Rotundus.com

I posted a link to a New York Times piece on the comparative states of single vs. married mothers. Now The 'New York Times' Misses the Mark on Inequality, Marriage from the The Nation replied, trying to argue that the reason that someone who was a single mother with 3 kids by multiple fathers was a guiltless victim not responsible for their own choices, though the women herself said in the original piece that "I’m in this position because of decisions I made." Here's a portion of that response (highlighting by me):

DeParle mentions positively Charles Murray’s contention that single motherhood is a “values” issue, not an economic one. Murray means working-class and lower-middle-class white people have abandoned traditional family values (they’re becoming like—oh no!—black people)

Though the respondent here seems to be asserting that opposition to single-parent families is somewhat racist, in reality it seems to be her statement that's the racist one. As I noted - and gave you evidence for - in my original posting, black people didn't start behaving like "black people" until around the time that welfare kicked in and their families began to disintegrate. Expecting black families to be falling apart seems more racist to me than anything else in the article.

Though Charles Murray's book Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 focuses only on white americans, to quote Niall Ferguson's review at Amazon, his books shows "that race is not a significant determinant of social polarization in today's America. It is class that really matters."

Bite-size foods are more rewarding, suggests study

The summary: "Smaller pieces of food are more ‘rewarding’ and lead to a greater feeling of fullness than one large piece of food with equal energy values, say researchers."

Dutch Sports Revival Puts Canal-Vaulting Back in the Spotlight

Meet canal-vaulting, kolf, and pole-sitting...

Quebec Muslim activist becomes first woman charged under 9/11 terror laws over Hezbollah gun-running plot

"A Quebec activist who fought the stereotyping of Muslims was charged with supporting terrorism on Friday after an RCMP investigation linked her to an alleged scheme to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon." (Yes, I realize that organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah aren't exclusively terrorist in nature - they have some other aspects as well. Still it seems to make sense to classify those organization as terrorist in nature, and in this case it's pretty hard to argue that gun smuggling is something done with peaceful intent.

VIDEO: Man busted by his mom during robbery

"Twenty-two-year-old Roy Mitchell's mother stopped him during the middle of his crime by taking away the weapon he had aimed at the clerk. It was all caught on video."

There is no baby boomer (or silent) generation divorce spike at retirement

You'll hear two types of suggestions made: (a) husbands divorce their wives as they get older, trading them in for younger models, and (b) that wives divorce their husbands once they retire due to, well, having to put up with them all day. Both suggestions appear to be false.

According to a ruling from a British judge:

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was ordered by a judge to publish a notice on its U.K. website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t copy designs for the iPad. (src)

The situation in the USA:

A U.S. judge ... granted Apple Inc's request for a pre-trial injunction against the sale of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy Nexus phone ... days after she also slapped a pre-trial ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, a tablet computer ... pre-trial injunctions are rarely granted (src)

The US injunction dates from June, but it's still in place today.

The tech patent wars are rather annoying and, I'd argue, are probably one of the biggest stiflers of innovation in the sector.

*Savage Continent*

A book on the aftermath of World War 2. A portion of the excerpt there: "The number of sexual relationships that took place between European women and Germans during the war is quite staggering. In Norway as many of 10 percent of women aged between fifteen and thirty had German boyfriends during the war. If the statistics on the number of children born to German soldiers are anything to go by, this was by no means unusual…" I read the book PostWar a while back which is based on a similar topic, but it didn't really seem to get into this particular angle.

On OSHA

How much of an impact did the US government bringing increased health and safety regulations in 1970 have on workplace fatalities? There's an interesting figure graphing trends in workplace fatalities from 1933-1993 in the US, with essentially no change in the trend line after the introduction of those new rules.

What does it take to be jailed? Smirking thug with 51 convictions walks free despite attacking two men with a champagne bottle… after judge says she’s a ‘caring mother’

To add a bit from a journal article: "females receive even shorter sentences relative to men than whites relative to blacks. The discrimination literature generally argues that females are objects of discrimination and receive worse outcomes. In sentencing, however, women receive better outcomes, consistent with women’s being treated paternalistically in court. Although some contend that the sentencing guidelines harm women, studies have usually concluded that females are sentenced more leniently than males." The New York Times seems to concur with that assessment.

Midea Innovation: World's First Solid State RF Microwave Oven

"Compared to traditional microwave ovens, the Midea solid state RF microwave oven has many advantages including high intelligence, longer life, lower voltage operation, lower noise, full DC operation capability and smaller footprint. It has the fundamental innovation in overall form factor and appearance, "green" levels of electricity consumption and improved ease of use." Lower noise and longer life both sound good - not sure how expensive this thing is likely to be relative other microwaves. (I bought a low-end microwave when my old higher-end one died a year or two ago... and I find the noise of the thing a bit annoying).