Juliet Schor » Economics & SocietyI'm back from my west coast book tour, where I spoke to a variety of audiences. In Seattle I did a talk at Town Hall, and Todd Boyle producer a great video of it. Todd is an example of a Plenitude creator. Todd emailed me before the talk and asked if he could film, edit and upload this high quality video. He does this, gratis, for people and subjects he finds interesting, as a way of contributing to the community conversation. Thanks to Todd. It's the full monty for the book, with the slideshow and full Q&A. I hope you like it. Here's the video:
College students may be lacking in empathy, study finds | Booster Shots | Los Angeles TimesTo what do the researchers attribute these changes? A number of social and cultural changes, including an increasing emphasis on the self; an overactive media that bombards people with violent, horrific images and gradually desensitizes them; and the growth of social media. On that, the authors wrote, "With so much time spent interacting with others online and not in reality, interpersonal dynamics like empathy might certainly be altered. For example, perhaps it is easier to establish friends and relationships online, but these skills might not translate into smooth social relations in real life...."
China’s School Killings and Social Despair - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.comA Chinese adage, which refers to the people as “water” and the ruler as a “boat,” puts it: “while water can carry a boat, it can also overturn it.” The Chinese leadership, mindful of this dynamic, is in a process of rolling out a series of social welfare programs — minimum living standard safety net, old-age support and health care — which aim to cover a larger and disadvantaged population.
Xueguang
Zhou, professor of sociology and a senior fellow at
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford
University. He is currently in Beijing teaching at the
Stanford-in-Beijing program.
China’s School Killings and Social Despair - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.comSome commentators say these attacks are symptoms of extreme stress in a rapidly changing society, an undercurrent which the government has failed to recognize. Though the cases may differ, is there a broader context for these attacks?
* Xueguang Zhou, sociologist, Stanford University
* C. Cindy Fan, associate dean of social sciences, U.C.L.A.
* Guobin Yang, associate professor, Barnard College
"The History of White People": What it means to be white - Nonfiction - Salon.comOne of the biggest whiteness-themed pop culture sensations of the past few years was the blog Stuff White People Like. Many people thought it was racist. What did you think?
I was a professor at Princeton for a long time -- and I did my Ph.D. at Harvard -- and I circulated among wealthy people. So much of what is considered "what white people like" is what middle-class people like. I live in New Jersey and we have middle-class people of every background and we all like those same things. It's very common, particularly in the 20th century, to make the equation that white means middle-class. It's a lazy equation, and as time goes by it becomes lazier and lazier
Op-Ed Columnist - The Boys Have Fallen Behind - NYTimes.com¶The average high school grade point average is 3.09 for girls and 2.86 for boys. Boys are almost twice as likely as girls to repeat a grade.
¶Boys are twice as likely to get suspended as girls, and three times as likely to be expelled. Estimates of dropouts vary, but it seems that about one-quarter more boys drop out than girls.
¶Among whites, women earn 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 62 percent of master’s degrees. Among blacks, the figures are 66 percent and 72 percent.
¶In federal writing tests, 32 percent of girls are considered “proficient” or better. For boys, the figure is 16 percent.
There is one important exception: Boys still beat out girls at the very top of the curve, especially in math.
In the high school class of 2009, a total of 297 students scored a perfect triple-800 on the S.A.T., 62 percent of them boys, according to Kathleen Steinberg of the College Board. And of the 10,052 who scored an 800 in the math section, 69 percent were boys.
The Science of a Happy Marriage - Well Blog - NYTimes.comCouples were given relationship tests before and after the experiment. Those who had taken part in the challenging activity posted greater increases in love and relationship satisfaction than those who had not experienced victory together.
The Science of a Happy Marriage - Well Blog - NYTimes.comMen who had just been flirting were less forgiving of the hypothetical bad behavior, suggesting that the attractive actress had momentarily chipped away at their commitment. But women who had been flirting were more likely to be forgiving and to make excuses for the man, suggesting that their earlier flirting had triggered a protective response when discussing their relationship.
The Science of a Happy Marriage - Well Blog - NYTimes.comNo pattern emerged among the study participants who imagined a routine encounter. But there were differences among men and women who had entertained the flirtatious fantasy. In that group, the men were more likely to complete the puzzles with the neutral words LOCAL and THROAT. But the women who had imagined flirting were far more likely to choose LOYAL and THREAT, suggesting that the exercise had touched off subconscious concerns about commitment.
The Science of a Happy Marriage - Well Blog - NYTimes.comOver all, men who carried a variation in the gene were less likely to be married, and those who had wed were more likely to have had serious marital problems and unhappy wives. Among men who carried two copies of the gene variant, about a third had experienced a serious relationship crisis in the past year, double the number seen in the men who did not carry the variant.
Obese kids more apt to be bullied, study confirms | ReutersA quarter of the children reported being bullied, although their mothers said about 45 percent of them were bullied.
According to the investigators, the odds of being bullied were 63 percent higher for an obese child, compared to a healthy-weight peer.
Obese Kids Often BulliedObese children in the early grades of school are more likely to be bullied than thinner kids, contributing to depression, anxiety, and loneliness, a new study shows.
