Rotundus.com

Darth Vader claims land plot in Ukraine

I'd say that this seems more entertaining than the occupy wall street people

Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census

All data from the US. "the official poverty measure has long been seen as flawed. It ignores hundreds of billions the needy receive in food stamps, tax credits and other programs, and the similarly large sums paid in taxes, medical care and work expenses. The new method, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, counts all those factors and adjusts for differences in the cost of living, which the official measure ignores. The results scrambled the picture of poverty in many surprising ways. The measure shows less severe destitution, but a bit more overall poverty; fewer poor children, but more poor people over 65." (And, BTW, is $3000 seriously something you could consider a house downpayment?)

Would-Be Engineers Hit Books the Hardest, a Study Finds

"Among students concentrating in engineering, 42 percent say they spend at least 20 hours per week on such study, well ahead of any other group. They are followed, in descending order, by students studying physical sciences, biological sciences, arts and humanities, education and social sciences. Business majors ranked last"

Safe or extreme? Toronto school bans hard balls

This covers "soccer balls, footballs, volleyballs or tennis balls" - rather less risky than the hockey pucks that recently resulted in the death of a 16 year old in Edmonton.

One of the blogs that the New York Times hosts had a recent piece on women in the Afghani army. A brief quote:

"Afghan families are not letting their daughters join the military because of security problems and culture," Major Misbah said.
For women in the military, the jobs are different and relatively safer, Major Misbah said.
"The girls here are not going to be going on a mission," she said. "They will end up getting office jobs, which are safe. This is good for the economy and the government."

Same name. Not the same job.

Good for You, Good for the Planet? Is healthy food always better for the environment?

Some examples from the article: "It takes 466 kilocalories of energy to produce a pound of potatoes ... Spinach—a certified superfood packed with phytochemicals—requires 1,139 kilocalories per pound. ... it takes 1,136 kilocalories of energy to produce 1 pound of canned, prepared foods like soups and stews. Fresh foods came in at 1,151 kilocalories of energy per pound, a statistical dead heat with the canned meals. Canned, unprepared foods, like green beans and corn, were scored at 1,606 kilocalories per pound, and frozen foods rated between 2,250 and 2,405 kilocalories"

More Money Can Beat Big Money

Their idea for public funding of elections seems better than the current per-vote approach in Canada (which I'm hoping Harper actually does change). In the proposal here, it seems as though who you vote for isn't necessarily the same as the one you're subsidizing and there doesn't seem to be a minimum size limit to get that funding. Compare to the Canadian version where small parties don't get that funding (need 2% of the national vote total to qualify). My response to the introduction of the per-vote model was simply to stop voting - "don't vote; it only encourages them" became a bit too literal for my liking.

Who's More Likely to Vote - Women or Men? Gender Differences and Voter Turnout - Women Take Voting Seriously

"In non-presidential election years, women continue to turn out in greater proportions than men. And women outnumber men among registered voters. ... So the next time you hear a political analyst discuss 'the women's vote,' bear in mind that she or he is talking about a powerful constituency that numbers in the millions." Although the article claims that women have "yet to find [their] political voice and agenda," I'd dispute that. Women simply don't seem to exhibit a strong preference for female (vs. male) politicians. They do exhibit a preference for larger government programs though.

Technique spots patients misdiagnosed as being in ‘vegetative state’

"The findings ... provide startling — and in some ways disturbing — new evidence confirming previous indications that a significant proportion of patients diagnosed as being vegetative may in fact be aware. But, most important, the widely available, portable technology used in the research offers what could be the first practical way for doctors to identify and finally communicate with perhaps thousands of patients who may be languishing unnecessarily in isolation." - the article mentions this technique enabling them to communicate with 19% of patients in a sample group.

I caught the above documentary a few days back on TV - it also seems to be available online if you're interested in watching.

A few things came to mind watching it.

On the issue of parents deferring retirement, I'm not sure that that's much more than a red herring. Canada is probably in slightly better shape with it's public pension system than some other parts of the Western world, but with a combination of increased lifespan and a lower fertility rate alongside often actuarially unsound pension plans and low levels of private savings seem to make some increase in working life more or less inevitable.

There seemed to be a bit of a contrast between weak and strong families. i.e. the weak family - the single mother with kids example in the documentary - was strengthening up by using the woman's mother for childcare. Not necessarily a bad thing - I tend to think that inter-generational families are a good idea. Yet at the same time, I'm not sure about the long-term sustainability of this a generation or two in the future.

Looking at the whole other issue of not contributing to a household and of parents aiding their children so that they don't need to take any job not deeply personally satisfying, I think that they had a bit of a point. (I'm also not surprised that they were using the example of a guy who'd gone to film school and was trying to pursue that as a career).