It would be beyond hilarious if bullet trains generated sprawl. Also, a look at alternatives.

Why we should, and why we shouldn’t, expand Medicaid.

How Amazon has given up on sales taxes and plans to compete with same-day delivery. The big thing, for me, is if they delivered on weekends. With Amazon Prime, it’s the weekends that are killers. Same-day is a lot to ask out here, and I don’t want to pay $4 an item. With that, and the unlikeliness of weekend delivery, I don’t expect too much to change on my end.

Why doesn’t Generation X fear Climate Change? I suspect in part because we’ve heard it before.

Walter Kirn has a very interesting piece on his history with Mormonism.

A look at single parenthood and the problems it represents even apart from economic class. Also, Amanda Marcotte actually has a worthwhile piece on why we have these unplanned pregnancies. The answering being not ignorance, but indifference.

We’ve talked about this before, but here is something on the unsustainability of hyphenated names.

Apparently, we can’t blame our obesity rates on the office culture.

Humans in a half-shell? Some awesome pictures of Las Vegas’s underground.

From 1999, a disturbing look at adoption and mental illness. Allegedly (probably mythically), James Holmes was adopted out by the same agency.

So here’s a look at “naughty teacher” types, who got into bed with minors. A number of them went to jail, but one does have to ask how well a male counterpart authority figure sleeping with a student would fare. I don’t know, but I would probably bet “considerably less well.”


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20 Responses to Linkluster 11-squared

  1. Φ says:

    there was no significant cross-cultural difference in total energy expenditure between people of similar age and body composition

    Wait a sec . . . if I’m trying to asnwer the question, “what causes obesity in modern countries”, don’t I defeat the pupose by controlling for obesity across my test populations? Something seems wrong about this.

    more a product of our common genetic inheritance

    Okay, I’m pretty sure this is wrong unsupported by the study, considering that there are non-trivial genetic differences between native Tanzanians and Americans.

    Still, it’s an interesting study.

  2. trumwill says:

    don’t I defeat the pupose by controlling for obesity across my test populations? Something seems wrong about this.

    I actually read “composition” to mean something else (frame size), though your interpretation may be correct. Theoretically, at least, the “heavy” over there should be heavier in the less fatty sense, if we think that slovenliness is to blame. Just a thought.

    Okay, I’m pretty sure this is wrong unsupported by the study, considering that there are non-trivial genetic differences between native Tanzanians and Americans.

    Yeah, this was the question I had. I mean, genetic differences very likely do account for a lot of it, but we’re talking about genetic differences across very different cultures. There’s not much reason to believe that the Hazda would process food for exercise the way we do.

    The fact that we move around as much as they do (unless that is indeed undermined by body composition checks) does remain interesting.

  3. Φ says:

    Perhaps because Mormon custom encourages young folks to marry permanently and early, often when they’re barely out of their teens, the girls were precociously skilled at self-enhancement, favoring leg-slimming, grown-up-looking shoes, and eye-catching, curling-iron-assisted hairstyles. They also permitted discreet erotic contact that stopped just short of actual intercourse.

    Really? I mean, really in general, not just Carla?

  4. trumwill says:

    Well, I obviously wouldn’t know on that last part. I heard enough to suggest that what he talks about is not that unusual, but… boys talk. Particularly former Mormons angry at Mormonism.

    The other parts of it seem true. They dress old young. Not, though, in the way that we often talk about youngsters dressing too old.

    I have to admit a certain appreciation for the Mormon aesthetic, as far as that goes. Mormon teens, more than others, seem to be preparing for adulthood starting younger (which they have to be, I guess, given the timeline) while others often seem to resist it.

  5. Alon Levy says:

    One workaround for multiple hyphens is the Hispanic naming system: your legal name is fully hyphenated, which can get ridiculously long, but for the most part people will just use the first two family names (the first always comes from your paternal line, the second from your mother’s paternal line, the third from your paternal grandmother’s paternal line, the fourth from your maternal grandmother’s, etc.). It defaults to something more sexist than today’s hyphenated people, but less so than pre-hyphenation English family names.

  6. Φ says:

    In 1935, however, the line falls almost as suddenly as it rose. The eugenics experiments of the Nazis — their belief that mental illness could be eradicated by mass execution of all who had it — so horrified scientists that they turned their attention to the environmental roots of disease, specifically schizophrenia, with which the Nazis were particularly obsessed. Between 1959 and 1966, the line is completely flat. These were the years of the schizophrenogenic-mother theory, the belief, now discredited, that a mother’s inability to nurture her child properly was the root of the disease. Michael Juman was born on that flat, ill-informed line.

    The article doesn’t quite spell out that Louise Wise Services was a Jewish adoption agency dealing with (evidently) Jewish clients on both ends. I am curious as to whether its approach was representative.

    I remember speculating in a comment here (I think) that the supply of healthy white babies available for “blind” adoption was, for a variety of reasons but especially post Roe, smaller than the demand. These adoptions were all pre Roe, and I’m curious whether they are also representative, and to what extent.

