new ipums data and student paper awards

via the minnesota population center:

The Minnesota Population Center is pleased to announce the latest expansion of the IPUMS-International data series. In June 2008 we added 32 new samples. The data release includes 9 new countries -- Austria,Canada, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Malaysia, Netherlands, Panama, and United Kingdom -- as well as additional samples for China, Colombia, Mexico,United States, and Venezuela. The data series now contains 263 million person records from 111 censuses in 35 countries. ... You can read more about the expanded data series at http://international.ipums.org/international/news.html.

We are still accepting nominations for the best overall and best graduate student papers that use the IPUMS-International data. Deadline for submissions is July 15. Details are available at http://international.ipums.org/international/news.html#ipumsi_awards.

nothing's shocking

george carlin's death has rekindled interest in his old bit about the seven words you can't say on television. slate offers another perspective on obscenity, considering bands that choose unprintably offensive names. this sort of thing probably doesn't qualify as an irrational act, since a putatively shocking name confers notoriety that, in turn, may confer rewards.

when dozens of bands choose such names, of course, they lose all capacity to shock. slate cites painfully uncreative examples, such as Holy F*ck, the F*ck Buttons, the F*cking Ocean, Sh*t Robot, Sh*tdisco, Holy Sh*t, and Psychedelic Horsesh*t. there's no art to these monikers (well, i do like the last one a little), but they're meant to convey a sense of willfull off-handedness -- we know the name of our band is sort of, like, stoopid, but that's the point innit? the whole idea of "names" for, like, "bands" is stoopid.

or maybe i'm giving 'em too much credit. i don't really care whether bands call themselves the f-bombs or whether the times prints their name in a review.* i get much more frustrated with arch hipster hate speech names than with plain vanilla profanity. slate cites AIDS Wolf and Jay Reatard -- names that "aren't literally profane, but ... flirt with a sophomoric crudeness."

that's why i was glad to read that one musician, brendan fowler, simply refused to appear on a bill with these artists:

"It would be like calling your band Jay Faggot," he says. "No one would let you call it that, but you can get away with calling it Jay Reatard." He canceled his performances at both concerts and put together an art show to challenge artists with inappropriate monikers and call for social accountability. It is currently hanging at Rivington Arms, a contemporary art gallery in New York. "

now that's a creative use of obscenity.

* for the record, i dropped a couple f-bombs in the american sociological review. the editors never questioned this usage and, to my knowledge, nobody who read the article ever mentioned it.**

** for the record, there is no evidence that anyone actually read this article.

curd is the word

i'm expected to give a lot of advice in my various roles as teacher, advisor, editor, and chair. though i try my best to give helpful counsel, my advice is sometimes useless -- and sometimes even worse than useless.

that said, i can occasionally provide a useful insight. as proof of the latter, here's my favorite email of the day:

Chris,

I forgot to tell you. You were totally right--you do need the batter for the cheese curds to work...

--
[name]
PhD Student
Dept of Sociology, University of Minnesota

mmm-mmm. while i may have little to offer students in the way of, say, dealing with journal reviewers, i'm yer guy when it comes to deep-frying cheese curds. for anyone seeking further li'l gooey yellow pearls of wisdom, here's a nice beer-batter recipe and a comprehensive wisconsin site with recipes, a dairy state curd crawl, and inspirational verse. a sample:

The purists will quickly deride
But I like my cheese curds deep-fried
They're gooey and hot
(though squeaky they're not)
And crispy brown on the outside.

