Author Archives: legallysociable

The night(s) at the museum

Posted on by

I still think this sounds like a cool way to spend a month:

The Museum of Science and Industry’s first live-in resident moved into her temporary home today equipped with an all-access pass allowing her to explore every nook and cranny.

Kate McGroarty, winner of the institution’s “Month at the Museum” contest settled into her personal, glass-enclosed exhibit and private living quarters this morning. She will live there through Nov. 18.

A couple of reasons why this sounds appealing to me:

1. I’ve always enjoyed this museum. There would be a lot to get acquainted with. I could probably look at the large model train set-up for hours. Can she spend a night in the old German submarine?

2. It would be fascinating to watch the people who come through.

3. I know this isn’t the goal of her month but does this inch us closer to a Truman Show-like reality? Could people actually become part of a museum’s exhibits?

Large but empty developments in China

Posted on by

The New York Times reports on a large development recently constructed outside of Ordos, a city in northern China with about 1.5 million people. In an area that is planned to house 300,000, there are currently very few residents:

City leaders, cheered on by aggressive developers, had hoped to turn Ordos into a Chinese version of Dubai — transforming vast plots of the arid, Mongolian steppe into a thriving metropolis. They even invested over $1 billion in their visionary project.

But four years after the city government was transplanted to Kangbashi, and with tens of thousands of houses and dozens of office buildings now completed, the 12-square-mile area has been derided in the state-run newspaper China Daily as a “ghost town” monument to excess and misplaced optimism.

As China’s roaring economy fuels a wild construction boom around the country, critics cite places like Kangbashi as proof of a speculative real estate bubble they warn will eventually pop — sending shock waves through the banking system of a country that for the last two years has been the prime engine of global growth.

I wonder what it would be like to drive through such a large developed area that is basically empty. Such an experience would easily provide a context for a dystopian film. But in this case, the people haven’t been driven off by some odd disease or monster – it is the more prosaic, yet perhaps more potent, issue of economic trouble.

h/t The Infrastructurist

Mapping poverty rates by county across the US

Posted on by

A story about the recently released figures regarding poverty in the United States includes a nice map from Mint.com that show poverty rates by county. The map shows higher rates of poverty in Louisiana, Mississippi, some parts of Texas and New Mexico, Appalachia, some of the middle parts of the southern Atlantic states, and some pockets in the upper Great Plains.

This map shows the proportion of residents who are living in poverty; while the national rate is now about 1 in 7 Americans is under the poverty line, 25% or more of residents in these locations live in poverty. Many of these counties are more rural counties. The map would look different if it were mapping the absolute number of people living in poverty – then you might see a shift toward some larger metropolitan areas.

While areas of concentrated poverty in the city get a lot of attention, what is going on in some of these more rural areas? How did poverty rates shift over the last couple of decades in these locations?

Sociologists study belief in paranormal activity

Posted on by

According to a new book (Paranormal America) written by three sociologists, many Americans believe in paranormal phenomenon. The authors claim this is the first random sample study of the topic and they link religiosity to paranormal beliefs:

“Roughly two-thirds of people believe in the possibility of one paranormal item, which includes astrology, UFOs, psychic abilities, Atlantis, Bigfoot, ghosts and haunted houses,” Bader said.

People from more conservative religious traditions tend to be less willing to believe in the paranormal than those from more moderate traditions, Mencken said.

“People who are more moderately religious tend to believe in the paranormal,” Bader said. “If you are not at all religious, or highly religious, it is not likely that you will believe. Someone who attends church once a month is much more likely to believe in the paranormal than someone who attends church on a weekly basis.”

It sounds like some religious involvement leads to more belief in the paranormal. Why exactly is this the case?

Also, it would be helpful to know how these figures compare to other historical periods. On one hand, we live in a technologically advanced age, one built on science which seems to leave little room for paranormal activity. And yet even with all of our complicated natural and social science methods, there are many people who still wonder about the paranormal.

