If you were a woman reading this magazine 40 years ago, the odds were good that your husband provided the money to buy it. That you voted the same way he did. That if you got breast cancer, he might be asked to sign the form authorizing a mastectomy. That your son was heading to college but not your daughter. That your boss, if you had a job, could explain that he was paying you less because, after all, you were probably working just for pocket money.

It’s funny how things change slowly, until the day we realize they’ve changed completely. It’s expected that by the end of the year, for the first time in history the majority of workers in the U.S. will be women — largely because the downturn has hit men so hard. This is an extraordinary change in a single generation, and it is gathering speed: the growth prospects, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are in typically female jobs like nursing, retail and customer service. More and more women are the primary breadwinner in their household (almost 40%) or are providing essential income for the family’s bottom line. Their buying power has never been greater — and their choices have seldom been harder.

{ Time | Continue reading }

Super Freakonomics is getting a lot of flak for its flip contrarianism on climate change, most of which seems based on incorrectly believing solar panels are black (they’re blue, and this has surprisingly large energy implications) and misquoting important climate scientists.

{ Washington Post | Continue reading }

At first glance, what it looks like is that Levitt and Dubner have fallen into the trap of counterintuitiveness. For a long time, there’s been an accepted way for commentators on politics and to some extent economics to distinguish themselves: by shocking the bourgeoisie, in ways that of course aren’t really dangerous. Ann Coulter is making sense! Bush is good for the environment! You get the idea.

Clever snark like this can get you a long way in career terms — but the trick is knowing when to stop.

{ Paul Krugman/NY Times | Continue reading }

update:

They have given the impression that we are global-warming deniers of the worst sort, and that our analysis of the issue is ideological and unscientific. Most gravely, we stand accused of misrepresenting the views of one of the most respected climate scientists on the scene, whom we interviewed extensively. If everything they said was actually true, it would indeed be a damning indictment. But it’s not.

{ Freakonomics/NY Times | Continue reading | Also: Superfreakingmeta }

photo { Grant Cornett }

quote { Marx & Engels on Skepticism & Praxis: Selected Quotations }

unrelated { A new short novel from Don DeLillo is scheduled to appear in February, 2010, entitled Point Omega }

One nagging thing that I still don’t understand about myself is why I often succumb to well-documented psychological biases, even though I’m acutely aware of these biases. One example is my failure at affective forecasting, such as believing that I will be happy for a long time after some accomplishment (e.g. publishing a new book), when in fact the happiness dissipates more quickly than anticipated. Another is succumbing to the male sexual overperception bias, misperceiving a woman’s friendliness as sexual interest. A third is undue optimism about how quickly I can complete work projects, despite many years of experience in underestimating the time actually required. One would think that explicit knowledge of these well-documented psychological biases and years of experience with them would allow a person to cognitively override the biases. But they don’t.

{ David Buss | More: BPS invited some of the world’s leading psychologists to look inwards and share, in 150 words, one nagging thing they still don’t understand about themselves. }

photo { SW▲MPY }

People often use metaphors to describe their life… Which ONE of the following do you think best describes your life?

A Journey: 51%
A Battle: 11%
The Seasons: 10%
A Novel: 8%
A Race: 6%
A Live Performance, Like a Play: 5%
A Carousel: 4%
Other: 2%
Unsure: 2%

{ Pollster | Continue reading }

The amount of stress we endure is increasing because of our focus on efficiency. Stress is caused by uncertainty, more specifically, by doubts in our ability to handle something. As machines and computers handle more things that are predictable and certain, we are pressured to deal with more things that are unpredictable and uncertain. This inevitably leads to more stress. As soon as our tasks become predictable and certain, we automate them using our technology. The result of this process of streamlining is that we are increasingly called upon to use our, what I would call, irrational abilities, such as instincts, sensibilities, creativities, and interpersonal skills. These things are, by nature, unpredictable.

Take stock trading, for instance. When there were no computers to process the trades, the number of trades you could do in a day was limited. A certain amount of your work as a trader involved processing of paperwork, communicating with others, and doing some arithmetic; tasks that are predictable and not stressful. Today, a click of a button essentially takes care of all of those predictable tasks, and you skip right ahead to another stressful decision-making.

As another example, take graphic designers. Now with computers handling everything from typesetting, layout, image processing, color management to printing, what used to be done by several specialists are now combined into one person. The number of jobs one can handle in a year increased dramatically. Now designers spend more time being creative, and less time creating the final products. This may sound good, but in terms of stress and rewards, it is not. Because creativity is irrational and unpredictable, coming up with a creative solution can be highly stressful. Designers now have to come up with significantly more creative solutions per year for the same amount of money.

