links for 2008-07-28 via Our Word is Our Weapon
BBC NEWS | Health | Target to cut MRSA virtually hit
I won’t hold my breath for all the NHS-knockers to cover this one.
(tags: health)...
links for 2008-07-27 via Our Word is Our Weapon
deputydog | when geeks and stained glass collide
(tags: art design architecture)
What obligation? Maximise what? — Crooked Timber
The idea that corporations have a fiduciary duty to maximize corporate profits isn’t as straightforward as you might think.
(tags: markets economics sociology)...
links for 2008-05-28 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Deltoid: Roger Bate: Tobacco consultant or lobbyist?
It’s all rather sickening. As Eli Rabett said, “Roger Bate’s existence is a strong argument against the existence of a just God”.
(tags: environment regulation malaria)...
links for 2008-05-26 via Our Word is Our Weapon
The Bellows » Ryan Avent on inequality and the education gap
“Kids don’t get themselves into college, for the most part, and thank god. If that were the case, no one would go. The environment around kids, and especially the parents, gets kids into college.”
(tags: education markets sociology inequality)
The G Spot: Here we go again
Contra Megan McArdle, investment in pre-school programmes like Head Start make very good sense in value for money terms.
(tags: education inequality)
The G Spot: The politics of gay marriage
(tags: inequality)
Whimsley: Money Ruins Everything, but we have to talk about it anyway
The best sentence I read today: “Facebook represents the commercialization of conversation, not the amateurization of collaborative...
links for 2008-05-21 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Inequality and Prices « Consider the Evidence
Lane Kenworthy points out that differing inflation rates for goods consumed by the poor and the rich do not diminish the importance of income inequality.
(tags: inequality)
FT.com / Home UK / UK - NHS delivers big increase in quality of care
Quality of care in the NHS increased significantly between 1997 and 2003, bringing the UK ahead of the US in terms of reducing preventable deaths a good bit closer to the likes of France and Germany.
(tags: health)
Is free migration compatible with a European-style welfare state? Philippe Legrain
Philippe says yes
(tags: welfare migration redistribution)...
links for 2008-05-20 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Has Ireland’s Rising Tide Benefited Its Poor? « Consider the Evidence
Relative poverty is up but absolute poverty is down. So an improvement, but probably not as much as there should have been.
(tags: ireland poverty inequality)
The Bellows » Land Use
“when left to their own devices, neighborhoods will act selfishly, ignoring social costs imposed on others”
(tags: housing transport cities geography)...
links for 2008-05-19 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Matthew Yglesias - From Vouchers to Credits
Why it’s a bad idea to trust free-marketeers when they say they want vouchers in education.
(tags: free-marketeers education markets)
The Quick and the Ed - Cato renounces school vouchers
The Cato Institute stops pretending to care about whether poor people can afford a decent education for their children. But did anyone ever believe that?
(tags: eduacation free-marketeers)
Trade Diversion: Trade (usually) has winners and losers
I am shocked -shocked!- to learn that Tim Worstall is ignorant of basic economics.
(tags: free-marketeers trade economics)...
links for 2008-05-14 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Matthew Yglesias (May 12, 2008) - When in Doubt, Blame the UN (Foreign Policy)
People often seem keen to forget the U.N. is a member-driven body, and “the U.N.-bashers who want to blame the organization for “inaction” on these points are the last in line for proposals to give the U.N. more money, and more institutional capacity.”
(tags: global)
Web exclusive: ‘Rehabilitating Carson’ by John Quiggin | Prospect Magazine May 2008 issue 146
Quiggin and Lambert on the anti-Rachel Carson nutters.
(tags: malaria environment science)
Center for Global Development : Commitment to Development in Africa Index 2007
Compares countries by the impact of their policies on development in Africa. Sweden is first, followed by Ireland (boosted by its...
links for 2008-05-13 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Land and People: Unsung heroes
“Two days of mini-civil war were sufficient to drown the city in garbage …” Rami Zurayk’s blog might be the best source around for the simmering conflict in Lebanon.
(tags: lebanon)...
links for 2008-05-08 via Our Word is Our Weapon
The Bellows » Brookland Development
Ryan Avent finds it odd: “The sense is that the city owes local property owners absolute deference, yet that local property owners needn’t concern themselves with how their decisions affect the city.”
(tags: housing planning)
Crooked Timber » » Pain and inequality
(tags: inequality health)
Center for Global Development : Prevention Failure: The Ballooning Entitlement Burden of U.S. Global AIDS Treatment Spending and What to Do About It
“The United States has unwittingly created a new global “entitlement” to U.S.-funded AIDS treatment that currently costs about $2 billion per year and could grow to as much as $12 billion a year by 2016″
(tags: health aid)
all streets | ben fry
A beautiful map of...
links for 2008-05-07 via Our Word is Our Weapon
City bonuses helped cause banks crisis, says CBI chief | Business | The Guardian
(tags: finance regulation)...
links for 2008-05-06 via Our Word is Our Weapon
qwghlm.co.uk » Dear Ken
(tags: london politics)
BBC NEWS | Business | Governor attacks City risk-taking
Not that surprising: over-reward for gains and under-punish for losses and you’re going to get more recklessness, more speculative bubbles and more fraud.
(tags: finance regulation incentives)
The G Spot: Weekend Diva Blogging: Laura Nyro
(tags: music)
Urban Planning Research: Cities: The Missing Presidential Campaign Issue*
Why are cities ignored? I suggest: America’s self image is rural or at least suburban, urban problems get tied up with racial issues, and Republicans have managed to keep cities off the agenda as Democrats have the better solutions
(tags: cities politics america)...
links for 2008-05-02 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Liverpoolfc.tv interview with Fernando Torres
Shame about the result, but still, whatta guy: “This is my team, my city and Anfield is my pitch.”
(tags: football)
The Problem | Prisoners of the Census
So many Americans are in prison that despite the fact they can’t vote they are distorting the political system by artificially inflating the population and therefore the influence of prison towns.
(tags: poverty crime america)
FT.com / Home UK / UK - As cities revive, America’s poor are forced to the periphery
“It used to be that poor people lived in cities and the rich lived in the suburbs. Now it’s the reverse”
(tags: poverty housing geography)...
links for 2008-05-01 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Simon Jenkins on the stupidity of illegal drugs policy
Among other things, “Roughly half of all imprisonments, a staggering 60,000 annually, are now attributable to drugs. Inside prison, drugs are openly traded, and users are driven to crime on release to repay dealers.”
(tags: crime)...
links for 2008-04-06 via Our Word is Our Weapon
The G Spot
Excellent new blog on politics, feminism and inequality.
(tags: inequality politics)
Economics Blog : Debating Measures to Confront Environmental Problems
Jeff Sachs on why setting a price isn’t enough to tackle many environmental problems
(tags: environment economics tax)...
links for 2008-04-04 via Our Word is Our Weapon
What’s Wrong with Prostitution? - Bradford Plumer
Plenty. But not so much as to make decriminalisation or legalisation obviously terrible ideas. Brad Plumer gives us an excellent summary of the evidence for and against.
(tags: regulation crime trade)
Bradford Plumer - Chicken for a day - A day in the life of an immigrant worker in California
Better Teachers, Better Schools - The Washington Monthly
Department of Obvious Non-Trivial: The key ingredient for succesful schools is high quality teachers, and you get good teachers by paying high starting salaries
(tags: education)
Gerd Ludwig Photography - Gallery
Beautiful, terribly sad images of the effects of pollution in the former Soviet Union.
(tags: environment)
John Yoo’s Torture Memo - The...
links for 2008-03-04 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Embrace Economic Change « Consider the Evidence
(tags: economics inequality redistribution)...
links for 2008-03-03 via Our Word is Our Weapon
The Bellows » History Will Not Look Kindly on the Bush White House
(tags: environment politics)
Clogged Arteries
“To power our metropolitan engines, we need to make big, well-targeted investments that improve transportation within and around them. Above all else, that means taking a less egalitarian approach to our infrastructure”
(tags: cities transport geography)...
links for 2008-02-27 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Promoting Mobility « Consider the Evidence
Good stuff, including “even if income support programs [i.e. welfare] … are not mobility-enhancing for their adult recipients, they may improve opportunity for upward mobility among their children.”
(tags: poverty inequality mobility)
It’s All Relative: How Most Americans Understand Income Poverty | inclusion
Seems to bear out what i’ve said here before. Most Americans think the official poverty line doesn’t capture all actual poverty, and any ‘absolute’ poverty line is more like a snapshot of a regularly adjusted relative concept
(tags: poverty inequality)
Language Log: You say feminine, I say masculine, let’s call the whole thing off
How strange: many young French...
links for 2008-02-22 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Absolute Poverty « Consider the Evidence
Lane Kenworthy points out that the US has high relative poverty and, for a rich country, pretty high absolute levels of poverty too.
(tags: poverty)
Stumbling and Mumbling: Class, skill and inheritance
Good post on the inheritance of status, also worth reading for the comedy value of the first comment in response.
(tags: education inequality poverty)
EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect
Ezra Klein: “Nobody’s saying we should make suburbs illegal. But we don’t have to abide by public policy that makes them look far cheaper and more economical than they are”. US density levels are indeed shockingly low.
(tags: cities transport environment)...
links for 2008-02-19 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Annals of American History: The Water Cure: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
America’s war in the Philipines presaged atrocities in Vietnam and Iraq
(tags: war America)...
links for 2008-02-18 via Our Word is Our Weapon
The economics (and politics) of carbon regulation | Free exchange | Economist.com
Strong arguments from Ryan Avent for and against both carbon taxes and cap-and-trade
(tags: environment climate tax)
Eurekalert - Does socializing make us smarter?
Yes, it does.
(tags: sociology education)
The future of transportation « Common Tragedies
Among other things, Daniel Hall makes the interesting point that people may systematically under-estimate the value of public transport versus roads as they don’t take indirect effects (such as impact on land use) into account.
(tags: transport cities environment)...
links for 2008-02-16 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Megan McArdle (February 15, 2008) - ‘Tax Me More Fund’ raises little revenue
Megan brings us the latest in her long-running series “Dumbest Free-Marketeer Arguments Ever”.
(tags: free-marketeers)...
links for 2008-02-09 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Media Matters - Beck on guest who favored tax cuts for lower-income Americans: “Nice of you to join us, Stalin”
Just … wow.
(tags: america)...
links for 2008-02-08 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Matthew Yglesias (February 07, 2008) - Alternatives (Domestic Policy)
Sentence of the day: “Is collaborating with libertarian think tanks to oppose carbon restrictions really the most efficacious method of boosting spending on anti-malarials?”
(tags: malaria health environment climate free-marketeers)...
links for 2008-02-03 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Deltoid: Bed Nets and artemisinin dramatically decrease malaria
Huge decreases in malaria have been achieved in Rwanda in short time. If applicable to the rest of Africa, this could save hundreds of thousands of lives a year, at the cost of about $10 billion.
(tags: malaria health africa aid)...
links for 2008-01-28 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Crooked Timber » » Of Development and Debt
Sensible stuff. It’s good to see the issue of debt get an airing - its neglect by economists who are happy to run cross-country growth regressions on anything else that occurs to them remains a bit of a puzzle to me.
(tags: debt development aid)...
links for 2008-01-25 via Our Word is Our Weapon
192.com London street map and aerial photography
Incredibly detailed aerial photos of London - 4cm/pixel, apparently. Let the great ’spot-the-celebrity-sunbathing-naked-in-their-back-garden’ game begin!
(tags: maps london photography)...
links for 2008-01-21 via Our Word is Our Weapon
The Sharpener » Blog Archive » Tax and Attacks on the Sick
Very good piece by Merrick about incapacity benefit
(tags: poverty welfare)
CJR: Secrets of the City
What The Wire reveals about urban journalism, and much else besides. Hat-tip to The Filter^
(tags: tv america cities media)
VOA News - African Music Treasures Blog - Home
Rare gems of African music from the VOA archives
(tags: music africa)...
links for 2008-01-17 via Our Word is Our Weapon
Language Log: OK, you wireistas, listen up
Exhaustive linguistic archaeology of ‘yo’ as third person singular pronoun in The Wire.
(tags: language america tv)
Moody’s lament: Our job is too hard - Salon.com - How the World Works
Credit rater says it can’t rate credit: “Risk traceability has declined, probably forever … in the financial industry … more competition means more, and perhaps socially undesirable, risk-taking.”
(tags: finance markets economics)...