- N. Hawker, Portage, MI

new bjs report on sexual victimization in local jails

the bureau of justice statistics has released a large-scale study of self-reported sexual victimization in local jails. i made the quick figure above to show the estimated prevalence of such victimization for different inmate groups: about 5% of females and 3% of males reported sexual victimization and rates were disproportionately high for inmates of color, youth, and more educated inmates. prior victimization and (self-identified) sexual orientation are most strongly correlated with victimization, however, with about one in 10 bisexual inmates and almost one in five homosexual inmates reporting sexual victimization.

one hopes that such data can help provide a road map for reducing sexual assaults in correctional facilities -- and protecting those most subject to victimization. courageously, the bjs report also identifies the specific jails with especially high or low rates of sexual victimization:

The Torrance County Detention Facility (New Mexico) had the highest rate — 10.1% when sexual victimization excluded willing activity with staff and 8.9% when victimization excluded abusive sexual contacts (allegations of touching only). The Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail and the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (New Mexico) were also among the top five facilities on each of these more serious measures of sexual victimization.

inside higher ed on sociology/criminology job mismatch

scott jaschik offers another nice inside higher ed piece today, based on a new american sociological association report on employment opportunities in academic sociology. an excerpt:

More than one third of the assistant professor positions did not specify a subfield. But the top subfield specified (nearly three times more than the runner up) was criminology/delinquency, and the sixth most popular subfield was a related one, law and society. The concern of those who prepared the report is that evidence suggests grad students are focused elsewhere.

i spoke with mr. jaschik on friday, so my opinions on this issue are well-represented in the article. i won't say more, except to add a few words of reassurance for sociology grad students with specialties outside criminology. though crim is the top specialty area identified, there were 227 positions listed as "field open" in the ASA report, often in top departments. my sense is that these open positions often go to areas such as stratification, demography, and political sociology.

that caveat aside, the ASA report is also reassuring to me as an advisor -- the market continues to be exceptionally strong for sociological criminologists. here are the top specialties specified in job postings for sociology assistant professors in 2006:

Field and Number of Positions
Field open 227
Criminology/delinquency 86
Quantitative methods/statistics 29
Theory 21
Urban/community 19
Race and ethnicity 19
Law and society 15
Medical 13
Race, class and gender 12
Demography 11
Family 11
Social psychology 11
Culture 10
Organizations/Economic 10
Stratification/Labor Markets 9
Policy Analysis/Public Policy 8
Education 7
Environment 7
Latino/Latina 7
Political/Social Movements 7
Aging/Social Gerontology 6
Applied Sociology/Evaluation Research 5
Social Welfare/Social Work 5
Other Fields 75
Total 610

no gophers at victoria's secret

victoria's secret recently announced that minnversity-themed t-shirts, hoodies, and underwear will be sold as part of the company's PINK collegiate collection.

contrary to strib reports, however, the minnesota daily reveals that goldy gopher will not be participating in the new loungewear line. the mixup is attributed to miscommunication rather than gender politics. nevertheless, spokesgophers made clear that the clothing line is "not in step with the University's values and focus" and that the minnversity only "approves tasteful trademark requests." should universities license their names to lingerie stores? who decides which products should or shouldn't be licensed?

though i wouldn't want my university to be involved in anything distasteful, i know we can always use new revenue streams. personally, i only purchase products that are in keeping with the minnversity's values and focus, such as my officially-licensed golden gopher "talking beer opener."* it plays a bracing version of the rouser at considerable volume, which usually puts guests in a festive mood.

i guess i wouldn't be terribly offended if the minnversity struck a deal with victoria's secret, as long as they also licensed some male boxers and loungewear. either way, however, i'm unlikely to set foot in the store. my last trip to victoria's secret was at rosedale about 10 years ago, where i was greeted by a hearty, "hi professor uggen! can i help you find something?" being unprepared to talk underwear with an undergrad, i made up a lame cover story -- "why this isn't the Foot Locker, i must've taken a wrong turn! i'm very absent-minded, you know" -- before retreating quickly, two kids in tow.