  7. Peter says:

    It’s doubtful that the Louise Wise Agency as described in the 1999 article would have handled James Holmes’ adoption. It was located in New York, far from the Holmeses, and seems to have served the Jewish community.

  8. David Alexander says:

    It would be beyond hilarious if bullet trains generated sprawl.

    To a certain extent, one could argue that the construction of the subway in New York created sprawl when developments were built after opening. Regardless, if there is well designed dense development around the stations and urban cores of the cities along the line, then it’s less sprawl, but arguably, regeneration and proper growth.

    FWIW, the commuter effect has been seen in Japan and France, but I suspect that even with California’s whacked out real estate costs, you’re not going to see that many people commuting from Bakersfield, Fresno, or Modesto to work in LA or San Francisco. Fast and frequent levels of service are going to make it somewhat attractive, but it remains to be seen if the same people who can afford a monthly tariff for a intercity railway service are also willing to live in the Central Valley.

    Also, a look at alternatives.

    To think, the Internet is a small world.

  9. trumwill says:

    Alon,

    My preferred model takes from a few system, though to my knowledge isn’t being used anywhere. Everyone keeps their last name, “household names” are hyphenated, girls get their mother’s surname and boy’s their father’s.

    I don’t *think* we will go with this model. If we have a son first and then a daughter, we might. The problem with doing so in our culture is concern that people will assume I am a step-father rather than a father.

  10. trumwill says:

    David, those are some pretty good points about rail and sprawl. I’m moderately skeptical of rail, but like people spread out insofar as it helps keep property values down. If there is dense development around the tracks, I wouldn’t consider that to be a minus. I suspect the further you get from the rail, though, the more sprawl you will see from park-n-riders.

  11. trumwill says:

    Peter, it sounded too delicious to be true,

    Dr. Phi, your guess is as good as mine. From what Clancy has said, closed adoptions are rather infrequent these days. Either the pregnant girl meets the future parents, or (increasingly) everybody knows about the adoption and the birth parent(s).

    It would be interesting to meet a girl and find out that she has put a child up for adoption that could be rolling up on our doorstep at a future date (without legal obligation, of course).

  12. SFG says:

    Phi: there’s a ridiculous among of geneophobia going around among Jewish people, and I can only imagine it must have been worse immediately post-WW2. So, yeah.

    But…I doubt they were the only ones. Think about it from the adoption agency’s point of view: who’s going to give away their kids? They’re going to be people with poor impulse control at the very least, and there’s going to be a higher rate of mental illness for sure. I can definitely imagine them telling themselves they were just trying to find a home for the kids who otherwise wouldn’t have one.

    Though the Jewish angle may be relevant in another, more subtle way. The American Jews I’ve known are an intensely neurotic, K-strategizing bunch. Being careless enough to wind up giving a child away is–rather rare. So they might have had to dig deeper down in the barrel than, say, an Italian or Irish agency.

    I will say I had to laugh at the hypothetical brilliant Jewish girl who trained as a social worker and nurse. Not in 2012! Times change, eh?

  13. SFG says:

    And, since your blog requires me to give my real name, I’ll comment on your antigentilism post here:

    I remember being invited at a New Year’s party (Jan. 1) by a Floridian friend of mine (met through nerd camp, long story) to help turn over the family next door’s Christmas decorations. I thought this was unfriendly and declined. His girlfriend (half Jewish–there are a lot of us on the East Coast) seemed to think this was OK, citing the excessive number of Christmas decorations. (Though she may have been defending her boyfriend).

    Anyway, I found it unnerving. My own experiences with antigentilism mostly seem to have been fear of the Christian Right–i.e., politically active conservative Christians. Bile directed toward the entire religion seemed relatively rare in my personal experience–mostly, when people criticized ‘Christians’, they seemed to mean ‘politically active evangelicals’–the Unitarians and Episcopalians next door somehow got exempted.

    But I grew up in NYC. Dude was from Florida, and probably felt more besieged. So I wonder.

  14. Ω says:

    SFG,

    There might be a generational component to the “anti-Christian” sentiment that Φ experienced, since he mentioned an incident with his department chairman. Many older Jews, including those fromy my parents’ generation (born ca. 1940-1950), really did experience religiously or ethnically motivated anti-Semitism, and it made them bitter. I also had a few nasty encounters as a kid in the southern sticks (of the taunts and name-calling variety) but they weren’t nearly as awful as my mother’s in 1950’s and 1960’s midwestern suburbia. We both also felt a degree of social exclusion since so much social activity in both regions revolves around churches.

  15. Scarlet Knight says:

    If we have a son first and then a daughter, we might. The problem with doing so in our culture is concern that people will assume I am a step-father rather than a father.

    Exactly right. Your children should have your last name. Your wife should also have your last name legally and socially. If she wants to be something else professionally, I suppose I can allow that grudgingly. The whole notion of family is being identified as the member of the same clan. By choosing to use her maiden name after becoming a mom, she is telling her children that she feels more attached to her birth family than the family she gave birth to. (I could go on for a few more pages, so I will stop it there)

    A number of [naughty teachers] went to jail, but one does have to ask how well a male counterpart authority figure sleeping with a student would fare.

