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Pittsburgh - My Hometahn
June 10, 2013 Posted by Jay Livingston from Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian eastbound, somewhere near Horseshoe Curve. The cab driver, a Black man in his forties, had a perfect Pittsburgh accent. On the short drive from the train station to our...Show More Summary
Where do Poor People Live?
By Karen Sternheimer If someone asked you this question, how might you answer? For many of us living in cities, we might name specific neighborhoods that we associate with high levels of poverty. But that would only give us part...
Gone Fishing (And Chips-ing?)
Dear Loyal Readers, As part of my dissertation research, I’m headed to England tomorrow. I’ll be in the archives at the LSE and King’s College, Cambridge for the next month and a half or so. In the middle, I’ll be presenting some early stage dissertation work at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) […]
did the internet just kill the constitution?
Last week, it was revealed that the NSA collects important data about all Verizon phone calls and has access to the servers of most major Internet firms like Facebook and Google. Of course, this sort of behavior is exactly what civil rights activists had warned about for years. But there is a deeper lesson – […]
Iain Banks on Life after Capitalism
Let me state here a personal conviction that appears, right now, to be profoundly unfashionable; which is that a planned economy can be more productive - and more morally desirable - than one left to market forces. The market is a good example of evolution in action; the try-everything-and-see-what- -works approach. Show More Summary
protect your self on the internet – the brayden and eszter way
C0-blogger Brayden King and leading Internet scholar Eszter Hargittai wrote a nice post for Kellogg’s Executive Education newsletter. The topic: how to cultivate your reputation in the age of social media. A few choice clips: Let others in your social network do the talking for you. People see impression management as most genuine when others […]
a twiggle – all possible tweets
Definition: Given a set of X characters, a twiggle is the total possible number of tweets, or X^140. Since most English speakers will use the ASCII characters, one standard English twiggle is 95^140: 76,085,997,811,183,562,98,135,408,710,...Show More Summary
Labour and Rebuilding Social Security
Look, I get it. No one needs to tell me that the antipathy towards the unemployed, the disabled, and anyone else forced to subsist on social security payments has been carefully but repeatedly orchestrated for over 30 years. Labour have...Show More Summary
Class and Climate in China
China is suffering an environmental crisis, and it’s become a health hazard. Using social media, young activists are now disseminating shocking photos and information. Through their lenses, we see Beijing’s air, thick with smog, and rivers lined with hundreds of rotting animal carcasses. For Chinese and world citizens, it seems clear these environmental problems can’t [...]
advice from walter bishop, jr. on improving your jazz improvization skills
Apparently, a lot of it has to do with working in that cycle of fourths into your lines. This is a very nice video of the post-bop piano master, with a performance of his tune “To Those Who Chant.” I also strongly recommend his composition Coral Keys, ideal for those who want easy listening with […]
no, facebook is definitely not a failure
Over at A Programmer’s Tale, “jewsin” argues that Facebook is a failure because it encourages people to post junk. Two clips: I am signed into Facebook right now. At a quick glance, the entire list of posts on the first screen are irrelevant to me. If I scrolled down I can find 4 stories I […]
advice from walter bishop, jr. on to improve your jazz improvization skills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LgE6M-ZCbQ Apparently, a lot of it has to do with working in that cycle of fourths into your lines. This is a very nice video of the post-bop piano master, with a performance of his tune “To Those Who Chant.” I also strongly recommend his composition Coral Keys, ideal for those who want easy listening […]
Lenin and Dirigibles
Is this the most awesome early Soviet propaganda poster ever? It has everything - Lenin rising up from the masses, clearly gesticulating the young workers' republic's line of march. And demonstrating the fruits socialist industry unleashed, you have the immense modernity of the airship thrusting upwards into the orange dawn of the future. Show More Summary
Marriage is Over: “Live With It”
Cross-posted at The Atlantic and Family Inequality. In 1996 the Hoover Institution published a symposium titled “Can Government Save the Family?“ A who’s-who list of culture warriors — including Dan Quayle, James Dobson, John Engler,...Show More Summary
On My Honor: The Boy Scouts and Sexual Orientation
By Sally Raskoff The Boy Scouts of America voted recently to change their membership policy. They passed the resolution to “remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone.” The resolution actually reads: “No youth...
protect your self on the internet – the brayden and eszter way
C0-blogger Bryaden King and leading Internet scholar Eszter Hargittai wrote a nice post for Kellogg’s Executive Education newsletter. The topic: how to cultivate your reputation in the age of social media. A few choice clips: Let others in your social network do the talking for you. People see impression management as most genuine when others […]
Trade Unions and Television
At my Unite branch meeting tonight, we heard the welcome news numbers had increased by an additional 47 people on last month. That, combined with recently released figures that tentatively suggest a reversal of trade unions' downward spiral is heartening. Show More Summary
new journal: strategy science
INFORMS is launching a new journal: Strategy Science. Dan Levinthal (Penn), current editor of Organization Science, will be the new editor. The set of senior editors are excellent. Given the backing of INFORMS (and the set of other...Show More Summary
Presidents Evaluating Women’s Attractiveness: 1973 and 2013
Earlier this year President Obama described California attorney general Kamala Harris “the best-looking attorney general in the country.” Even though the crowd reportedly laughed at the comment, Obama was criticized for making sexist...Show More Summary
Graphing Grade Inflation
June 5, 2013 Posted by Jay Livingston I have little talent in the visual arts. But since I started doing this blog, and especially when Sociological Images started using some of my posts, I’ve become more sensitive to graphs. and the visual presentation of quantitative data. Show More Summary
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