* in truth, the opener was a gift from a much-loved student.

badges, posters, stickers, and road rage

brad k. sends word of a colorado state study linking bumper stickers to road rage. territoriality is the hypothesized mechanism. here's the newsweek synopsis, with a link to the authors and article:

As scientists led by Lucy Troup and her student William Szlemko of Colorado State University report in the June issue of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, it’s a simple matter of territoriality. Researchers have long known that drivers who have a strong sense of personal space while in their vehicle are more likely to be road-ragers, and the more someone plasters his vehicle with bumper stickers and decals the more territorial he feels about the space inside.

and a few lines from the abstract:

Aggressive driving may occur when social norms for defending a primary territory (i.e., one's automobile) become confused with less aggressive norms for defending a public territory (i.e., the road). Both number of territory markers (e.g., bumper stickers, decals) and attachment to the vehicle were significant predictors of aggressive driving.

when i pitched this story to the contexts board as a possible discoveries piece, i was asked whether the sentiment expressed on the bumper sticker made any difference. apparently not. while the number of stickers is highly predictive, the researchers found no evidence that visualize whorled peas was any less dangerous than they'll have to pry my AK-47 from my cold dead fingers.

i suppose territoriality is a reasonable explanation, though my first thought was that badges, posters, stickers, and t-shirts are expressions of extroversion, which might be directly linked to externalizing behaviors such as bird-flippin' and roadside dukers.

but now i'm buying the researchers' argument and thinking it might be territoriality after all -- i've been driving much more aggressively since the arrival of those ICUDV8 license plates.

(sort of) on facebook

i'm not really on facebook, but i set up an account weeks ago so that i could see a friend's picture. i still couldn't see the picture, of course, because i was only an unofficial friend. at that point, i wasn't so interested anymore and i didn't pursue an officially sanctioned friendship with picture-viewing privileges.




stumbling upon my lonesome shell of a page, sarah shannon was characteristically supportive: "dude, you need some friends." so, now i've got ten friends -- i'm sure that must be some sort of facebook record, right? no? oh well, here's the cool news:


Chris and Tor Uggen are now friends.12:55pm

yes, my seventeen-year-old actually invited me to see his page. i don't want to abuse the privilege by blogging about its contents* or even discussing them with him, but i'm glad he let me in. this called to mind a few research ideas about secrecy and parent-kid relationships (is sharing such info a good thing for families or does it create too-much-information problems? do some maintain shadow pages where they put the real stuff?). i'd best shut up about them, however, before he changes his mind and puts some sort of block on me.

* ok, one exception: in the About Me section of his personal info, he writes "i'm a leggy blonde." that's pretty accurate, i guess.

update: check out jay's post on how worlds collide when parents view kids' facebook entries.

doctor hlavka

we're celebrating a new ph.d. in the department, after heather hlavka's successful defense of her dissertation, the trouble with telling: children's constructions of sexual abuse.

dr. hlavka analyzed ten years of case files and videotaped forensic interviews with children seen for suspected cases of sexual abuse. the diss is powerful stuff, rendered with great care, sensitivity, and sophistication. she shows how the meaning of sexual abuse is negotiated in interaction with adults, but keeps the children's voices front-and-center throughout. a systematic research design yields clear (and disturbing) generalizations about social power and barriers to disclosure. in short, she's got me questioning just about everything we (think we) know about the age, race, class, and gender distribution of child sexual abuse.

dr. hlavka will be professin' at marquette university this fall, where she will join darren wheelock, a fellow minnversity sociologist.

cuts to public defenders

in gideon v. wainright (1963), the u.s. supreme court ruled that state courts are required under the constitution's sixth amendment to provide counsel for criminal defendants who can't afford their own attorneys. the decision greatly expanded public defender offices to provide for such defense.

now abc news is reporting that the severe budget problems faced by these offices may be compromising their ability to provide adequate counsel:

Statewide public defenders in Kentucky and Minnesota and local offices in cities such as Atlanta and Miami say budget cuts are forcing them to fire or furlough trial lawyers, leaving the offices unable to handle misdemeanor and, in some instances, serious felony cases.

