I have to admit it's getting better...

Childhood Poverty in America

Building off of my previous post and the discussion in the comments, here is some data on poverty among children in America. Keep in mind that most of this data was taken from the Census Department's Current Population Survey (unless otherwise noted) and does not count undocumented immigrants - the population most at risk for poverty.

• Children make up 26 percent of our country's population, but they are 39 percent of the people who live in poverty. Every day, 2,660 children are born into poverty in America.
  
• 19 percent of all children in the United States officially live in "poverty". That means that 14 million American children live below the government's ridiculously low poverty line of $22,050 per year for a family of FOUR.
• Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice the poverty level just to get by. 41 percent of all American children live in what the government classifies as "low-income households" - for 2009 that was $44,100 for a family of FOUR.
  
• 8 percent of children officially live in extreme poverty, classified as at or below 50 percent of the official poverty line. That's 6.2 million American children existing off of less than $11,000 per year for a family of FOUR.
• 11 percent of white children live in poor families. 35 percent of black children live in poor families. 15 percent of Asian children live in poor families. 31 percent of American Indian children live in poor families. And 31 percent of Hispanic children live in poor families.
  
• 41 percent of Hispanic children in North Carolina live under the poverty line, and that's not counting the vast majority of Hispanics in this state illegally.
  
• When you consider not just children living under the official poverty line, but also children in "low-income" families, 61 percent of black and Hispanic kids live in families that ain't getting by.

Poverty, especially childhood poverty, isn't what you think it is:

• 55 percent of children living in poor or low-income families have a parent who works full time year round. 26 percent of these children have parents that work part time.
• Only 20 percent have parents that do not work.
• 51 percent of poor and low-income families are headed by a single mom, but 36 percent have married parents. (NCCP study)
• One in five children born to migrant families are poor, while just 14 percent of native-born children are. And keep in mind, this is only legal/documented migrants.
• Parental education levels for children in poverty vary, but 36 percent have a high school diploma and only one-quarter, 7.3 million parents, have less than a high school education. Nearly 40 percent of parents with poor and low-income classified children have completed at least some college.

And the kicker...

These statistics are from 2008 and do not take into account the full impact of the recession. The situation today is probably much much worse.

"Between August 2008 and August 2009, the number of people receiving food stamps, or what are now called SNAP benefits, increased by 7.0 million, or 24 percent, as monthly caseloads skyrocketed from 29.5 to 36.5 million participants. This extraordinary increase means that roughly 3.4 million more children were receiving SNAP benefits in August 2009 than a year earlier, based on data showing that almost half (49 percent) of SNAP participants are children." (Brookings Institution - Jan 2010)

Inequality In America Is Worse Than In Egypt, Tunisia Or Yemen

Inequality In America Is Worse Than In Egypt, Tunisia Or Yemen

Egyptian, Tunisian and Yemeni protesters all say that inequality is one of the main reasons they’re protesting.

However, the U.S. actually has much greater inequality than in any of those countries.

Specifically, the “Gini Coefficient” – the figure economists use to measure inequality – is higher in the U.S.

[Click for larger image]

Gini Coefficients are like golf – the lower the score, the better (i.e. the more equality).

According to the CIA World Fact Book, the U.S. is ranked as the 42nd most unequal country in the world, with a Gini Coefficient of 45.

In contrast:

• Tunisia is ranked the 62nd most unequal country, with a Gini Coefficient of 40.

• Yemen is ranked 76th most unequal, with a Gini Coefficient of 37.7.

• And Egypt is ranked as the 90th most unequal country, with a Gini Coefficient of around 34.4.

And inequality in the U.S. has soared in the last couple of years, since the Gini Coefficient was last calculated, so it is undoubtedly currently much higher.

So why are Egyptians rioting, while the Americans are complacent?

The canard of positive thinking

Dave Chappelle on "The Secret"



My hero Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a wonderful book titled Bright Sided (amazon) that explores the issue in greater detail. Here is a lecture on the subject she did for the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts & Manufacturing's wonderful RSAnimate series.

Movie Nite

They only missed "Let's go smoke that joint" / "Let's go hit the road" (cable TV edit)

I used to have it pretty bad for Mitch Kramer.

