A few things to mull over: 1.  Hey!  Maybe government assistance does trap people into poverty, but not for the reasons conservatives claim.  In fact, maybe the constant series of hoops that the poor are made to jump through and the bizarre incentives to “work” are, in fact, the problems! 2.  It’s only when theRead moreRead more

Tidbits of note from across the Interwebs: 1.  An interesting discussion about urban policy. 2.  Taking the long view on social media. 3.  Football as a lens on prejudice and humanity. Also, just an observation: amongst the various blogs I read today, I encountered federal calls for increased participation by bright young people in four particular occupations —Read moreRead more

Most of this post is drawn from an old draft that I just rediscovered and edited to share. I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge this story, discussing how credit card spending boosts self-esteem.  It’s something I’ve experienced, most notably when I was doing Americorps and received food stamp benefits.  After a longRead moreRead more

The State of Science Ed Some of the greatest teachers I ever had were in science (my high school chemistry teacher, in particular, was phenomenal); they promoted not only learning the subject matter but also intellectual curiosity and evidence-based thinking as a matter of course.  The flip side is that some of the worst teachersRead moreRead more

Corporatism Very interesting, particularly in its comparison of the US to Germany.  Presently — particularly given the whole “Tiger Mother” hooha, plus Obama’s constant SOTU references — America loves to compare itself to China.  Invariably, we find our workforce comes up short when stacked against a nation with a population of over a billion-plus, whereRead moreRead more

It’s easy to assume that centers of power hold the greatest opportunity for achievement; it’s why young people swarm the coasts, full of idealism and cliched dreams, and to a certain extent, the potential for innovation within established cities is true.  But to be amongst the interchangeable hordes of talented, ambitious, creative young people inRead moreRead more

A few interesting items from across the Interwebs: 1.  Gender essentialism in children’s toys is alive and well!  And while we’re on the topic of essentialism, one thing that’s hilarious about the attempts by the likes of evolutionary biologists to justify contemporary cultural perceptions of gender is that often its in complete ignorance of (relativelyRead moreRead more

I’m on the record as calling out higher education as overrated — a position that’s starting to get some traction in mainstream press!  This piece in the New York Times drew a lot of eyeballs, but even more insightful is this Economist article.  The NYT piece takes aim at law schools; the story is foolishlyRead moreRead more

On Friday night, I helped a friend set up her Google Reader (I know — what a wild’n’crazy life I lead!).  In convincing her to give the wonderful world of RSS a try, two things came up: 1.  Having everything come to the same central location makes keeping up with a variety of blogs andRead moreRead more

(Shout-out to fellow fans of “Community”…) What’s so remarkable and fascinating about architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture and urban design is the way in which the built world so permanently enshrines so much complication: conflicting incentives, political ideologies, racial and class tensions, aspirational faith in technology.  It’s why the Jacobs-versus-Moses dichotomy continues to resonate toRead moreRead more