In the interviews, only 1 percent of women said they had been unfaithful to their husbands in the past year; on the computer questionnaire, more than 6 percent did. At the same time, experts say that surveys appearing in sources like women’s magazines may overstate the adultery rate, because they suffer from what pollsters call [...]
Posts from ‘October, 2008’
Humanity using 30% more resources than nature can provide — and it will get worse as population increases
The Living Planet report calculates that humans are using 30% more resources than the Earth can replenish each year, which is leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species. As a result, we are running up an ecological debt of $4tr (£2.5tr) to $4.5tr [...]
Problems with equality in education
High schools are coming under pressure from the federal government to improve the nation’s dismal dropout rate — one in four students. “In this country today, half of our minority students do not get out of high school on time. That’s outrageous,” Spellings said in Columbia, S.C. Making schools responsible for progress in every group [...]
A culture of convenience can’t grasp slow but increasing problems
On the other side is the public, which increasingly believes that climate change is real and worries about it, but which rarely ranks it as a high priority. A 2007 survey by the U.N. Development Programme found that 54% of Americans advocate taking a “wait and see” approach to climate-change action — holding off on [...]
At least 40% of your personality is 100% genetic
An Australian psychologist has aggregated the results of hundreds of studies on human behaviour and found 40 per cent can be put down to human genetics. “We looked at a whole range of normal and problem behaviours, and what we found was that again and again, the genetic component of these behaviours tended to clump [...]
John LaBruzzo Eased Aside After Controversial Eugenics Plan
John LaBruzzo is a Republican State Representative from Louisiana, and a member of the House of Representatives Health and Welfare committee. Corrupt.org has been following his story since the news broke that he wanted to offer welfare recipients incentives to be sterilized in an attempt to scale back some of the welfare abuse in his [...]
Kids getting (demographically) stupider
Every now and then there’s something worth explaining in detail because it sounds unlike what it is: The intellect of even the brainiest 14-year-olds has deteriorated dramatically over the decades despite an increase in the number of pupils achieving top grades in exams. Their cognitive abilities are level with those of 12-year-olds in 1976, the [...]
Everybody will be covered
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive. Under Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent [...]
