So, I'll be the first to admit it: I love tall buildings. No matter how excessive or what the environmental and cultural impact, or even how hypocritical this makes me seem, I think they are absolutely fantastic creations and I just love them. So, while the world's in the middle of this financiapocalypse, it sorta (only sorta) saddens me that some are being delayed. Tyler has a sad face.
Here are the top 15 skyscrapers that will take much longer than originally anticipated to finish. I will say that I am so happy that Freedom Tower is not on this list.
Also, for any aspiring graphic/logo designers and/or Mathematica gurus, you should check out "Exploring Logo Designs with Mathematica." It's a brilliant read that combines science, programming and art. I love it.
Now for the part that I expect will trigger some interesting reactions. Harvard Business School has just released a study on online pornography consumption in the USA. While the bulk of the study showed that there isn't a HUGE gap between states and online porn orders, there were a few interesting tidbits I'd like to bring into the limelight:
Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
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There has to be a better explanation out there besides the age-old "if you're told you can't have it, you want it more" argument.
The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. "The differences here are not so stark," Edelman says.
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Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.
Utah's been a leader in a lot of things as of late, but you'd hope this wasn't one of them. I find it INCREDIBLY interesting: 8 of the top 10 porn consuming states voted for a conservative president. I claim to be no authority on the subject, but I find it interesting that this stat correlates with the high-religious stat up above. Could it (or should it) possibly mean that religion is a procurer of porn consumption? If so, is it among active participants of that religion, or is it from those who do not participate? Are there more dramatic social/cultural tensions in these highly religious states that cause this increase in porn consumption?
Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays – a 1% increase in a postal code's religious attendance was associated with a 0.1% drop in subscriptions that day. However, expenditures on other days of the week brought them in line with the rest of the country, Edelman finds.
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States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."
Sad, but ironic and kinda funny.
Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage.
This, to me, is perplexing. A friend of mine jested that perhaps the homosexual community relies on porn since they can't marry. Humorous, maybe, but I don't think that's the case. I almost wonder if this is a sign that those states who are more accepting to the idea of gay marriage have a higher degree of sexual maturity.
Of course, all this discussion is based on a belief that pornography detracts from the sanctity of sex and that it should be avoided in a progressive society--an idea which I am more than aware could be debated in the secular world.
Anyway, any thoughts?
woah. This is pretty heavy blog material Tyler. But I've read similar and my thoughts on the matter are....not public worthy. lol.
ReplyDeleteBut I appreciate you writing it. I think its a scared person who won't acknowledge these correlations and try and examine them logically. I'm reading a pretty grand book I found at Goodwill called Why People Believe Strange Things. I'm in the chapter all about logical thinking. And you have all the symptoms of a scientist and a skeptic. lol.
i'm a scientist and a skeptic, eh? i suppose that's not *too* bad of a combination. i appreciate your honesty as well, i don't ever mean to push people to comment if they don't want to.
ReplyDeletethat being said, i definitely am going to look for that book!
Wow. Super sad. Its really bothers me that Utah is like #1 in so many negative areas it seems. I think it has a lot to do with the culture and the attitude towards sexuality and drugs and all the "bad things" in life. The attitude seems to be this, "Ignore it and don't talk about it with your children and don't acknowledge it and it will go away." It obviously doesn't seem to be working.
ReplyDeleteI watched a documentary called, "Happy Valley" in which they describe drug usage in Utah. My friend, who is an addiction counselor and who's son died of an overdose says that Utah parents just don't want to acknowledge that their kid may have a problem. And the kid is too afraid to tell anyone because they is such a negative attitude about helping someone like that.
Its really sad. I think people need to start realize that perfection is not required in this life. Yes, we are trying to reach it, but there are real pitfalls along the way. Addiction is a real identifiable genetic problem and one that can't be ignored.
NO FREEDOM TOWER?! What are you, some sort of French terrorist?!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it interesting to note that the correlation this article (as well as you it seems) is trying to point out is the irony between conservationism fighting against the tenets of immorality, and the increase in immorality. Conservative by definition is a resistance to change, whether interpreted socially, politically, or any type for that matter. I see this as nothing more than an expression of that, namely that by resisting so hard, the opposite effect happens. If there is a correlation between porn consumption and conservative views, it would make sense that a culture that fears change and resists social progress would resist things they dont understand and see as a threat. Sexual freedom and expression has always been seen as a threat, principally because it isnt understood, and even educating ones self about it becomes negative. The result ends up being a social backfire whereby sexuality becomes used far more in a negative, destructive way than in a proper, safe way. I think Chelsi is right in that by trying so hard we are setting ourselves up for failure.
I see that as the real tragedy, not that I condone porn consumption in any way, but I do condone educating our society on hard issues in order to seek an appropriate solution.