Newmark's Door

Scratch another famed and loved social science finding.

Fine piece. The opening example is one I used to good--I believe--effect in my MBA classes.

As they might say on TV medical dramas: "Distribute this to all the journalists. STAT!"

An academic evaluation of the 48 contiguous states plus D.C. in which the state I reside is ranked as having the least psychopathy. (Link via Marginal Revolution.)

It's starting to look like the climate change folks will have to find another mascot.

I'm sorry, but I still don't like the idea.

You're probably as tired of reading about "climate change" as I am. But this short piece is really nice. It quickly outlines the views of Judith Curry, former chair of earth and atmospheric sciences at Georgia Tech. She strikes me as calm and reasonable and her views would, in a better world, carry a lot of weight.

Also calm and reasonable: Bjorn Lomborg, "Overheating About Global Warming".

At the university I worked for "Elsevier" was a really dirty word, like "pedophile". I think they'll need to change their business model substantially and soon.

Another bit of conventional wisdom from social science bites the dust:

“There seems to be a growing consensus that birth order does not influence personality in a way that can be measured in adulthood.” . . .

Damian has described birth order personalities as a “zombie theory” that lurches forward despite the evidence against it. Once we’ve accepted an idea, it’s often hard to let go.

Newmark's Second Theorem: the social sciences try to find regularities that are both true and simple. The only social science that can reliably find both is economics.

Yet still more on the weirdness of modern physics.