Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Why Your Boyfriend Won't Propose | Hannah Seligson

Why Your Boyfriend Won't Propose | Hannah Seligson

As young women trenching through the dating jungle of men who are in no hurry to say “I do,” what’s the answer? Hymowitz quotes Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, who has written prolifically on this topic and is the author of Why Are There No Good Men Left. Whitehead says that cohabitation encourages this behavior. “[Men] get the benefits of a wife without shouldering the reciprocal obligations of a husband.”

Sex Without Strings

Sex Without Strings (essay ...

Monday, July 18, 2011

Modern-Marriage Report: Not as Necessary Yet Still Desired - TIME

Modern-Marriage Report: Not as Necessary Yet Still Desired - TIME

But cohabitation among the economically blessed is a whole different ball game than it is among the struggling. For most college-educated couples, living together is like a warm-up run before the marital marathon. They work out a few of the kinks and do a bit of house-training and eventually get married and have kids. Those without a college degree, says Cherlin, tend to do it the other way around — move in together, have kids and then aim for the altar. And children, as Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston discovered, change everything.

fewer adults are married

TIME / Pew Research Center Poll: Part III - TIME

Modern-Marriage Report: Not as Necessary Yet Still Desired - TIME

Modern-Marriage Report: Not as Necessary Yet Still Desired - TIME

Promising publicly to be someone's partner for life used to be something people did to lay the foundation of their independent life. It was the demarcation of adulthood. Now it's more of a finishing touch, the last brick in the edifice, sociologists believe. "Marriage is the capstone for both the college-educated and the less well educated," says Johns Hopkins' Cherlin. "The college-educated wait until they're finished with their education and their careers are launched. The less educated wait until they feel comfortable financially."

sexual behaviors

Graph

CDC - YRBSS - Fact Sheets - Adolescent and School Health--Sexual Behaviors

CDC - YRBSS - Fact Sheets - Adolescent and School Health

Sexual Behaviors

US teen birth rate still far higher than W. Europe

US teen birth rate still far higher than W. Europe

Healthcare System Ratings: U.S., Great Britain, Canada

Healthcare System Ratings: U.S., Great Britain, Canada

The views of Americans on the quality of medical care in their country are not overly different -- 48% of Americans, 52% of Canadians, and 42% of Britons say they are satisfied. However, Americans are slightly more likely than Canadians or Britons to rate this issue at one extreme or the other. The proportion of respondents who are very (as opposed to somewhat) satisfied with the quality of healthcare in the United States is 17%, while the proportion who are very dissatisfied is 26% -- so 43% of Americans fall at the extremes of this scale. In the other two countries, the middle ground of "somewhat" satisfied or dissatisfied respondents tends to be larger. In Canada, 13% are very satisfied, while 22% are very dissatisfied -- so 35% of the public is at the extremes. In Great Britain, 11% are very satisfied, while 23% are very dissatisfied -- a total of 34% is at the extremes.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Freaks, geeks, and cool kids ... - Google Books

Freaks, geeks, and cool kids ... - Google Books

 

Book Review: Milner, Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids

Book Review: Milner, Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids

Milner then takes this analysis outside of schools, and links the status preoccupations of teenagers to the development and maintenance of consumer capitalism. High school status systems play an important role in socializing people to be concerned with the way in which their status is displayed through the acquisition of commodities. Yet while teenagers and advertisers are often to blame for adolescents' quest for designer jeans, cell phones and cars, Milner reminds us that schooling officials, parents and, most importantly, America's culture of consumerism are also to blame. In a culture that emphasizes its populace’s role as consumers (remember when Americans were told to ‘shop' after 9/11?), and producers (e.g. divorce has less of a stigma than getting fired) other values are submerged.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

YouTube - Lily Allen - The Fear

YouTube - Lily Allen - The Fear

I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever
I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and f***loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them

Forget about guns and forget ammunition
Cause I’m killing them all on my own little mission
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner
Now everything is cool as long as I’m getting thinner

http://www.musicloversgroup.com/lily-allen-the-fear-lyrics-and-video/

YouTube - Ain't No Reason

YouTube - Ain't No Reason

I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same

Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Study by USU Professor Finds Overweight Women at Risk - USU Statesman - Utah State University

Study by USU Professor Finds Overweight Women at Risk - USU Statesman - Utah State University
Previous studies have demonstrated that employers often attribute positive traits such as cooperativeness, intelligence and competence to attractive female employees, and view heavy women — often considered less attractive — as less productive, less capable of managing others. However, the new evidence suggests the disparity of career advancement begins long before an overweight individual even sets foot in the workplace — it occurs while people are still in the classroom.

Flash Mob as Final Exam | NBC Washington

Flash Mob as Final Exam | NBC Washington
Buckingham said the flash mob final exam pushed the students to connect their song choices, choreography and costumes to their course material. The students had to explain their sociological relevance before they were approved.

