A fun fake?

A Wing and a Prayer:
[Via New Urban Legends]

Video clip shows an airplane making a safe landing after losing a wing?

It may be an attempt to create a viral video but it is pretty well done and a lot of fun to watch.

Technorati Tags: General

iPhone and my laptop

AT&T-Approved iPhone-to-Laptop Tethering Coming Soon [IPhone]:
[Via Lifehacker]

TechCrunch reports that AT&T-sanctioned 3G tethering is on the way for iPhones “soon.” It’s good news for iPhone owners, but if soon isn’t early enough, you can try solutions like previously mentioned iPhone Modem or my personal favorite, PdaNet.

The key will be the cost to do this. I’d love to have it but I’m not willing to spend a large monthly fee to add this to my current data plan.

Technorati Tags: Technology

A fifth folkway in America?

One of the things I have learned over the years is just how enduring human cultures are. Even though we like to think we are very different from previous generations, the truth is that as a whole, America seems to react along similar lines to changes. If our history is prologue, then perhaps we can learn something about our future.

The New York Times has a nice map that helps begin to demonstrate this. You can check out the entire set but I found this map particularly interesting. It examines the counties that voted more Republican this year than in 2004.


The fascinating thing is that most of this region of America very closely follows the migrations of the Borderers described in the classic work Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer. The Borderers are also called Scots-Irish and immigrated to America from 1717-1775.

The book is very interesting because its thesis revolves around the still current ‘personalities’ of 4 separate migrations from Great Britain to the United States: the Puritans in New England, the Cavaliers to Virginia, the Quakers to Pennsylvania, and the Borderers to Appalachia. The book is a great read and makes a strong case that these 4 strains of British culture still maintain a strong impact on American today (One of the great little tidbits from this book is that New York IS completely different from the rest of America. It has a heavy Dutch history with more European overlay. It does not fit into any of the British folkways at all.)

You can also see the continuing influence of each folkway as they migrated West by following their speech. The green of the Puritans generally followed the northern route. The blue of the Quakers can be seen, as can the Red of the Cavaliers and the purple of the Borderers, although the last two have some mixing.


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Today, to a large extent, these folkways are not determined by birth but by self association. People tend to join the tradition that they feel an affinity for. So George W. Bush, who was born in Puritan country, adopted many of the traits of the Borderers. Al Gore, born in prime Borderer territory, nonetheless more closely aligned with Puritanical New England.

Now most of the elections in American history have tended to follow a Puritan/Cavalier axis. But neither usually has a majority vote. What often determined the winner was how strong the coalition was with either the Quaker or Borderer group. Because the Borderers have had more children, they have a larger population as time has gone on and so they have become the brass ring the Puritans or Cavaliers tried to grasp.

For much of the early 20th Century, the Borderers were with the Cavaliers, resulting in the strong run for the GOP. But the Depression split this coalition, allowing the Democrats to forge a Puritan/Quaker/Borderer majority that lasted for 30 years.

The 60s brought another split, with the Borderers now teaming with the Cavaliers again. Since 1960, the only Democrats that have gotten elected were ones who were attractive to Borderers.

Jimmy Carter, while having a Cavalier background, possessed a Baptist faith that spoke strongly to Borderers who were also heavily Baptist. Bill Clinton would obviously have appeal to the Borderers because of his roots in Arkansas. LBJ actually had both Southern and Borderer roots.

Obama actually has pretty strong English (mostly Irish) roots from his mother’s side of the family, going back to the 17th century. Many of his distant cousins still live in rural Ohio. However, his manner is not of a Borderer but actually very closely aligned with the Quaker folkway.

What is telling about the first map is that you have to go back to before Hoover, perhaps to 1924, before you can find a Presidential election where the winning candidate did not get the Borderer vote. It is obvious that McCain, who is very much of the Borderer tradition, got their vote.

So, for the first time in perhaps 100 years, or more, a President was elected who did not carry the Borderer vote. People have talked about this being a realigning election, that the coalitions that have held for so long are again fragmenting.

I wonder if something else is not happening. If perhaps the 4 folkways that have driven America for so long are no longer the only ones. Is the Hispanic migration adding another folkway? Where before a Puritan/Quaker coalition was no match for a Cavalier/Borderer, perhaps a Puritan/Quaker/Hispanic coalition would now overmatch a Cavalier/Borderer. The Borderers would no longer determine who wins. And maybe other coalitions are now possible, with perhaps 5 folkways to mix things up.

It may take a few election cycles to see if this is true. If so, politics will get much more complex in America. I think perhaps Fischer should write another book.

Technorati Tags: General, Politics