The Hindenburg is gonna jerk your boyfriend off until she cries

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Toby Goodshank:



I've been really digging this guy's music as of late. And, holy shit!!, I just found out he's put a ton of his albums up for free download at his bandcamp. I have only heard the untitled album which the above vidja is from (it's the one with the words "baked naturals" on the cover) and "Everything Intertwingles", but they're both incredible and free at that site.

If you can get over (or just flat out appreciate) the semenological nature of many of his lyrics, you gotta admit he's got a great voice and plays some badass music. He's not a bad rapper either.
Examples:

I rock the mic like the band called Love/I'm mad powerful like Thanos' glove/and I'm also bejeweled in a similar manner/but I'd never puff a blunt with Carrol O'Conner/(you'd get an earful of his bigoted jabber) - Italiano (off Everything Intertwingles)

Oh no she didn't/I'm fitted with bed linens I knitted/snuggle up with the joint that I litted/mountains of Crystal Pepsi and disposable flashlights/now I'm mounting my partner and I'm squeezin their ass tight/quick fix, matchsticks, powdered wigs/ smack em on the mouth, buck em down like Bobby Briggs ... [Princess Mononoke sample] - Track 3 (off untitled)

As Major Matt Mason USA says: ahead of your time, you're never on time
Toby Goodshank: we are always on time because we travel through time

Local Green News: Morrison Hall

From 2006-07, I had the pleasure of working at the Morrison Hall Renovation at UNC. My company, Skanska, basically gutted and rebuilt the interior of the 10-story building that was built in 1965.


The new building would become the home of the Sustainability community, as some senior class decided to give 176 rooftop solar hot water heating panels as their senior gift.
The school also rigged up this really interesting interactive TV display in the lobby that shows water, electricity and other usages by floor or in total. You can even convert the measurements into silly things like hamburgers and Tyler Hansboroughs!

At any rate, Morrison competed in the EPA's National Building Competition beginning in April 2010 along with 14 other buildings around the country. Other competitors ranged from another residence hall at NC State to a JC Penny in California. For a year the teams worked to step down energy and water waste in a "Biggest Loser" type competition. AND MORRISON WON!

Morrison cut energy consumption by 36 percent in a year, preventing 733 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and cutting $250,000 in energy bills. (via the Daily Tar Heel)

Those foam fingers don't look very sustainable.

That's pretty impressive for 860 college kids who have probably never had to pay an electricity bill. I'm really pleased with this effort, but hopefully this momentum can spark some action in the hundreds of other buildings on campus. (Then maybe they won't have to hike up tuition every year!)
The article stated "Carolina is a recognized national leader in sustainability and energy and carbon reduction. UNC has committed to becoming carbon-neutral by 2050 and to stop using coal on campus by May 2020. " Good luck and keep up the good work!

Al Green on the Best Music Show in the World: Jools Holland

Opportunity beckons

Check this ol' fly shit out.

.357 Lover is a Brooklyn-based band whose songs are inspired by the gradiosity of arena rock, the lure of time travel, the technicolor haze of childhood, Victorian steampunk science, the beauty of women and the lust for immortality.

You can enjoy their excellent debut album, Diorama of the Golden Lion, at this Youtube playlist

I'm looking forward to their sophomore effort, The Purchase of the North Pole, apparently centered around the Jules Verne novel of the same name.

Can any of you fellow Shirkers think of a worthy seemingly unattainable goal we could submit to this contest? In any event this is the type of music for charity I can get behind.

My current favorite line of theirs: "it's not cool to be a fool, stay in school, go to school, get a degree, break in the science lab and steal some glass"

OW MY BALLS

Happy Birthday Careys!

I'm glad you were both born on the same day in different years!


Online Photo Editor



In honor of palejoe and willis, take a look at some of their best work:

Your (sic) Welcome, Tarok Colache

Guide to Coaching Youth Basketball

There are probably some more, but I didn't feel like looking.

Happy Birthday dudes!

