Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

About Joel Smith

Joel Smith is a web producer at Pacific Standard. His previous work includes seven years as a staff writer and media editor at the Pacific Northwest Inlander, the alternative weekly in Spokane, Washington.

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The Melting-Pot Gazette

May 13, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
alhambra

Seventeen people squeeze around a dark wood table in a low, redbrick office building on the outskirts of Los Angeles, picking at a potluck dinner of fried chicken, pad thai, and Cherry Coke. The group is as oddly matched as the menu. There’s Eric Sunada, an engineer who also runs a small environmental non-profit. Kerrie Gutierrez, an instructional aide and mother of five. Joe Soong, an analyst for the Los Angeles Police Department. But they do have one thing in common: They are all newly minted journalists, contributors to a novel kind of local news outlet in the ethnically fractured, ... Read More

More like this: Culture, May-June 2013
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In Zambia, Cambodia, Nigeria, Domestic Violence Is Less and Less OK

May 1, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: SYLVIE BOUCHARD/SHUTTERSTOCK)

For all the dastardly, no-good ideas we see spreading today (jihad, jeggings, kamehameha-ing), it's reassuring to learn that some genuinely good ideas seem to be catching on, too. Case in point: the growing rejection of domestic violence around the world. In a study published last week, University of Michigan doctoral student Rachael Pierotti finds that between 2003 and 2008, acceptance of the justifications for domestic violence in 26 different countries—and not just the Luxembourgs and Monacos of the world, but low- and middle-income countries like the Dominican Republic, Zambia, and ... Read More

More like this: Culture
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Pilgrims, Here’s a New Holy Site to Add to Your List

April 22, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
The flag of Argentina waves before the first Angelus prayer of Pope Francis, in Rome (PHOTO: MATTIATH/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Have you already done Lourdes? Already hiked across Europe on the Camino de Santiago? Well, you're in luck, Catholic pilgrim, because starting in June, the city of Buenos Aires will be organizing a "pope tour," showcasing various sites around the city where Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, spent time as a child and, later, as archbishop. Religious tourism generates $8 billion a year for "shrine-centered economies." Tourism director Mónica Kapusta told LosAndes.com that they were still working on the organization of the tour, but it's sure to include Bergoglio's household home; Our ... Read More

More like this: Culture

Can Olive Oil Save Sagging Mediterranean Economies?

April 12, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: JOANNAWNUK/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Dutch banking giant Rabobank put out a report today noting that demand for olive oil from emerging markets like Brazil and China has risen 13 percent since 2007—a possible boon for beleaguered countries like Greece, which produce a ton of it but which have already, er, saturated their own markets. While pointing out that the worldwide market grew by only 3 percent between 2008 and 2012, the report adds that China alone slurped up 45,000 tons of the stuff in 2012. With a sexy international marketing campaign, the report suggests (OK, it didn't actually say it like that), that could mean ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics

Which Country Has the Worst Drivers in the World?

April 12, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
Arc de Triomphe, Paris

An article published in France's Le Monde yesterday announced that the number of traffic fatalities in the country in March was 26.8 percent lower than those last March—this, on top of a previous announcement that in 2012, such fatalities hit their lowest point since the government started keeping track in 1948. That's a curious landmark for anyone who's ever driven or walked or generally tried to not die on a narrow medieval European street, but it begs the question of where France stands compared to the rest of the world. The Washington Post had a nice piece about the cost of traffic ... Read More

More like this: Culture

It’s Brain Week in France

March 6, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
France Brain Week

I don't have the data on this, but I'm guessing that most vacationers headed to La Belle, France are motivated by things like wine, 19th century art and those adorable little brightly colored cookies. If, however, the thought of chasing down French waiters or tramping through yet another famous cemetery fills you with dizzying ennui, here's another reason to see France: next week is Brain Week. From March 11 through 17, the National Center for Scientific Research and the French Society for Neuroscience will be hosting 300 conferences, workshops, film screenings and even theatrical pieces in ... Read More

More like this: The 101
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Beer: The Best Medicine

January 31, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK)

The University of Washington has announced that "researchers employing a century-old observational technique have determined the precise configuration of humulones ... that give beer its distinctive flavor." Now, if this were us doing the research, and we were inspecting some humulones, that observational technique would likely involve a sixer of imperial IPA, Pure Prairie League's "Bustin' Out" on vinyl, and (for later in the night) a white plastic bucket to be ridden like a bronco. But the U-Dub research is considerably more sophisticated. And it has implications not just for ... Read More

More like this: Findings, Health
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The 12 Most Interesting Things We Learned in 2012

December 28, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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1. Muscular superheroes change men's body image It's easy to mock the latex-bound fantasy buffs at the local Comic Con, but a study from the University of Buffalo showed that bonding with a superhero character can have a positive effect on the way men view themselves. Among 98 male undergrads, those who reported no emotional connection to Batman or Spider-Man gave lower ratings to their own bodies after seeing muscly images of the Dark Knight and the Webbed Wonder. Those who reported an affinity with the superheroes, however, had higher self-marks and showed greater strength on a hand-grip ... Read More

More like this: Findings

Finally, Perhaps, Answers to the Question of Whether We Are All Sims

December 11, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
universesimulation

And now for a bit of news that you (and I) will almost certainly not understand: scientists at the University of Washington say they've devised a test that may prove whether or not the lives we live are actually just one giant computer simulation created by our future descendants. Yes, you read that right. The researchers are responding to a 2003 paper published in Philosophical Quarterly by Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford, who posited that somewhere down the line humans will become smart enough (and computer processing powerful enough) to model entire ... Read More

More like this: The 101
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Want to Increase Retail Sales This Christmas? Keep It Simple (and Orange)

December 7, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
mallblur

While you're out doing your holiday shopping this month, you might notice a certain scent in the air. No, it's not the Spirit of Christmas (or not just that, anyway). It's the smell of pine. Or orange. Or fresh-baked cookies. There's a reason for that. Savvy retailers use all kinds of sensory information to convey their brand, welcome you in, and put you in a frame of mind that they hope will lead to more sales. Their displays are arranged just so. Their wall colors are carefully chosen. The music burbling through their speakers hits all the right notes. That fresh-baked-cookie smell ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics
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