Liberal Talk Radio

The Prof, in print:
The irony is that for most of the, oh, let’s say 72,000 years we’ve been human, close contact like this has been much more normal than our modern conceit of “personal space.” In fact, we’re supposed to be highly tuned to live in groups of 50 to 150 people. The Right [...]

Jon Rauch explains the coming age of Matriarchy:
Whatever the reason, the result was a new educational gender gap, this time favoring women. There is little sign that it will close: Projections by the National Center for Education Statistics show a 22 percent increase in female college enrollment between 2005 and 2016, compared with only [...]

Oh Lord*:
An academic study of the National Basketball Association, whose playoffs continue tonight, suggests that a racial bias found in other parts of American society has existed on the basketball court as well.
A coming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell University graduate student says that, during the 13 seasons from 1991 [...]

In a development that is sure to make Tom Tancredo stew and bitch and moan and twitch, for the first time ever a Spanish-language outlet is the top rated radio station in the Denver area:
For the first time in Denver radio history, a Spanish-language station has finished atop the Arbitron ratings.
The fall 2006 ratings, [...]

New York Magazine’s great piece on burnout reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about the last couple of days — the idea that raising children replicates the entrepreneurial (necessarily entrepreneurial?) impulse in us. Specifically, if:
Of all her studies both in Israel and abroad, [Ayala] Pines found that the most-burned-out people were nurses working in [...]

Research confirming the factual basis for the artistic genius of Quest for Fire* is set to be published:
Scientists have found new genetic evidence that they say may answer the longstanding question of whether modern humans and Neanderthals interbred when they co-existed thousands of years ago. The answer is: probably yes, though not often.
In research being [...]

While it’s true that the Pope’s speechwriter could have found a better quote to make his point, I’m not really sure what all the fuss is about.
Read the Pope’s speech.
Here’s the offending text (approx. 3% or so of the total speech … I’ll describe after you read):
In the … conversation … [Byzantine Emperor Manuel II [...]

Just back from Lollapalooza after a mere 16 hours en route from Chicago. Check out this week’s episode for my take on the whole thing. Best concert moment ever: the Dresden Dolls cover War Pigs. Download this immediately (and please email me if you do … haven’t been able to find it).

Fascinating to see the techies at Engadget get all weepy over the demise of New Jersey’s Bell Labs.
Bell Labs was the host of an amazing array of scientific output in the latter half of the 20th century. But after Ma Bell (AT&T) spun off Lucent Technologies, the R&D department shrunk and shrunk. [...]

New York Magazine investigates the concept of the “grup” — or how the 18-to-24 demographic mission-creeped to 18-to-35 and now probably 18-to-45:
We might consider, then, the case of Chad Ruble. At age 32, with a wife who was four months pregnant with their first child, Ruble had a bright idea — he decided to [...]