Links for you. Science:
CHARTS: Why Your Chicken Is Still Making You Sick
The Double Dinosaur Brain Myth (butt brain!)
Inside the Minds of Mass Killers
Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea: Not Just A U.S. Problem
Algebra-for-All Policy Harmed High-Achievers, Study Finds
Other:
Questioning the merit of the lucky, lucky rich (must-read)
The Naked and the TED (this ranks up there with Taibbi’s classic takedown of Friedman)
How Job Insecurity Is Messing Up Your Love Life
On Voice: My Defense
Jonah Lehrer’s missing compass
Why Transportation And Walking Are Central To Discussions About ‘The Fattest People In The World’
MILITARY STD POSTERS, 1918-1945
The devil can cite The West Wing for his purpose
Grandma Obama’s support for domestic violence
What happened to Japan?
If Olympic sponsor advertising was truthful it would look something like this
How To Talk to People Who Are In Wheelchairs
Americans Should Be Worried About (the Lack of) Leaks
Ref “The Naked and the TED”:
While the Khannas’ book does indeed sound overblown and many of the reviewers’ points seem valid, in some instances he’s just getting carried away with his own invective and/or has an unidentified ax to grind. To take just one example,
Any stretch of time that deserves a name of its own—an age, an era, an epoch—must have at least a few distinct characteristics that make it stand out from the past. The problem is that all the features that the Khannas invoke to emphasize the uniqueness of our era have long been claimed by other commentators for their own unique eras. The Khannas tell us that “technology no longer simply processes our instructions on a one-way street. Instead, it increasingly provides intelligent feedback.” How is that different from Daniel Boorstin’s bombastic pronouncement in 1977 that “the Republic of Technology where we will be living is a feedback world”?
Well, the big difference is that Boorstin using the future tense: “where we will be living.” The Khannas are pointing out (hardly originally!) that, 35 years later, we’re now actually in that world. (They also use the term “intelligent feedback” rather than just “feedback”.)
Regarding algebra-for-all, my school district (admittedly a middle-to-upper-middle class one) solved this by having a regular algebra class and an honors algebra, with placement based on testing and recommendations from the middle school math teachers. It seemed to work well.