Here is the latest round up of new and interesting sites of the week.

 

 

Austerity has inflicted misery on UK citizens
Last week comments from Sir Philip Alston UN Envoy on Poverty about inequality in the UK were widely reported. The Guardian summarised the main points

But what are the facts?
Read the actual press release from United Nations Office for Human Rights
Office for National Statistics reports on families below average income.
General information on personal income, debt and household finances.
Information and data on fuel poverty in the UK
In a blog posting. Dr Koldo Casla Just Fair comments on whether inequality is rising or falling.
Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2018- IFS report. This considers in work poverty, pensioner incomes examining changes in the last few years.
Child Poverty Action Group has facts on recent changes in child poverty in the UK. It also has information on the negative impact of universal credit
Shelter has information on homelessness and access to housing
Trussell Trust has information on Food bank usage

 

What should we do about Fake News?

This week the LSE Truth, Trust and Technology Commission launched its report. They argued that Big tech companies should fund an independent platform agency to police fake news. Find out more by donloading the report and getting the facts on the composition of the commission from the official website.

 

 

Ethnic Minority staff are paid less.

Shocking findings from UCEA the Universities and Colleges Employers Association.in their latest report released this week.
UCEA’s research focuses on the difference in basic pay between men and women in two broad groups – black and Asian – compared with those of white men and white women. Using HESA staff data for 2016-17, UCEA finds that there are sizeable earnings gaps  by both gender and ethnicity. Among white academic men, 38.7% earned over £50,000 compared with 23.9% of white women, 25.1% of Asian men and much lower percentages for all other groups. Also in professional services staff , Black members are overrepresented at the lower levels of pay (below £30,000),

 

Get the full text and links to other recent reports on HE teaching and learning from our scoop.it page. Other reports this week look at student loans .

 

There is also the interesting paper

 

Why (almost) Everything We Know About Citations is Wrong: Evidence from Authors

Presented at a conference called Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators in Transition, held in Leiden in September 2018 .based on an online survey of academic staff in six fields of the humanities and social sciences. It asked about decisions on who to cite. Is it the prestige of the paper? Its content? The status of the author?

 

 

Bridging the Digital Data Gender divide.

Today

worldwide 327 million fewer women than men have a smartphone and can access the mobile Internet. This report from the OECD considers what can be done. It focuses upon the themes of Upskill and innovate to achieve change. Download the full text from the website.

Development data library
USAID Library relaunched with enhanced data . This website provides information on projects supported from its funding.  You can search,  find and visualise datasets. It is possible to search for materials by region, sustainable development goals and also to retrieve programme evaluations.

Other good sources of aid aid are:

AidData.org Research lab based at the College of William & Mary which seeks to make aid flows transparent and accountable. Contains data from 96 donor agencies and multilateral organizations from 1945 to the present. These include the OECD.  Free access to an outstanding dashboard of data visualisations

Aidflows. The result of a partnership between the OECD, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank

FTS.  Financial Tracking Service. Managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This site continuously tracks global humanitarian aid flows between donors (government and private) and humanitarian actors (UN agencies, the Red Cross Movement and other NGOs).

International Development Statistics OECD database providing extensive coverage of bilateral, multilateral aid and private providers’ aid and other resource flows to developing countries.

 

World Bank’s 2017 Global Findex microdata launched.

Released by the World Bank every 3 years since 2011. Useful for examining financial inclusion and exclusion worldwide.  Find country report soon how many adults have bank accounts, access to financial institutions, savings , Breakdowns by gender, country region and income group  and by formal and informal sources of finance. Download the report or over 200 data indicators from the website.

Shaping our Sorrow

New online exhibition fromn the Commonwealth war Graves Commission on remembrance in the aftermath of the First World War. The themes are Denial, Anger, Bargaining,   Depression, Acceptance

It includes text with some description plus over 200 digitised archive artefacts. These include original planning for war memorials and  maps of military cemetaries.

 

Finally

Jodrell Bank Observatory release 50 year-old audio archive of Soviet Zond 6 lunar mission

In November 1968, Sir Bernard Lovell and colleagues used the Lovell Telescope to track the Soviet Zond 6 spacecraft on its flight around the MoonThis page lets you  listen to the recording of the signals, including Lovell's narration and Russian voices relayed via the spacecraft. There is an English transcript. For other moon and space treasures: try the

NASA image and video library

BBC archive has coverage from space and moon landings events. In 1961 the Sky at Night asked is there life on the moon? There are also historic news broadcasts .

 

Best wises

Heather Dawson

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