{ Dyske Suematsu | Continue reading }

When we say someone is a warm person, we do not mean that they are running a fever. When we describe an issue as weighty, we have not actually used a scale to determine this. And when we say a piece of news is hard to swallow, no one assumes we have tried unsuccessfully to eat it.

These phrases are metaphorical–they use concrete objects and qualities to describe abstractions like kindness or importance or difficulty–and we use them and their like so often that we hardly notice them. For most people, metaphor, like simile or synecdoche, is a term inflicted upon them in high school English class: “all the world’s a stage,” “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” Gatsby’s fellow dreamers are “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Metaphors are literary creations–good ones help us see the world anew, in fresh and interesting ways, the rest are simply cliches: a test is a piece of cake, a completed task is a load off one’s back, a momentary difficulty is a speed bump.

Metaphors are primarily thought of as tools for talking and writing–out of inspiration or out of laziness, we distill emotions and thoughts into the language of the tangible world. We use metaphors to make sense to one another.

Now, however, a new group of people has started to take an intense interest in metaphors: psychologists. Drawing on philosophy and linguistics, cognitive scientists have begun to see the basic metaphors that we use all the time not just as turns of phrase, but as keys to the structure of thought. (…) Metaphors aren’t just how we talk and write, they’re how we think.

{ Boston Globe | Continue reading }

related { Temperature affects how we perceive relationships }

Nuclear physics was once considered the pinnacle of man’s effort to know reality; its image was tarnished by association with the bomb’s destructive violence.

{ The New Atlantis | Continue reading }

photo { Taryn Simon | video of the explosion }

Adelphia Communications, Barings Bank, Enron, HealthSouth, HIH Insurance, Hollinger International, Tyco International, WorldCom/MCI, Xerox…the white collar crime list goes on. But, did the executives at these companies start out as criminals or did they head down the slippery slope to criminality one misplaced step at a time? According to research to be published in the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, there are twelve steps to white-collar crime. (…)

The researchers have broken down the process of white-collar crime into 12 steps, with steps one to four explaining how the “players” first encounter and support each other and begin to spot the opportunity for illegal activity.

These first four steps are: The perpetrator is hired into a position of power. Second step, personality and life circumstances affect the perpetrator in such a way that they recognise their power. In the third step “drivers” who turn a blind eye or condone certain activities come into view. The fourth step sees passive participants recognizing an opportunity.

In steps 5 to 8 the truth of escalating illegal activity is hidden.

In step 5 reluctant participants are drawn into the web of deceit by the “leader”. In step 6 distrust of the other people involved emerges. In step 7, the perpetrator recognizes they have their accomplices in a vulnerable position and begin to exploit that position. In step 8 bullying tactics become increasingly common as illegal goals are aimed for.

In steps 9 through 12 the perpetrator’s actions are challenged and publicised revealing the white-collar crime.

In step 9, the crime continues, but the perpetrators, trapped in their insatiable addiction, become more blaze, taking bigger risks, and seeking more lucrative exploits.

In step 10, an undeniable paradox becomes apparent, as the participants’ values and their behavior are now obviously in conflict.

In step 11, a whistleblower steps up to the mark and the leader loses control.

Finally in step 12, blame is laid at the feet of the perpetrator at which point they either deny everything or admit their guilt and seek forgiveness by laying bare their activities.

{ Inderscience/EurekAlert | Continue reading }

photo { Finlay MacKay }

Frankenhooker, an American film released in 1990.

Plot: When his gorgeous fiancée “goes to pieces” in a freak lawnmower accident, aspiring mad scientist Jeffrey Franken is determined to put her back together again. With the aid of an explosive superdrug, he sets about reassembling his girlfriend, selecting the choicest bits from a bevy of raunchy New York prostitutes. But his bizarre plan soon goes awry. His reanimated girlfriend no longer craves his body… she craves everybody! And, for money, she’ll love anyone… to death!

{ Wikipedia | Watch the trailer }

{ Playboy may finally publish an issue that nobody jerks off to the cover model. | Playboy November 2009 cover feat. Marge Simpson | Playboy October 1971 cover feat. Darine Stern }

related:

{ Andrea Mantegna, St Sebastian, c. 1470 | Esquire magazine, April 1968 | And: Radar Magazine parodies 1968 Muhammed Ali Esquire cover }

{ The Gervais Principle and Its Consequences }

In the search for extraterrestrial life, some scientists say we’re focusing too much on finding signs of existence as we know it, and in the process, we may be missing more strange forms of life that don’t rely on water or carbon metabolism.

