"Cheaper electronic toys are worth a great deal to the rich." On a related note, Felix Salmon, Rajiv Sethi and I had a heated debate over proposals to sell off a part of the spectrum used primarily by below-the-median customers (over-the-air television) in order to reduce costs for consumers primarily above the median (unlimited data plans for smart phones). http://andrewgelman.com/2013/05/07/is-felix-salmon-wrong-on-free-tv/

Jim Manzi may not be representative of the National Review, but it is worth noting that when the two discussed education reform, Manzi took the moderate position while Chait staked out the extreme anti-labor position: "In the center, the National Review. On the right, the New Republic" http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-center-national-review-on-right-new.html This is not an isolated incident http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2010/09/strange-bedfellows.html http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2011/02/experiment-in-blogging-conclusion.html and from Andrew Gelman http://themonkeycage.org/2011/08/07/even-the-liberal-new-republic/

In their memoirs, Richard Levinson and William Link made it clear that the class conflict was an integral part of the formula. The killers would have all the advantages of wealth, class and power. It's no coincidence that the first and (along with the equally arrogant Robert Culp) favorite villain of the series run was Jack Cassidy.

Conditions for employees generally worsen during recessions and fewer are asked to do the work of more. Could than be a driver?

Remember Matt Yglesias is also the last known American liberal still fooled by Michelle Rhee. http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2013/01/matt-yglesias-defending-indefensible.html http://themonkeycage.org/2013/05/20/the-end-of-michelle-rhee/

As long as you didn't have to run a laser gauntlet to get to work I think you were still coming out ahead.

Sayer's Wimsey was a Tory who often mocked the radicals of the age. The Passing Tramp has a nice take down (http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-artistic-superstructure-of-epoch-of.html)

While I agree with most of this, I object to this usage of "data mining." Mining techniques such as Chaid trees and neural nets are designed to factor in issues like multiple comparison problems. I believe you're talking about what I'd call hypothesis shopping -- poking around big data sets until one find something significant at five percent that sounds publishable and/or supports your beliefs. Hypothesis shopping is a huge problem, but it's not what they teach you in a stat or comp sci class on mining.

For an economics blog, I would have thought you would have gone with Murder Must Advertise. (One of the smartest novels you'll find about advertising, which isn't that surprising coming from a former copy writer)

It was part of the deal cats made when they ruled the world (or, I guess, worlds). Faulkner spelled out the details in the Reivers.

Great post. As I've mentioned before at OE, Canada would be my first choice if we had to choose an international model but these examples are still highly instructive.

I also came into teaching under an accelerated program that didn't include practice teaching. The first time I lectured a class was as a full time teacher. That first year wasn't a complete disaster but there's no doubt in my mind that I would have been a better teacher and my students would have learned more that year had I been given a chance to practice and been mentored first.

Tim, I don't know what your reception is like but I get over 100 channels with the ten dollar rabbit ears on top of my TV. Between the networks and the local independents, at least seven or eight of those channels carry some professional and college sports. Digital broadcasting is one of the most under-reported media stories, largely because of the demographics of the audience and the relative lack of interested parties pushing the story. http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2010/10/nobody-loves-orphan-technology.html http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2010/12/someone-finally-notices-orphan.html

I know I've been beating this drum quite a bit, but this is not just a case of rolling out out some data then jumping into a narrative; this is a case of rolling out a simplistic account of highly confounded data then jumping into a narrative. How confounded? "A study designed to test this question used VAM methods to assign effects to teachers after controlling for other factors, but applied the model backwards to see if credible results were obtained. Surprisingly, it found that students’ fifth grade teachers were good predictors of their fourth grade test scores. Inasmuch as a student’s later fifth grade teacher cannot possibly have influenced that student’s fourth grade performance, this curious result can only mean that VAM results are based on factors other than teachers’ actual effectiveness." (from EPI) Joseph and I have more on this at Observational Epidemiology but be warned, it's not pretty.

Dana, I would have added: "Recent findings by Rand, EPI and other researchers have cast doubt on many of the fundamental assumptions of the reform movement. How is the DoE adapting to this new research?" Thanks for the link, Mark

Oops, should have said: I was shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you) to hear that "the math [used by scientists is] rooted in the same principles that guarantee profits for Las Vegas casinos."

I was shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you) to hear that "the math rooted in the same principles that guarantee profits for Las Vegas casinos."