So recently, I have become addicted to the entire “Life Series” by David Attenborough (e.g. The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, The Living Planet, Planet Earth, etc.).  While watching this whole series I’ve had many revelations about the nature of life on Earth (this is truly a transformational experience for those who take the long journey of watching the whole series).  One such thought, however, struck me when considering mammals…

Human Evolution

It is generally believed that mammals use 80-90% of the food they eat in maintaining their body temperature.  This is indeed a costly adaptation, but one which makes us (and birds) always ready to get our bodies moving when danger, or mates, or food comes around.  However, I thought to myself, what effect must air conditioning have on mammals?  Or, more importantly, could the greater prevalence of air conditioning in the South, be making Southerners especially fat?

Well, a little digging on the internet shows that I’m not the first first person to think of this.  Researchers at the University of Alabama Birmingham have considered the same possibility.  They do not offer much in the way of evidence, beyond the suggestive comment that the South has seen both the highest rise in air-conditioned homes and also in obesity rates.  But given how much of our energy is expended in maintaining our temperature, it seems likely that the temperateness of Southern homes and buildings must be playing some part in their not burning as much fat.

Interestingly, they also suggest another alternative factor which may be influencing Southerners’ obesity: the decrease in smoking rates (because people coming off of smoking often want to compensate for the loss of stimulation by eating food).  With higher rates of smoking in the South, it wouldn’t be surprising if a greater number of people coming off of smoking would find comfort in food.  This would probably still hold, even though rates of smoking have decreased less in the South than elsewhere; because of the much greater number of total smokers living in the South.

A fellow southerner sent me this Washington Post article about how southerners view the Presidency of Barack Obama.

While he was jokingly incredulous about the actual existence of the article’s main protagonist, it roughly encapsulates the feelings of the white south.  A range of emotions, from blaming general (but not specific) racism, to a general belief that Obama doesn’t “understand” the south.

Click to read more…

Ever wonder what the Panhandle looks like?  Well why not take a quick spin through Baker, FL — home of my grandparents Sylvia and Jesse Lundy?

Click on each picture below to see some interesting insights about each picture.

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Today marks the remembrance of a very important Southern man who fought an important, and largely Southern battle: the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  While certainly everyone knows the struggle for civil rights that King spearheaded, probably few know the controversial history of this holiday.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ronald Reagan officially signed the bill making MLK Day a holiday in 1983, even though he was vocally against the creation of a holiday honoring King.  In fact, even when announcing he would sign the bill, his resignation at doing so is clearly evident:

Since they seem bent on making it a national holiday, I believe the symbolism of that day is important enough that I would—I’ll sign that legislation when it reaches my desk.

And Reagan wasn’t the only one to fight the passage of this historic national holiday.  Sen. Jesse Helms of South Carolina mounted a filibuster against the bill, and also impugned King’s character by calling him a “Marxist.”  And don’t forget another notable Senator who fought the passage of a national King holiday: a certain Arizonan Senator by the name of John McCain.  McCain even defended the rescinding of the holiday by then Arizona governor Evan Mecham.

Click to read more…

Yahoo! Article, “Brrr, y’all”

As your hapless hosts all freeze to death in the midwest this week (i took a friend to the airport this morning, and it was -11 without windchill), even our old stomping grounds is experiencing some harsh cold.  But, it was obviously written by a northerner because of his use of “y’all” and not “ya’ll.”  It’s days like these that make me wonder why I ever left.

“Harder than Japanese Arithmetic”: Very hard or difficult.

Not all news is good news...

Combing the news over the last week, I came across two articles that continue a trend I’ve recognized in news coverage: there’s never any good news about the South.  Why the South (and a few other places, e.g. Detroit) never receive good news, I’m not sure … I would love to hear our readers’ thoughts on the matter.  Is it because there truly is nothing good to report?  Is the South a whipping boy for the rest of the country?  Do fancy-pants reporters not value the valuable things about the South?

Apart from this question, here’s a weekly update — both spell bad tidings for Mississippi:

1) Teen Pregnancy Rates – http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090107/ap_on_he_me/med_teen_births

Click to read more…

This is the second in a series of articles about the economic history of the south. Read the first post here

(quick note-this entry is currently longer than the dissertation chapter I’m working on)

The second period of Southern Economic History, at least where I am arbitrarily cutting it up, starts with the rise of the Constitution in the 1790s. One of the most debated historical topics concerns the Constitution and whether it was written by altruistic statesmen, or opportunistic rich white men. That debate underpins the south’s role in the growing national economy, but I’m not really qualified to waste an hour of your time explaining it.

Suffice to say that although southern statesmen signed the Constitution, there were some issues with the document that would have long term effects on the South’s ability to influence national politics. The structure of the legislative branch would eventually decrease the south’s importance (the Northwest and Southwest Ordinances meant that the South would never have a Senate majority, and the agreement on counting slaves as 3/5 of a person was the only factor that kept southern states competitive in the House). At the same time, while Southerners kept control of the Executive Branch during the so-called “Era of Good Feelings” (the Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe administrations outside of the War of 1812), the Federalist Marshall Court also chipped away at the “Democratic-Republican” ideals of these Southerners.

Who had two thumbs and was a southerner who highly valued independent yeoman farmers? This guy.

Click to read more…

I was sent an article about charitable giving differences between Liberals and Conservatives, which ends with the surprising conclusion that Liberals support taxes and policies that benefit the poor, but tend to be less giving to charitable causes than Conservatives.

Giving in the South

This got me thinking: does the stereotype of giving Southerners ring true? Are Southerners more compassionate, at least with their dollars? Click to read more…

I came across an article on Yahoo that hearkened back to our musings on the problem of obesity in the south.

Aside from the idea that poverty and obesity have some form of positive correlation (a definite change from a time before heavily processed and refined foods, say the early 1970s), this article argues, indecisively, that decreases in income will result in direct changes in how individuals eat.  At the same time, it calls out the South, which includes 9 of the 10 states with the fastest growing rates of obesity and diabetes.

Click to read more…

So a good friend sent me a post from The Economist about an interesting (non)controversy in the upcoming Obama presidency.  Apparently, there has been some murmuring that Obama is neglecting Southerners in his cabinet appointments.  This (supposedly) is surprising, giving a several-decades-long trend for Southerners to be disproportionately represented in Presidential and Congressional politics.

Capitol Building

Now, in terms of staking a claim on this debate, I completely agree with the short piece from The Economist.  People are neglecting a lot of Obama appointments that are clearly southerners.  So really, from the perspective of the substantive debate raised (i.e. “Is Obama neglecting southerners?”), I think the answer is simple: he isn’t neglecting southerners.  However, what this “debate” does raise are a couple of other interesting questions:

1) Why are some people so quick to discuss the decline of the South in politics?

Click to read more…

Welcome back from the holidays, y’all!

Hope you enjoyed your blackeyed peas and cabbage.  Now that the parties are over though, the guide wishes our readers a happy new year and good luck with your resolutions.  The three of us are certainly resolved to keep up the good work we started last year.  Keep on reading and we’ll keep rolling out the entertaining information through 2009.