Video: Full-Length Program | Watch Botany of Desire Online | PBS Video

Video: Full-Length Program | Watch Botany of Desire Online | PBS Video

Program: Botany of Desire
Episode: Full-Length Program

Featuring Michael Pollan and based on his best-selling book, this special takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world, seen from the plants' point of view. The program shows how four familiar species -- the apple, the tulip, cannabis and the potato -- evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control.

Graham Hill: Less stuff, more happiness | Video on TED.com

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness.html

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Securitizing America: Strategic Incapacitation and the Policing of Protest Since the 11 September 2001 Terrorist Attacks - Gillham - 2011 - Sociology Compass - Wiley Online Library

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00394.x/full

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Why I Feel Bad for the Pepper-Spraying Policeman, Lt. John Pike - Alexis Madrigal - National - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/why-i-feel-bad-for-the-pepperspraying-policeman-lt-john-pike/248772/

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The California Federation of Teachers issued a statement today formally endorsing the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.

cft.org

October 14, 2011—The California Federation of Teachers issued a statement today formally endorsing the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Click here for the statement. CFT members in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Oakland have already been participating in the occupations for the past two weeks. Shown in photo: Rebecca Hensler (right), counselor in Denman Middle School, during Occupy San Francisco event before school on October 12. The CFT also recommends Department of Education-approved materials on the historical background of the "Call to Action" for November 2. Matthew Hardy photo

Texas Judge Beats Disabled Daughter on Video - YouTube

Texas Judge Beats Disabled Daughter on Video - YouTube

2004: Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams took a belt to his own teenage daughter as punishment for using the internet to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time. She has had ataxic cerebral palsy from birth that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father's backwards views. The judge's wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video. The judge's wife has since left the marriage due to the abuse, which continues to this day, and has sincerely apologized and repented for her part and for allowing such a thing, long before this video was even revealed to exist. Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can't even exercise fit judgement as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His "judgement" is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.

America's inhumane approach to labour problems will finish Obama | Richard Sennett | Comment is free | The Guardian

America's inhumane approach to labour problems will finish Obama | Richard Sennett | Comment is free | The Guardian

The "special relationship" has a perverse twist in the realm of labour; our two societies harbour large numbers of insecure or vulnerable employees whose ills have been addressed timidly by centrist governments. There are real solutions, however, to the travails of work; they are found along Europe's northern rim – in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. These more balanced economies have avoided Anglo-American, finance-driven capitalism; their governments have protected established companies, especially small companies, providing capital for growth when banks won't lend it. On this stabilising base, Norway and Sweden have made concerted efforts to include young people in starter jobs; their youth unemployment stands at about 8%. The Germans put big resources into youth training schemes; the Dutch effectively supplement the wages of part-time employees. Factories in Europe's northern rim have long explored how to deal humanely with automation, and tried in many different ways to counteract the outsourcing of jobs. Existential Gloom may well be inherent in the northern temperament, but these prosperous countries have in everyday practical life proved good at shaping labour. Why don't we learn from them?

Noam Chomsky at Occupy Boston - YouTube

Noam Chomsky at Occupy Boston - YouTube

Whites Believe They Are Victims of Racism More Often Than Blacks | Tufts Now

http://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/whites-believe-they-are-victims-racism-more-o

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NYTimes: Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research

From The New York Times:

Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research

A Dutch scholar was found to have falsified findings in dozens of papers, in a field that critics say is vulnerable to such abuses.

http://nyti.ms/unVj1J

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Freshman 15 is a myth, study says - latimes.com

Freshman 15 is a myth, study says - latimes.com

"Freshman 15," "Freshman 15"… how often do you read that stat about weight gain during that first year of college, and how often do you wonder if it’s true?

Two researchers – one at Ohio State University and the other at the University of Michigan at Dearborn  -- decided to take a thorough look. In a study to be published in the December issue of the journal Social Science Quarterly, they report that…

.. drumroll ..

..it’s not true. It’s a myth.  Weight gain among freshman students is far less than 15 pounds, as a rule — more like three pounds. And it doesn’t seem to have much to do with college: Young adults who don’t go to college gain just about as much weight as those who do.

Why inequality in America is even worse than you thought - U.S. Economy - Salon.com

Why inequality in America is even worse than you thought - U.S. Economy - Salon.com

A new report (.pdf) by the Bertelsmann Foundation drives this point home. The German think tank used a set of policy analyses to create a Social Justice Index of 31 developed nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The United States came in a dismal 27th in the rankings. Here, for example, is a graph of one of the metrics, child poverty, in which the U.S. ranked fourth-to-last (click for larger size):

DC Douglas' "Why #OccupyWallStreet? 4 Reasons." - YouTube

DC Douglas' "Why #OccupyWallStreet? 4 Reasons." - YouTube

Two Moral Framing Systems in Politics

How To Frame Yourself: A Framing Memo For Occupy Wall Street | Common Dreams

Two Moral Framing Systems in Politics

Conservatives have figured out their moral basis and you see it on Wall Street: It includes: The primacy of self-interest. Individual responsibility, but not social responsibility. Hierarchical authority based on wealth or other forms of power. A moral hierarchy of who is “deserving,” defined by success. And the highest principle is the primacy of this moral system itself, which goes beyond Wall Street and the economy to other arenas: family life, social life, religion, foreign policy, and especially government. Conservative “democracy” is seen as a system of governance and elections that fits this model.

