The New York Times executive editor is apparently stubborn and snappy. Why must we focus on women’s character traits? Happy newsrooms are all alike. Every unhappy newsroom is unhappy in its own way. The New York Times newsroom is unhappy because its editor is not very nice. Allegedly. This…
How Monsanto outfoxed the Obama administration
Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice quietly closed a three-year antitrust investigation into Monsanto, the biotech giant whose genetic traits are embedded in over 90 percent of America’s soybean crop and more than 80 percent of corn. Despite a splash of press coverage when the investigation was initially announced, its termination went mostly unreported. The DOJ released no written public statement. Only a brief press release from Monsanto conveyed the news.The lack of attention belies the significance of the decision, both for food consumers around the world and for U.S. businesses. Experts who have examined Monsanto’s conduct say the Justice Department’s decision not to act all but officially establishes the firm’s sovereignty over the U.S. seed industry. Many of them also say the decision ratifies aggressive practices Monsanto used to entrench its dominance and deter competition. This includes highly restrictive contractual agreements that excluded rivals, alongside a multibillion-dollar spree to buy up seed companies.Continue Reading… … Read More
Karl Rove’s Ashley Judd problem
When activist and actress Ashley Judd recently announced she was mulling a run for senate against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Karl Rove revealed a strategy to undermine her. It would be one he’d used before with women candidates. “We’re making fun of her,” he explained.
Give him points for honesty. The key concept behind his super PAC’s first attack ad of the new election cycle was indeed to belittle the high-profile, politically-active Judd. Rove and American Crossroads GPS dropped $10,000 to “stick a pin in her balloon,” going up with a satiric Judd for Senate campaign spot that portrays her as an airhead, a “leader who knows how to follow,” and dismisses her as a silly Hollywood liberal.
Far from a unique personal shot at Judd, the attack is part of a long pattern of Rove attacking women in troubling ways rhetorically distinct from his campaigns against male candidates.
One can say that he is an equal opportunity smear artist, but there is a context and a history to Rove’s anti-Judd salvo. He routinely resorts to anti-woman insults and insinuations that cut deeper than his usual attacks – characterizing women in politics as having stereotypically negative female traits (subject to hysteria, too emotional, weak and weepy, bleeding heart, flighty or frigid, and lesbian).
Extended family tree reveals human’s small, four-legged, insect-eating relative
Humans may have descended from apes, but long before that there was a small, four-legged insect-eating critter, according to new research out Thursday in the US journal “Science.” The international six-year study used a massive trove of data, including genetic and physical traits from…
End Of History Illusion: Study Shows We Underestimate How Much We’ll Change In The Future
Even though we’re usually not hesitant to say we’ve changed a lot over the years, we’re less apt to admit that we’ll change in the future — something called the “end of history illusion,” according to a new study in the journal Science. “Middle-aged people — like me — often look back on our teenage selves with some mixture of amusement and chagrin,” study researcher Daniel T. Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, told the New York Times.”What we never seem to realize is that our future selves will look back and think the very same thing about us. At every age we think we’re having the last laugh, and at every age we’re wrong.” The study included 19,000 people between ages 18 and 68, who were surveyed about how much they thought they’d changed over the last decade, as well as how much they expected to change in the next. They were also asked questions about their personality traits and beliefs, NPR reported. Read More…
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