Calling All Map Geeks
Go here. Now.
Or maybe don't, if you don't want to get sucked into a vortex of clever map awesomeness. And FYI, this has nothing to do with the Northwest, but nonetheless I can't stop playing with it.
[Hat tip, or possibly blame, to Sightline reader Callie Jordan.]
(1)
Belief Does Not Equal Action
From The New Yorker, a clear case where behavior and attitudes don't match up:
The vast majority of white evangelical adolescents—seventy-four per cent—say that they believe in abstaining from sex before marriage....Moreover, among the major religious groups, evangelical virgins are the least likely to anticipate that sex will be pleasurable, and the most likely to believe that having sex will cause their partners to lose respect for them...But...among major religious groups, only black Protestants begin having sex earlier.
So here's a group that has strong, clear beliefs: sex before marriage is morally wrong, unpleasant, and shameful. And yet, on average, kids with "save it until marriage" beliefs become sexually active sooner than most of their peers.
There may not be any broad lesson here. These are adolescents, after all; and when I was a teenager, I wasn't particularly rational either. Still, if there's a broader point, it's this: often enough, beliefs simply don't translate into action.
