I no longer read the morning paper, usually the NY Times, in its print form. Rather, I read a variety of online news sources. I often think about blogging them, but realized that it takes to long to blog any one item and I had difficulty choosing between all the good options. So, now I will link as I go, which is a better strategy.

First, the New York Times has an awesome graphic on immigration patterns, at the county level for the last 100 years. Check out New York Times: Made in America. We really are a nation of immigrants. Notice how the pattern changes after the 1920s, and the National Origins Act.

Also, as I watch my kids develop, I wonder about intelligence and other traits. Are they inherited, acquired in the environment, or what? Also, what is intelligence, precisely.  So, the New York Times had a fascinating piece this morning on whether or not we could train our brains and how it would happen. I was especially fascinated by the links between working memory and intelligence. See Guest Column: Can We Increase Our Intelligence? – Olivia Judson Blog – NYTimes.com.

Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight, has been blogging recently about income and taxes, including yesterday’s examination of The Missing 1,000,000 Tax Bracket. Interesting and thought provoking. What exactly should the highest marginal rate be and where should it kick in. I like the idea of taxing the rich, especially the very rich. And, by the way, households with AGIs of over $250,000 are in the top 1% of all households. So, by any reasonable statistical measure, those folks are rich. And, any household over about $500K is in the top .1%.

Finally, CSU made the NCAA tournament by beating Butler last night. I like college basketball only a little, though I like basketball a lot and my enjoyment of college basketball increases dramatically about this time every year. Either way, its great that the university made it to the tournament for the students and staff. Very cool. As I read ESPN this morning, I noticed an article on what life would be like at a basketball obsessed (and successful) school like Kentucky, titled Blue Blood on the Bubble. Talk about how college sports can distort what’s important and what’s not. It is actually more than a little bit sad, but interesting.

Now, one disclaimer: I write in a more or less stream-of-consciousness style with little editing, else I would not have time to blog at all. So do forgive the spelling errors and typos.