News Flash 2! More evidence that our political IQs are lower than vegetables
Pew Research released a study last week that showed that 18 percent of Americans think Barack Obama is a Muslim, up 7 points since March 2009. The percentage that correctly identifies the president as a Christian has dropped from 48 to 34 percent. While not surprisingly, his political opponents are most likely to misidentify his [...]
News Flash! Our Political IQs are still lower than most vegetables
It is about as difficult to get political scientists to agree on political issues as it is to get Congress to unanimously agree on ANYTHING, other than say renaming a post office near Wrigley field after a late folksinger and Cubs fanor doubling the penalties for possession of pot. But political scientists, who have measured [...]
Google’s Wi-Fi Goof Offers a Lesson for Those Online all the Time
As the old folk saying goes, “Never trust a fleet of automobiles roving the globe with 360-degree cameras mounted to them.” (citation needed). Turns out those Google Street View cars have been taking more than pictures. Yesterday, Google announced on its official blog that while its Street View cars have been photographing the streets and [...]
The Rise of the Wingnuts
Alongside politicalbest sellers such as Arguing with Idiots, American Conspiracies and Obama Zombies is Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America. If you think the title suggests an assault against “unhinged activists’ such as the Tea Party, the Birther movement, and 9/11 Truthers as well as “hard-core haters” such as Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh [...]
As a boomer, I am not very Millennial
Pew Internet just posted a major new study looking at the Millennial generation. As part of the study they created a quiz to find out how Millennial you are. For the record, I scored a pretty pathetic 13. I am boomer through and through.
Laying off the techies
I nodded in recognition when I read Regina McCombs’ latest blog entry on Poynter (“Power Struggles over Converged Newsrooms May Diminish Value of Web Sites”) about the layoffs of online staff at the Washington Post. She suggests that the targeting of multimedia folks in the latest rounds of cuts at news organizations is an indication [...]
Toddlin’ off to Chicago
Tomorrow I leave for Chicago for the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research, always one of my favorite trips on the conference circuit. It is hard to beat Chicago as a convention city. As Frank Sinatra crooned: Bet your bottom dollar you will lose the blues in Chicago. If you haven’t been to MAPOR, it [...]
Facebook: Come on get happy!!
The last time my wife JoAnna visited our old hometown of Carbondale, several friends came up to her and expressed concern about how often I was on Facebook. They seemed to be planning an intervention. Yes, my Facebook use did spike a bit, but it was because I missed my wife and was using Facebook [...]