Slate Magazine - Hey, Wait a Minute

What ever happened to the plain white diaper?

Tom Scocca — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:06:13 EST

The discovery of Butt Elmo was a surprise at the moment when surprises are least welcome: while changing a diaper. One of the earliest lessons of baby care is that bad things happen in the open air, so speed and routine are essential. Off with the old, wipe, slip on the new, fasten—but why were the Pampers backward?

[more ...]

Heard about how rap legend Roxanne Shanté forced her label to pay for her Cornell Ph.D.? It never happened.

Ben Sheffner — Thu, 3 Sep 2009 19:19:19 EST

It was the feel-good story of the summer. According to the New York Daily News, Roxanne Shanté, a 1980s female hip-hop pioneer famous for the 1984 underground hit "Roxanne's Revenge," had finally gotten her own revenge on Warner Music, the record label she accused of "cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies," to avoid paying her what she was owed. How? After valiantly fighting, reported Daily News freelancer Walter Dawkins, Shanté had convinced Warner to honor a contractual agreement to "fund her education for life." Warner ended up paying more than $200,000, Dawkins reported, to finance Shanté's education, which Shanté said included an undergraduate degree from Marymount Manhattan College and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell. And now, said the Daily News, "Dr. Roxanne Shanté" has "launched an unconventional therapy practice focusing on urban African-Americans," in which she "incorporates hip-hop music into her sessions, encouraging her clients to unleash their inner MC and shout out exactly what's on their mind."

[more ...]

Wars are not inevitable.

John Horgan — Tue, 4 Aug 2009 14:03:47 EST

The West Point War Museum, right across the Hudson River from my home, offers a brisk tour of the history of weaponry, from Paleolithic stone axes to Fat Man, the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. A sign at the museum's entrance states, "Unquestionably, war-making is an aspect of human nature which will continue as nations attempt to impose their will upon each other." Actually, this assertion is quite questionable. A recent decline in war casualties—especially compared to historical and even prehistorical rates—has some scholars wondering whether the era of international war may be ending.

[more ...]

Is Sarah Palin right about taxing polluters? A thought experiment.

Jonathan Rowe — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:24:57 EST

I think it's time to cut Sarah Palin a little slack. After all, not many of us would forsake the bright lights for more winters in Wasilla. Besides, with her opposition to a cap-and-trade policy to slow climate change, the soon-to-be ex-governor of Alaska—her last day in office is Sunday—has a point. Europe has tried this approach, and it was a bust. And does anyone really think it wise to entrust the fate of Earth's atmosphere to another Wall Street circus of kinky new "investment vehicles"? (That's the "trade" part of cap-and-trade.)

[more ...]

Home sellers should offer price protection the way many electronic retailers do.

Ian Ayres — Mon, 1 Jun 2009 06:54:17 EST

The housing market now faces a dilemma long familiar to makers of computers or flat-screen TVs: Prices are dropping so fast that many buyers may be scared off. Home prices have fallen by more than 30 percent since their peak in mid-2006, and although the decline is slowing, they continue to fall. Why buy a house now, many buyers think, if they can get the same house in six months or a year for substantially less? No one wants to catch a falling knife.

[more ...]