: Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Syria, Egypt and the United Kingdom.
America's younger generations face a bevy of problems, including mounting debt, impending problems with Social Security and Medicare, and the prospects of an economy that no longer promises advancement over their parents' standards of living. In response, many 25- to 40-year-olds no longer expect to be able to stop working -- no matter how old they get.
Seoul -- The South Korean National Statistical office reported Friday that South Koreans spend an average of 7 percent of their income on their children's education.
A distrust of public schools was part of the reason South Korean parents spend an average $234.21 per child per month on education, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The survey, commissioned by the Education Ministry, cannot be compared to other years, as it was the first conducted. But, South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak's interest in "competition focused education" may trigger even more spending on private educations, experts told Yonhap.
The report said South Korean parents' spending on education reached $21.13 billion in 2007.
Salt Lake City -- A U.S. report said first-born children may attain more education and make more money because they get more parental attention.
Joseph Price, economics professor at Brigham Young University, said his research shows that first-born children get about 3,000 more hours of quality time with their parents between ages 4 and 13 than the next sibling in line.
The findings are published in the Journal of Human Resources.
"We've known for a long time that eldest children have better outcomes and these findings on quality time provide one explanation why," Price said in a statement.
Price said first-born children get more quality time simply because they pass through childhood when there is more overall family time to be shared. His findings were based on data from the federal government's American Time Use Survey, which involved 21,000 people, Brigham Young University said Wednesday in a release.
