Research on Dolphins

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Not public policy, but I love dolphins.

“Researchers in the United States and Great Britain have made a significant breakthrough in deciphering dolphin language in which a series of eight objects have been sonically identified by dolphins. Team leader, Jack Kassewitz of SpeakDolphin.com, ‘spoke’ to dolphins with the dolphin’s own sound picture words. Dolphins in two separate research centers understood the words, presenting convincing evidence that dolphins employ a universal “sono-pictorial” language of communication.”

See article Dolphin Language

Very cool!

“Some News Leaves People Knowing Less”

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That’s the conclusion reached by social scientists based on polling results released by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind Poll released on November 21, 2011.  They state, “the poll asked New Jerseyans about current events at home and abroad, and from what sources—if any—they get their information. The conclusion: Sunday morning news shows do the most to help people learn about current events while some outlets, especially Fox News, lead people to be even less informed than those who say they don’t watch any news at all.” Continue reading »

Income Inequality Widens

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October 2011

From Congressional Budget Office Report:

  • “For the 1 percent of the population with the highest income, average real after-tax household income grew by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007 (see Summary Figure 1).
  •  For others in the 20 percent of the population with the highest income (those in the 81st through 99thpercentiles), average real after-tax household income grew by 65 percent over that period, much faster than it did for the remaining 80 percent of the population, but not nearly as fast as for the top 1 percent.
  •  For the 60 percent of the population in the middle of the income scale (the 21st through 80th percentiles), the growth in average real after-tax household income was just under 40 percent.
  •  For the 20 percent of the population with the lowest income, average real after-tax household income was about 18 percent higher in 2007 than it had been in 1979.

Read Report

America isn’t Broke?

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Institute for Policy Studies

The Institute for Policy Studies just issued a report saying that America is not broke. They state: “While doomsday calls for drastic spending cuts have dominated this debate, we at IPS have a completely different view. In a new report, “America Isn’t Broke,” we argue that the crisis is an opportunity to harness the country’s abundant resources in ways that will make our economy more equitable, green, and secure.”
“We did not attempt to develop an exhaustive list of possible revenue-raisers or spending cuts. Rather, we focused on 24 fiscal reforms that we believe would go furthest to make the country more equitable, green, and secure. These reforms amount to an estimated $824 billion in potential revenue per year — seven times the total savings the supercommittee was tasked with producing. Continue reading »

Independents: More Support Occupy Wall Street than Tea Party

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According to October 24, 2011 viagra strengths PEW Poll: “Independents have mixed opinions generic cialis online of the Occupy Wall Street movement: 43% support best canadian pharmacy the movement and 35% are opposed. By contrast, the balance of opinion among independents toward the Tea Party is much more viagra causes skin cancer negative: Just 30% support the Tea Party movement while 49% are opposed.” Unsurprisingly, more cialis online Republicans support the Tea Party than Occupy Wall generic cialis online Street, while more Democrats support viagra 25 mg Occupy Wall Street than the Tea Party. See Article

Trust in Media is lower than ever–but still higher than Congress or Candidates running for election.

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New poll from PEW: Low trust of the media

“Fully 66% say news stories often are inaccurate, 77% think that news organizations tend to favor one side, and 80% say news organizations are often influenced by powerful people and organizations.

The public’s impressions of the national media may be influenced more by their opinions of cable news outlets than their views of other news sources, such as network or local TV news, newspapers or internet news outlets. When asked what first comes to mind when they think of “news organizations,” most name a cable news outlet, with CNN and Fox News receiving the most mentions by far.”

Still, they have more trust in the media than other institutions.
“By comparison, about half say they have a lot or some trust in information provided by their state government (51%) and the Obama administration (50%). Smaller percentages trust information from federal agencies (44%), business corporations (41%), Congress (37%) or candidates running for office (29%).”

See full article at PEW Center for People and the Press

Poverty Rate Increases, Median Income Declines

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From Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2011:

The Census Bureau released its annual report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States today. Here are some quick bullet points:

–Median household income in 2010 was $49,445, down 2.3% from 2009 and down 6.4% from prerecession level.

–Median household income in 2010 was $49,445. That’s 7.1% lower (adjusted for inflation) than it was in 1999

–Median earnings for full time male worker in 2010 was $47,715. Adjusted for inflation, it was $48,245 in 1978.

–Median earnings for men who worked full-time year round was $47,715 in 2010, down 0.4%. For women it was $36,931, up 1.5%.
–Best off 5% of households (adjusted for household size) got 21% of income in 2010.

– Official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1%, up from 14.3% in 2009, third consecutive annual increase

–In 2010, 49.90 million Americans (16.3%) without health insurance vs. 48.99 million (16.1%) in 2009.

–The fraction of foreign-born without health insurance in 2010 was more than double native-born population.
Wall Street Journal article

PEW Poll: Worry about jobs trumps worry about deficit

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“A Pew Research Center/Washington Post poll conducted Sept. 1-4 shows a steady rise since March – from 34% to 43% – in the percentage of those saying that the job situation is the economic issue that worries them most. Those citing the budget deficit as their top worry declined from 28% in May and 29% in July to 22% in September.”

Source: PEW Research Center
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