Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life,5.13.2022
Steve Kelman, Harvard Kennedy School prof, moderate Dem, pro free speech/anti cancel culture, pro tax rich, pro-Israel. Research improving gov performance, China interest. Blog reprints Facebook posts
Only 25% of infants breastfed
Surprised to learn in the context of reporting on the infant formula shortage that only 25% of children 6 months old are breastfed. Surprised it is so low.
Women like guys who are 6’3”
A book I am reading has a lot of data on various kinds of personal preferences. Women said that the most attractive height for a male date was 6' 3" to 6'4" OMG, I am 5'9". Analyzing the data also showed that a 6' man earning $62,500 a year was on average as desirable as a 5'6" man earning $237,500.
Leave Shanghai to visit home, but can’t travel
A Chinese student friend who has been locked out in his dorm in shanghai has now been told along, with other students, that they are permitted to travel home. The problem though is that there is no way to get home, trains and busses are not working, and cars are not allowed on the street!
Overturning Roe v Wade means inter-racial marriage illegal?
Have been seeing suggestions online that if abortion is made illegal, next inter-racial marriage will be outlawed. To me this seems like fearmongering, is there any evidence at all that this is likely to take place? (And I mean evidence more than that there is some abortion opponent out there who also opposes inter-racial marriage.)
California tax incentives to relocate your company from state banning abortion?
California is planning to offer special tax incentives to companies that relocate to California from sates that have passed abortion or LBTGQ restrictions. I am guessing that nothing like this has ever been done before. Are company location decisions becoming more politicized?
Loveboat Taipei and Birthright Israel
I have been writing on Facebook about a book I'm reading called Loveboat, Taipei, about an Asian American girl who goes to a summer Chinese cultural immersion program in Taiwan. My wife said this reminds her of the Birthright Israel program for young Jews. Yet another sign of how our 2 groups are so similar!
Far-right school board candidates win in Dallas
The moderate conservative Dallas Morning News is not happy about the results of recent school board elections, where far-right candidates beat more moderate ones.
Novel about Asian-American high school kid
Reading a popular novel about a Chinese American teenager called Loveboat, Taipei. At the beginning the main character talks about going to Chinese school on Saturdays , "copying characters by the hundreds into charts, reciting ancient poems without understanding a word." Also mentions at the beginning a boy who commits suicide and whose parents remember him by putting in the Chinese newspaper a full page commemoration with his resume.
Should Swedish students learn German rather than Spanish?
Interesting editorial by the editor of Sweden's leading newspaper saying more Swedes should learn German (and French) as second foreign language after English, rather than Spanish, which has become much more popular in Sweden. Editorial doesn't really note that Spanish has become more popular because of perceived importance of Latin America compared to Europe.