Stereotypes

by Brian on March 4, 2005

Sadly I can’t link to it directly because it’s in an annoying popup, but the discussion of the best college basketball players of the year on ESPN.com, featured an hilarous quote from Andy Katz about Australian Andrew Bogut.

bq. Bogut is a unique foreign player. He has a toughness that contradicts the stereotype of foreign big men and has helped him become a force in the paint.

I’ve heard of German stereotypes and American stereotypes and Australian stereotypes and so on, but the idea of there being a stereotype for _foreigners_, i.e. non-Americans, as such is astounding. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so other in my life.

Seriously though, were Australians in the NBA perceived of as weaklings? I wasn’t following American sports when Luc Longley was with the Bulls, so for all I know he’s responsible for Americans thinking of us foreigners as people who can be blown over with a puff of wind.

Infant Mortality in the US

by Harry on March 4, 2005

Bill Gardner notes an uptick in infant mortality in the US, and links to the National Center for Health Statistics report which tries to explain it. As Bill points out, undertsanding a slight rise in the rate is all very interesting, but not to the point when we know what can be done to lower the rate, even if what we know doesn’t address the sudden (and slight) increase. Here are his suggestions:
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The FEC and Blogs

by Henry Farrell on March 4, 2005

I was pretty sure that I was on the right side of the betting odds when I predicted a few days ago that the FEC was going to have to start thinking about how blogs fit into the current regulatory system, but I didn’t expect to be proved right this quickly. Stephen Bainbridge has more.