Posts Tagged With: Today’s World

Huh?

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According to a new Zogby poll, 45% of Americans fear high levels of corruption if Hillary Clinton returns to office. What? I'm sorry, maybe I didn't hear correctly? As opposed to the low levels of corruption we are enjoying now? The tripling of paid lobbyists on K Street? The ethics 'reform' that means politicians are still enjoying lunches and paid vacations from those lobbyists? A representative soliciting a teen page for sex? No-bid contracts offered to the vice president's old company? Leaking the name of a CIA operative to exact revenge on her truth-telling husband? Congressional votes in exchange for pork/lobby money? Who is being kidded? Bill Clinton's presidency was a little before my time. But getting blown by a White House intern does not hurt the country, or its finances, or take money from its tax payers. I cannot believe the Clintons had scandals to match these. I mean maybe there will be corruption under Hillary Clinton but can it possibly top the amount now? Will there be less corruption under McCain or Obama or Edwards?

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Please, Put More Personal Information On The Internets

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Google Maps today released a feature called "My Maps," where you can personalize Google Maps and add your favorite places to the map. This is pretty cool, except when you realize how easy we are making things for stalkers. That said, I can't wait for my favorite young, nubile, innocent female friends to place the location of their house on the Internet for everyone to see.

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We Are Less Violent Than Ever

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From Steven Pinker:
Cruelty as entertainment, human sacrifice to indulge superstition, slavery as a labor-saving device, conquest as the mission statement of government, genocide as a means of acquiring real estate, torture and mutilation as routine punishment, the death penalty for misdemeanors and differences of opinion, assassination as the mechanism of political succession, rape as the spoils of war, pogroms as outlets for frustration, homicide as the major form of conflict resolution—all were unexceptionable features of life for most of human history. But, today, they are rare to nonexistent in the West, far less common elsewhere than they used to be, concealed when they do occur, and widely condemned when they are brought to light.

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Home Ownership & Unemployment

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Slate and MR have been talking recently about the fact that unemployment is tied to permanent home ownership: the more mobile your population the lower unemployment will be. This is another reason why the simple economic models I am looking at in my intro classes will never work. Economists for the sake of simplicity will ignore simple things, like that people get attached to their belongings and surroundings. With that said we should not dismiss economics. It is simply unlikely that we will ever get to the equilibriums the models imply.

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Wikipedia

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Middlebury College recently made headlines for banning the use of Wikipedia as a citation for a paper. I don't understand why this is even headline-worthy. There is no way you can cite Wikipedia, as this article should make clear. If I was grading papers and someone cited Wikipedia, I would laugh and then give it an F. Even better, if I was the professor I'd assign an essay on a topic, then go to the Wikipedia article and plant deliberate misinformation.

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Global Warming

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There are two issues here that come in separate yes or no votes: 1) The Earth is getting warmer. 2) Humans are causing the earth to get warmer. I don't know if anyone denies anymore that the Earth is getting warmer. Whether or not this is because of humans is still subject to (some) debate. The most credible refutation of 2) I've heard so far is that the earth is getting warmer because of a warm period that comes roughly every 3000 years. So be it. In 100 years, as I understand it, half of Bangladesh and most of Manhattan will be underwater, human causes or not. This requires action. Send scientists to the Netherlands, do whatever you have to. The Earth is warming, human cause or not. We need to start building dams or enacting cooling measures fast. My own opinion is that it might be too large a coincidence the Earth started warming around the time of the Industrial Revolution. It's better to prepare for global warming and be wrong than assume it's all a big hoax and watch millions drown in low-elevation areas.

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