Damn, the anti-Jewish sentiment around here! Listen, the airlines treat consumers so badly there really is no excuse for it. It's not alway the weather, it's not always the TSA, it's the crap they are consistently allowed to get away with. This guy complained about 10% of the time. Unless consumers stick up for themselves and each other, service providers will have no reason to change. The airlines don't give shit to people who have legitimate complaints most of the time so I doubt this guy was getting free goodies for being a "kvetch."

For a long time, banks, credit card companies, mortgage companies all made wildly irresponsible loans to people. Their practices were crooked, and they took ridiculous risks. This seems like a natural consequence. Furthermore, every case outlined in the article showed that people don't default as a course of action. They usually make efforts to compromise and make good, defaulting only when they think it is a matter of survival.

Don't like this. There really is now way to responsibly own an exotic pet, particularly large cats. That cat looked to me to still be young. What happens in 5 years when it goes rogue?

Interesting. However, Finland has a very small, homogenous population and are fairly blessed with their resources. Difficult challenges such as overcoming language barriers, overpopulated schools and grinding poverty are unheard of in Finland. It's annoying when the media is so blind to these differences when presenting Scandanavia as a progressive Utopia.

Interesting. I wish people would have a more realistic perception of obesity and fatphobia in particular.

This was adorable!

What a romantic, beautiful story. I've always loved Matisse.

Hello my baby, hello my honey hello my rag-time gal, send me a kiss by wire, honey my heart's on fire!

My boyfriend has waist length dreads and is a scientist. This is awesome.

The Japanese, unlike many other countries, are very well prepared for disasters such as this. Yes, even this one. It's part of their infrastructure, so it's not like looting was even necessary. People are conditioned to trust that supplies will get to them. (And they have). Furthermore, when I was in Japan there was one thing I learned: security is very, very tight. It's almost a police state. Even in the chaos of an earth quake, looting would be tricky to pull off. I'm always creeped out by the racist "Asians are just superior people" unlike "some others who shall remain nameless." If you believe that then please do some research on war crimes during WWII. While the altruism and courage people have shown is outstanding, that doesn't mean that victims of other disasters are sinister ne'er do wells. It means we need to have better preparedness.

It's an Atheist Lunch.

That didn't make any sense. At all. The vast majority of secular people come from religious backgrounds. Nearly, all, really. Societies that are completely free of religion have been vanishingly rare. Some people who were raised secular defect to religious life. Cultural climate seems to have a larger impact than these (hypothetical) genes. Religious attitudes have waxed and waned. The Romans and Greeks were surprisingly secular, for example, even though religion certainly existed for them. What an odd little post.

It's a thresher/comb thing for separating hemp, wool, and other fibers. Wigmakers have a similar tool.

I'm guessing the success is due to the hours of practice, structure, and high expectations rather than the shaming and name calling. You can force a kid to practice for hours on end, go to tutoring, etc, without emotional abuse. Besides that, good grades don't always promise a bright future. Americans are still the world super power in terms of economy, whereas Japan has never quite been able to pull themselves out of their recession. The Chinese economy.....well, that's a thorny issue in and of itself. There are American billionaires and Chinese busboys. Plenty of folks in between. I agree the self-esteem movement is nonsense, but I'd like to see concrete evidence that shaming practices make the difference and not all the other factors.

"From an evolutionary standpoint, theism is even more recent than opposable thumbs. Atheism has been around since sentient life has been around. And it's still around now, god bless-em. Theists should not hold, say, Richard Dawkins responsible for his lack of belief any more than we would Rin Tin Tin, Flipper, Sea Biscuit or any of the other atheists."
Ben, this comment it awesome! You just discredited a whole study in one post! Religion is a more recent trait, you're right. This study, I believe, is no better than any other in the sea of "studies" that show one group of humans to be more evolved than another. It is pseudoscience and bigotry with tragic results. Always has been. I'm a little ashamed of National Geographic for giving this the time of day. Perhaps Kanazawa can send his study to the International Association for Voluntary Sterilization. This study is a regurgitation of Hernnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve