'...What if we make better decisions when we trust our gut instincts? While there is an extensive literature on the potential wisdom of human emotion, it's only in the last few years that researchers have demonstrated that the emotional system (aka Type 1 thinking) might excel at complex decisions, or those involving lots of variables.'
(Source: thesmithian)
In Brill’s telling, the education class war pits a heroic group of entrepreneurial philanthropists, highly successful hedge fund billionaires, and idealistic Ivy Leaguers who join Teach for America against somewhat grubby and grasping rank-and-file public school teachers and their union leaders, who often put their own selfish interests above those of the children. In looking out for what is best for low-income and minority students, Brill contends, Wall Street hedge fund managers are a much more reliable ally than the middle-class teachers who educate schoolchildren every day. Brill’s worldview is important to understand because it is typical of the outlook of the education “reform” community, including leaders of the Obama administration, and the president himself.
more.
(Source: thesmithian)
Is This the Sanest Man Running for President? Politics: GQ.com
“A few things you need to know up front about Gary Johnson. There is nothing he will not answer, nothing he will not share. For six straight days, we spent virtually every waking hour together, which might have had something to do with the fact that there wasn’t another reporter within ten miles of the guy. Or that when you’re polling in the low digits and your campaign fund is less than Mitt Romney’s breakfast tab and your entourage is Brinck and Matt, you tend to be more forthcoming. But in fact, Johnson is fundamentally incapable of bullshitting, which is one of the many, many things that make him so unusual for a presidential candidate. ”
Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201111/gary-johnson-republican-candidate-debate-interview#ixzz1Yo7wQCNE
"SIR – I must object in the strongest terms to the use of the oxymoronic neologism, “bottomless shallows”, in a Banyan column. Please inform your Mr Banyan that oxymorons must be stamped out wherever found, and are particularly galling in a newspaper of your standing and heritage. I am certain that Messrs Samuel Johnson, Walter Bagehot and Henry Watson Fowler are all spinning in their respective graves at this slight, albeit at different speeds. You know well how lapses like this affect school truancy, foment social disorder and encourage a preference for margarine on one’s scones. Sin not again."
An Economist reader reminds us of our responsibilities. And rightly so. (via theeconomist)
I have ingested more margarine in the last month than I have in my entire life.
And I really happen to like oxymorons.
Swedes know how to get down. Apparently.
Venas Abiertas: Latin America and the Zombie Factor
Crossover analyses between fictive works such as zombie films and TV series like Game of Thrones continue with the publication of major works like Theories of International Politics and Zombies.
Most zombie-films and books deal with disasters appearing in the U.S. or Europe (with the book World…
(Source: coha.org)
Meet Meng Hai Lin. She’s a 29-year-old mobile phone engineer from Beijing, China. She has learned some English and is skeptical of marriage. Meng’s voice is but a small murmur from an unprecedented global generation—one witnessing a dramatic restructuring of traditional relationships between countries, cultures, and people.
Photographer Adrian Fisk wants to show the world what Meng and the rest of her peers want to get off of their collective chest. Thus, iSpeak was born.
Traveling around China and India, Fisk gave random people 16- to 30-years-old a marker and piece of blank paper. Then he told them to write whatever they wanted. The iSpeak photographs are the result, and they channel the hopes, dreams, quibbles, and fears of a new generation.
ED RUSCHA
