Monday, March 10, 2014

raising the genius bar



Wallis Simpson was born in Pennsylvania in 1896, a decade after our ClockTower. She married Edward, Duke of Windsor in the UK and caused a scandal at the time.

Her “rich and thin” pronouncement has long been regarded as a bias of the north against the south.

But is it bias if it is true? 
Let’s look at the facts, collected by the cdc.

First, exercise might as well be illegal in the American south, for how few people actually take good care of themselves.


They spend their time eating instead. 
Southerners are fatter than the rest of the USA.

obesity
The kids don’t do well in school. 
Which creates an illiteracy belt.


They make babies instead. 

While smoking.

Which leads to heart disease.

And strokes.

All which keeps the American south the poorest region in the country. 
poverty
Know why New Yorkers have a better quality of life?

We work our asses off, we value education, we hit the salad bar and the treadmill and we use birth control until we’re ready.


We’re genius’s up here.

cnn

3 comments:

  1. And NY has 22% with below basic literacy skills? But is still green on the map? (versus purple) Something seems off there...

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    1. Yes, notice also California is 23% and still pale green. Perhaps there a pockets of high illiteracy in densely populated urban areas that average each state to the number, but statewide literacy improves considerably and is thus categorized by the green. It's a fact that LA and NY and FLA are bearing more than their fair share of illegal immigration, and that certainly impacts on literacy figures, too.

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  2. I thought of that too actually, but then wondered what their definition of "English speaking" was. I assumed native English speakers, which would likely debunk most of the immigration theory, but perhaps they mean any level of English speaking (in which case, I don't think it's a very useful map).

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