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Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls:
Although boys in high school performed better than girls in math 20 years ago, the researchers found, that is no longer the case. The reason, they said, is simple: Girls used to take fewer advanced math courses than boys, but now they are taking just as many.
Which brings to mind the xkcd cartoon:
The influence of media violence:
Research has consistently shown that exposure to violent content–on television, in the movies, in music, and now in video games and on the Internet–leads to aggression.
I don’t think I knew that. Thats bad news.
I just happened to look at the link blog over on the right there (see?) and noticed it’s pretty much an Ezra Klein’s greatest hits collection.
So I’d like to ask you all to just go there and read it and I’ll try for more variety.
This post is mostly for Kim, I keep meaning to send her that link but forgetting. Now you all get it.
Related: The Buffalo Theory:
In one episode of ‘Cheers’, Cliff is seated at the bar describing the ‘Buffalo Theory’ to his buddy Norm. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the concept explained any better than this…
“Well you see, Norm, it’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive drinking of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”
Print business cards from flickr. 100 different images on business card sized paper, $20 bucks. And, if you have a pro account they will send you 10 free as a sample. Mine are on the way.
the 50 worst things to happen to music:
48. Hip-Hop Skits
Smart rap fans know the drill: As soon as you burn a new album, instantly delete any track that’s under a minute long. It’s the best way to avoid the stupid banter, fake sound effects and unfunny phone calls that bog down 95% of all hip-hop albums. Except Snoop’s “Deeez Nuuuts” bit. That’s classic.
For the last fourteen years, I have advocated the elimination of all payroll taxes — including those for social security and unemployment compensation — and the replacement of that revenue in the form of pollution taxes — principally on CO2. The overall level of taxation would remain exactly the same. It would be, in other words, a revenue neutral tax swap. But, instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees, it would discourage business from producing more pollution.
Global warming pollution, indeed all pollution, is now described by economists as an “externality.” This absurd label means, in essence: we don’t to keep track of this stuff so let’s pretend it doesn’t exist.
And sure enough, when it’s not recognized in the marketplace, it does make it much easier for government, business, and all the rest of us to pretend that it doesn’t exist. But what we’re pretending doesn’t exist is the stuff that is destroying the habitability of the planet. We put 70 million tons of it into the atmosphere every 24 hours and the amount is increasing day by day. Penalizing pollution instead of penalizing employment will work to reduce that pollution.
When we place a more accurate value on the consequences of the choices we make, our choices get better. At present, when business has to pay more taxes in order to hire more people, it is discouraged from hiring more people. If we change that and discourage them from creating more pollution they will reduce their pollution. Our market economy can help us solve this problem if we send it the right signals and tell ourselves the truth about the economic impact of pollution.
This is a very interesting idea. More when I have time.
“Blog” itself is short for “weblog,” which is short for “we blog because we weren’t very popular in high school and we’re trying to gain respect and admiration without actually having to be around people.”
Soapbox it. This is a pretty cool site, it lets you review products, which is not revolutionary (A little company called Amazon does this as well) but what is cool is that they’ll subscribe to your blog and if you post a review they’ll include it. I often times want to review things here, because the sound of my own voice intruiges me. This would be a cool way to send those out to the great unwashed masses. Consider yourself warned: Get ready for a lot of reviews in the coming months.
Speaking of reviews: My last.fm charts. I enjoy last.fm. It doesn’t do exactly what I want (a comprehensive overview of all the music I listened to), mostly because sometimes it misses songs that I listened to on my ipod (although in the last few weeks they’ve tweaked their algorithm or something because it’s suddenly much better. It used to miss all my songs if I switched playlists. That seems to have ended and it looks like I got everything). It also misses songs that I listened to on Tivo (which is how I listen to music at home). Here’s an example: The last full week of august I heard 478 total songs, 440 unique songs, from 184 unique artists.
You can tell from that chart that I was in a very Dubby mood, I forced my ipod to be about 20% dub music for the week so Scientist and King Tubby are number two and three on my top artists. Number one was Young Jeezy, because somebody lent me his CD and I listened to it in full a couple of times (mini review: Good, very involved in his rapping, wheezing out bars like it’s killing him).
I don’t know why that stuff fascinates me, but it does. I could look at inane stats all day.
As noah said: Why aren’t you out doing this right now?
Kids are getting dumber. And their music sucks!
The Iran Debat has really become rather surreal. How much empirical evidence do we really need to convince us that invading countries is not a good strategy for democracy premotion?
Dub Selector, This one is good, but this one is Really cool
News Flash: Inbreeding bad!
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