A graph to be proud of....

Hell, at least we beat Turkey.

The future of reading

This New Yorker piece by Caleb Crain looks at the past, present and future of reading, including some interesting observations of the effect of reading upon cognitive development, thinking patterns, etc. Although it wanders around a bit, it is well worth reading.

Buried amidst the other facts and figures of this piece is a reference to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Among other things, this study concluded that only 13% of American adults studied were "proficient" at reading prose, which included being able to perform the following "sample tasks"

-comparing viewpoints in two editorials
-interpreting a table about blood pressure, age, and physical activity
-computing and comparing the cost per ounce of food items

(see actual study here).

So let's get down to brass tacks. We're not talking about complex linear equations or distilling Dante or speaking six languages. We're talking about being able to read two editorials and compare/contrast the viewpoints presented. And apparently only a little better than one in ten Americans can do this. One in ten.

This explains a bit doesn't it? We gnash our teeth when we elect dolts, wingnuts and imbeciles, when we reject fact-based claims of reality in favor of fantastic superstitions, etc. etc. But if it's true that only in 1 in 10 of can compared two editorials, what on earth can we expect? After learning this I half expect to see Beavis and Butthead elected as governors in the near future...

Dopes for Palin

Wow...this has to be one of the most awful political ads I've seen in some time. Get a load of the dopes they tracked down to "thank" Palin for her "articulate advocacy" during the campaign (including what appears to be a Mississippi sharecropper). Thank YOU Sarah Palin!

I.O.U.S.A.: the staggering US debt

This is quite the shocking film about the US economy and the exploding US national debt, what Reuters characterized as "[t]o the U.S. economy what 'An Inconvenient Truth' was to the environment.'"

One thing it does so well is to use animated graphs and charts to illustrate the numbers when we start talking about billions and trillions of dollars. It also places these figures within an historical context (current indebtedness compared to during the Civil War, New Deal, etc.).

Below is the condensed 30-minute version; the full-length film is currently showing in theaters nationwide and is available via Netflix, etc.

"This is neat"...

Indeed...This is rich on so many levels. I think PF has finally found something Palin truly excels in....presiding over a turkey farm. Note her incisive description of what she is accomplishing in Alaska state government...

We are the asteroid

A sobering discussion of how human-induced global warming could trigger a non-linear cascade of environmental catastrophe similar to an earlier major extinction.

Cavett on Palin

Why not take a few more shots at this Alaskan fish in a barrel:

It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.

Read and enjoy :)

Exulting in complexity...

...a victory for ideas indeed (Nicholas Kristof NYT opinion piece)...

Homer tries to vote for Obama

For you Simpsons fans out there...too funny...

Undecideds and the young

PF is seldom a fan of National Review's Jonah Goldberg, but he makes some good points in this recent editorial in which he rightly skewers the "virtual deification of 'undecided' voters"...