    No, one doesn’t have to ask. The answer is obvious. An ugly or middle aged woman teacher falls into the same category as a man teacher.

  16. trumwill says:

    Your wife should also have your last name legally and socially. If she wants to be something else professionally, I suppose I can allow that grudgingly.

    I’ve actually come around on this. It was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow at first, but the medical paperwork logistics alone are a pretty big disincentive to name-change (she’d intended to legally hyphenate at some point, but too much hassle).

    It’s also the case that, as more of my female acquaintances have gotten married, I’d prefer they have kept their names for my own selfish convenience. And, in the age of divorce, it complicates things.

    That’s why I prefer a model where people get to keep their names. We don’t have that model, though.

    An ugly or middle aged woman teacher falls into the same category as a man teacher.

    Has this theory ever been tested? We never seem to hear about the ugly female teachers. Then again, the men seem disproportionately on the attractive side (or at least not ugly), as well, whenever I see one on TV.

  17. Scarlet Knight says:

    she’d intended to legally hyphenate at some point, but too much hassle

    I don’t know your real last names, but you have mentioned that combined they wouldn’t exactly roll off of the tongue.

    Has this theory ever been tested? We never seem to hear about the ugly female teachers. Then again, the men seem disproportionately on the attractive side (or at least not ugly), as well, whenever I see one on TV.

    I have seen it in passing. The next time I see a case, I will send you a link. It makes sense that the guy teachers would be young and good looking; after all, a teenage girl is a tough nut to crack, you can’t go in there looking like her creepy uncle.

    There was a recent case though where a middle aged teacher announced he was leaving his wife for his 18 year old former student. She was cute in a chipmunk face kind of way, he didnt impress me either way except that I noticed he was balding.

    Also I think cases with male teachers are getting fewer and far between because everyone is on such high alert.

    As an aside, have you found any of your students to be attractive?

  18. trumwill says:

    I don’t know your real last names, but you have mentioned that combined they wouldn’t exactly roll off of the tongue.

    Himmelreich-Truman sounds better than its real-life equivalent, and that’s saying something. If she’d gone forward with it, she would have switched names depending on the context rather than handed people the mouthful of the hyphenated name.

    It makes sense that the guy teachers would be young and good looking; after all, a teenage girl is a tough nut to crack, you can’t go in there looking like her creepy uncle.

    I think that is true. Our phys-ed coach in high school who got busted on this wasn’t markedly handsome, but had a rather impressive physique. The elementary school coach who got busted on inappropriate familiarity (that wasn’t officially why he was fired, but it was why he was fired) was actually somewhat attractive his age, though he was kind of up there in age.

    There was a recent case though where a middle aged teacher announced he was leaving his wife for his 18 year old former student.

    I remember that story. If I recall, it wasn’t his first and with a previous he didn’t wait for her to graduate and he’s in some trouble.

    An acquaintance who worked in a high school as a computer tech carried on with a student (the friend/teacher who got him the job was PISSED – maybe because she had previously been sleeping with him). He was 28 or so. They’re married now with children.

    Also I think cases with male teachers are getting fewer and far between because everyone is on such high alert.

    I may have to look up the statistics on this. There was a young male teacher at the middle school who… just gave off vibes. I wouldn’t be entirely comfortable with him teaching my daughter. I can’t fully explain why, though I got the same vibe from the above-mentioned coaches. Anyhow, between years he was transferred to grade school teaching. Probably a coincidence*, but I do wonder a bit.

    As an aside, have you found any of your students to be attractive?

    Not in a prurient “if I could get away with it” or “if I were single and it weren’t illegal” sort of way, which was frankly a relief. I wasn’t sure how that would go. I have found them attractive in the “If I were a classmate, this is why I would have a crush on” sort of way.

    * – The district has a Fifth Grade Problem, which requires shuffling some teachers around to keep the class sizes below state mandates. This may have been entirely about that.

  19. Φ says:

    SFG: The intent of the login requirement to comment on my blog is not to force people to use their real names. But I do want people to use real aliases, not just show up anonymously and fling their poo. But I may be exaggerating my own importance . . .

    Omega: On pain of hijacking Trumwill’s comment thread . . . the political and social attitudes of Jews are rife with ironies. One of which is that most conservative Evangelicals consider themselves strongly pro-Jewish. Up until six or seven years ago, I considered myself such.

    I think cases with male teachers are getting fewer and far between

    This is my impression, too, though I cannot rule out media or personal selection biases in terms of which kind of stories gets reported/noticed.

  20. Mr. Blue says:

    Sometimes it seems like Jews would rather condemn Israel than side with evangelicalism.

    I think the main issue isn’t so much ideology, though, or religious differences, but a hostility towards populism. Evangelical Republicans may side with the wealthy, and the financial interest of wealthy Jews, but they do so with a populist gusto that, if strong, could become redirected at them.

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