Now researchers from Austria have started a systematic study of solvents other than water that might be able to support life outside our planet. They’re hoping their research will lead to a shift in what they call the “geocentric mindset” of our attempts to detect extraterrestrial life. (…)

While water is liquid only between zero and 100 degrees Celsius, other solvents are liquid over a much larger temperature range. For instance, because ammonia stays liquid at a lower temperature, an ocean of ammonia could exist on a planet much further from its host star.

{ Wired | Continue reading }

In the mid-1800s researchers discovered cells in the brain that are not like neurons (the presumed active players of the brain) and called them glia, the Greek word for “glue.” Even though the brain contains about a trillion glia—10 times as many as there are neurons—the assumption was that those cells were nothing more than a passive support system. Today we know the name could not be more wrong.

Glia, in fact, are busy multitaskers, guiding the brain’s development and sustaining it throughout our lives. Glia also listen carefully to their neighbors, and they speak in a chemical language of their own. Scientists do not yet understand that language, but experiments suggest that it is part of the neurological conversation that takes place as we learn and form new memories. (…)

All neurons have certain characteristic attributes: axons, synapses, and the ability to produce electric signals. As scientists peered at bits of brain under their microscopes, though, they encountered other cells that did not fit the profile. When impaled with electrodes, these cells did not produce a crackle of electric pulses. If electricity was the language of thought, then these cells were mute. German pathologist Rudolf Virchow coined the name glia in 1856, and for well over a century the cells were treated as passive inhabitants of the brain.

At least a few scientists realized that this might be a hasty assumption. (…) Today the mystery of glia is partially solved. Biologists know they come in several forms. One kind, called radial glia, serve as a scaffolding in the embryonic brain. Neurons climb along these polelike cells to reach their final location. Another kind of glia, called microglia, are the brain’s immune system. They clamber through the neurological forest in search of debris from dead or injured cells. A third class of glia, known as Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes, form insulating sleeves around neurons to keep their electric signals from diffusing.

{ Discover | Continue reading }

{ Finding the locations used in Taxi Driver turned out to be incredibly difficult, largely because the film documents a side of the city that has since been demolished, rebuilt, renovated… | Scouting NY | Part 1 | Part 2 }

{ Dyson’s blade-free fan | full story | More: Gizmag, IT Media News }

{ Motocompo/Honda Trunk Bike | via DesignBoom | more }

Ida Irene Dalser (1880–1937) was the first wife of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (1883–1945).

They got married in 1914 and in 1915 she bore him his first child, Benito Albino Mussolini, whom Mussolini legally recognised as his son.

However, in 1910, Rachele Guidi moved in with Benito Mussolini, and on 17 December 1915, Rachele Guidi and Benito Mussolini married in a civil ceremony in Lombardy. When this became known to Ida Dalser, a legal dispute began between her and the new couple.

Once Mussolini was in power, Ida Dalser and her son were placed under surveillance by the police, and paper evidence of their relationship was tracked down to be destroyed by government agents. She still persisted in claiming her role as the dictator’s wife, and even publicly denounced Mussolini as a traitor. Eventually, she was forcibly interned in the psychiatric hospital of Pergine Valsugana, and then transferred to that of the island of San Clemente in Venice, where she died in 1937. The cause of death was registered as “brain haemorrhage.”

Rachele Mussolini remained loyal to Mussolini until the end, and ignored his various mistresses. But, on 28 April 1945, she was not with Mussolini when he and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were captured and executed by Italian partisans.

On 28 April, Claretta Petacci (1912–1945) and Mussolini were taken to Mezzegra where they were shot. On the following day, their bodies were taken to the Piazzale Loreto in Milan and hung upside down on meat hooks in front of an Esso petrol station. The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.

photo { A giant M installed to greet Mussolini’s arrival in a small Piemonte village (Italy, 1938) | photo: Farabola/LEEMAGE | Enlarge }

related { Benito Mussolini: British Secret Agent }

{ Snapshots that capture the shape of single biomolecules have never been possible–until now. }

Gaza zoo replaces zebras by painting donkeys.

Drunk man wakes up with penis tattoo on leg.

Police believe the vandals meant to carve a swastika next to President Barack Obama’s name on the 18th hole; however, the symbol was backwards and means hope and peace in some Eastern countries.

A 63-year-old homeless Russian man has gone from street life to stock market trader after collecting thousands of empty booze bottles for cash.

New study finds mustachioed Americans make more money and spend more of their income than the bearded and the cleanshaven.

Former funeral director charged with corpse abuse.

19-year-old girl chopped off her tongue inside a Shiva temple to invoke the god’s blessings to marry the person she desired instead of the match fixed by her parents.

White shark breaching about 300 yards off Sunset Blvd in LA.

New vaccine may immunize addicts from cocaine’s pleasurable effects.

Anna Nicole Smith was so weak in her final days that she was being fed Pedialyte with a baby bottle, it was revealed Tuesday.