Sociology is the study of human behavior and how people influence each other. The Wootton students not only had to organize to perform, they had to observe their audience while they did it.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Weekly Standard: Kickin' Back with Tax Payer Money : NPR

Weekly Standard: Kickin' Back with Tax Payer Money : NPR
The work done by most of my colleagues did bear on issues of wider relevance and not all of it was so ideologically compromised as to be useless. But the readership of academic journals is tiny, and most of this work had no impact beyond a small circle of interested academics — for understandable reasons. Philip Tetlock, a research psychologist at Berkeley, tested the accuracy of 82,361 predictions made by 284 experts including psychologists, economists, political scientists, and area and foreign policy specialists, 96 percent with post-graduate training. He found that their prognostications did not beat chance. The increasingly ideological nature of social science will not improve this record.

Weekly Standard: Kickin' Back with Tax Payer Money : NPR

Weekly Standard: Kickin' Back with Tax Payer Money : NPR
According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Harvard, donating 4 to 1 in favor of Democrats in 2008, was one of the more politically diverse major American universities. Ninety-two percent of employees at the University of Chicago donated to Democrats. The University of California favored Democrats over Republicans, 90 percent to 10 percent. And William and Mary employees preferred Democrats to the GOP by a margin of 99 percent to 1 percent. Neil Gross of Harvard found that 87.6 percent of social scientists voted for Kerry, 6.2 percent for Bush. Gross also found that 25 percent of sociologists characterize themselves as Marxists, likely a higher percentage than members of the Chinese Communist party. I would guess that if Lenin were around today he would be teaching sociology and seeking grants to fund the revolution.

YouTube - Stay at Home Dad: Sacked - "The Stare Master"

Blog : If you don't know GOD, don't make stupid remarks!!!!!!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Transgender Clownfish? Gender Diversity Lesson at California School Riles Critics - FoxNews.com

Transgender Clownfish? Gender Diversity Lesson at California School Riles Critics - FoxNews.com
"This is only the latest example of what seems to be a New-Age, gender-bending agenda pushed into the mainstream media by those who refuse to accept the traditional sex differences between men and women," Brown wrote.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

For Millennials, Parenthood Trumps Marriage - Pew Research Center

For Millennials, Parenthood Trumps Marriage - Pew Research Center
Likewise, about six-in-ten (63%) Millennials think that single motherhood is bad for society, compared with seven-in-ten (71%) adults ages 30 and older. More than four-in-ten (44%) Millennials say that the institution of marriage is becoming obsolete, compared with 37% of those ages 30 and older.

Daily Number: Jesus Christ's Return to Earth - Pew Research Center

Daily Number: Jesus Christ's Return to Earth - Pew Research Center
By the year 2050, 41% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ definitely (23%) or probably (18%) will have returned to earth. However, a 46%-plurality of the public does not believe Christ will return during the next 40 years. Fully 58% of white evangelical Christians say Christ will return to earth in this period, by far the highest percentage in any religious group. Only about a third of Catholics (32%) and even fewer white mainline Protestants (27%) predict Christ's return to earth by 2050. One-in-five religiously unaffiliated Americans also see Christ returning during the next four decades. Americans with no college experience (59%) are much more likely than those with some college experience (35%) or college graduates (19%) to expect Jesus Christ's return. By region, those in the South (52%) are the most likely to predict a Second Coming by 2050.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Lifeguards' high pay riles Calif. beach city - USATODAY.com

Lifeguards' high pay riles Calif. beach city - USATODAY.com
With overtime only added in, more than half of the 13 cleared $100,000 and the rest made between $59,500 and $98,500. Adding in pension contributions, medical benefits, life insurance and other pay, two battalion chiefs earned more than $200,000 in 2010, while the lowest-paid officer made more than $98,000.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

1968 Olympics

The Olympics: Black Complaint - TIME
"Faster, Higher, Stronger" is the motto of the Olympic Games. "Angrier, nastier, uglier" better describes the scene in Mexico City last week. There, in the same stadium from which 6,200 pigeons swooped skyward to signify the opening of the "Peace Olympics," Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two disaffected black athletes from the U.S. put on a public display of petulance that sparked one of the most unpleasant controversies in Olympic history and turned the high drama of the games into theater of the absurd.

Who's ‘cool’ after high school graduation? - Books - booksmiscellaneous - TODAY.com

Who's ‘cool’ after high school graduation? - Books - booksmiscellaneous - TODAY.com
The students outside these walls are the kids who typically are not considered part of the in crowd, the ones who are excluded, blatantly or subtly, from the premier table in the lunchroom. I refer to them as “cafeteria fringe.” Whether alone or in groups, these geeks, loners, punks, floaters, nerds, freaks, dorks, gamers, bandies, art kids, theater geeks, choir kids, Goths, weirdos, indies, scenes, emos, skaters, and various types of racial and other minorities are often relegated to subordinate social status simply because they are, or seem to be, even the slightest bit different.