2002.07.14
Disturbing and thought provoking article "The Feminization of American Culture", discussing how new chemicals in the environment may be acting as "synthetic female hormone" and possibly be somewhat responsible for changes in developed countries like decreased sperm count for males, younger onset of puberty in females, and even a general shift in cultural attitudes.
One of the more intriguing (if not guaranteed to prove the central thesis) correlations:
Use no statistical tricks, no manipulation of the data--simply use best-fit trend lines, plotted on linear coordinates--and the two lines practically coincide. The graph of declining sperm density perfectly parallels the decline in male college graduation rates.
Funny of the Moment
I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream - and I hope you don't find this too crazy - is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a fire, calling the fire department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can't have people, if their houses are burning down, saying, "Whatever you do, don't call the fire department!" That would be bad.