Month: March 2011

"She’s becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska edition," – Matt Labash, Weekly Standard. If you share Washington's conventional wisdom that Palin cannot be the GOP nominee, then these panicked Villagers might help you think again. This is their Dr Frankenstein moment. George Will:

“There’s no Reagan without Goldwater, no Goldwater without National Review and no National Review without Buckley — and the contrast between he and Ms. Palin is obvious.”

Krauthammer is more cautious – presumably in case she becomes the nominee (or else he's frightened of being called "hoity-toity again, which I, er suspect). Wehner, Mac Donald, Labash do not, however, represent the GOP intellectual mainstream. I respect all three, along with Will, for their growing forthrightness and willingness to challenge their own side. But they hold little power. Those who do – Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck – are notably absent from this list. It's a start though, and Labash unleashes a corker:

“The downside is her gameness to do just about anything — including co-starring with Kate Gosselin on a dopey reality show. And when she does such things, and is inevitably attacked for it, that’s when you see Palinism really fall down as a political approach, as the cocked-fist self-pity and whining set in.”

Pete Wehner gets it almost right:

"She strikes me as a lot more Agnew than Reagan.”

No, it's Nixon, with all the resentment and deception, and none of the intelligence. No wonder some are panicking. But they created and supported her when it counted.

(See update here.)

Abu Ray reports from "very, very close to the action" in Libya:

Qadhafi’s forces, backed by the overwhelming force of tanks and rockets, are rolling back rebel gains and making their way east. At the time of writing, they are still probably 200 kilometers from Benghazi and don’t really have the forces for any kind of protracted siege of a major metropolis but the momentum now feels like it’s on the government side and in Benghazi and Ajdabiya, closer to the front, tensions are high. They are blaming the journalists they once welcomed for somehow giving them away and some are digging out their old Qadhafi pictures and giving them a polish.

Yes, I know he's referring to private sector unions, but still. This kind of rhetoric is as unthinkable in today's GOP as the tax hikes and tax rates that Reagan presided over:

But he also raised taxes, opposed anti-gay discrimination, and withdrew troops from the Middle East. He wouldn't stand a chance in the GOP primaries today, would he?

Jonah Lehrer cites numerous studies on how gender stereotyping may lower the number of women in math and science fields. In one study, students watched gender-neutral ads (cell phones, insurance) and ads featuring beautiful women extolling diet sodas:

Women exposed to the gender stereotyping ads were far less interested in anything quantitative. Instead, they were more than twice as likely to choose careers in the verbal and service industry, such as retail, sales and communication. The pattern was reversed, however, in the women who saw neutral ads. They were actually more interested in pursuing quantitative careers. All it took was the absence of a blatant stereotype to increase their interest in math. While I don’t expect television commercials to get better anytime soon – pop culture is full of persistent tropes – it turns out that we’ve got a fix for the negative effects of these stereotypes. The cure is female math teachers.

An amazing story of survival:

As the wave approached, [60-year-old Hiromitsu] Shinkawa took the fateful decision to return home to collect belongings. Minutes later he was out at sea clinging to a piece of the roof from his own home. Incredibly, he was spotted by a maritime self-defence force destroyer taking part in the rescue effort as he clung to the wreckage with one hand and waved a self-made red flag with the other. He had been at sea for two days.

A photographic tour from around the world.

Alan Jacobs shares his dissatisfaction with student evaluations:

[F]or a long time I have recommended, to anyone who will listen and to many who will not, that evaluations for a given course be solicited at least one full semester after the course is completed, when students are less emotionally involved in it. A year or more after would be even better. We might get fewer responses, especially from students who have graduated, but they would be better responses.

Whenever I make this suggestion, the first response I get is always the same: “But a semester [or a year] later, they won’t remember anything from the class!”

“That would be something worth knowing,” I reply.

Peter Smith summarizes a new study on children's reactions to sugary cereals with and without cartoon characters:

Healthy Bits beat out a similar cereal labeled Sugar Bits—with or without the happy little penguins. So it looks like messages about healthy eating habits are reaching these kids, who, at least in a clinical setting, want something labeled "healthy" over something labeled "sugar."

But here's where the penguins come in. When the researchers added penguins to the packaging, Sugar Bits rated as high as Healthy Bits.

James Joyner reminisces:

I ate various sugary cereals growing up, including all manner of Cap’n Crunch products that came and went (I seem to recall cinnamon and vanilla varieties; the peanut butter variety remains a very occasional indulgence), various chocolate flavored cereals that turned the milk brown, and cereals with cartoon characters like the Flintstones, Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Booberry, and others.

Somehow, I survived the experience thin and healthy. Perhaps it has something to do with another bygone tradition of youth: going outside to play.

(Image: The Last Breakfast by Brian Stuckey)

Emily Badger reports on DC's homegrown rideshare program:

No one would believe this sight unseen: People here have created their own transit system using their private cars. On 13 other corners, in Arlington and the District of Columbia, more strangers — Oliphant estimates about 10,000 of them every day — are doing the same thing: “slugging.”

Their culture exists almost nowhere else. San Francisco has a similar casual-carpooling system, and there’s a small one in Houston. But that’s it. Even in D.C., slugging exists along only one of the city’s many arteries, I-95 and 395, where the nation’s first HOV lanes were completed in 1975. … Each person benefits in pursuit of a selfish goal: For the passenger, it’s a free ride; for the driver, a pass to the HOV lane, and both get a faster trip than they would otherwise.

TDW makes a list:

The American Red Cross has set up a special designation for disaster relief efforts in Japan. To donate, click here, or text REDCROSS to 90999 to instantly donate $10.

International Medical Corps says it is putting together relief teams and supplies to aid Japan “and other affected countries.” Donate here.

GlobalGiving’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

World Vision’s Disaster Response Fund.

Click here to donate to AmeriCares’ emergency relief response.

Save the Children’s Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund.

HuffPo has more:

Salvation Army personnel are organizing efforts in Tokyo and will soon send a team to help the severely damaged city of Sendai, Japan. To contribute to earthquake relief, text 'JAPAN' or 'QUAKE' to 80888 to make a $10 donation or visit SalvationArmyUSA.org.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is sending two three-person teams to the Iwate and Miyagi prefectures in Japan. To learn more about the organization's efforts or make a donation, visit Doctorswithoutborders.org.

Other relief organizations are also sending representatives to disaster sites, including AmeriCare and Shelterbox.

MercyCorps is gathering donations for its overseas partner, Peace Winds Japan, which currently has personnel on the ground distributing emergency relief in Japan.

Along with an appeal for monetary donations, Operation USA has also announced efforts to collect bulk corporate donations of health care supplies. If you are interested in donating bulk medical items, visit OpUSA.org.

For any who have loved ones abroad, Google has stepped up to help. Along with a tsunami alert posted on its front page, Google has launched the Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake to help connect people that may have been displaced due to the disaster. Google has also launched a crisis response page filled with local resources and emergency information.

Image details:

The Help Japan poster is now available to preorder in the Signalnoise Store, and will be gin shipping on March 18. All profits made by the sale of this poster will be donated to help relief efforts in Japan. Head to the Signalnoise Store now to see full details.