The myths and realities of racial profiling

Over the years, I heard many claims about racial profiling in traffic stops by police. But how much of racial profiling actually exists now? As it turns out, racial profiling in traffic stops is either small or nonexistent at the level of police departments, although a very small proportion of individual officers do engage in profiling. It is also interesting how different statistical techniques can be used to come to very different conclusions in a highly charged political debate.

Stephen Petranek counts down to Armageddon

Stephen Petranek counts down to Armageddon (video, 30 min). In this both serious and entertaining TED talk, the former editor-in-chief of Discover magazine discusses the 10 ways the world could end. I have been blissfully unaware of some of these scary scenarios before his talk. So if you have small children in front of your screens, better turn off the internet now, and keep it that way.

Michael Lewis on the financial crisis: Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

To paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, financially stable countries are all alike, every bankrupt country is bankrupt in its own way. Listen to this interesting podcast on NPR's Fresh Air How The Financial Crisis Created A 'New Third World' (audio, 39 min) by Michael Lewis, the author of Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, and learn how Greece, Ireland and Iceland recently got bankrupt (or nearly so), with a bonus chapter on fiscal mismanagement of his home state of California.

Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+

Would you like to live a long and happy life? If yes, you may like this engaging TED talk by Dan Buettner How to live to be 100+  (video, 20 min). In the Blue Zones study, National Geographic writer and explorer Dan Buettner and colleagues looked at several groups of people around the world that have unusually long life spans.

What Makes Gen Xers Tick?

In the Harvard Business Review podcast "What Makes Gen Xers Tick?", (audio, 17 min) book author and blogger Tammy Erickson argues that work motivation of Generation X (those born in 1960s-1970s) is quite different from that of the preceding Baby Boomers generation. Gen X'ers are much less motivated by promotions if these narrow their expertise, box them into more specialized corporate roles, and thus reduce their future choices of getting another job.

Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

In Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us, (animated video, 11 min) from RSAnimate, Daniel Pink, the author of Drive and other popular books, describes some very unexpected results from the recent research on motivation. The old paradigm of higher pay for better performance works - but only for mechanical tasks. If the task requires even the most rudimentary level of cognitive skills (as do most jobs!), higher pay leads to worse performance.

Who's Really Writing States' Legislation?

Who but our elected officials would be writing our states' legislature? You may be surprised by the answer. It turns out that American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a low-profile joint organization of corporations and legislators, writes many of our model state legislative bills, according to NPR Fresh Air podcast How ALEC Shapes States' Legislation Behind The Scenes (audio, 32 min).