Is saving Newcastle a mission impossible? The bins were overflowing. A few passersby suggested that newly arrived Roma people from Slovakia were to blame; others said that was unfair, and pointed out that the city council had lately halved its bin collections, and reduced street cleaning.
Category Archives: serious stuff
Therefore, life is unfair
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Believing that life is fair might make you a terrible person Confronted with an atrocity they otherwise can’t explain, people become slightly more likely, on average, to believe that the victims must have brought it on themselves.
Bill Mantlo
Monday, November 10, 2014
Tragic Tale Bill Mantlo was a legendary writer for Marvel Comics in the 1970s and 1980s. But today, he inhabits a broken body abandoned by both the health insurance industry and the federal healthcare reform meant to help people like him. This is his story. Probably my most hated comics writer once i got to […]
Depressing economics articles
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Work in the Age of Anxiety => The 40-Year Slump […]In 1974, wages fell by 2.1 percent and median household income shrunk by $1,500. To be sure, it was a year of mild recession, but the nation had experienced five previous downturns during its 25-year run of prosperity without seeing wages come down. What no […]
fat
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
What No One Tells You About Losing Lots of Weight After all that work, it can be a disappointing blow to discover that bodies that have lost 50-plus pounds simply don’t look like bodies that have maintained a steady weight since reaching adulthood. The Fat Trap While researchers have known for decades that the body […]
introversion
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Revenge of the Introvert [Researchers] found that having “an orientation inconsistent with societal values” is a risk factor for poor mental health. The findings support what the researchers call the personality-culture clash hypothesis: “Psychological adjustment depends on the degree of match between personality and the values of surrounding society.” To the extent that introverts feel […]
Stupidity is hardwired
Friday, September 20, 2013
The Most Depressing Discovery About the Brain, Ever Nyan and his collaborators have been running experiments trying to answer this terrifying question about American voters: Do facts matter? The answer, basically, is no. When people are misinformed, giving them facts to correct those errors only makes them cling to their beliefs more tenaciously.
hockey
Friday, May 31, 2013
Why Can’t Canada Win the Stanley Cup? […] there is almost certainly a shortage of N.H.L. teams in Canada relative to the demand for hockey there and the revenues that Canada contributes to the league. […] Had the distribution of N.H.L. teams more closely matched fan interest in the sport across the United States and […]
:(
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
A Personal Statement from Iain Banks […] I’ve asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps). One of my favourite authors of recent years.
