"The option to make one’s living as a pro artist is bestowed upon a small portion of the people who desire it… One U.K. study finds that artists there are predominantly middle class, and a U.S. report declared that average household income during the childhood of artists (in 1979)… above the 60th percentile of family income. Our own analysis of the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts via the National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture reveals that professionals in “Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations” were about 60% more likely than average to have a father who attended at least some college (55.9% vs. 34.5%), and 70% more likely to have a mother who attended college (55.9% vs. 32.6%). That is the most extreme skew of any of 23 occupation categories for mother’s education; for fathers, it’s exceeded only by mathematics and computer science occupations." On who can afford to be a starving artist. That pretty much matches to my experience (with notable exceptions, like myself and many friends). Don't quit your day job, friends. Also noted for it's examples of what you can expect form a life in art (and here you can include writing in that group, although I don't think the article did). (Grokked from Ellen Kushner)
Oh look, this past May was also the hottest May on record. You know, like the previous months of this year (although I think we missed April, but I might have just not seen that posted anywhere). We're boned. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"Historically, the best-off salaried workers in America worked the shortest hours… But on the way to neolibertopia, the hours of the rich and the poor have swapped places: the poor, hourly waged workers struggle to piece together enough hours to make ends meet (fighting with employers who want to avoid the threshold at which they have to treat their hourly employees with a modicum of fairness). The best-paid salaried workers, by contrast, work longer hours than at any time in American history." Yep, seen this myself. Although, "One omission in the research is the possibility that waged workers are also putting in very long hours, but doing so at two or more jobs." Been there, have the t-shirt.
"Too many teenagers and young adults are dying of some types of cancer, a Europe-wide report warns… Their survival rates for cancers such as leukaemia are much lower than in younger children, says a report in the Lancet Oncology… The researchers suggest differences in tumours, delays in diagnosis and treatment and a lack of clinical trials for that age group are to blame." There are cancers that are more prevalent in children than in adults (specifically some forms of brain or blood cancers). And many of those are incredibly aggressive, so that might be a cause. But the real worry is the overall numbers of cancer cases are going up. (Grokked from Xeni)
A case example of why industry sponsored studies should always be looked at with a gimlet eye. In this case, OceanSpray funded studies showing cranberry juice helping to reduce risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs). "It turns out this had much to do with how the researchers chose to measure and analyze their data." But here's the thing, this isn't limited to just industry sponsored research (just as a note, almost all drug safety and efficacy studies are not only "industry sponsored" they are almost entirely run by pharma scientists, off-label research being a notable exception). (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
America, we're leading the world! "Russia launched the world's biggest, most powerful icebreaker on Thursday in St. Petersburg." Say, how many nuclear, or even heavy, icebreakers does the US have? (Don't look for it unless you want to weep). "In addition to launching new icebreakers, Russia is building new bases in the Arctic Circle and modernizing its nuclear submarines." If only the GOP was thinking about this when they talk about increasing military spending.
"Gwen Moore to propose bill requiring (drug testing) for returns with itemized deductions of more than $150,000, in response to right’s 'criminalization of poverty'." Brilliant. So far from what I've seen (and I haven't done in-depth research), the results of those "drug tests before welfare" programs has been dismally low (, less than 1% although the number of people applying remains the same). My guess is for the top earners the positive results would skew much higher. I doubt it'll have much of a chance (unlike the bill to include women in the draft which went much farther than the author intended), but I like the thinking. (Grokked from Wil Wheaton)
"An Alabama county commissioner has refused to lower their flags to half-staff this week out of respect for the victims in the Orlando nightclub shooting, saying… 'I am of the opinion, by reading the flag code of the United States… it doesn’t meet the test of the reason for the flag to be lowered to half-staff…'." Let's see, I've read that code and IIRC having the President request it (and then your own governor make the same request) is certainly more than enough reason to lower the flag. "'When the flag is at half-staff, our country’s head is figuratively held low, and quite frankly, I am not willing to hang my head down because of a terrorist attack against our people and our allies.'" I'll betcha dimes to dollars he lowers his head every September 11th and would have screamed bloody-murder if it hadn't been lowered on the original 9/11. (Grokked from Patrick Nielsen Hayden)
"It’s been extremely common for news accounts to portray Donald Trump’s candidacy as a 'working-class' rebellion against Republican elites." But when you look at the actual data, not so much. The stories we tell ourselves. The Trumpster's "working class" may be in relation to other Republicans voting in this race (although looking at the chart, Cruz seems to have locked in that demographic), that is other candidates scored the top end of the income ranges, but it's still higher than the national median salary, and higher than what both Hillary and Bernie voters made. This is where the "Trump voters and Bernie voters are the same" line breaks down. Even for the Democrats, Hillary scored a lot of lower income voters than Bernie (although that tracked to race/ethnicity in each state, overall both averaged the same). While 23 states isn't even half, it's an interesting look. And there are some troubling data in there for the Democrats as well. But I think you can see that Bernie was correct (and it's been a truism for all of my adult life), poor people don't vote (in the same percentages are those more well to do vote). (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)
The Trumpster, the story about the DNC being hacked is totally fake and meant to distract from Hillary's problems. Oh, and it's all lies anyway. Sight unseen. That's special.
"Rifle-toting groups patrol streets as protesters rally at Trump event in Dallas." Not the first time. What could possibly go wrong? (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)
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