The cuts leave states scrambling to find a solution to a constitutional dilemma: The Sixth Amendment requires the government to either provide poor defendants with lawyers or release them.

in the jurisdictions i know best, they've trimmed away every ounce of fat in the budgets over the past five years. so today they are cutting muscle and bone -- paralegals, investigative staff, administrative support, and, finally, the attorneys themselves. for a strapped mayor or city council, it can be easier to cut the defender's office than to trim the DA's budget or that of the police. that's why it could take some major wrongful conviction lawsuits -- or another clarence earl gideon -- to preserve the right to counsel for indigent defendants.

three stories about minnesota kids

1. an outgoing minnversity senior

sociology and political science major molly watters is featured today in the strib's "how i got that job" column. the story would be good for one of those what to do with a sociology major talks with the undergrads. aside from her studies, ms. watters did fine work as a research assistant and a project assistant in the department's office, pitching in on our self-study, contexts magazine, and myriad other projects. now she's working as a "merchandise planning business analyst" (and earning about as much as some new assistant professors). here's a quote to warm a department chair's heart:

What do you think will make you good at your job?
Really, my education is probably going to make me the best at my job, between my extracurricular activities, which taught me teamwork, time management, different things like that, to my actual classroom work, which taught me problem-solving, analytical skills as well as a solid writing foundation...Don't close your doors based on your degree. I have a degree in political science and sociology and I'm going into merchandising.

2. an incoming minnversity freshman

stunning the wrestling world at yesterday's olympic trials, 18-year-old jake deitchler is going directly from anoka high school to beijing.

i watched the minnversity recruit at last year's state tourney, where his anoka team whupped up on our lads at the excel center. fierce wrestler. anoka happens to be garrison keillor's hometown, though it currently bears little resemblance to lake wobegon. the town has now produced four olympic wrestlers, including one of mr. deitchler's coaches, silver medalist brandon paulson.

3. a smart-alecky father's day story

while it is nice to see other people's kids doing so well, my kids just gave me the coolest father's day gift ever, which will be displayed in my office for the foreseeable future. while i love hanging with my teenagers, i sometimes get nostalgic for the preschool years -- when they still believed my tall tales and would respond with peals of wild laughter. cooling down after a run last week, i overheard such a tale during a young family's discussion by a neighborhood lake. a wee lad was suspiciously eyeing some half-submerged logs.

kid: "are those alligators, mama?"
mom: "no, honey!"
dad: "well..."
mom: "don't scare him, jim!"
dad: "oh, your mother's right. there are absolutely noooo alligators in minnesota..."

the dad paused for a few beats, then hoisted the excited kid over the muck, shouting, "THEM ARE CROCODILES!"

huffpost's fundrace data by occupation

i'd posted before about huffpost's fundrace data and the fine bands that one could put together for the inauguration among supporters of barack obama and john edwards.

mother jones offers a detailed occupational breakdown, showing the amount given and percentage of republican support for the period 1/1/07-3/31/08. importantly, the occupations are self-reported, so the categories are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive. a few highlights:

public defender: 2% GOP

ob-gyns: 5%

journalist: 9%

professor: 14%

biologist: 16%

prosecutor: 17%

rabbis: 18%

scientist: 19%

attorney: 20%

judge: 21%

musicians: 21%

chef: 27%

pediatrician: 28%

realtor: 31%

physician: 40%

manager: 44%

self-employed: 44%

ministers: 49%
homemaker: 52%
farmer: 60%
plastic surgeon: 65%
soldier: 68%
police officer: 68%
retired: 72%
truck driver: 73%
wizards and sex slaves: 100% (specifically, 100% ron paul)

strawberries

june brings sweet berries and thunderstorms to minnesota, calling to mind summer fruit and edwin morgan's fine verse:


'Strawberries'

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates

-- Edwin Morgan

lileks on phone books: heavy on characters, light on plot

james lileks strikes just the right tone in railing against the 967 pounds of unwanted phone books currently being dumped on your doorstep:

having a human being physically schlep the ginormous phone book to your door is like having someone show up at your house with a slab of ice over his shoulder. Hello, I'm from the previous century. Need anything? No. Well, could I print off the Internet for you? No.

perfect. i've been dutifully hauling the new books in and tossing out the old ones, though i haven't actually referred to anything but the li'l local directory in a decade. and that was for a pizza coupon, i think. ecojoe's suggests that one can halt delivery of the books by calling 1-877-243-8339 or visiting yellowpagesgoesgreen. i'm not sure this will stop the madness, but it might be worth a try.

