Lifestyle topics
This is the perspective of a native American: “Recently, Rick Santorum repeated a widely held myth of US exceptionalism. “We came here and created a blank slate, we birthed a nation from nothing,” the former US senator and CNN commentator told the rightwing Young America’s Foundation’s summit. “It was born of the people who came …
Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in our driveways and put our useless junk in the garage? My comment: A leading sociologist explained to me that usually there is too much junk in the garage, and you can’t open the car door sufficiently to squeeze into the driver’s seat. Why didn’t I think …
Just one dozen megadonors accounted for almost $1 of every $13 raised by candidates and political groups over the last decade, according to a new report by Issue One. While most Americans have a general sense that the ultra-wealthy have too much influence on our elections, the numbers in this study are shocking. For just …
An important philosophical question about life……. Why do supermarkets make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?
The British government has made a lot of noises about how important it is to teach kids media literacy. In 2019, for example, the education secretary announced guidance on teaching online safety in schools. While that’s great in theory, “guidance” isn’t enough. You’ve got to put your money where your mouth is and actually invest …
The pandemic may result in 300,000 to 500,000 fewer babies born in the U.S. Lockdowns and fear kept young people from meeting and marrying, and the economic hardship discouraged many young couples from having kids. Among the 32 states that had annual data available, there were about 95,000 fewer births in 2020 compared with the …
Continue reading ‘The decline in the American birthrate, no. 2.’ »
Women are having fewer children than at any time on record. What are the implications? The U.S.’s total fertility rate, or the number of babies each woman is expected to have during her lifetime, reached a record low of 1.705 births per woman (that’s 1 point 705!)in 2019, the latest year for which data is …
University tutors are being told not to mark down work for spelling mistakes because insisting on correct English could be seen as “homogenous north European, white, male, elite”. The Times says several institutions are adopting “inclusive assessments” and Hull University says it will “challenge the status quo” by dropping the requirement for a high level …
A man has accused his former employer of being “childish” after he received his final payment of $915 in pennies. Andreas Flaten discovered the 90,000 coins at the bottom of his driveway, along with a final payslip and a parting message from the car workshop where he worked. The coins were covered in a greasy …
You may have a roommate you have never met. And even worse, they are nosy. They track what you watch on TV, they track when you leave the lights on in the living room, and they even track whenever you use a key fob to enter the house. This is the reality of living in …
Around the world, one in every 33 people will need humanitarian aid, an increase of 40% from last year, according to the UN. More than half of countries who need international support to cope with coronavirus are already dealing with other crises. But despite this extreme need, aid budgets have been declining. In 2020, the UN …
What can be done about the falling marriage rate and drop in childbirths? First, one conservative suggests dropping the “conservative” label altogether, since “branding oneself in this way is a womanly stance … that accomplishes nothing real, while seeking abstract validation.” In fact, right-wing men should refrain from talking about politics with women at all …
Continue reading ‘The gender crisis: what can be done? Continued’ »
“We have so many mass shootings in the US, and so much gun violence in general, that those who come to a sweeping conclusion on the basis of any one massacre are playing a fool’s game. “Yet the facts wrapped up with Tuesday’s rampage at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area nonetheless raise disturbing …
A psychic who uses asparagus to see into the future has predicted that Prince Harry will return the UK next year, unaccompanied by wife Meghan. After throwing asparagus into the air, Jemima Packington, 64, the world’s only asparamancer, said: “What we have here, very interesting, is the letter H. We have two spears plus a …
Plastic bags and flexible packaging are the deadliest plastic items in the ocean, killing wildlife around the globe. Discarded fishing line and nets, as well as latex gloves and balloons were also found to be disproportionately lethal. Ingesting plastic was responsible for killing animals across 80 species.. The review, published in the journal Conservation Letters, …
