Trying to be an environmentally responsible liberal can be so trying. Paper or plastic? Take the car or take a walk? A recent entry in the Freakonomics blog questioned the conventional wisdom with respect to these choices. Recycling plastic more efficient than recycling paper? Argh! Replacing calories lost from walking 1.5 miles might have a ( Read more... )

An invited talk given last Friday at the gathering of the American Psychological Association has been circulating online, titled Is There Anything Good About Men? It made for fascinating reading. The course I took on the psychology of gender back in college bent over backwards to stress that the variation within genders dwarfed the variation ( Read more... )

Well, I finally actually read the entirety of Why Nerds are Unpopular, after seeing another LJ citation for it. For those who don't feel like actually reading it, its essential point seems to be that schools' true purpose is to keep teenagers busy during the day while their parents go to work. The lack of any serious educational or other purpose ( Read more... )