The Atlantic Magazine Takes On (down) Duke

The Hazards of Duke:

Something ugly is going on at the university—a mercenary intensity that has been gathering strength for the past two decades, as the institution made the calculated decision to wrench itself into elite status by dint of its fortune in tobacco money and its sheer ambition. It lured academic luminaries—many of them longer on star power than on intellectual substance—built a fearsome sports program, and turned its admissions department into the collegiate version of a head-hunting firm.

Your Welcome, Tarok Kolache

Good Afternoon Shirkers! I've noticed a plethora of posts in recent weeks focusing on the local or lighter sides of life in our lives: music, basketball, amusing internet fanart, and other web-enabled pleasures. Now I love these things dearly and wouldn't want to share any less of them between us but I'm not doing much right now and thought we could expand our gaze a little wider today to the outside world.

This Article by Wired has been making Internet rounds for a few days now. For those not in on them Wired has provided us, the news-consuming American public, with our sometimes-weekly-but-right-now-monthly update on the occupation of Afghanistan. NATO's American-led war effort has recently passed the precocious age of 9 years and is showing us all how a big kid plays with an advanced military arsenal: by annihilating a whole village.



I recommend reading the whole article but I'll block quote some juicy bits here and get to my take.

An American-led military unit pulverized an Afghan village in Kandahar’s Arghandab River Valley in October, after it became overrun with Taliban insurgents. It’s hard to understand how turning an entire village into dust fits into America’s counterinsurgency strategy — which supposedly prizes the local people’s loyalty above all else.
But it’s the latest indication that Gen. David Petraeus, the counterinsurgency icon, is prosecuting a frustrating war with surprising levels of violence. Some observers already fear a backlash brewing in the area.

Lt. Col. David Flynn, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 1-320th, made a fateful decision in October.

His men had come under relentless assault from homemade bombs emanating from the village, where a Taliban “intimidation campaign [chased] the villagers out” to create a staging ground for attacking the task force. With multiple U.S. amputations the result of the Taliban hold over Tarok Kolache, Flynn’s men were “terrified to go back into the pomegranate orchards to continue clearing [the area]; it seemed like certain death.”

After two failed attempts at clearing the village resulted in U.S and Afghan casualties, Flynn’s response was to take the village out. He ordered a mine-clearing line charge, using rocket-propelled explosives to create a path into the center of Tarok Kolache.
And that was for starters, Broadwell writes. Airstrikes from A-10s and B-1s combined with powerful ground-launched rockets on Oct. 6 to batter the village with “49,200 lbs. of ordnance” — which she writes, resulted in “NO CIVCAS,” meaning no civilians dead.

Now call me a cynic, but I'm hesitant to believe that one could drop 50,000 lbs of heavy ordinance on a residential community, even a small "Taliban-controlled" one, with "NO CIVCAS"

But my CIVCAS-related skepticism is besides the point, even. These are counter-insurgency operations in Kandahar Province, one of the most unwelcoming places in all of Asia, and I expect the military to kill some Afghan peasants just as much as I expect them to cover their asses about it later. My real issue it that the SOP for our military in Afghanistan is, after a brief hiatus, back to dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of explosives onto a god dammed village and calling it a day.

The Afghan occupation is led by Iraq-Occupation and counter-insurgency mastermind General David Petraeus. Some of you may remember how Petraeus got the job after previous Commander Gen. Stan McCrystal ran his dumb fucking mouth off about Joe Biden and some shit and was promptly sacked by Obama for such. When Petraeus was given command (which I'm pretty sure is a demotion from running CENT-COM) I can recall thinking "Oh good, at least someone with a record of getting shit done is in charge." This was the man who was able to salvage something resembling a country out of the darker days of Iraq circa 2007, so this means progress right?

Apparently not. Gen. McCrystal was originally given a mission to tone down airstrikes, build hospitals, earn the trust of respected local leaders, and generally try to make the American Army look less like an occupying force. That approach seems to have been such an enormous failure in the handful of months it was implemented that it broke down the very General in charge of it and made him into a catty, unobservant asshole. Not more than six months after that little experiment in nation-building NATO seems to be back on board with a strategy that's the tactical equivalent of opening your beer can with a shotgun. My favorite quote from the article sums up nicely our government's level of self-awareness in prosecuting this travesty of a police action:

As Broadwell tells it, the villagers understood that the United States needed to destroy their homes — except when they don’t. One villager “in a fit of theatrics had accused Flynn of ruining his life after the demolition.”

