Alcatraz

I spent part of my spring break in San Francisco. One of our great adventures was herding onto the ferry with the masses and checking out Alcatraz. Boy was I impressed! I honestly didn’t know much of the history of the former prison other than it was on an island and there were some pretty [...]

Procrastination

I was looking at Psychology Today, and saw a blog about procrastination. I felt that this issue was especially appropriate for a blog post, considering that I have horribly procrastinated this blogging project.
The article suggests that there are two strategies to approach procrastination:
1.) Time Travel
2.) Tough Love
The tough love seems obvious. It is rare that anyone [...]

What Comes Next?

Once again, with this year’s G-20 Summit coming up (and the abundance of material for protesting banners) political activists, environmental groups, but also regular people, are all meeting in London to “greet” international leaders.

Protesters gathering on Saturday were calling for jobs, fair distribution of wealth, and a low-carbon future. They carried banners and posters reading [...]

No Touching!

I found the following article interesting Connecticut School Bans Physical Contact. Due to recent events at East Shore Middle School all physical contact has been banned between students. The physical contact includes high-fives, hugs and handshakes. An important part of any education institution is the socializing that takes place between students. While in school children develop [...]

Impression Management

I was reading this post about social networking via internet sites like Facebook and Myspace and it grabbed my attention because I had recently been discussing the topic with friends. Karen Sterneihmer, the author of the blog discussed these sites break down impression management by allowing for private information to become public. I think these [...]

Palestinian Children Sing for Holocaust Survivors

The Palestinian children of a West Bank refugee camp sang for a group of Holocaust survivors. I ran across this article on msn.com (as usual) just after we discussed the article in class regarding terrorism.
Both groups, Israelis and Palestinians, have suffered atrocities throughout time that have left them scarred in one form or anther. As we [...]

Whoda thunk it?

I though we were over this whole “being gay is all in your head” thing. According to this article one sixth of British therapists are still trying to teach how to be un-gay. It’s still taught of as a “cure”. Can you believe that?
“There is very little evidence to show that attempting to treat a [...]

Exxon Valdez Anniversary

Not all anniversaries are for celebrating.  Tuesday March 23, 2009 was the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in which 11,000,000 gallons of crude oil bled into Prince William Sound.  National Geographic has an article describing the lasting effects of the spill.  In it Christine Dell’Amore writes:
“Twenty years of oil exposure has injured [...]

In Dirt and Secret

I tend to pick up most of the articles I post on here via Archaeologica.net, since they post a few of the most interesting archaeology/anthropology related links each day, and this article about “Hush-hush Archaeology” is another winner. I’m sure most people can recall the hullabaloo over the new fence at the Mexican-American border, and [...]

Telling them

A blogger on Newsweek’s website wrote about the early and untimely deaths of Natasha Richardson and Jade Goody.  Goody had time to prepare her two young children for her death; Richardson did not.  The blogger was prompted to think about what would happen to her children if she died or knew she was going to.  [...]

The Global impacts of Gov Bailouts

China is getting worried about the courses of action that the US government is taking about the US economy.  China is losing faith in the dollar, and appearently has been for several years.  They view the dollar as an unstable asset, and would like to see a seperate international monetary unit replace the dollar as [...]

Truth About Lying

There was a situation that I dealt with that involved a client I work with and his mother. The main problem is she thinks she is always right and will not listen to criticism, and will not accept others answers. She perceives herself as being right about ways to treat her son, which everybody else [...]

Suicide Forest

Japan was already one of the top nations with a high suicide rate. Now with the economic situation, suicides have increased.  In the forest below Mt. Fuji, known as the suicide forest, there is now a prevention program in place due to the increase of suicides there. Signs are posted in the forest advertising help for credit card [...]

Late-starting school for teens

I ran across this article on MSN, where I spend way too much time reading articles from the ”Weird news” or the “criminal weirdness” section. But every once in a while I find something that makes sense to me.
Throughout high school I remember some of our teachers and instructors talking about how teens need more sleep, and that their [...]

Show Me the Money!

It’s amazing in these tough economic times we still find individuals that just don’t have a clue how good they got it and have totally lost touch with reality. Marie Douglas-David couldn’t be a better example of this because according to the article Countess divorcing former CEO says $43M just isn’t enough Ms. Douglas-David is [...]

