Non-news roundup
News is boring. Here are some think-y pieces.
1. An atheist proposes that what Africa needs is Christianity.
2. Someone has written down what I think of Malcolm Gladwell.
3. Some idiot has tallied up the dollars and cents of the lives of the elite and entitled and asserted without a shred of irony that $500,000 isn't much to live on in New York.
4. Nicholas Kristof, who is fast becoming my favorite NYT columnist, points out that if banks had more high-ranking women, they'd be more measured about risk. Microfinance has known for years that they could only make loans to women if they wanted their money back, but I'd never thought about it in terms of Wall Street.
5. Here's a completely weird study about how positions on individual issues (e.g., gay marriage) have some genetic basis. I'd think it was pure garbage except that it's by my statistics professor. Of course, his class was also a stand-up comedy hour that criticized softheaded social science, so maybe this is an elaborate hoax. I'd love it if Dr. Alford jumped out of the bushes and embarassed people.
If true, however, we're doomed. Foreign Policy ran a cover story once about how conservatives will inherit the earth because enlightenment breeds empowered women but patriarchy breeds children (and gets a head start on indoctrinating them). If they get the DNA too, we are so fucked.
1. An atheist proposes that what Africa needs is Christianity.
2. Someone has written down what I think of Malcolm Gladwell.
3. Some idiot has tallied up the dollars and cents of the lives of the elite and entitled and asserted without a shred of irony that $500,000 isn't much to live on in New York.
4. Nicholas Kristof, who is fast becoming my favorite NYT columnist, points out that if banks had more high-ranking women, they'd be more measured about risk. Microfinance has known for years that they could only make loans to women if they wanted their money back, but I'd never thought about it in terms of Wall Street.
5. Here's a completely weird study about how positions on individual issues (e.g., gay marriage) have some genetic basis. I'd think it was pure garbage except that it's by my statistics professor. Of course, his class was also a stand-up comedy hour that criticized softheaded social science, so maybe this is an elaborate hoax. I'd love it if Dr. Alford jumped out of the bushes and embarassed people.
If true, however, we're doomed. Foreign Policy ran a cover story once about how conservatives will inherit the earth because enlightenment breeds empowered women but patriarchy breeds children (and gets a head start on indoctrinating them). If they get the DNA too, we are so fucked.