Sorry to rant guys but I hope you can forgive my initial poor judgment and post-hindsight feelings of smug satisfaction since I'm just a scruffy 20-something blogger with a chip on his shoulder and not the fucking President of the United States or Supreme Allied Commander of NATO operations in Afghanistan or something else important.

Marvin Gaye Sings the National Anthem

Knokkers: Great Game or Greatest Game?

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1994: The Greatest Year For Music

Here are some of the great records released in 1994.

Music transcends race, hombre pt. 2

Finally found a good upload of the music from season 2 of Eastbound & Down. Here's a megaupload of my favorite tracks from it.

Tracklist:

1) Il Triello (Main Title) - Ennio Morricone
2) El Cabron - Cartel De Santa
3) Goin' Down South - R.L. Brnside
4) Bell Black Ocean - Mark Lanegan
5) Hey Monstruo - Los Monstruos
6) Hit or Miss - Bo Diddley
7) I'm Not the One - The Black Keys
8) Blow the Whistle - Too $hort
9) It Makes You Feel So Bad - Insight Out
10) Seoul - AMIINA
11) Let's Go Everywhere - Medeski Martin & Wood
12) Baby I'm A Want You - Bread
13) Oogum Boogum Song - Brenton Wood
14) I Heard It Through the Grapevine - The Slits
15) The Storm is Passing Over - Miami Choral Society: A Children's Choir
16) Comforting Sounds - Mew
17) Blue Blood Blues - The Dead Weather
18) Hustle and Cuss - The Dead Weather
19) Think I'm Coming Down - Lee Hazlewood
20) Main Title Theme (Billy) - Bob Dylan
21) He's Alright - Kurt Vile

On to Myrtle Beach!

Thanks, Chokies

This article warmed my heart. Kendall earned a starting position last night. Hopefully Roy will make that happen for him.

What you might notice here was that Marshall was actually on the floor for crunch time for one of the first times in his Carolina career. He had to be. He had nine assists and zero turnovers--zero turnovers in a game when the ball seemed greased with WD-40--in his second conference game.

ZERO turnovers?!?! That's very un-Tar Heel like.
Also, about that "pass":

Roy Williams doesn't teach what happened next. No one could. It doesn't even make sense that it happens, because you can run the tape back as many times as you want, and there's no way Marshall ever even looks at John Henson. But as the pass from Barnes is in the air, Marshall goes to meet it. Two Hokies converge on him when he leaps in the air to receive the pass.

Here's the thing: he never catches it. Not in the true sense of the word. He just redirects it, off his fingertips, to a wide-open Henson on the baseline.

It was a very beautiful thing. If only I could find a video!

Welcome to Miami

i love the (ncaa) world, part ii

goin' nowhere, fool!

Dook finally got what was coming to them, and I'm so glad Florida State could do it to them again.
"It always hurts because we don't like to lose," Smith told FanHouse. How profound, Nolan; how profound.

Also, while I give Tyler Zeller a hell of a time, I'm quite pleased he can accomplish more in a game than both Plumlee playboys:

How It Was Lost: Terrible jumpshooting and the complete absence of an offensive threat on the post. Duke shot 35 3-pointers, or a ridiculous 57 percent of their total field goal attempts. But what choice did Duke have? FSU's defense bottled up Smith, who looked exactly like a scoring guard filling in for the point guard, rather than the team's point, and the Brothers Plumlee gave Duke no contribution in the paint. The two brothers combined to go 1-of-4 from the floor. With injured point guard Kyrie Irving on the floor, the two are more valuable, but will have to develop some level of back-to-the-basket competency if Irving doesn't return. [via]

While the ACC may not have any ranked teams (we'll overlook these assholes at No.1), we are certainly proving that we're a competitive conference that should have a lot of spots in the NCAA tournament.

