The week's buzz: We aren't the median

Brandon Thibodeaux for msnbc.com

Megan and Sam Moss, pictured here with their baby daughter Mary Margaret, are living on the nation's median household income of around $50,000 a year.

By Allison Linn

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For the last couple of weeks, Life Inc. has been exploring what it?s like to be in the exact midpoint of the nation?s economic spectrum.

The We are the median project prompted thousands of readers to share their stories and thoughts on what it?s like for to live on the nation?s household median income of around $50,000 a year. And it also prompted lots of you to tell us about what it?s like to be much worse off.

Many readers told us they can only hope to bring home $50,000 a year.

?$50,000 would be great to make a year. Single mom with 2 kids and I bring home less than $35,000. Took a cut in hours to keep my job,? one reader wrote in response to our profile of a mom and son who are struggling with a drop in income.

Another profile, of a young couple bringing home around $50,000 a year and juggling high student loan bills, also prompted some to tell us that people need to pay more attention to those who have it much worse.

?Why is this news? We make less than $27K, I have over $80K in student debt. My dream is a nightmare and we are family of 4,? one reader wrote.

Although some readers told us?they are doing just fine?on incomes below $50,000 a year, others said it?s very hard to make ends meet on a lower income. In a post this week about a family choosing to live a very simple life on about $20,000 a year, many readers questioned whether low-income living is really ?living well.??

But some found the story inspirational.

?It's gratifying to hear stories of real people. I applaud this young family and see their lot improving, over time. My husband and I struggled in our early life, with young children and little money. ? Our kids are not scarred because of this, they are all hard working, successful contributors to society. We have always had to be smart about our money and now that we have more, we are still frugal,? one commenter wrote.

Apparently that?s not a lesson many parents are passing on to their children. In a post about a young couple getting a good financial start in life, about 40 percent of our readers said they hadn't learned much from their parents about how to manage money.

?My parents didn't tell me anything about budgeting. It's a hard lesson I now know and am passing this on to my kids,? one reader wrote.

How much would you have to bring home to be free of money worries? More than half of our readers said they would have to make $250,000 or more per year in order to feel rich.

For some, the more money, the better.

?As much as possible. You're never secure in this country unless you are the 1%,? one reader wrote.

Still, some readers said they would settle for much less.

?I would be thrilled with that (to me) mythical $50,000 per year..........!? one reader wrote.

{"contentId":"9471435","totalVotes":"1752"}

What's the minimum annual income your household could live on?

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Source: http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9471435-the-weeks-buzz-we-arent-the-median

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How the poll on Obama and the economy was conducted (Star Tribune)

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Follow your nose: Compared to Neanderthals, modern humans have a better sense of smell

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) ? Differences in the temporal lobes and olfactory bulbs also suggest a combined use of brain functions related to cognition and olfaction. The increase of brain size is intimately linked to the evolution of humanity. Two different human species, Neanderthals and modern humans, have independently evolved brains of roughly the same size but with differing shapes. This could indicate a difference in the underlying brain organization.

In a study published this week by Nature Communications, led by Markus Bastir and Antonio Rosas, of the Spanish Natural Science Museum (CSIC), high-tech medical imaging techniques were used to access internal structures of fossil human skulls. The researchers used sophisticated 3D methods to quantify the shape of the basal brain as reflected in the morphology of the skeletal cranial base. Their findings reveal that the human temporal lobes, involved in language, memory and social functions as well as the olfactory bulbs are relatively larger in Homo sapiens than in Neanderthals. "The structures which receive olfactory input are approximately 12% larger in modern humans than in Neanderthals," the authors explain.

These findings may have important implications for olfactory capacity and human behaviour. In modern humans the size of the olfactory bulbs is related to the capacity of detection and discrimination of different smells. Olfaction is among the oldest sense in vertebrates. "Also, it is the only one that establishes a direct connection between the brain and its environment," says Markus Bastir, the lead author of the study. While other senses must pass through different cortical filters, olfaction goes from the environment right into the highest centres of the brain. What is more, "olfaction never sleeps," adds Antonio Rosas, "because we always breathe and perceive smells." The neuronal circuitry of olfaction coincides with that of memory and emotion (the limbic system), "which explains the enormous memory retention and vital intensity of olfaction-mediated life events."

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, who also contributed to the current publication, could recently show differences in the patterns of brain development between modern humans and Neanderthals during a critical phase for cognitive development. "In the first year of life the brains of Neanderthals and modern humans develop differently," says Philipp Gunz from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. "Modern humans have smaller faces and smaller noses than their Neanderthal cousins. However, the part of the brain that processes smells, is bigger in modern humans than in Neanderthals." "Evidence is accumulating that Neanderthals and modern humans independently evolved large brains and that their brains might have worked differently. Our new study offers a glimpse into the functional significance of these developmental differences," adds Jean-Jacques Hublin, who heads the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.

