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Paging through the archives of Pictures for Sad Children, the ultimate bleak, existentialist webcomic. Also, the creator’s other project, http://hourlycomic.com/. Sheer genius.
- Ned Resnikoff

I’ve been focused on my thesis, and one of the key elements in maintaining my productivity is David Bowie. For whatever reason, I’m at my most productive when I’m listening to glam-era Bowie, from The Man Who Sold the World to Aladdin Sane. In fact, I’m listening to “Life on Mars?” right now.
- Jamelle Bouie

This American Life. That’s right, I’ve officially become sucked in by the sappy stories and heartwarming tales. My recent favorite is the last story on the “Matchmakers” podcast, in which snobby mothers on the Upper East Side of Manhattan discover only ethnic dolls in an upscale department store.
- Kay Steiger

I just finished Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. While it’s not quite as life-changing as I was promised by its fans, it’s certainly given me loads to think about.
- Emily Rutherford

Wurstkuche, a gourmet German hot dog place in downtown Los Angeles. I had an apricot and ginger dog last week and today I got a mango and jalapenos hot dog. They also have sun-dried tomatoes with mozzarella sausage or, if you prefer exotic meats, they have a rattlesnake and rabbit sausage. The modern German decor and airy loft space is a huge plus.
- Diana Jou

TPM DC, Josh Micah Marshall’s new DC-centric arm of Talking Points Memo. It’s awesome of course, especially Elana Schor. Marshall has also hinted at more expansion plans. I’m pretty curious to know what he has in mind.
- Daniel Strauss

Dan Nexon’s grand strategy name generator. Reading it is like watching 50 Foreign Affairs articles collapsing in on themselves.
- Dylan Matthews

Dananananaykroyd. You’ll love their hyperkinetic “fight-pop” if you’re a fan of Fugazi, Cap’n Jazz, or early At The Drive-In. Definitely check out “Pink Sabbath.”

The video for Ladyhawke’s “Dusk Till Dawn.” I want those t-shirts, and to go to that party, even if it is full of monsters. - Bradley Portnoy

Both President Obama and Vice President Biden denounced the excesses of Wall Street today. Biden, with characteristic gruffness, told CNBC: “I’d like to throw these guys in the brig.” Preferably a brig with crocodiles.

Jon Stewart hummed a similar tune on Wednesday night. (Caution. This is not one of Stewart’s better entries. All in all Wednesday was a weak episode. But I can’t fault Stewart; no one can be consistently funny almost every day of every week of every year. He is still my preferred source of TV news.)

But despite the scolding of all these liberal heavyweights, let’s not forget the context here. Our current crisis cannot be blamed entirely on The Masters of the Universe. It is their job to generate capital, and they did so blithely, with no regard for the ultimate human cost, and no eye for future consequences (which is the way capitalism tends to work).

They were able execute their duties in a particularly unstable way because sensible regulation had been stripped away from the old engines of finance (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, I’m looking at you), while newer wealth generators, hedge funds for example, were left to their own devices. Both Democrats and Republicans were responsible (and come to think of it, maybe the Masters of the Universe were too, as they did have an awful lot of excess cash for lobbying, which led to a lot of excess influence in both parties). It is the whole edifice that is rotten and in need of reform, not just those in charge.

Tags: economic meltdown, economy

Designed by Michael Gericke, Don Bilodeau and Jed Skillins from Pentagram Designs. (more…)

Tags: design, See, sports, Super Bowl

In an interview with the Associated Press, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke about the importance of education spending in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (”the economic stimulus package”):

“If we want to stimulate the economy, we need a better-educated workforce…That’s the only way, long-term, we’re going to get out of this economic crisis,” he said. [...]

College affordability is critical, Duncan said. [...] “In our economy, never has it been more important to go to college,” Duncan said. “Well, college has never been more unaffordable. And so increasing access is hugely important. Long-term, if we want a better economy, we need more people going to college.”

Campus Progress and other groups have been urging strong measures in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to provide relief to struggling students, protect access to higher education during the economic crisis, mitigate the effects of state budget cuts, and stimulate the economy. Students are taking action online here.

Students across the country have also been working hard to minimize state budget cuts to education. University of California - Santa Barbara students, for example, held a rally on Wednesday to challenge the massive budget cuts facing California schools.

Most states have to choose between cutting spending, raising taxes, or both because of balanced budget laws. Unfortunately, these options only take more money out of the economy, and dig us deeper into a recessionary hole. From (a very helpful) Center for Budget and Policy Priorities update:

Expenditure cuts and tax increases are problematic policies during an economic downturn because they reduce overall demand and can make the downturn deeper.  When states cut spending, they lay off employees, cancel contracts with vendors, eliminate or lower payments to businesses and nonprofit organizations that provide direct services, and cut benefit payments to individuals.  In all of these circumstances, the companies and organizations that would have received government payments have less money to spend on salaries and supplies, and individuals who would have received salaries or benefits have less money for consumption.  This directly removes demand from the economy.  Tax increases also remove demand from the economy by reducing the amount of money people have to spend.

That makes the stimulus package–especially provisions that mitigate cuts to social services cut by state governments–even more important.

Unfortunately, the “liberal media” seem to be giving a lot more air time to conservatives opposing the stimulus than to progressives (strangely, Fox news does seem the most “fair and balanced” in this case).

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Tags: international, London, photography, See

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Tags: photography, See

From Scientific American (unfortunately, the rest of the piece has to be purchased):

When making complex decisions, legitimate factors sometimes mask choices influenced by prejudice—so bias is hard to detect. Recent research untangled some of these complex scenarios revealing that people are willing to sacrifice quite a lot to fulfill their subconscious biases. Psychologists asked volunteers to imagine they and a partner would compete together in a trivia quiz. Participants viewed profiles of two potential partners that described each person’s education, IQ and previous trivia game experience. A photograph of either a thin or an overweight person was attached to each profile. Subjects indicated which of the two potential partners they would prefer, then judged 23 more such pairings, each with a new mix of attributes.

Teasing out which variables affected people’s choices, the researchers found that participants were willing to sacrifice 12 IQ points in a trivia partner to have one who was thin. In a similar experiment, the group found that when comparing successive pairs of job offers, study subjects were willing to take a 22 percent salary cut to have a male boss.

“There’s a price to pay for biases that we may not even be aware of,” says lead author Eugene Caruso of the University of Chicago. “If you take a lower salary in order to have a male boss or you choose a partner who has a lower IQ but is thin, the person you’re discriminating against is yourself.”

This–and pretty much every bit of research ever conducted on bias–debunks anyone who would claim that “racism is dead” because we have a black president, the ocassional black CEO, etc. Racism and other forms of bias work in much more subtle ways.

Tags: feminism, gender equality, race, science