For the Heel's sake, let's hope the Chokies live up to their name tonight. I'm pretty excited to see what Dexter and Malcolm Delaney (check the play at :39, ignore the music) do to each other. On the other hand, I'm fairly confident that Jeff Allen is going to manhandle Tyler and John. We're gonna need Justin Knox for that guy.

i love the world

In the most hilarious accusation of plagiarism, maybe ever, I present to you the striking similarities between R&B superstar Usher's new single and one of Homer's many classics.

If I can't rock, I don't wanna walk

The gays killed our fish & wildlife!

I've heard a lot of wacky conspiracy theories recently, but I think this lady makes the most sense........



Just kidding! Hoo boy, nation, you have screwed up. As if Arkansas needed more punishment for being Arkansas.

Eagle owns goat

Apparently this premiered on adult swim at 4 AM on January 1st. They'll do that. I remember the pilot of 12 oz. Mouse coming out of nowhere one night in the summer of 2005 when I was nice and gifted at a hotel in Maine where me and my family were staying. Dunno if they'll make more episodes of this show, or if they should, but this kicks ass. I didn't recognize most of the music, but "Zodiac Shit" from Flying Lotus' new LP, Cosmogramma, was on there, and apparently the star spangled banner as sung by The Black Lips.

Fuck your Honda Civic, I've a horse outside.

Troof hurts

Who purchased www.circleshirk.com ?

Seriously... shit's taken.

For reference, Google has less than 350 hits on the phrase circleshirk.

Thoughts? I, for one, am not a .net kinda guy...

Hans Rosling is gutter

Guide to Coaching Youth Basketball

Dribbling:
Don't pound the air out of the ball going nowhere. If you want to get from point "A" to point "B", do it with the least amount of dribbling that's possible. Once you put the ball on the floor, it should be to help you get where you want to go. If the dribble can't help you, pass to a teammate.
The Screen
The effectiveness of the screen depends not only on the screener, but also on the player who receives the screen. This player must be able to read the defense and react accordingly without predetermining which way he will go. It is the defensive alignment which actually dictates this. There are four basic ways to take advantage of a screen:
Box Weave
Some day every coach will not have a high-scoring pivot-player that he can depend upon. If you find yourself in this position, but have a good pair of high scoring guards with equal support from a couple of forwards, this may be a good offense to use.
3 - 2 Strong Side Combination Defense
In this defense, three defenders, players #1, #2, and #3, play man-to-man against three outstanding opponents, while the two best rebounders, #4 and #5, use zone principles. This defense is effective in eliminating lane penetration. It is explained in the following.
And Drills, Drills, Drills...

The best license plate ever.

T.G.I.Def.Leppard

IF YOUR WIRED YOUR FIRED [sic]

Public Service Announcement: Healthy Eating Blows

I didn't make a resolution to eat better or "get in shape" because that would be snooze-tastic.
I did, however, buy some Quaker oatmeal because I had only ever had oatmeal once in my life that I remember, and it was just a few months ago. I liked it. So I bought some more.
I did not buy a gross of instant oatmeal packets but a 'tin' (of cardboard) of regular ol' oatmeal. When boiled on the stove it is delicious, but can someone please tell me why when I come to work and make this crap in the microwave it does this (?!?!?) :

Who wants in?

So, Unitard and I were discussing the purchase of a year of hosting for the purposes of backing up our hard drives, having a shared space online for various movies, music, etc and to have a way to publish websites without paying some jagoff like 15 bucks/month.

The hosting fees would come out to around 3 - 10 bucks per person per year, depending on how many people want to pay in, for unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, one free domain name, FTP access, email server with unlimited email addresses, unlimited hosting, and a bunch of other stuff. Is anyone here interested in splitting the costs?

Check out my sexy widget!

Roomba, Meet Scooba. Humans, Meet your End

Happy 2011 everyone! We should all resolve to watch more The Jetsons.

It seems that the future is now and we're all going to die after watching 2012.

Up first: Tom Selleck and AT&T tell us how it's gonna be, and they're usually right.

Then, take a look at this insanely low-tech solution for a high-tech lifestyle.


Finally, and I'm talking to you, Real Housewives of Orange County, Atlanta, New York City, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, DC and Miami:

THE SCOOBA 230


Why did it take so long to make a Roomba for hardwood floors?

Also, when am I going to get my Rosie?