Olfactory information projects to brain regions directly responsible for processing of emotion, motivation, fear, memory, pleasure and also attraction. Neuroscientists have coined the term "higher olfactory functions" to describe those brain functions which combine cognition (memory, intuition, perception, judgment) and olfaction. The greater olfactory bulbs and relatively larger temporal lobes in H. sapiens compared to any other human species may point towards improved and different olfactory sense possibly related to the evolution of behavioural aspects and social functions.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

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Journal Reference:

1. Markus Bastir, Antonio Rosas, Philipp Gunz, Angel Pe?a-Melian, Giorgio Manzi, Katerina Harvati, Robert Kruszynski, Chris Stringer, Jean-Jacques Hublin. Evolution of the base of the brain in highly encephalized human species. Nature Communications, 2011; 2: 588 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1593

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/rNKJIgedGxY/111214101818.htm

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A journalism professor derides Iowa and faces fury (AP)

IOWA CITY, Iowa ? Only a few weeks before the first Republican presidential contest, some Iowans are on the attack like never before.

They're writing angry blog posts, doing research to discredit their opponent and railing against elites, but this vitriol isn't aimed at Republican candidates. It's focused on University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom, whose article for The Atlantic magazine painted Iowans as uneducated Jesus freaks who love hunting and don't deserve the political clout they will exercise Jan. 3.

Every four years, some pundits and voters complain about the small, largely white states of Iowa and New Hampshire getting to play outsized roles nominating presidential candidates with their first-in-the-nation contests. But what makes Bloom's critique stand out is that it came from within and was expressed in brutal terms by a talented writer who spent years reporting on Iowa.

Add in some factual inaccuracies, sweeping generalizations and stereotypes about Iowans, and you have an outrage that is playing out from Sioux City to Keokuk (which he labeled "a depressed, crime-infested slum town".)

Bloom said he wrote the article to expose "uncomfortable truths and unconventional truths" about Iowa's population and economy and generate a debate about whether its four-decade run as the first caucus state should continue.

In the article, he paints Iowa's cities and rural areas as economic wastelands with little culture. He calls the state politically schizophrenic with Republicans living west of Des Moines and Democrats to the east. He describes rural areas as hotbeds for suicide and filled with the uneducated, the elderly and meth addicts. He calls the Mississippi River "commercially irrelevant" and describes cities along it as "some of the skuzziest" he'd ever seen.

Bloom, who is Jewish, complains that Iowans constantly talk about Jesus and hunting. "That's the place that may very well determine the next U.S. president," Bloom, a New Jersey native who came to Iowa in the early 1990s from San Francisco, concludes.

The response has been bipartisan. "Professor Bloom is engaging here in just a remarkable level of stereotyping. He should know better," said Sue Dvorsky, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Iowa. "He's done two great books about life in Iowa. This commentary is not worthy of him."

"The saddest part of all of this is he's a journalism professor for crying out loud!" added Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, a Republican. "This is a condescending piece that I'm ashamed to say was funded by my constituents' tax dollars."

Some online critics have told Bloom to leave the state, called him a liar and worse. Others have used sarcasm to hit back. RayGun, a store that sells Iowa-themed clothing, released a shirt congratulating Iowans for surviving "meth, Jesus, hunting accidents, crime-filled river slums and old people. Unfortunately, you are going to die sad and alone soon."

Bloom has gotten little support at the university, where he earns an annual salary of $107,000. Spokesman Tom Moore said Bloom "does not speak for nor represent the university." One professor called him a "smug, self-important jerk" ? on Bloom's Facebook page.

Critics argued Iowa voters were some of the most educated in the country. Others noted the state's unemployment rate of 6 percent is below the national average. Iowa's population is slowly increasing, not "dropping precipitously" as Bloom wrote.

Bloom, currently at the University of Michigan as a visiting scholar, said critics are missing the larger point that Iowa needs to confront its problems for future generations.

"You can chip away if you want at this story, but it raises some fundamental central issues that Iowans and Americans need to confront," he said. "I think America should sit down and have a collective discussion on the wisdom of how we select our president and how inordinately important Iowa is in that process."

Bloom said he faced similar attacks when he wrote the 2000 book "Postville," which chronicled the clash between Iowans and Hasidic Jews who moved in to run a slaughterhouse. He said he was vindicated years later when authorities cracked down on the abuses he chronicled.

But readers aren't sure this piece will hold up. Some are questioning Bloom's claim that the state's second largest newspaper had "He Has Risen" as a front-page headline to mark Easter in 1993. A microfiche of the page shows no such headline, but Bloom insists that's his recollection.

And then there were Bloom's claims about his family dog. Bloom wrote that "he can't tell you how often over the years" he was walking the dog when pickup truck drivers stopped to ask whether she's a good hunter. Iowans, he said, would never get a dog for amusement but only "to track and bag animals that you want to stuff, mount, or eat."

That line prompted several Iowa dog owners to insist they've never been asked that and to accuse Bloom of exaggeration.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_el_pr/us_iowa_caucuses_professor

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