if you like mr. lilek's strib column, you should visit his fine site and institute. as with trips to the louvre or the met, one should allow several days of study to fully appreciate the collection. the site forms a nice feeder system for mr. lilek's print publications, such as his remarkable gallery of regrettable food.

mayor rybak declares june 13th electric fetus day

when esperanza said her pals were headed to "the fetus" this weekend, it didn't register at first. i couldn't believe it when she elaborated: "you know, the electric fetus. in minneapolis."

you mean, like, the old record store and paraphernalia shop i remember from high school? aren't record stores for old and/or dorky people? or are you into something we should talk about?

i haven't been to the fetus for a few years (decades?) but i'm heartened that they're still selling music and candles and incense and bath salts and such. they also do some very cool in-stores, with atmosphere and brother ali appearing just last night. here's the rest of the lineup:

• Wednesday, June 11th: Haley Bonar
• Thursday, June 12th: Roma di Luna
• Friday, June 13th: Charlie Parr
• Saturday, June 14th: Teddy Bear Band
• Sunday, June 15th: Donald Washington/James Buckley Trio

to honor their 40 years of serving the community, minneapolis mayor r.t. rybak has declared friday to be electric fetus day. there's further celebration and a benefit for local foodshelves at first avenue that evening, with live music from four decades: doomtree, polara, the hypstrz, tony glover, and the new standards appearing in the mainroom, and a night in the box, john rodine, moon maan, and the electric fetus all-stars appearing in the entry.

bjs incarceration numbers for 2006

the bureau of justice statistics has released mid-year 2007 numbers for prison (1,595,034) and jail (780,581) incarceration. the data continue the trend of recent years: correctional populations continued to grow in 2007, albeit at a slower rate than in the 1980s and 1990s. [click charts for data]

according to bjs, african american males comprised 35.5 percent of the inmates held in u.s. prison and jails. about 4.6 percent of all african american males were in prison or jail on 6/30/2007, relative to 1.7 percent of hispanic males and 0.7 percent of white males.

what's cuter than a li'l crawler? the magical crawler badge

see that handsome crawler badge, settin' over there by the links? i'm sort of chuck yeagering this one for contexts. our fine web editor jon smajda (pronounced schmoyda, as in schmeudian slip or schmoidavagen) worked it up to alert potential readers to the ever-changing wonders of the crawler.

jon's crafted a careful how-to if you'd like to add the code to your site, or if you want to create a similar badge your own self. if you have ideas for the crawler, stop on by and offer some feedback to its principal author, amelia cotton corl (who, just for the record, is definitely not me). in my view, she somehow offers a clear, fresh, and unbiased presentation of all manner of sociological newsmaking.

strib 3-parter on sex offender civil commitments

larry oakes of the strib offers a well-researched look at sex offender civil commitment in minnesota. a few bullets:

• 19 states and the federal government now detain former prison inmates for indefinite involuntary treatment.
• the state now has the highest rate of sex offender civil commitments, locking up 544 men and 1 woman.
• minnesota numbers have spiked dramatically since a heinous 2003 case.
• it costs $134,000 per inmate per year in the minnesota sex offender program, relative to $45,000 per inmate per year in state prison, $15,000 per year for outpatient treatment, $10,000 per year for gps monitoring, and $4,000 per year for electronic home monitoring.
• recidivism has dropped dramatically. as a 2007 state department of corrections report concludes: "due to the dramatic decrease in sexual recidivism since the early 1990s, recent sexual reoffense rates have been very low, thus significantly limiting the extent to which sexual reoffending can be further reduced."

here's the lead:

In the 14 years since Minnesota's Sexually Dangerous Persons Act cleared the way for the state to detain hundreds of paroled sex offenders in prison-like treatment centers, just 24 men have met what has proved to be the only acceptable standard for release.

They died.

