Tag: United States

The Great Recession was less severe than the Great Depression because we do learn from history.

As is quickly becoming usual, Tina at Diotima's Ladder asks excellent questions: Roosevelt and Obama: Did we avoid a Great Depression? | Diotima's Ladder. For the past week I’ve been rushing home every night to catch The Roosevelts: An Intimate History by Ken Burns. I’m not really a big Ken Burns fan. And yes, it’s the fiddle music. … Continue reading The Great Recession was less severe than the Great Depression because we do learn from history. →

The War Photo No One Would Publish – The Atlantic

Stan Hummel called my attention to this article: The War Photo No One Would Publish - The Atlantic.  I didn't embed the specific image here.  If you want to see it, you can follow the link.  Warning: it may not be something many people want to see. The Iraqi soldier died attempting to pull himself up over … Continue reading The War Photo No One Would Publish – The Atlantic →

Ancient baby boom holds a lesson in over-population

Along the lines of last week's discussion of Jared Diamond's book 'Collapse': Ancient baby boom holds a lesson in over-population -- ScienceDaily. Washington State University researchers have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long "growth blip" among southwestern Native Americans between 500 to 1300 A.D. It was a time … Continue reading Ancient baby boom holds a lesson in over-population →

Iraq and the fallacy of sunk costs

I'm watching the Sunday morning news shows, and of course, the Iraq crisis is a major source of conversation.  One thing I'm hearing over and over again is hand wringing about how much blood and treasure we (the US) have already spent in Iraq.  The reasoning appears to be that all that suffering and sacrifice shouldn't be … Continue reading Iraq and the fallacy of sunk costs →

American positions on moral issues and tensions between the moral foundations

Gallup did a poll on American positions on various moral issues, finding that Americans are now more accepting than ever on a range of issues. Most of these I don't find particularly surprising.  Of course, it turns out that Democrats and Republicans have differences of opinion on many of them.  HuffPost, in their write up of … Continue reading American positions on moral issues and tensions between the moral foundations →

Americans may be more scientifically literate than evolution questions show

Dan Kahan has an interesting post showing that when Americans are asked the, "Did humans develop from earlier species?" question, it matters how it is asked.  As it's usually asked, when people answer, they are often asserting a religious cultural identity.  But if it is asked with the qualifying "according to the theory of evolution", … Continue reading Americans may be more scientifically literate than evolution questions show →

It really is time for the death penalty to go

Wired has an article up on America's long history of botched executions. Two weeks ago, things went horribly wrong with the execution of Clayton D. Lockett, a 38-year old Oklahoma man convicted of shooting a young woman and burying her alive. After executioners initiated what was meant to be a lethal injection, Lockett began writhing … Continue reading It really is time for the death penalty to go →