Friday morning roundup

Capetown hides its poor.

Pearlstein on the debate over economic priorities we should be having.

How the media willfully ignores nuance and polarizes the electorate.

A reminder that the President has no superpowers. And a reminder that a number of treaties aren't going to ratify themselves, i.e. without his political capital.

Does increased gadgetry really benefit education? Steven Pinker argues that technology does keep us smart. There are comments to be made about that last column--there's a point it's missing about how technology, gadgetry, etc. train us socially--they don't have to make us cognitively dumber to make us generally dumber. Tufte's right, PowerPoint does make us dumb (but not through deleterious effects on brain cells). On that note-hat tip to Wendy for this--what if Lincoln had delivered the Gettysburg Address in powerpoint?

I'm not really one to talk, having Hagrid Hair myself, but I have to admit that I see nothing wrong with aSen. Boxer's hair. On a more substantive note, Ruth Marcus mourns the paradigm shift column she was going to write, about how women are winning in a new way. But while we're on the topic of the woman who destroyed HP, you can read about why boardroom skills don't always translate to governing ability.