"We would say, 'Another one completed treatment,'" said Andrew Babcock, a former guard and counselor in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP).

closed circuit to kieran: 2008 high school rugby tourney

the lad's mounds view rugby club finished sixth at yesterday's state high school rugby tournament. i only caught a few of this year's matches, but was happy to see yesterday's hard-fought victory over a gritty st. michael-albertville team. tor earned man o' the match honors and a swingin' medallion, but he's moving real slowly today.

i bought a few pics from dropkick photos, thinking i might blow one of them up for posterity:

top 10 strumworthy songs for lousy guitarists

rolling stone recently offered a top 100 guitar songs list, tossing some surprisingly creative choices into the mix (e.g., if a queen song had to be included, they could've done a lot worse than keep yourself alive). a fine boomer-era catalog to be sure, but not very useful. here's RS's criteria:

This is what makes a great rock & roll guitar sound: an irresistible riff; a solo or jam that takes you higher every time you hear it; the final power chord that pins you to the wall and makes you hit "play" again and again.

for me, at least, a great guitar song is also eminently playable -- so good that it just takes six strings, three chords, two fingers, and one arsehole to play it. i appreciate segovia, santana/mclaughlin, and whatever skunk baxter was doing on my old school, but i can't play such stuff myself.

since summertime is all about love songs and acoustic guitars by the lake, here are ten simple/fun/sweet songs for lousy guitarists with cheap acoustics. most of these songs are ancient, so updates would be appreciated (according to esperanza, my set list is getting kind of stale). just play 'em with love and they'll sound pretty cool.

acoustic:
1. waterloo sunset (tab)
2. fearless (tab)
3. angie (cool tab)
4. tangerine (tab)
5. ziggy (tab)
6. itchycoo (tab)
7. love is a rose (tab)
8. feel a whole lot better (tab)
9. just like heaven (tab)
10. love is all around (tab)

here are a few more fun/easy electric songs that i'd sub in for others on the RS list:
[can't explain]
[i don't care]
[doctor]
[like a hurricane]
[supernaut]
[post toastee]
[daytripper]
[paperback/rain]
[dog]
[all day and all of the night]
[lil sister]
[tin soldier]
[all your love]
[pretty vacant]
[girlfriend]
[here comes your man]
[ace of spades]
[rebel]
[i got a line on you]
[jeff's boogie]