Though OWS concerns go well beyond financial issues, your target is right: the application of these principles in Wall Street is central, since that is where the money comes from for elections, for media, and for right-wing policy-making institutions of all sorts on all issues.

The alternative view of democracy is progressive: Democracy starts with citizens caring about one another and acting responsibly on that sense of care, taking responsibility both for oneself and for one’s family, community, country, people in general, and the planet. The role of government is to protect and empower all citizens equally via The Public: public infrastructure, laws and enforcement, health, education, scientific research, protection, public lands, transportation, resources, art and culture, trade policies, safety nets, and on and on. Nobody makes it on their own. If you got wealthy, you depended on The Public, and you have a responsibility to contribute significantly to The Public so that others can benefit in the future. Moreover, the wealthy depend on those who work, and who deserve a fair return for their contribution to our national life. Corporations exist to make life better for most people. Their reason for existing is as public as it is private.

AFP: Materialistic values weigh couples down: US study

AFP: Materialistic values weigh couples down: US study

WASHINGTON — Less materialistic spouses are more likely to find themselves in happier marriages than those who dwell too much on money and possessions, a trio of US researchers say.

In findings published Thursday, the team led by Jason Carroll at Brigham Young University in Utah explored the impact that value differences about materialism could have on a marriage.

Previous studies limited themselves only to materialism in itself, and not the importance that husbands and wives placed on material things.

From data collected from 1,734 couples, they concluded that, even among spouses who shared the same materialistic values, "materialism had a negative association with marital quality."

Untitled

http://www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/Faris_FelmleeASRFeb11.pdf

Sociology 101: Introduction to Sociology | Dr. Stephen J. Sills – UNCG Sociology

http://uncgsoc101.wordpress.com/

Wall St. protests: How reform happens - CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/09/sunday/main20117793.shtml

What Do Women Want? - Discovering What Ignites Female Desire - NYTimes.com

What Do Women Want? - Discovering What Ignites Female Desire - NYTimes.com

All was different with the women. No matter what their self-proclaimed sexual orientation, they showed, on the whole, strong and swift genital arousal when the screen offered men with men, women with women and women with men. They responded objectively much more to the exercising woman than to the strolling man, and their blood flow rose quickly — and markedly, though to a lesser degree than during all the human scenes except the footage of the ambling, strapping man — as they watched the apes. And with the women, especially the straight women, mind and genitals seemed scarcely to belong to the same person.

Is bisexuality the same in men and women? | Psychology Today

Is bisexuality the same in men and women? | Psychology Today

There has been a lot of scientific and cultural interest lately in differences in the sexuality between men and women. For example, my colleague Dr. Meredith Chivers has been publishing some fascinating research showing major differences in the ways in which men and women experience sexual attractions. She has found that men are fairly specific in what turns them on sexually, whereas women in general have more flexibility. Men who identify as heterosexual become aroused when watching films of women but not men. Gay men tended to be aroused by films of men. This is very different with the women in her research. No matter how they identified in terms of their sexual orientation, they were more likely to show the same pattern of arousal to men, women, and both. Her research was featured in a New York Times Magazine cover story.

Largest national sex survey ever publishes highlights sexual behavior and condom use among Americans ages 14 to 94 | Psychology Today

Largest national sex survey ever publishes highlights sexual behavior and condom use among Americans ages 14 to 94 | Psychology Today

Readers of the Sexual Continuum blog may be most interested in the findings about same-sex behavior and sexual orientation. I created the graph below, which shows the percentage of individuals who identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual by age and gender. As shown, 3.3% of males between the ages of 14 and 17 identified as gay or bisexual, whereas 8.4% of girls in the same age group identified as bisexual. The numbers increased with age for men and decreased with age for women. Similar to many previous studies, more women identified as bisexual than lesbian, whereas more men identified as gay than bisexual. Some have suggested this indicates that sexual orientation is different in men and women, as reviewed in one of my previous blog posts.

Shame anger and the social bond

http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.001/sheff.html

Drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in U.S., Times analysis shows - latimes.com

Drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in U.S., Times analysis shows - latimes.com

Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

Patton Oswalt - Religion (Sky Cake) - YouTube

Patton Oswalt - Religion (Sky Cake) - YouTube

Patton Oswalt - Religion (Sky Cake)