I won’t spend a lot of time on this, but I did wonder why – when girls outpace boys in every subject (read: math and science, that’s what we care about here) do we question our unit of analysis? It’s bad enough when this is dubbed a “boy crisis” when never before did we consider [...]
In the same day, I took two pictures worth blogging about. So I’ll combine them into one post. Exhibit A: Squirrel eating McDonald’s foodI think it’s Fillet O Fish, in which case I understand if someone left the whole bag. Incidentally a McDonald’s themed picture goes well with the great news of the win for [...]
The most recent Footnotes, the newsletter of the American Sociological Association, featured four blogging sociologists in an article about blogging. It’s a great read, and I especially like it because it emphasizes the ordinariness of blogging. I’ve run into some sociologists that perceive blogging as an extraordinary social force that is able to jump start [...]
(click image for larger version) Awesome News. Both the 49th (that’s mine) and the 50th wards have incumbents that received under 50% of the vote. Congrats to the spirited campaigns of the other candidates, especially to Ginderske and Gordon. If I understand correctly, Gordon and Moore will now contend for the vote in April. This [...]
My statistics professor posted a challenge to our class last night: Find the stat that he is credited with in today’s Tribune. The first student in the class to report back gets a free beer at the “statistics bar” that he always talks about. You know, the place where all manner of statisticians get together [...]
Even better than studying the top ten articles at the New York Times is the much more local “most viewed” news articles of the Chicago Tribune. Number three at the moment is about a missing wedding dress. That’s right, a wedding dress was found in the suburbs and no one can figure out whose it [...]
Here’s why I don’t pay attention to the baby fear culture. Last week I received an email with the subject heading that 10 out of 12 brands of car seats failed crash tests, and hence are no good. Here is the list from that email: The Good Baby Trend Flex-Loc Adjustable Back Graco Snugride with [...]
Take a look at this chart from today’s Times. The “big deal” is supposed to be that 51% of women now live without a spouse. This is coupled with the census figures that show that households with married couples now describe a minority of U.S. family configurations. The Times interviews family scholar Stephanie Coontz, who [...]
You might say I’m a tourist of the sociology of food. I don’t live there, but I like passing through. So when I ran across this interview (via jt) on NPR’s Marketplace with Barry Glassner, I was intrigued. Especially interesting was the tag line: it’s not “You are what you eat,” it’s “You eat what [...]
Currently the fifth most emailed article over at the New York Times, this essay written by three doctors on the “medicalization of everyday life” is fantastic. Here’s a clip: This epidemic [of over diagnosing people] is a threat to your health. It has two distinct sources. One is the medicalization of everyday life. Most of [...]
