Jim Norris

"It wasn't just anyone who left MySpace to go to Facebook. In fact, if we want to get to the crux of what unfolded, we might as well face an uncomfortable reality... What happened was modern day "white flight." Whites were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. The educated were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those from wealthier backgrounds were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those from the suburbs were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those who deserted MySpace did so by "choice" but their decision to do so was wrapped up in their connections to others, in their belief that a more peaceful, quiet, less-public space would be more idyllic." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

April, does that mean it hasn't happened yet? I was so proud... :) - Jérôme Flipo

Great work, Jim and team. - Louis Gray

I read the blog post on my iPhone. And the results were updating. Made it even more awesome. Great job. - Jonathan Terleski

"“The Cedars has a heart for the poor,” they like to say. By “poor” they mean not the thousands of literal poor living barely a mile away but rather the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom: the senators, generals, and prime ministers who coast to the end of Twenty-fourth Street in Arlington in black limousines and town cars and hulking S.U.V.'s to meet one another, to meet Jesus, to pay homage to the god of The Cedars. There they forge “relationships” beyond the din of vox populi (the Family's leaders consider democracy a manifestation of ungodly pride) and “throw away religion” in favor of the truths of the Family. Declaring God's covenant with the Jews broken, the group's core members call themselves “the new chosen.”" - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

"I am a 47-year-old woman whose commitment to monogamy, at the very end, came unglued. This turn of events was a surprise. I don’t generally even enjoy men; I had an entirely manageable life and planned to go to my grave taking with me, as I do most nights to my bed, a glass of merlot and a good book. Cataclysmically changed, I disclosed everything. We cried, we rent our hair, we bewailed the fate of our children. And yet at the end of the day—literally during a five o’clock counseling appointment, as the golden late-afternoon sunlight spilled over the wall of Balinese masks—when given the final choice by our longtime family therapist, who stands in as our shaman, mother, or priest, I realized … no." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

@Paul it's like when people toss out the word "quantum mechanics" heh - Rudolf Olah

"Dr Nesse’s hypothesis is that, as pain stops you doing damaging physical things, so low mood stops you doing damaging mental ones—in particular, pursuing unreachable goals. Pursuing such goals is a waste of energy and resources. Therefore, he argues, there is likely to be an evolved mechanism that identifies certain goals as unattainable and inhibits their pursuit—and he believes that low mood is at least part of that mechanism." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

"But the new study also found a remarkable corollary: those women who could disengage from the unattainable proved less likely to suffer more serious depression in the long run." - Clare Dibble

""Men agree a lot more about who they find attractive and unattractive than women agree about who they find attractive and unattractive," says Wood, assistant professor of psychology. "This study shows we can quantify the extent to which men agree about which women are attractive and vice versa."" - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

Is this really a surprise? - Clare Dibble

Hahaha - Steve C

hahahahaha - Jessie

"The first big privilege which whites, males, people in upper economic classes, the able bodied, the straight (I think one or two of those will cover most of us) can work to alleviate is the privilege to be oblivious to privilege." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

I hear you and commend your decision but don't get too hung up on and or hold yourself back from things that you cannot control. :) As long as you are aware you need to be aware, you are (most likely) more empathetic than the norm...which is way more than I can say about the general public. Though just because life "isn't fair" for some, it doesn't mean it has to be unfair for you, too. ;) - Mona Nomura

"Q: what took you so long to express your meaningless outrage about an election in a far-off country where we have a history of illegal interference? Obama: because I'm not a total dumbass and didn't want to give the Iranian government ammunition! Q: that's Reagan's job Obama: exactly!" I literally laughed out loud at that one. - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

Ha! - Anika Malone

It's not very belt-like. Then again "Bible blob" sounds a bit insulting. - Soup

You can see the “bible belt” in Regional Interest on http://www.google.com/insight... (also use the drop-down to compare to “grits”) - Amit Patel

"Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies. “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.”" - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

Bob++ for Futurama quote. - Andrew C

"Iranian propaganda film from last year, featuring claymation John McCain and George Soros sitting in the White House, plotting the overthrow of Iran. And who knew that Toby Ziegler from the West Wing worked for Iranian intelligence?" - Jim Norris

"4. Everyone's Survey answers will be tabulated. Those who donate may see Survey results in real time following their contribution." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

"For 87 years, Reader’s Digest, that monthly breadbasket of condensed articles, can-do tales and grandmother-approved jokes, has aimed squarely at Middle America. Now it is aiming a little more to the right.… “It’s traditional, conservative values: I love my family, I love my community, I love my church,” said Mary Berner, the president and chief executive of Reader’s Digest Association." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