and, finally, the rolling stone top 100:
1. "Johnny B. Goode" Chuck Berry (1958)
2. "Purple Haze" The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
3. "Crossroads" Cream (1968)
4. "You Really Got Me" The Kinks (1964)
5. "Brown Sugar" The Rolling Stones (1971)
6. "Eruption" Van Halen (1978)
7. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" The Beatles (1968)
8. "Stairway to Heaven" Led Zeppelin (1971)
9. "Statesboro Blues" The Allman Brothers Band (1971)
10. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana (1991)
11. "Whole Lotta Love" Led Zeppelin (1969)
12. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" Jimi Hendrix (1968)
13. "Layla" Derek and the Dominos (1970)
14. "Born to Run" Bruce Springsteen (1975)
15. "My Generation" The Who (1965)
16. "Cowgirl in the Sand" Neil Young with Crazy Horse (1969)
17. "Black Sabbath" Black Sabbath (1970)
18. "Blitzkrieg Bop" Ramones (1976)
19. "Purple Rain" Prince and the Revolution (1984)
20. "People Get Ready" The Impressions (1965)
21. "Seven Nation Army" The White Stripes (2003)
22. "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles (1964)
23. "Over Under Sideways Down" The Yardbirds (1966)
24. "Killing in the Name" Rage Against the Machine (1992)
25. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" The Rolling Stones (1971)
26. "How Blue Can You Get" B.B. King (1965)
27. "Look Over Yonders Wall" The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
28. "Where the Streets Have No Name" U2 (1987)
29. "Back in Black" AC/DC (1980)
30. "Rock Around the Clock" Bill Haley and His Comets (1954)
31. "Keep Yourself Alive" Queen (1973)
32. "Sultans of Swing" Dire Straits (1978)
33. "Master of Puppets" Metallica (1986)
34. "Walk This Way" Aerosmith ()
35. "1969" The Stooges (1969)
36. "Interstellar Overdrive" Pink Floyd (1967)
37. "That's All Right" Elvis Presley (1954)
38. "Stay With Me" The Faces (1971)
39. "Black Magic Woman" Santana (1970)
40. "I Can See for Miles" The Who (1967)
41. "Marquee Moon" Television (1977)
42. "Hideaway" John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (1966)
43. "Holidays in the Sun" The Sex Pistols (1977)
44. "Dig Me Out" Sleater-Kinney (1997)
45. "I Saw Her Standing There" The Beatles (1963)
46. "Miserlou" Dick Dale and the Del-Tones (1962)
47. "Panama" Van Halen (1984)
48. "London Calling" The Clash (1980)
49. "Machine Gun" Jimi Hendrix ()
50. "Debaser" Pixies (1989)
51. "Crazy Train" Ozzy Osbourne (1981)
52. "My Iron Lung" Radiohead (1995)
53. "Born on the Bayou" Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)
54. "Little Wing" Stevie Ray Vaughan (1991)
55. "White Room" Cream (1968)
56. "Eight Miles High" The Byrds (1966)
57. "Dark Star" Grateful Dead (1969)
58. "Rumble" Link Wray (1958)
59. "Freeway Jam" Jeff Beck (1975)
60. "Maggot Brain" Funkadelic (1971)
61. "Soul Man" Sam and Dave (1967)
62. "Born Under a Bad Sign" Albert King (1967)
63. "Sweet Child O' Mine" Guns n' Roses (1987)
64. "Freebird" Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)
65. "Message in a Bottle" The Police (1979)
66. "Texas Flood" Stevie Ray Vaughan (1983)
67. "Adam Raised a Cain" Bruce Springsteen (1978)
68. "The Thrill is Gone" B.B. King (1958)
69. "Money" Pink Floyd (1973)
70. "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" Smashing Pumpkins (1995)
71. "Take It or Leave It" The Strokes (2001)
72. "Say It Ain't So" Weezer (1994)
73. "Summertime Blues" Blue Cheer (1968)
74. "La Grange" ZZ Top (1973)
75. "Willie the Pimp" Frank Zappa (1969)
76. "American Girl" Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)
77. "Even Flow" Pearl Jam (1991)
78. "Stone Crazy" Buddy Guy (1970)
79. "Silver Rocket" Sonic Youth (1988)
80. "Kid Charlemagne" Steely Dan (1976)
81. "Beat It" Michael Jackson (1982)
82. "Walk — Don't Run" The Ventures (1960)
83. "What I Got" Sublime (1996)
84. "Gravity" John Mayer (2006)
85. "You Enjoy Myself" Phish (1988)
86. "I Ain't Superstitious" Jeff Beck (1968)
87. "Red" King Crimson (1974)
88. "Mona" Quicksilver Messenger Service (1969)
89. "I Love Rock N Roll" Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (1981)
90. "How Soon Is Now?" The Smiths (1985)
91. "Drunkship of Lanterns" The Mars Volta (2003)
92. "Memo from Turner" Mick Jagger (1970)
93. "Only Shallow" My Bloody Valentine (1991)
94. "Money for Nothing" Dire Straits (1984)
95. "Omaha" Moby Grape (1967)
96. "New Day Rising" Hüsker Dü (1985)
97. "No One Knows" Queens of the Stone Age (2002)
98. "Under the Bridge" Red Hot Chili Peppers (1991)
99. "Run Thru" My Morning Jacket (2003)
100. "Vicarious" Tool (2006)

free press national conference for media reform 6/6-6/8

dan rather, bill moyers, arianna huffington, and amy goodman are speaking at the national conference on media reform in minneapolis this weekend. it seems a bit livelier than the standard academic conference and i'd encourage you to stop on by if you're in the neighborhood. my friend eric introduced me to some fascinating folks from in these times, huffington post, and prometheus radio. i came away with some contexts-worthy ideas, i think, and pitched a few myself.

out of the woods

things look much better on the family/health front than they did sunday, but i'm still not feeling very bloggy. the minnversity is quitting novell cold turkey and its replacement -- microsoft's active directory -- just ain't working for heavy users like me. plus, as chair, one bears a certain responsibility for all heavy users in the department, so i'm feeling their pain as well.

