Who's Looking At Pornography?

Using the general social survey, I found that educated people are no more likely to look at pornography than are people who are uneducated. Remarkably, people with the very lowest scores on the wordsum (a strong predictor of IQ) had lower rates of porn viewing than did people with higher scores. I suspect this is because people with little or no education cannot afford pornographic materials, therefore leaving them out of the porn market. Also, I found the number of people, overall, who admitted to looking at pornography to be unusually low, at approximately 22%. This is probably because many respondents are unwilling to admit that they have watched porn in the past. The correlation matrix is posted below. I did not include the full table because of its size.

Correlation Matrix
	DEGREE	WORDSUM (IQ)	XMOVIE1
DEGREE	1.00	.41	.03
WORDSUM (IQ)	.41	1.00	-.06
XMOVIE1	.03	-.06	1.00

Cars That Drive You To Work

In the NY Times today is a story on a "Pentagon-sponsored" auto race for cars run strictly by computer:

State of the art in robotics has reached the point where the most sophisticated autonomous vehicles can now drive comfortably and safely on a city course while surrounded by traffic and other obstacles.

In the future we will all have cars with the auto-pilot feature. The only thing preventing us from doing so now is the cost and a few kinks still left in the technology.

It is exciting to know that my morning ride to work could be spent reading the paper, watching TV, or even getting dressed - for those mornings when I find myself waking up late.

Also, the technology could bring new legal issues to the forefront. In the event there is a crash, will liability go to the to the drivers, or to the manufacture of the auto-pilot technology? The latter option seems like the most possible, which may cause some firms to hesitate in the development of such technologies.

Why Are Kids These Days So Narcissistic?

According to ABC News, rates of Narcissism among young people have increased by 30 percent since the early 80s. Psychologists claim the increase is from too much emphasis on building young people's confidence. Phrases like "your special" are constantly bombarded in the minds of todays youth. What psychologists haven't seemed to think of is the type of living environment kids have grown up in compared to the generations before them. Baby Boomers were usually raised with two or three siblings and parents who had little time to given their kids special attention. Before them, traditionalists (1900-1945) were raised with strict parents and physical punishment for behaving poorly. Todays kids, however, are growing up in separated households leaving them with parents competing for their attention, and child abuse laws that keep parents from "bringing out the belt." Also, the number of siblings the average teenager resides with has decreased significantly, leaving kids with more time for attention from parents and family. All these factors promote self-love. Is it really that kids are being hypnotized into believing their special by parents and the media, or are kids today just growing up in a new, narcissism prone environment?

Good Students Get Cellphones

In the New York times today there is an article on how schools in the NYC public school district are awarding good students with free cell phones and minutes. The plan seems like a bad idea since getting good grades usually takes a significant amount of effort, while getting a job and earning enough money to buy a cell phone would be easier. Even students who are not old enough to legally work may not derive much motivation from the plan. Once a phone is attained, there will be little motivation to keep working for it afterwards. Most importantly, how often does your average 10-year-old use a cell phone anyways? It seems like a Sony Playstation or a PC would be a better motivator since kids tend to prefer electronic toys.