Positive Sociology

I used to go raving once upon a time.  I wouldn't ever consider myself a "raver" per se (e.g. I never got into the whole "candy" subculture), but between 1999-2001/02 I went to several raves in the Bay Area, CA.  From massive parties held at the Home Base near the Oakland Coliseum, to shady underground parties hosted inside clandestine crack houses, I have seen more than my fair share of raving.  At one point during my undergraduate time at Berkeley, I was going to 2 or 3 raves per week; when some of my friends were getting ready to hit the bars, I was driving with other friends to "map points" and taking secret shuttles into unknown parts of the city.    Although I look back at my time raving ambivalently, I believe that there's something magical about raves.  Raves provide a unique public venue for people to feel comfortable expressing themselves creatively.  Unlike dance clubs, bars, and other social settings in which people work hard to keep ...

So, I was perusing the internet today and stumbled upon a series of articles that people may or may not have heard about.  Apparently, the city of Newark, NJ, celebrated a month without murder last April, 2010 .  I guess this hadn't happened since the late 1960s.  I was astonished when I read this.  I've heard plenty of bad stories about "Brick City" from close friends who have grown up there or lived there, but for some reason this statistic and the news coverage around it floored me.  What's it like to live in a place where a month without murder makes the news?   Dilapidated projects in Newark, NJ  Then, I began digging around on one my favorite wikipedia sites: The US Cities by Crime Rate page .  This is a great page, if you're interested.  Some people took the time to compile the FBI's Uniform Crime Stats and organized them into a table that you can manipulate to your liking.  So, for instance, if you were curious, you could fi...

In an era when Michelle Obama (and just about every other moral crusader) is talking about the importance of food and exercise on how kids perform in school, have we forgotten about sleep? I was reading an article today about how some scientists are claiming that bullying behavior might be strongly linked with sleep deprivation.  The study claims that sleep deprivation can affect regions of the brain that are important for emotional regulation and decision-making. A lot of this makes sense on an intuitive level.  Speaking from personal experience, I know that my sleep patterns greatly influence how I feel the following morning.  I don't have it down to an exact science, but if I get less than 5 hours of sleep, I notice that I have less energy, less patience, and occasionally, will feel more irritable than if I were to get a solid 6+ hours of sleep. Also, I've also figured out that the timing of my sleep matters as well.  If I get to sleep by midnight or 1am, I...

Partially out of stupidity, and partially out of laziness, I've started locking my bicycle to a street sign in front of our apartment building.  I've done this for about 9 months without any problems.  In fact, lots of people do this in my neighborhood.  This morning, while taking my dog out for a walk, I discovered that someone stole the rear tire from my bicycle.  Property theft sucks.  In addition to the money it will take to replace this tire (I'm guessing that it could cost about $100), I now have to spend part of my already busy afternoon at a local bicycle store.  As someone who enjoys efficiency, this is no fun: I can't help thinking about all the other ways I could spend the money needed to replace the tire, or about all the other ways I'd rather spend a couple hours of my day. 1st moral of this story: Use the metal cord that comes with a U-lock to secure the rear tire. While sitting in my apartment and trying to imagine how and when this t...