Tag Archives: jonesreader

How Those Fast-Food Strikes Got Started

by Dustin7008 Posted on December 6, 2013

Mother Jones

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Lisa Reid is a cashier at a KFC in Brooklyn. She’s 27, with three kids. She works 16 to 26 hours a week at the federal minimum wage of $7.25. That’s not enough to live on, so sometimes she takes a second or third gig at McDonald’s or Burger King. But right now, she just has the one job. She lives with her mom to make ends meet.

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How Those Fast-Food Strikes Got Started

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Raw Data: PISA Scores Around the World in 2012

by ImogeneSchafer Posted on December 3, 2013

Mother Jones

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The latest PISA scores in math were released today, and the results are below (along with earlier results in the reading test). US scores were pretty mediocre: 481 in math compared to an OECD average of 494, and 498 in reading compared to an OECD average of 496.

It’s hard to know for sure what to think of these results. On a different international test, the TIMSS, American kids did pretty well. 8th graders scored in the top ten in math and science, as did 4th graders in reading. So why the big difference between TIMSS and PISA?

This baffles me a bit. The idea behind PISA is that instead of asking kids to answer rote questions, it tests whether they can “apply their knowledge to real-life situations and be equipped for full participation in society.” But a couple of months ago, when I was writing about Amanda Ripley’s book, The Smartest Kids in the World, I got curious about this and looked up some sample math questions from both tests. Obviously this is just anecdotal, but I didn’t really see much difference. They both seemed filled with fairly routine story problems: reading graphs, computing averages, figuring out areas and volumes, etc. There might well be a genuine difference that’s not obvious on casual inspection, and I understand that the quick impression of a 55-year-old college graduate doesn’t mean much, but I’d still be interested in data showing that scores on PISA predict future academic success (or economic success or something success) better than other tests.

In the meantime, the latest PISA scores are below. Make of them what you will.

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Raw Data: PISA Scores Around the World in 2012

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VIDEO: David Corn on Why Obamacare Is Still in Demand

by MichelineConte Posted on December 3, 2013

Mother Jones

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Mother Jones DC bureau chief David Corn spoke with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky this week about public opinion of Obamacare following last month’s setbacks. Watch here:

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VIDEO: David Corn on Why Obamacare Is Still in Demand

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 3, 2013

by Shannon Walters Posted on December 3, 2013

Mother Jones

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1st Sgt. William Huston and Staff Sgt. Ronald Barker, paratroopers with Troop C, 2nd Squadron, 38th Calvary Regiment’s Long Range Surveillance, wait to reach altitude so they can jump static line with the new RA-1 parachute system at Fort Hood’s Rapido Drop Zone, Nov. 19. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Cody Barber, 11th Public Affairs Detachment.

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 3, 2013

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Thanksgiving Cat Blogging – 28 November 2013

by Ernest Ricafort Posted on November 28, 2013

Mother Jones

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Thanksgiving Cat Blogging – 28 November 2013

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Only Republicans Believe Obamacare Is Doomed

by Aaron Duff Posted on November 27, 2013

Mother Jones

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Greg Sargent points us this morning to the latest CNN poll on Obamacare, and it shows that despite all the rollout problems, attitudes toward the law haven’t changed an awful lot:

There are some additional crosstabs at the link, and Sargent points out that they paint a cautiously positive picture:

The poll also finds 54 percent believe current problems facing the law will eventually be solved, versus 45 percent who don’t. Again, that latter sentiment is driven by Republicans: Independents think they will be solved by 50-48; moderates by 55-43. By contrast, Republicans overwhelmingly believe they won’t be solved by 72-27.

Crucially, young Americans — who are important to the law’s success – overwhelmingly believe the problems will be solved (71 percent). Part of the campaign by Republicans to persuade Americans that the law’s doom is inevitable is about dissuading people from enrolling, to turn that into a self fulfilling prophesy.

Republicans are convinced the law is already a failure. And why wouldn’t they? The Fox News bubble has been telling them that for months. But the rest of the country is willing to give it a chance and thinks its problems will probably be solved. When they are, support will go up even higher.

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Only Republicans Believe Obamacare Is Doomed

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Americans Are Surprisingly Clear-Eyed About American Health Care

by 41laowo Posted on November 25, 2013

Mother Jones

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Austin Frakt draws my attention to a new Gallup poll with this tweet: “Consistent with my hypothesis that people think their care is good/efficient, others is bad/wasteful.” Here’s the poll:

I’d draw a different conclusion. For starters, keep in mind that public sentiment on this question hasn’t changed much over the past decade. There are some ups and downs in recent years about the quality of national health care coverage, possibly based on the ups and downs of Obamacare, but it mostly looks like noise to me.

More importantly, though, I don’t interpret this as a belief that coverage for other people is either bad or wasteful. I interpret it as a surprisingly accurate assessment of U.S. health care. About two-thirds of Americans have either Medicare or company-provided health care (or something similar), and they correctly tell Gallup that their own personal coverage is pretty good. And it is! At the same time, most people also think that overall health care coverage in America is pretty mediocre, and that’s true too. How can you call national coverage good or excellent when 50 million people are uninsured and have crappy access to medical care?

If Gallup had called me, this is precisely the response I would have given them. My own personal coverage is quite good. Thanks, MoJo! However, I’d also say that overall coverage in the U.S. is terrible. Obamacare will, perhaps, upgrade that to merely unsatisfactory, but that’s about it.

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Americans Are Surprisingly Clear-Eyed About American Health Care

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Nice Sunset Over Irvine Tonight

by mklabs1234 Posted on November 24, 2013

Mother Jones

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Nice Sunset Over Irvine Tonight

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Why Institutional Divestment Might Be One of Our Best Tools For Fighting Climate Change

by Laura Posted on November 22, 2013

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.

Apocalyptic climate change is upon us. For shorthand, let’s call it a slow-motion apocalypse to distinguish it from an intergalactic attack out of the blue or a suddenly surging Genesis-style flood.

Slow-motion, however, is not no-motion. In fits and starts, speeding up and slowing down, turning risks into clumps of extreme fact, one catastrophe after another—even if there can be no 100% certitude about the origin of each one—the planetary future careens toward the unlivable. That future is, it seems, arriving ahead of schedule, though erratically enough that most people—in the lucky, prosperous countries at any rate—can still imagine the planet conducting something close to business as usual.

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Why Institutional Divestment Might Be One of Our Best Tools For Fighting Climate Change

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Friday Cat Blogging – 22 November 2013

by HiramWhittell Posted on November 22, 2013

Mother Jones

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Five quilts to go! Our year of quiltblogging is almost over. Today’s quilt doesn’t have a name, but Marian calls it a picnic quilt because it’s squarish and a bit of an odd size. So you should summon up a mental image of this quilt laid out in a park and covered with delicious lunchtime goodies. That’s probably what Domino is doing in this picture. In any case, it’s constructed out of 1930s repro charm squares, and it’s machine pieced and machine quilted.

In local cat news, an LA city councilman wants to allow Angelenos to own five cats, up from the currently allowed three. I have a suspicion that no one has ever paid much attention to this law in the first place, but hooray anyway. Next up: the feline council will be considering a proposal that raises the minimum number of human servants per cat. It’s expected to pass easily.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 22 November 2013

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