so here's an easy one. i saw this video on anomie's site some time ago and thought it would make a nice teaching tool on deviance, relativism, medicalization, and science.

parents urging kids to diet: refuse to dramatize the evil

there are strong labeling implications to a new longitudinal study in pediatrics by minnversity epidemiologist dianne neumark-sztainer and colleagues, summarized today in the strib. the punch line is that "parental encouragement to diet predicted poorer weight outcomes 5 years later, particularly for girls."

the results parallel predictions by tannenbaum, lemert and becker with regard to delinquency: maybe the less said about it, the better. should we refuse to dramatize the "evil" of childhood obesity? here's the abstract:

Accurate Parental Classification of Overweight Adolescents' Weight Status: Does It Matter?
Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, MPH, RDa, Melanie Wall, PhDb, Mary Story, PhD, RDa and Patricia van den Berg, PhDa

OBJECTIVE. Our goal was to explore whether parents of overweight adolescents who recognize that their children are overweight engage in behaviors that are likely to help their adolescents with long-term weight management.

METHODS. The study population included overweight adolescents (BMI 85th percentile) who participated in Project EAT (Eating Among Teens) I (1999) and II (2004) and their parents who were interviewed by telephone in Project EAT I. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted with 314 adolescent-parent dyads, and longitudinal analyses were completed with 170 dyads.

RESULTS. Parents who correctly classified their children as overweight were no more likely than parents who did not correctly classify their children as overweight to engage in the following potentially helpful behaviors: having more fruits/vegetables and fewer soft drinks, salty snacks, candy, and fast food available at home; having more family meals; watching less television during dinner; and encouraging children to make healthful food choices and be more physically active. However, parents who recognized that their children were overweight were more likely to encourage them to diet. Parental encouragement to diet predicted poorer adolescent weight outcomes 5 years later, particularly for girls. Parental classification of their children's weight status did not predict child weight status 5 years later.

CONCLUSIONS. Accurate classification of child overweight status may not translate into helpful behaviors and may lead to unhealthy behaviors such as encouragement to diet. Instead of focusing on weight per se, it may be more helpful to direct efforts toward helping parents provide a home environment that supports healthful eating, physical activity, and well-being.

bad news and blessings on a beautiful day

as about 250,000 minnesotans basked in st. paul's grand old day sunshine (at left), i indulged in a long trail run. i spent a dozen or so blissed-out miles organizing, categorizing, and generally getting my head around work and home projects.

my plans all vanished when i returned to the house, though, as i learned i've got family in the emergency room. i raced to the hospital, where it was better than i'd feared (whew!). i'm now optimistic that things might turn out reasonably okay, but scared, of course, that they won't. so i'm blogging now to publicly count a few blessings.

let's see,

1. as near as i can remember (and i'm not thinking all that clearly), i haven't had cause to visit a friend or family member in the hospital since about december of 2000. eight years is a nice run for anybody, but a very nice run for a dad with two teenagers in the house. i realize that i'm very fortunate in this regard.

2. i was also lucky to find a job in my hometown, so i could race to the hospital when word came -- just a few miles from my house and even closer to my office. academics aren't supposed to consider "geography" when they take positions, but it is good to be close to family at such moments. i hope that "geography" somehow factors into my kids' long-term plans.

3. there are no major health insurance worries. again, i realize my family is pretty fortunate here as well.

4. based on the abundant health information available online, i could learn a lot about the situation in a few hours. as i recall, i had much greater difficulty getting such facts eight years ago.

5. when i told the lad about the situation, he went to the shed, gassed up the mower, and got to work doing something -- anything -- for the family. i don't know why this was meaningful to me, but it probably has something to do with feeling supported

unless the situation changes drastically, i'll do a few hours of chair work at the office tomorrow and a bit of contexts emailing as well. i'll do what i can on everything else, but may be even slower and more distracted than usual in completing other tasks or returning correspondence.