Why, I oughtta'...

There are times when it really wearies me to live in this modern postfeminist world . . . (Clearly, Jill Biden needs to be punished for having gone for more than an Mrs. degree!)

(via Atrios)

Link dump

Bunch of things I've been wanting to blog, but I need to get home and work on a project that's already behind, so here's a quick round-up:

• From the world of psychology:
  
  
  
  1. When viewing a videotaped interrogation, most viewers discount the possibility of coercion if they are shown only the suspect's face -- this bias extends even to "professionals" in the legal field, such as judges and law-enforcement types. However, when both the interrogator and suspect are shown, this bias dissipates to a large degree. Encourage your district to shift to dual filming of police interrogations.
     
     
  2. PsyBlog lists the Top 10 Psychology Studies that have changed how we understand the human mind and behavior, from memory to response to authority to postulation of the unconscious. Lots of neat stuff for the layman and specialist alike, well explained.
  
  
• Things political:
  
  
  
  1. Markos looks at the cancellation of the Democrats' Fox debate as a grassroots triumph, in which the blogging community served primarily to inspire local activists to believe they could make a difference (and maybe recognize the importance of this choice).
     
     
  2. Another DailyKos blogger alerts us to a fair elections bill that's been introduced in the Senate and which would provide public funding to any US Senate candidate who met some threshold level of small individual contributions first. Encourage your representatives to support this idea.
  
  
• From the realm of the wacky trouble-maker:
  
  Barry Schwartz, of "why too much choice can overwhelm us" fame, comes up with another paradigm-breaker: he suggests a lottery-style admission process for top colleges (among all reasonably qualified applicants), which would reduce the pressure for resume polishing and encourage more exploration of learning for its own merits. A fascinating idea, based on some pretty strong foundations. Just to flip out the ladder-climbers a bit more, he concludes with this little rumination:

  If talented and hardworking people are forced to confront the element of chance in life's outcomes when they (or their kids) fail to get into the "best" college, they may be more inclined to acknowledge the role of luck in shaping the lives of the people around them.

  Now you're really talking crazy, man!
  (via Cognitive Daily)

Another current meme debunked

Heard the recent news stories about how boys are getting the shaft in today's educational system? Much like the "educated women will never find a husband" myth (see, e.g., here or here) this alarmist story falls apart when the actual facts are examined a bit more closely:

Recently Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Chait Barnett examined the data in the Washington Post and discovered that boys are doing just fine in school unless -- wait for it -- they're black and poor. But that little caveat doesn't make it into the media: who wants to write about race and class, when we can instead run a nice distracting culture war against those nasty straw feminists?

Indeed. Solving society inequalities is hard, but accruing more reasons for bashing uppity girls is easy (and gratifying!). . .

(via Medley)

I can't hear you, Icanthearyou!

Continuing the heartwarming campaign to Protect Innocent College Students from Any Challenge to Their Pre-existing Thought Patterns, the Arizona legislature is apparently considering a measure to prevent students from being forced to deal with any course materials that they don't like:

1. Requires universities under the Arizona Board of Regent’s jurisdiction and community colleges under a community college district to adopt procedures providing a student with an alternative course, coursework, learning material or activity if that student finds those offered to be personally offensive without financial or academic penalty.

2. Specifies that a course, coursework, learning material or activity is personally offensive if it conflicts with the student’s beliefs or practices in sex, morality or religion.

Because freedom to avoid or drop a class isn't enough; the student should be able to take and pass a course while avoiding the content that it wishes to cover. Idiots. Apparently they've been gunning for Women's Studies departments in AZ too...

(via knotted knickers)