Several important articles related to Mitt Romney's comment on the "47 percent who don't pay taxes."

Mitt Romney's '47 percent' includes real-life millionaires   Huffington Post
Who doesn't pay federal income taxes (legally)   NY Times
Are taxes high or low? A further look   NY Times

Thankfully, no, they mustn't.  Harmony Rose, who made over 200 videos before leaving the industry recently, is now training as an EMT.  There has been controversy, including the consideration of firing Rose.  But fortunately:

"Of the over 500 comments that appear under the story on WDBJ's Facebook page, nearly all support Rose's continued work with ( Read more... )

It used to be thought the educating people about the evidence was the best way to persuade people about climate change.  But research has shown that education may actually further polarize and harden people's views.

Dan Kahan, who studies cultural cognition, has found that persuasion has less to do with evidence and more to do with trusting the ( Read more... )

A study has been done on the most likely ways to get retweets.

A 5-point guide to getting your tweets re-tweeted   New Scientist

Get the full experience at Humanistic Paganism.

To build a fire: The spiritual art of socialization
5 06 2011

( Read more... )

This is a controversial issue right now.  An article in TIME talks about it, and a study was just reported in Education Week.  We talked about it in our Education Psychology course this week, and the professor said that studies are not in yet.

Study Finds NAEP Scores Rise When Students Are Paid   Education Week

Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in ( Read more... )

We're not out of the woods - G8 leaders fear double dip slump    The Guardian

I still can't believe I was allowed to graduate based on a comic book script!  I sure had a blast writing this to complete my bachelors degree in English.  After having a look back at it, I thought I'd share it here.

Andromeda's Choice combines Greek mythology, gender identity, feminist angst, and robots into a coming-of-age comedy of stellar ( Read more... )

The fetishization of the commodity in action.

"SHANGHAI - China made public on Tuesday regulations aimed at cracking down on the use of virtual currencies amid worries that a huge underground economy was developing out of the country’s online gaming community."

"In recent years, China has even become a center for what the gaming community calls “gold ( Read more... )

France, which already disallows headscarves in public schools, is beginning to debate whether they should ban the burqa (head to toe-covering garment) entirely.  Here's a quote:

"Now Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked another by calling the burqa, a head-to-toe Islamic garment, “a sign of subjugation…of debasement” that is “not welcome on French territory ( Read more... )