Army Suicides

Suicide rates are rising in our armed forces.  My little brother joined the National Guard before this whole war in Iraq started, thinking he would be building levees and saving trailer parks from tornadoes.  He joined for the college money.  He wound up unprepared in Iraq for a year, teaching Iraqis to be soldiers when [...]

Capital Move Controversy

Capital move supporters argue that the capital is not accessible to the majority of the citizens in the state. Keeping it in the present location will “impose on future generations a capital at the extreme southeastern corner.” Capital move opponents argue that the state institutions are already fairly dispersed to promote economic growth for all [...]

This article from the British publication The Guardian is about the discovery of an ancient Roman “joke book” by a Classical professor, Mary Beard, that dates back to sometime between the third and fourth centuries CE (Common Era). I thought that the article about this discovery makes several points worth considering, [...]

Immigration Map

I wanted to make sure that everybody in the Social Sciences was aware of this map published by the NY Times.

Relationships

I was reading a blog on Psychology Today about relationships and how they are effected by emotional and biological factors. Steven Stosny, the author of this relationship blog, talked about how when we are young we develop an emotional attachment to our primary care giver. When those people are absent from our lives Stosny asserts [...]

Sexting

I ran across this article on msn.com about teens being charged for sex crimes like child pornography for sending nude pics of themselves and other teens via cell phone. There are two sides to the argument:
1) if they should be charged as adults for their behaviors, or
2) if it’s “normal” teen behavior and charging them [...]

Question Authority

It is a law to report to jury duty if you are summoned. When I was summoned I had to defer it to another time because I was going to have surgery. I had to put down another time that I would be available and willing to serve. When I read this press release I could [...]

TGIF

According to the article “High Court Won’t Stop Execution of Cal Coburn Brown” Friday the 13th is set to be Mr. Brown’s last day alive because he is scheduled to be executed for the torture, rape, and murder of a young woman. What is interesting about Mr. Brown’s case is that he suffers from a bipolar disorder [...]

Veni, Vidi, Vici

Apparently, the Republican Party of the United States has ended up in such a vacuum of leadership that the “undeclared” (but apparently very much acknowledged) chief of the GOP has become the quasi-comedic radical radio-host Rush Limbaugh. In one of his speeches on national radio, Limbaugh declared the following jaw-dropping statement:

If I wanted Obama to [...]

Dead White People’s Clothes

I ran across “Dead White People’s Clothes” last night. Basically, the author is making the claim that by sending used clothing to Africa, we are destroying their textile industry and taking away thousands of jobs from their people. Who would have thought that the simple gesture of donating clothing could have such an impact on [...]

International Women’s Day Sunday

On Sunday the world (hopefully) celebrates the wonder that is Woman.  Ladies, I would like you to take a moment to pause and ponder the obstacles that we have overcome. We are in this class room right now because of the insistent women who came before us.  We are stressed out over our jobs because [...]

Breastfeeding is not Obscene

Mark Belling is a talk show host on a Milwaukee radio station. He recently caused an uproar with his segment concerning a local breastfeeding bill in which he referred to breastfeeding mothers as “sows”. The radio website has since removed the segment in which he made the statement, but here is a quote from the [...]

Nine-Year-Old’s Abortion in Brazil

This article inTime Magazine discusses the backlash of an abortion performed on a 9 year old rape victim.  Abortion is illegal in Brazil and as a result the family and doctor were excommunicated by the Catholic Church.  I was surprised by many aspects of this article: Abortion in Brazil is illegal except in cases of [...]

The social norms of baby making

In a blog on Everyday Sociology Sally Raskoff discusses from a sociological view, some reasons for the mass public outrage at Nadya Suleman. This was very interesting to me because from the moment I heard about this soap opera I have been waiting to hear some view point that made me sympathize with her. Until [...]

Oh the wonderful world of Barbie

I won’t lie, I played with Barbie well into my early teen years. I’ve been really intrigued by Barbies throughout the years…all the changes they’ve made to her and the different things they can come up with. No, I’m not a collector. And no, I don’t still play with them. However, I do still find [...]