The heel has come to be the icon of feminine allure and even female power. But what, exactly, is this power and why do only women have the privilege of using heels to convey it?
Heeled footwear that gave the wearer a bit of a lift, or an advantage while on horseback, were not the original domain of women. They were first introduced into Western fashion around the turn of the 17th century from Western Asia. Privileged men, followed by women, eagerly wore them for more than 130 years as expressions of power and prestige.

Anh Nguyễn Văn Bưởi, làm việc cho một công ty may Hàn Quốc, băn khoăn với mức lương của CN hiện nay thì khi về hưu liệu có đảm bảo an sinh hay không. Anh Bưởi kể về trường hợp của một nữ CN từng làm việc tại công ty 19 năm và hết tuổi lao động, bà phải đóng BHXH tự nguyện thêm 1 năm nữa mới đủ thời gian nhận lương hưu. Tuy nhiên, bà này chỉ nhận được mức lương hưu chưa đến 1 triệu đồng/tháng. “Với số tiền này thì làm sao có thể gọi là an sinh xã hội được”, anh Bưởi nói. Đồng tình ý kiến này, CN Huỳnh Tấn Tài đề nghị nâng mức lương tối thiểu.

Tại hội nghị, ông Mai Đức Chính, Phó chủ tịch Tổng liên đoàn Lao động (LĐLĐ) VN, cho biết kết quả giám sát ở 4 tỉnh Bắc Giang, Hưng Yên, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu và Tiền Giang trong năm 2014, số nợ là gần 521 tỉ đồng, số lao động bị ảnh hưởng là 152.565 người.

A meeting with the National Council of Senior Citizens resulted in President John F. Kennedy designating May 1963 as Senior Citizens Month, encouraging the nation to pay tribute to older people across the country. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter’s proclamation changed the name to Older Americans Month, a time to celebrate those 65 and older through ceremonies, events and public recognition.
44.7 million
The number of people who were 65 and older in the United States on July 1, 2013. This group accounted for 14.1 percent of the total population. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates

My sister Debra was the third family member I have accompanied, with as much dignity and comfort as we could arrange, through her last days.
She was 62 when she died last month of a progressive neurological disease in a New Jersey hospital. I thought I would pass along some personal lessons.

Matt Yglesias thinks we ought to start taxing churches. "Whichever faith you think is the one true faith, it's undeniable that the majority of this church-spending is going to support false doctrines," he notes. Even if you did direct the money toward the one true faith, it'd still be a bad idea, as "Upgrading a church's physical plant doesn't enhance the soul-saving capacity of its clergy."

At the center of the operation was James T. Reynolds Sr., who opened the Cancer Fund of America in 1987. Over the decades, according to a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission and regulators from 50 states and the District of Columbia, he expanded the enterprise to four separate groups and was joined by his son, friends and members of his Mormon Church congregation in Knoxville, Tenn.
In its complaint, the F.T.C. called all four of the cancer groups “sham charities,” charging the organizations with deceiving donors and misusing millions of dollars in donations, including putting money toward personal expenses like carwashes and college tuition, from 2008 to 2012.

Sham charities have long been used to fleece well-meaning donors. But over the last decade, efforts to tighten the way charities are regulated or coordinate action between the Internal Revenue Service and state officials have largely failed either because of regulatory indifference, political lobbying or lack of political will.
Those holes were highlighted this week when the Federal Trade Commission, all 50 states and the District of Columbia accused Mr. Reynolds and four charities that he helped run of cheating donors of more than $187 million, bringing the charges decades after he first hit regulators’ radar.

Gregory Fenves recently got a big promotion, from provost to president of the University of Texas at Austin. A raise came with it. Instead of his current base of about $425,000, he was offered $1 million.
And he rejected it — as too much.
He suggested, and agreed to, $750,000.

Brittany Prock of Merit, Tex., had a longstanding dream of becoming a detective. To pursue her ambition, she enrolled in the criminal justice program of Everest University Online, operated by Corinthian Colleges, one of the nation’s largest for-profit education companies.
But when she graduated in 2010, Ms. Prock said, the only career help she got was a listing of jobs from sites like Craigslist — and one call about a job with a janitorial service. Now 36, she owes $83,542 in federal and private debt, and is no closer to a criminal justice job.
So she has gone on strike — refusing to pay back her loans.