The regulation of hypnotherapists in the UK is so lax that even a cat can become accredited.

Zoophiles love and have sex with animals. Will the world ever accept them?

Mexico City puts 1,300 overweight police on a diet.

Alex Mensaert is addicted to amputation and his wife Melissa doesn’t mind. [videos]

Global warming and risks of severe acne. More: A complete list of things caused by global warming.

At the U.N. climate talks in Bangkok, Saudi Arabia asks for aid if world cuts dependence on oil.

Scientists propose guardrails for how far mankind can push the planet tomorrow, while others examine how far collapsed civilizations pushed it yesterday.

Report documents the risks of giant invasive snakes in the US.

Decades after Mahatma Gandhi called them Harijan (people of god), nearly 160 million Indians continue to be socially ostracised. Thousands of Dalits still clean shit with their bare hands and carry it on their heads. So how come a 9 per cent growth rate economy can’t generate alternative professions for them?

Healthy neighborhoods may be associated with lower diabetes risk.

The suicide rate among the company’s 100,000 employees is in line with France’s national average. Still, unions say that the relocation of staff to different branches of the company around France has added pressure onto employees and their families.

People who work after retiring enjoy better health, according to national study.

New study of the brain shows that facts and beliefs are processed in exactly the same way.

New research shows that memories are constantly being re-written by our minds.

Artificial black hole created in Chinese lab.

What happens when the gods of high finance dump a gigantic pile of gold on the richest university in the world? It is what actually happened to Harvard University, along with a few of its elite competitors, over the last 20 years. Related: America’s 25 douchiest colleges.

Major U.S. banks and securities firms are set to pay their employees about $140 billion this year. That’s a record level, just passing the pay levels of the boom year of 2007.

The rumours of the dollar’s death are much exaggerated.

Google CEO: We paid $1 billion premium for YouTube.

Adobe now makes it possible to create applications for the Apple iPhone using the Adobe Flash CS5.

At a time when many retailers are still cutting back or approaching strategic shifts with extreme caution, Disney is going the other way, getting more aggressive and putting into motion an expensive and ambitious floor-to-ceiling reboot of its 340 stores in the United States and Europe — as well as opening new ones, including a potential flagship in Times Square.

Bloomberg, the global financial data and news empire created by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is the winning bidder for BusinessWeek.

When is the best time in an interview for police to reveal the evidence they have to a crime suspect?

Darwin’s On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. This piece is a simpler version of a larger effort that looks at the changes between editions.

Two tribesmen from Papua New Guinea sued Jared Diamond, the well-known biologist and author, for $10 million in damages, claiming that he had defamed them in an April 2008 article in The New Yorker.

The significance of unity and diversity for the disciplines of Mathematics and Physics.

Clausewitz ’s On War has become something of a classic, often cited, discussed in numerous recent books, seen in the company of Sun Tzu’s Art of War (thought to be circa fourth century BC), and studied in military academies.

Shakespeare’s Othello speaks to one of the most salient confusions of our time: the conflict between transparency and secrecy.

150 different Italian pasta shapes.

Japanese restaurant’s unusual rule: You get what the person before you ordered.

Case study: A man suffered paralysis from drinking too much Earl Grey tea.

A guide to fall apples.

Five human achievements that could top walking on the Moon.

Hirst’s solo show takes self-veneration to a new level, with the artist contributing almost $400,000 to allow the public free access to his exhibition.

Skatetown USA, 1979.

Major Lazer, “Pon De Floor.”

COCO.

Banksy painting sprayed over by graffiti artists.

Postcards from 1910 which depict life in the year 2000.

Radisson/Picasso.

What Should be Done with the Bodies of the Dead (1936).

Queer Fuckers Magazine, Salt Lake City, Utah.

I like the dog. If he can’t eat it, or fuck it, he pisses on it. Shit my dad says.

What special affinities appeared to him to exist between the moon and woman?

Her antiquity in preceding and surviving successive tellurian generations: her nocturnal predominance: her satellitic dependence: her luminary reflection: her constancy under all her phases, rising, and setting by her appointed times, waxing and waning: the forced invariability of her aspect: her indeterminate response to inaffirmative interrogation: her potency over effluent and refluent waters: her power to enamour, to mortify, to invest with beauty, to render insane, to incite to and aid delinquency: the tranquil inscrutability of her visage: the terribility of her isolated dominant implacable resplendent propinquity: her omens of tempest and of calm: the stimulation of her light, her motion and her presence: the admonition of her craters, her arid seas, her silence: her splendour, when visible: her attraction, when invisible.

{ James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 17 | Continue reading }

photo { Marcus Ohlsson | S magazine }