bbc news video l Rep. Joe Crowley doesn’t utter a single word in powerful speech to the GOP l news video clip |.
Go USA! Number One in poverty and 26 other shameful scores
By James Gustave Speth (Yes!) From President Obama to Sarah Palin, our politicians are constantly invoking America’s superiority and exceptionalism or exhorting us to be Number 1. Yet from health care to education to environmental performance, we’re more often found at the bottom of the list of developed countries. It’s a good idea to set [...]
Air controller was working 4th consecutive overnight shift
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the supervisor — who has been suspended — has also been drug tested, though the FAA wouldn’t confirm or deny the testing. The supervisor was on duty alone that night and the National Transportation Safety Board has said that the supervisor told investigators that he was working his fourth [...]
First World Problems
Does your HDTV take too long to turn on? Is the air conditioning at work too cold during the summer and too hot during the winter? Did your car’s AUX input poop out? If it’s a problem you can only have if you have money, we’ll feel bad for you for having the problem, and [...]
Koch Industries employs PR firm to airbrush Wikipedia
By Lee Fang (ThinkProgress) Last year, Koch Industries began employing New Media Strategies (NMS)). Under the moniker of “MBMAdmirer,” NMS employees edited Wikipedia articles to distance the Koch family from the Tea Party movement, to provide baseless comparisons between Koch and conspiracy theories surrounding George Soros, and to generally delete citations to liberal news outlets. [...]
Unpaid internships favor prosperous over the poor
By Ross Eisenbrey and Kathryn Edwards (Economic Policy Institute) Many internships today create or perpetuate serious inequalities, especially for students from families of modest means. Because so many internships are unpaid, the current system favors students from wealthier families. Unpaid internships require students to forego wages and finance a living without a paycheck, putting them [...]
Death sentence more likely if victims are of high status
(Science Bloggers) A defendant is much more likely to be sentenced to death if he or she kills a “high-status” victim, according to new research by Scott Phillips, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver (DU). According to his research published in Law and Society Review, (43-4:807-837), the probability of being [...]
$381,000 golden coffin with cell phone on sale at Verona fair
(AFP) Shoppers wondering how to deal with the afterlife found an answer Friday — a cell-phone-equipped golden coffin, one of many items on display at the opening of an international luxury fair in Verona. The coffin was priced at a mere 280,000 euros (381,000 dollars), while a diamond-studded, cancan-style wedding gown in pink chinchilla fur [...]
Paradox: rich and poor both suffer more in unequal societies
By Nicolas Baumard (LSE-ICCI) In a quite fascinating book, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always do Better, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett demonstrate that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone — the well-off as well as the poor. The remarkable data the book lays out and the measures it [...]
Rich hire occupational therapists to groom their kids for elite kindergartens
By Peg Tyre (NY Times) In Manhattan, the brutally competitive nursery and kindergarten admissions process is leading many parents to sign up their toddlers for therapy. “Preschool admissions tests loom large,” said Margie Becker-Lewin, an occupational therapist on the Upper West Side. “In many cases, parents know there is nothing wrong with their child, but [...]
