Executive orders

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/every-presidents-executive-actions-in-one-chart/

Every President’s Executive Orders In One Chart

1:41 PMNOV 20 By DHRUMIL MEHTA

President Obama is due to announce an executive action Thursday, one that will change the legal status of millions of immigrants and is likely to be remembered as a major effort to change the country’s immigration system. The action would reportedly allow up to 4 million undocumented immigrants legal work status, and an additional 1 million protection from deportation. It would be one of the most wide-reaching executive actions in history.

That has made Republicans furious. The New York Times has a good roundup of the reaction, including quotes from Sens. John Cornyn (“I believe his unilateral action, which is unconstitutional and illegal, will deeply harm our prospects for immigration reform”) and Tom Coburn (“The country’s going to go nuts, because they’re going to see it as a move outside the authority of the president, and it’s going to be a very serious situation”). The spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner has called the president “Emperor Obama,” implying that the executive action is an unlawful decree, and Sen. Ted Cruz said on Fox News that “the president is behaving in an unprecedented way.”

If it’s unprecedented, it’s because of the scope of the executive action, not the executive action itself. For decades, executive orders have been a fairly common tool for U.S. presidents. We looked at data from the American Presidency Project and found that the use of executive orders peaked in the era of the New Deal (FDR set the record) and has been on the decline since. In the past 100 years, Democrats have used them more than Republicans. Here’s every president’s tally per year that he served in office.

Maternity leave in the US compared to other nations

The US is one of very few nations in the world that do not have paid maternity leave. The site below gives a great summary in three minutes.

10 things to do in college besides attend class

Good for freshmen!

10 Things to Do in College (Probably) More Important Than Going to Class

This month, a lot of tearful teenagers will bid adieu to high school (good news guys, you’ll still be Facebook friends with each other in 20 years) and begin looking forward to the next chapter, which, for the lucky among them, will be college. I loved it so much, I decided never to leave, and I’ve been at various universities for the past 18 years (whoa). At college, no one makes you go to class, and I thought I’d give our incoming freshmen some advice that no one else will. Don’t take this as invitation to skip that excruciating discussion of medieval history, but sometimes ditching is important, in the same way that learning to manage your time wisely is important, and the same way that, although painful, failing is important, too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-juliet-lauro/ten-things-to-do-in-college_b_5358967.html

Laptops vs hand-written notes

http://m.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/28/why-students-using-laptops-learn-less-in-class-even-when-they-really-are-taking-notes/

Why students using laptops learn less in class even when they really are taking notes

Even when students paid attention and took copious notes on their laptops, they still didn’t learn as well. In fact, the copiousness of their notes may be part of the problem, the study found.

Laptop users are inclined to use long verbatim quotes, which they type somewhat mindlessly. The handwriters are more selective. They “wrote significantly fewer words than those who typed.”

Reaction to Coca Cola commercial during Super Bowl

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-6-2014/hop-on-pop?xrs=share_copy

Hop on Pop

Coca-Cola sparks a Super Bowl controversy with its unpatriotic ad featuring immigrants singing “America the Beautiful” while drinking Coca-Cola.  (05:17)

Features old ads from the US warning against various “dangerous” European immigrant groups.

White wealth reaches historic high of twenty times black wealth

The Great Recession in Black Wealth

White wealth reaches historic high of twenty times black wealth.

BY JEANNETTE WICKS-LIM

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2012/0112wicks-lim.html

Stop thanking the troops for me: No, they don’t “protect our freedoms!”

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/11/stop_thanking_the_troops_for_me_no_they_dont_protect_our_freedoms/

MONDAY, NOV 11, 2013 11:34 AM EST

Why is pro sports constantly jamming military fervor down our throats? Their claims are wrong in more ways than one

JUSTIN DOOLITTLE

“The combination of unanimous, entirely uncritical appreciation for the military, and the irrational belief that we owe gratitude to the troops for virtually everything we cherish in life, up to and including freedom itself, is very dangerous for our intellectual culture.”

Chinese designer depicts Eastern vs. Western human behaviors in clever pictographs

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/11/06/chinese-designer-depicts-eastern-vs-western-human-behaviors-in-clever-pictographs/

We almost wonder whether Yang Liu, a Beijing-born designer who has lived in Germany since 1990, was tripping when she put together these hip, riddle-like pictographs that abstractly convey behavioral differences between Westerners and Easterns; or more specifically, Germans and Chinese.

Relying on her experiences in Europe and China, Liu put together these clever designs that are a sort of Rorschach test for which region you identify with. We found ourselves staring and trying to figure out what they stood for, then nodding in agreement about one side or the other, but not always the side Liu expected us to identify with.

 

Of course, it’s never good to make gross generalizations about entire groups of people – we’re sure there are a lot of Germans who do sort of meander around what they really want to say hoping the listener will get the hint, and we have plenty of Chinese friends who actually do know how to line up properly. So, do take these with a grain of salt.

Most of these are pretty easy to figure out at a glance, but a few require some deeper thinking, so we’ll be putting the explanations for the photos after each one rather than before. Germany is represented on the left (in blue), while China is on the right (in red):

 

Silenced By Status, Farm Workers Face Rape, Sexual Abuse

This is part one of a two-part report about sexual assault of agricultural workers in the U.S.

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/05/243219199/silenced-by-status-farm-workers-face-rape-sexual-abuse

Wisconsin student email to a recruiter

http://www.businessinsider.com/wisconsin-student-sent-worst-email-ever-to-a-financial-recruiter-2013-10

Wall Streeters Are Passing Around This Awful Email A Wisconsin Student Sent To A Recruiter

PETER JACOBS OCT. 16, 2013, 11:07 AM 197,395 129

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/wisconsin-student-sent-worst-email-ever-to-a-financial-recruiter-2013-10#ixzz2hvhCzHLo

A student at the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee is making waves in the financial world for all the wrong reasons after an awful email he sent to a recruiter is going viral.

 

The email — originally posted on BroBible — is a cringeworthy read in which the student reminds the recruiter about a zit he had when they met and reveals his fears about how a high-pressure job may affect his love life.

No update yet as to whether he landed his dream accounting job. We’re skeptical someone would be dumb enough to send this but here’s the full email from BroBible:

Subject: Question

Hey REDACTED,

We talked a couple weeks back at the UW-Milwaukee accounting night. (I was the one looking for equity research positions and had a zit on my lip that could have passed for a cold sore. Lol. Whew. It was not. You’re probably like, “uh.. What?” Maybe that helps you recall, maybe not. Not completely important, I suppose.

Anyways, if you have a chance here is my question: (background first) I interviewed with BDO and Baker Tilly today, two firms that seem like good places to work, I believe they don’t kill you like a big 4. Tomorrow I have an interview with Deloitte :O somewhere I thought I’ve always wanted to work. Obviously I don’t have an offer so this is all hypothetical thinking, but if I get the job, the reality of the situation is that I’m getting old. 25. I know you can’t force love and I know it just comes when you’re not looking, but would working for a big four completely squash any possibilities for potential relationships if one came along? Is working for a big four a potential career – love trade off? I mean, I like money(as do most females) but love is…great 🙂 What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

REDACTED

Sent from my iPhone

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/wisconsin-student-sent-worst-email-ever-to-a-financial-recruiter-2013-10#ixzz2hvh8uofn