Video: Polygamy in the US

From Time Magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1754465091001_2120441,00.html

It's one thing when polygamous families live in guarded compounds and separate themelves off from the rest of society, keeping themselves sequestered and practicing institutional statutory rape.  But what about if they are otherwise law-abiding citizens?  Why are the laws against gay marriage being re-written but the the ones about multiple spouses are not, despite the fact that around the world, polygamy is far more accepted than homosexual marriage?  This segment doesn't asnswer these questions- but it does challenge one to think from an anthropological perspective.


 

Externalizing costs of consumerism- who pays the price for hidden costs? Workers in poor countries, with their health, safety, and lives.

Fast, Cheap, Dead: Shopping and the Bangladesh Factory Collapse

Read more: http://science.time.com/2013/04/29/fast-cheap-dead-shopping-and-the-bangladesh-factory-collapse/#ixzz2RxKNULAQ

Austerity, the sequester, and why we can't seem to get out of this economic funk.

Here are a few articles from time magazine that call "austerity" into question.

Why the Argument for Austerity Took a Big Hit Yesterday

Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/04/17/why-the-argument-for-austerity-took-a-big-hit-yesterday/#ixzz2RrV4gFC8

Stop Bemoaning the New GDP Numbers: It’s Good News

Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/04/29/stop-bemoaning-the-new-gdp-numbers-its-good-news/#ixzz2RrUqDuAl

Why Can’t This Economy Really Get Going?

Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/02/12/why-cant-this-economy-get-going/

Genes, fossils, tetrapods, coelacanths, lungfish.... just read it.

Neil Shubin of the university of Chicago is mentioned in this article, and he is the discoverer of the "tiktaalik,"  a late devonian fossil some 400 million years old that represents the link between fish and land-dweiiling, four -footed creatures.  Fossils are exciting, but hard to come by, and they don't give us nearly as much information as genes.  Still, genes and fossils both re[present fertile ground to raise, explore and answer questions about evolutionary relationships.

From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/science/coelacanth-dna-may-tell-how-fish-learned-to-walk.html

Deregulation, anyone?

No zoning laws = schools right next to giant fertilizer plants full of dangerous chemicals.

Lack of regulatory oversight = no safety inspections

From the New York Times:

Texas Fertilizer Plant Fell Through Regulatory Cracks

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/texas-fertilizer-plant-fell-through-cracks-of-regulatory-oversight.html?_r=0

Shedding Light On Early Australians

Yo Yo- we got early Australians in the House tonight y'all!

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/04/who-were-the-first-australians-a.html

Know what I'm sayin'?

Respect.

Healy out.

Japanese Body Pillows

Here's an article from 2009.  This is NOT common or popular in Japan it seems, but it's an interesting artifact of Japanese culture.



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-2DLove-t.html?pagewanted=all#

The Face of "Austerity"

What is austerity?  What does it mean?  In Greece, it means children go without food.

From teh New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/world/europe/more-children-in-greece-start-to-go-hungry.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Top 100 companies and countries

 
Compare the lists:

Top 100 global companies from CNN Money:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/full_list/index.html

Top 100 countries in terms of GNI (from World Bank)

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.ATLS.CD

What do you think?

Mapping regions of social interraction

Using different data sets (phone call logs and traching dollar bills) to plot how people interract with each other spatially:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/04/16/177512687/a-whom-do-you-hang-with-map-of-america?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130417

       

    

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Maggie T...

As one blogger (BC Bass) put it, Thatcher was "a tough leader who sought to restore the grandeur of England's Victorian period. She succeeded in bringing the nostalgic charm and quaint class values of the Dickensian era back to modern day Britain. She will best be remembered for the decisive actions she took during her 11-year term, which continue to affect the United Kingdom today: deregulating banks to cause the still problematic credit crunch, doubling inflation, destroying trade unions, eliminating free milk in schools for underprivileged children, creating a gaping disparity between the country's rich and poor, driving unemployment to historically high levels, destroying the coal industry, and implementing the egalitarian poll tax, which ensured that those living near poverty in Middle England would pay the same taxes as millionaires nearby."
Here's one view of Thathcher's economic legacy from Time Magazine:

Was Thatcherism Good (or Bad) for the Economy?

http://business.time.com/2013/04/09/was-thatcherism-good-or-bad-for-the-economy/#ixzz2PyVfWdCi

Remember what George Satayana said about those who didn't learn from the past?

One thing is certain is that while we are not reliving the 80s 30 years later, we are debating the same questions about what to do with domestic and global economic policies.

On other issues, BC Bass continues:  "Thatcher will also be celebrated for her uncanny prowess in foreign policy, particularly with her brave decision to use the superior might of the British military to wage war against Argentina over an island full of sheep.

She further led the charge for Great Britain by labelling Nelson Mandela a "terrorist," supporting underdog government factions such as the Khmer Rouge and embattled Chilean dictator Pinochet, and for tirelessly fighting to keep the ignorant rabble of Northern Ireland under the yoke of England to protect them from themselves."

But she did some good stuff too.