Two economists explain why college has come to cost so much

Posted on by

Two economists first summarize some of the arguments for why a college education has become so expensive and then provide their own overview based on “the technological forces that have reshaped the entire American economy”: rising costs relative to the price of goods associated with the time necessary to build relationships between faculty and students, a highly educated workforce, and the necessity for schools to purchase expensive technology devices to keep up with particular fields of research.

Taking this sort of view suggests that it won’t be easy to reduce costs of education since the issues present in colleges and universities are issues the entire economy faces.

h/t Instapundit

Considering the legacy of FarmAid

Posted on by

Certain moments in the history of rock music stand out as instances where multiple musicians came together to fight for a common cause. The Concert for Bangladesh. Live Aid. Farm Aid. Live 8.

A short piece in Time considers the legacy of Farm Aid, first held on September 22, 1985. While farmers still have needs, these concerts have helped raise awareness for a nearly forgotten piece of American life. This is also a good example of how celebrities, musicians in this case, have tried to make aid for farmers a social problem that is worthy of more attention.

I wonder how effective concerts like these are. I remember watching Live 8 mainly for some of the musicians I enjoy listening to and not so much for the issues about which the musical acts were trying to raise awareness.

Vatican newspaper says Homer J. Simpson is a Catholic

Posted on by

The Vatican’s newspaper recently said that they consider Homer Simpson to be a Catholic:

But in an article headlined “Homer and Bart are Catholics”, the newspaper said: “The Simpsons are among the few TV programmes for children in which Christian faith, religion, and questions about God are recurrent themes.”

The family “recites prayers before meals and, in their own peculiar way, believes in the life thereafter”…

“Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J Simpson is a Catholic,” insists L’Osservatore Romano.

This must be a very loose definition of what a Catholic is or how one should act. In fact, it strikes me as a very American sort of idea: Homer’s Catholicism is a grab-bag of practices and beliefs of his own choosing. Is Homer’s approach to religion really much different than many Americans?

But one point the newspaper makes seems accurate: the Simpson’s portray “old-fashioned family values” in a way that few other shows do today.

The four easy steps to writing a novel

Posted on by

Writing a novel in one month has become a popular goal: “just head over to the NaNoWriMo website and check out how many people have actually done it: More than 165,000 people participated in 2009, and more than 30,000 managed to crank out the 50,000-word goal.”

This sort of guide from Wired that reduces a novel this size to four smaller steps is actually a good reminder of the writing process. It is a common perception that writers are geniuses, able to crank out inspired complete works in one extended session. In reality, writing requires sitting down, working on small chunks, and repeatedly doing this. With this method, reaching 50,000 words isn’t actually that hard – what would be much harder would be to write those 50,000 words and then edit and re-edit everything to craft a coherent and interesting work.

The difficulty of defining culture

Posted on by

The term “culture” can be tricky to define – as is evidenced in a story from the New York Times about culture and poverty. One writer tries to sum up the definition and the argument:

The important thing is, you can’t isolate culture as one element of a society and change it without changing anything else. You can’t ignore the roles racism, lack of fundamental necessities, and social isolation play in shaping culture, and you can’t use it as a convenient way to blame poverty on the individuals who suffer from it.

While I would agree that it is difficult to separate culture from other areas, sociologists of culture tend to stress that culture is “patterns of meaning-making.” All people do this: develop narratives and ways of understanding their surroundings.

What seems to be the new wave of research is looking at how culture and structures (such as unemployment, isolation, lack of opportunity) interact with and influence each other.

Fighting “cultural addiction to shoes”

Posted on by

A professor from Liberty is on a “crusade to challenge America’s cultural addiction to shoes.”

The barefoot movement is gaining attention, particularly among runners who say it is more natural to run barefoot.

I would be curious to know what kind of conversations this professor has with people in public. He is breaking a basic social norm that most people wouldn’t think twice about.

Another question: are stories like these generally positive for professors?