@Ruchira, Some are but certainly not all. We hear a lot about the hippies but they were a relatively small section of society. They're the extreme left of the time remember, no extreme is ever the majority (not even if they're supposedly silent!). I suspect you do see more of it than others. Berkeley, like Santa Cruz or Boston, has a bit of a leftist bubble around it. - Soup

"As I've said, I finished McPherson's Battle Cry Of Freedom today. It deserves its own post, but I want to focus on one aspect the book handles particularly well--the South's psychological need to turn defeat into nobility. I don't mean defeat in the war, so much as I meanlagging behind the North, economically, and due to slavery, lagging behind virtually the entire world, morally." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

"At the end of his book, McPherson has a section where the Confederacy, now desperate, considers raising regiments of black slaves to fight for them. For years, now, they've seen black soldiers--many of them their own ex-slaves--actively contributing to the South's demise. But faced with the prospect of doing the same, Lee and Davis are ensnared by the very lies that they've, until now,... more... - Jessie

What is this? - Anne Bouey

"In the end there is one dance you'll do alone" - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

The hustle. - Steve C

"The subject is squirm-inducing, whether you are a Chinese man with a humiliated heart or a Western woman feeling obscurely spurned or, for that matter, even if you're a Western man enthralled, as Bernstein himself seems to be, by the image of the quintessential Asian nymph, with her "long silky hair, smooth nut-brown skin, and a perfume of orange and spice on her breath" -- and feeling kinda defensive about it. To write about the penchant of certain Western men for Asian women is to invite prurient speculation (Bernstein has a Chinese wife, in case you're wondering -- and you know you were) as well as incendiary condemnations from several fronts and on several grounds. The topic is mined with tripwires attached to a host of uncomfortable thoughts about race, power, sexuality, gender and history." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog... - only got pointed to this link now, which analyzes and addresses the review more than the book. (For example, it gets into the point Victor first raised - how come there's four groups discussed here in this book and both the book and review _leave out the Asian woman's perspective_ ? ) Edit: I see this thread has exhausted its bumpability. Ah well. - Andrew C

"There are two basic truths about the enormous deficits that the federal government will run in the coming years. The first is that President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. The second is that Mr. Obama does not have a realistic plan for eliminating the deficit, despite what his advisers have suggested." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

@Ray: The counter-cyclical approach makes sense to me. Seems like the whole point of the government intervening in markets at all is to cut off the peaks and troughs a bit. But of course, spending lots when times are good, and lots *more* when times are bad probably isn't quite the same :) - Joel Webber

Well at least it's not a phalanx of yes men. - AJ Kohn

Goolsbee was on Colbert last night (or the night before). - Mike Reynolds

"Wherever, in the statutes of the United States or in the rulings, regulations, or interpretations of various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States there appears or may appear the term “products of American fisheries” said term shall not include fresh or frozen fish fillets, fresh or frozen fish steaks, or fresh or frozen slices of fish substantially free of bone (including any of the foregoing divided into sections), produced in a foreign country or its territorial waters, in whole or in part with the use of the labor of persons who are not residents of the United States." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

For thrilling updates subscribe to the RSS feed now: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/userinf... - Jim Norris

"As reports of political violence in Iran intensified after Friday’s fiercely disputed election, the Obama administration insisted that it would not interfere with the struggle for power between regime-backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the thousands of demonstrators who contend the election was stolen. Administration officials, on and off the record, said that President Obama would offer support for human rights in Iran generally and would not back away from his diplomatic outreach to the longtime U.S. adversary, regardless of the ultimate outcome of the election." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

"The stance began to attract criticism on Sunday, with some politicians arguing that the U.S. needed to come out firmly on the side of protesters…. But the administration’s position has the support of Iranian human rights groups, which fear the clerical regime will exploit any perception of U.S. interference to slander the opposition as American puppets — a caustic charge in a nation with a deep memory of U.S. interference in its politics." - Jim Norris

(via Jay Rosen) - Jim Norris

http://twitter.com/ChuckGr... - Jim Norris

An old opinion piece by Gerald Walpin, recently fired from his position as inspector general of the Corporation for National And Community Service. - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

What, no editorializing, Jim? - ⓞnor

Meh, you know what opinions are like. - Jim Norris

"The supposedly racial term was pushed by Nixon to lump distinct Spanish-speaking groups into one voting bloc. There's no such thing, and the judge should be appointed on her merits." - Jim Norris via Bookmarklet

What happened to the first one? - Paul Buchheit

pamela's right. Don't they know we're at war? In the middle of a recession? They should know not to be having fun in public in times like this. - Gabe