Plurality of Americans see the Arab Spring as bad for the US

As well aware of public sentiment as I like to think I am, I'm not impervious to the occasional surprise, this one of the pleasant variety. The following graphic comes from Pew Research's recent report on how Americans feel about our involvement in the Middle East and North Africa generally and the 'Arab Spring' in particular:Quite encouraging. Americans were instinctively...

Penis size and infant mortality

As a sort of tribute to the recently deceased Philippe Rushton, let's take a look at the data on presented by Rushton's colleague Richard Lynn in the journal Personality and Individual Differences on average penis size and how that relates to the late professor's embrace of E. O. Wilson's r/K selection theory applied to humans (a framework whose time seems to have come and...

Intelligence and fertility by class, over time

Channeling Charles Murray, Randall Parker comments on the increasing social stratification that has come to define the contemporary Western world:This isn't the 1950s when people could expect to pair up with a husband or wife and get a factory job that put them at similar status level to a large portion of the total population. We've got a much wider spread of classes...

Gypped by Japan

As an addendum to Half Sigma's paean to Japan, a reason I'm a favorably inclined comes from the WVS. The fifth and most recent wave includes a question querying respondents on how they feel about their respective countries providing foreign aid. Specifics aren't given, and the amount is simply .1% of each respective country's "national income" (stated on a per capita basis so as not to skew the results towards a larger population leading to...

SWPL state, prole state

As an interesting aside to the previous post, there are only two states where those making at least six figures voted more heavily for Obama than those earning five figures or less did. They are the SWPL states of Oregon and Colorado. Portland, of course, is often noted for its distinction as the US' most SWPL city. And I've been to Estes Park.Taking the Democratic-Republican margin among high income earners and comparing it to the same margin among...

2008 Presidential electoral map, $100k+ only

One of my more instructive (and favorite, personally) posts shows hypothetical electoral maps from the 2008 presidential election when varying selected demographic restrictions are introduced. I'll do the same this November and as a refresher for doing so, here is a look at how things would've shaken out if only those from households earning at least six figures had been eligible...

Discounted gift cards

From time to time, I receive eBay 10% off purchases under $100 due to some disruption in an auction on an item I'm bidding on. I'm not that active a member, probably using the site a couple of times a month on average, yet this has still occurred on multiple occasions. The coupons' expiration dates are just a few weeks out, so I usually don't have anything to spend them on. What to do in this situation? Buy a gift card to a retailer like WalMart...

Tornado time

Of course it do...