something fun (if you count the standardization of manufacturing fun) for wednesday: Assembly Line Footage

I’m showing these Google videos in my class today, and thought they were blog-worthy. Topic? Standardization, the case of the Model T, and the assembly line. A fun thing to do is to compare the specialization of tasks between the Dodge commercial and the Wii assembly line, then ask, Has 50 years made any difference [...]

something fun (if you count finding out you don’t exist) for Sunday: Census Search

Via Kieran Healy, I found this website, which calculates how many people in the United States have your name. I happen to know that my name is very easy to Google, so I figured that there were not too many people with my name. I turns out that only 720 people in the United States [...]

something fun for wednesday (if you count reviewing Chicago’s educational progress as fun): No Child Left Behind Report Cards

Ok, so it’s not Wednesday. But this is something that I did yesterday, if that counts. While preparing a lecture on inequality in education policy, I discovered that the Chicago Sun Times posts a report card of the Adequate Yearly Progress measure! The AYP is the state defined composite of annual test scores, graduation rates, [...]

something fun (if you count comparative demographic data as fun) for wednesday: American FactFinder

Since school is starting up next week, I thought I’d post a favorite classroom assignment of mine, especially in introductory classes. It’s a comparative community demographic assignment, good for thinking about your own location in the spectrum of social inequality. American FactFinder can be found at the U.S. Census website, and is used by many [...]

something fun (if you count sociological analysis of advertisements as fun) for wednesday: The Commercial Closet

This post is dedicated to Kim, who pointed this one out to me. After successfully using The Late Greats Gender Mix in her Mass Media and Popular Culture summer class (in some variation anyway), her course has moved from music to advertising. I’m not sure why, but I happened to post about advertising last Thursday [...]

something fun (if you count offensive objectifying and degrading songs as fun) for wednesday: The Late Greats Gender Mix

This one needs your comment. My friend Kim is teaching Mass Media and Popular Culture this summer, and wants to use music to teach sociology. The specific task is to identify both positive and negative images (physical yes, but also social images) of men and women through song. I’m not a music guy, so I [...]

something fun (if you count calculating your car’s emissions as fun) for wednesday: TerraPass

TerraPass is an organization that funds clean energy projects, but I just like to see how many pounds of CO2 my car produces a year. I said we drive 8,000 miles per year, but living in the city it could be less. Anyway, here’s mine, what’s yours?: Personal emissions report Your car emits 4,891 lbs [...]

something fun (if you count the moral justification of capitalism fun) for wednesday: The Capitalism Tour

Ok, I’m trying to find fun things for you all on wednesdays. But I’m not sure if the Capitalism Tour quite makes it. However, it does involve fun pictures (for example, the statue of David ). Things I like about the tour. It seems that the moral justification for a capitalist state absolutely opposes preemptive [...]

something fun (if you count keeping track of disgustingly rich people and companies fun) for wednesday: Forbes Lists

Here’s a website that oddly, I really enjoy. It’s Forbes.com Surprised? I like it because it’s targeted toward the average worker. For example, the current front page special report is all about work, and includes several work-related articles from topics as Why your boss is overpaid, Why do the rich keep working?, and Sneak out [...]

something fun (if you count the depletion of the earth’s resources as fun) for wednesday: Your Ecological Footprint

If every person in the world today consumed the resources of one average American, we would require six (6) Earths, or an ecological footprint of 24 acres of land per person. Can you believe it? This of course is for the average car driving, meat eating, McMansion building red blooded American, and for many of [...]