The Links:
It looks like Storyline did a series of articles about Central Appalachia and the coal economy. Ryan McCarthy calls it the resource curse. I think that's a good way to look at the region. Although we usually think of whole nations falling victim to the resource curse, the model fits well with this area. I also recommend this photo-rich article about one family's tough choices.
Noah Smith wonders if underperformance of American Healthcare isn't a myth after all.
Paul Krugman looks at the recent math on Medicare and thinks we're pretty much out of the woods as far as costs go.
Gordon Wood profiles Danielle Allen who thinks we ought to reexamine the Declaration of Independence as a document for equality and freedom. Also, it's a great teaching tool and primer in American democracy.
TNC writes about the challenges of learning a new language and the even greater challenge of learning a new culture. I'd call this a must read.
So, there are migrant caravans of elderly people who are traveling the country looking for work. They can't really afford to retire or settle down anywhere. They just drive from one job to the next. File this under the end of retirement. Here's the author on CNBC a little while back:
A fantastic little post titled What Unions No Longer Do. I don't see this entirely as a criticism of unisons but rather as a statement of fact. Here's the quick version:
- Unions no longer equalize incomes
- Unions no longer counteract racial inequality
- Unions no longer play a big role in assimilating immigrants
- Unions no longer give lower-income Americans a political voice
Eric Cantor, yeah, that Eric Cantor, has joined a Wall St. investment bank and is going to run their lobbying office in Washington DC. The thing about a revolving door is it can't hit you in your ass on the way out.
Is it always OK to make money hurting poor people but rarely OK to make money helping them?
The problem is, people have a “general bias against the very notion of seeking personal gains from charity,” according to a recent paper in Psychological Science, authored byGeorge Newman and Daylian Cain, both of Yale SOM. “People [evaluate] charitable actions that were ‘tainted’ by personal benefits as worse (less moral, ethical, etc.) than equivalent self-interested behaviors that produced no charitable benefit.” The authors labeled this the tainted-altruism effectLego is pulling it's Lego Research Institute, which features female scientists, off the shelves after only 2 weeks. It's still available but only as a collector's edition.
Jason Jones discusses recent events in gamer culture and the rampant sexism in gamer culture.
This kind of treatment of women bears all the same markers of the harassment that we see at conventions. It’s a case of men assuming that they have a right to ignore the autonomy of women, either by trespassing against women’s bodies or, if they’re not physically present, against their reputations and personal spheres. It’s been said elsewhere, and I’ll say it here: this kind of behavior is a form of terrorism.Dr. Nerdlove thinks this past week's misogyny is the "extinction burst" of male gamer culture. I can only hope so.
The Dish notes a recent book, Our Great Big American God, and the ways Americans have pretty much created a new deity out of whole cloth to suit their preferences.
In the sewers of London, authorities are fighting a blob of fat the size of a 747. They should just open a soap mine.
What people "cured" of blindness see. I take issue with the term cured here. Perhaps some see it that way but the term has bad implications.
Popular Mechanics thinks that Massachusetts has the worst drivers of all 50 states. I have driven there and I agree completely.
Parks & Rec fans probably remember The Cones of Dunshire. Well the company that makes Settlers of Catan has turned it into a real game.
This game looks fun:
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