Family Films Are Sexist???

Newsweek recently approached the issue of family films and came to the conclusion that they are sexist in nature:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/22/why-family-films-are-so-sexist.html

Commitment to Green

Thomas Friedman on the Chinese commitment to green energy and its ramification for the future:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/opinion/19friedman.html

Religious Knowledge

How much do American citizens know about religion? Not much:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll

A Generation of Nincompoops?

Quite the article title from the Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/09/27/are_we_raising_a_generation_of_nincompoops/?s_campaign=8315

Political Beliefs

With the mid-term elections upon us, I thought the following quiz was extremely interesting and really easy to take. It takes less than 5 minutes and in 10 easy questions it shows where you stand on the political spectrum:

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz

Thanks to Al for the link.

Female PHDs

For the first time, more women than men in the United States received doctoral degrees last year, the culmination of decades of change in the status of women at colleges nationwide.

The number of women at every level of academia has been rising for decades. Women now hold a nearly 3-to-2 majority in undergraduate and graduate education. Doctoral study was the last holdout - the only remaining area of higher education that still had an enduring male majority.

Of the doctoral degrees awarded in the 2008-09 academic year, 28,962 went to women and 28,469 to men, according to an annual enrollment report from the Council of Graduate Schools, based in Washington.

Doctoral degrees, which require an average of seven years' study, are typically the last to show the impact of long-term changes. "It is a trend that has been snaking its way through the educational pipeline," said Nathan Bell, the report's author and the director of research and policy analysis for the council. "It was bound to happen."

The whole article is well worth the read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091306555.html

Dollar Re-Design

Do you think our currency is in need of a re-design? If you do, you have some company, and here are some of their ideas:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/721294

100 Years

What a difference a century makes!

One hundred years ago in 1910:

- The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

- Only 14 percent of homes had a bathtub.

- Only 8 percent of homes had a telephone.

- There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

- The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

- The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

- The average US wage was 22 cents per hour.

- The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

- A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,

- A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

- More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.

- Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!

- Sugar cost four cents a pound.

- Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

- Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

- The American flag had 45 stars.

- Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.

- There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

- Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

- Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores.

- Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

- There were about 230 reported murders across all of America.

- The population of Las Vegas , Nevada , was only 30!

What will the world be like 100 years from today???

The Back to School Economy

Have you ever wondered about the economic impact of the back to school shopping season:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/the-back-to-school-economy/

How Americans Perceive the Distribution of Wealth

Americans have a really distorted view of how wealth is distributed in this country:

The top row shows the actual distribution of wealth in America. The richest 20 percent, represented by that blue line, has about 85 percent of the wealth. The next richest 20 percent, represented by that red line, has about 10 percent of the wealth. And the remaining three-fifths of America shares a tiny sliver of the country's wealth.

Below that, the "Estimated" rows show how different groups think wealth is distributed. As you can see, in people's misinformed minds things are much more equitable.

From: http://www.good.is/post/americans-are-horribly-misinformed-about-who-has-money/

Downhill

From Paul Krugman @ the New York Times:

On Thursday, House Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” supposedly outlining their policy agenda. In essence, what they say is, “Deficits are a terrible thing. Let’s make them much bigger.” The document repeatedly condemns federal debt — 16 times, by my count. But the main substantive policy proposal is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which independent estimates say would add about $3.7 trillion to the debt over the next decade — about $700 billion more than the Obama administration’s tax proposals.

True, the document talks about the need to cut spending. But as far as I can see, there’s only one specific cut proposed — canceling the rest of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which Republicans claim (implausibly) would save $16 billion. That’s less than half of 1 percent of the budget cost of those tax cuts. As for the rest, everything must be cut, in ways not specified — “except for common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops.” In other words, Social Security, Medicare and the defense budget are off-limits.

So what’s left? Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.”

Read the whole article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=1

The App Store

Just a short time ago, Apple announced that it is making some changes to the App Store review process, and among the changes is publication of the company's App Store Review Guidelines. Apple has received some criticism regarding their policy of rejecting apps, but I believe this recent response by Apple explains why they approach the approval process the way they do:

- "We have lots of kids downloading lots of apps, and parental controls don't work unless the parents set them up (many don't). So know that we're keeping an eye out for the kids."

- "We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don't need any more Fart apps."

- "We have lots of serious developers who don't want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour."

- "If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."

- "This is a living document, and new apps presenting new questions may result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your app will trigger this."

- "If it sounds like we're control freaks, well, maybe it's because we're so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products."

Their approach may be seen as aggressive, but in a world where people are worried about security, parents are worried about their kids, and we are all transmitting very private information over cell phones, I have to say I find their approach admirable and a sound business strategy.
 
From: http://www.macrumors.com/2010/09/09/apples-app-store-review-guidelines-offer-remarkably-candid-view-of-app-store-philosophy/
 

Powering Flight

An amazing video about the perseverance of a Toronto Graduate student in pursuit of a plane that is powered by your feet: