Open thread for night owls: Excerpts from the March edition of Harper's Index
Here are some excerpts from behind the March Harper’s Index (behind a paywall):
Hours last year for which Germans were paid to use power because supply outstripped demand: 331
Number of other European Union countries that experienced negative power prices last year: 7
Minutes each day by which Finnish fathers spend more time than Finnish mothers with their school-aged children: 8
Number of other developed nations in which fathers spend more time than mothers with school-aged children: 0
Percentage of US news stories about poverty that feature black families: 59
Of US families living under the poverty line that are black: 23
Minimum number of companies and recruiters accused of using Facebook to keep older workers from seeing job ads: 125
Acres of land owned by John Malone, the largest private landowner in the United States: 2,200,000
Factor by which that is larger than Rhode Island: 3.3
Portion of Maryland’s licensed medical-marijuana dispensaries that ran out of product within a week of opening: 5/7
Ratio of snake-removal to fire-alarm calls that Bangkok’s fire department responded to last year: 9:1
Estimated number of US private schools receiving public funding that teach a Christian curriculum: 5,071
That teach an Islamic curriculum: 70
That teach a curriculum inspired by L. Ron Hubbard: 5
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”
~George F. Kennan, Foreward to The Pathology of Power by Norman Cousins (1987)
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modern love is your partner calling out “I responded to your email†from the next room
— eve louise ewing is wikipedia brown okay jeez (@eveewing) February 12, 2018
On this date at Daily Kos in 2009—Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin:
The most famous and in some circles, infamous, scientist was born 200 years ago today in Shrewsbury, England. Charles Darwin came into the world like everyone else. He would go out in a spectacular fashion.
Readers here are well aware that evolutionary biology has become an ideological football in modern day America carried tightly by the religious right on the field of political battle. Darwin’s name is so reviled by social conservatives that it is routinely used on the tip of a rhetorical spear and pointed at the heart of the US educational system. But what few people know is that Darwin was aware of the effect his ideas might have on his peers, reportedly starting with one near and dear to his own heart:
Darwin held back the book to avoid offending his wife, said Ruth Padel, the naturalist’s great-great-granddaughter. “She said he seemed to be putting God further and further off,” Padel said in her north London home. “But they talked it through, and she said, “Don’t change any of your ideas for fear of hurting me.'” … The 1859 publication of “On the Origin of Species” changed scientific thought forever — and generated opposition that continues to this day. It is this elegant explanation of how species evolve through natural selection that makes Darwin’s 200th birthday on Feb. 12 such a major event.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounds up weekend headlines. Armando joins us to discuss Pence’s diplomatic “brown medal” in Pyeongchang. Nunes’ crazy has an origin story: notorious spy Mike Flynn! Trump and Fox vie to outlie one another on border agent’s death.
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