{"word_count": 686, "character_count": 5510}
A nice article discovered this week, and a series of writings worth reading, "Academic economics is more winner-take-all than you might think" http://accessecon.com/pubs/… via MargRev's http://marginalrevolution.com/…We study the research productivity of new graduates of top Ph.D. programs in economics.  We find that class rank is as important as departmental rank as predictors of future research productivity.  For instance the best graduate from UIUC or Toronto in a given year will have roughly the same number of American Economic Review (AER) equivalent publications at year six after graduation as the number three graduate from Berkeley, U. Penn, or Yale.  We also find that research productivity of top graduates drops off very quickly with class rank at all departments.  For example, even at Harvard, the median graduate has only 0.04 AER papers at year six [to be continued...]"π Versus Information Theory" http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/…"The darker side of data science" http://bbc.com/future/story/… via GilPress"Do large departments make academics more productive? Agglomeration and peer effects in research" http://voxeu.org/article/… via MathieuPerona, based on Bosquet and Combes (2013), Do Large Departments make Academics more Productive? Agglomeration and Peer Effects in Research,Do academics publish more because they have better abilities (gender, age, type of position, or any other individual characteristic possibly unobserved) and a more rewarding publication strategy (research field, number and location of co-authors) or because they are located in departments that provide a better local environment with stronger externalities? Contrary to some recent results (Kim et al. 2009, Waldinger 2012), we find that location is an important determinant of the individual quantity and quality of publications. It represents at least half of the explanatory power of individual characteristics, which implies that local externalities in publication do matter. [to be continued]"Math textbook attempts to solve relationship drama" http://boingboing.net/…"Even in Academia, Dads Don't Do Diapers" http://businessweek.com/articles/… via lauramclay (shame on them)The Worst Chart In The World" http://businessinsider.com/pie-charts-are-the-worst… by WaltHickey with a nice and convincing example: just try to compare the following two,"People are okay with nuclear waste dumps in their backyards—unless you try to pay them for it" http://qz.com/94439/… via MargRev"How to Dominate at Monopoly Using Basic Math" http://io9.com/…"How to build a beer recommendation system in R" http://blog.yhathq.com/posts/… via mosabou and lauramclay"Greg Mankiw's latest paper defends the superrich as a source of all that's good in our economy" http://salon.com/2013/… via NGhoussoub"Forget the US model. UK academics should aspire to offer more than just intellectual fig leaves for policymakers" http://guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/…"bp;dr - behind paywall, didn't read, the internet's next new acronym" http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/… via neurobonkers and borazA seemingly unintentionally ironic paper has just been published in Science titled "A HUMAN RIGHT TO SCIENCE". I presume it's an important paper because the title is in BLOCK CAPITALS. That's about all I can tell you about it though, because it's behind a paywall.  [to be continued...]"What do philosophers believe?" http://philpapers.org/rec/… and goulu"I'm in Hell! Aren't I?" via http://joyoftech.com/  and ilovecharts"Why global markets are freaking out" http://washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/ …"Measuring Article Impact" http://blogs.plos.org/everyone/… (when will people stop using kernel density estimators to visualize count distributions?)"Where Do Pro Basketball Players Come From?" http://deadspin.com/… see"Chicago commuters can rely on traffic being unreliable" (on traffic variability) http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/…"Atlas of True Names" (revealing etymological origins) http://kalimedia.com/ … via http://io9.com/… see"Finance people are from Mars, and economics people are from Venus" http://washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/…The Science Of Why We Don’t Believe In Science" https://medium.com/editors-picks/…"A broken model" http://pieria.co.uk/articles/… by Frances_Coppola"Open science and the new economy of knowledge" http://hackyourphd.org/  via celyagd http://kisskissbankbank.com/en/…"Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding" http://nber.org/papers/w19133 via johnvanreenen"Amazing Twitter Metadata Visualizations Will Blow Your Mind" http://fastcompany.com/… by nealunger via SteveHultet toujours quelques billets et articles en francais,"Pourquoi il ne faut pas recruter les candidats des meilleurs labos" http://blogs.univ-poitiers.fr/o-bouba-olga/… par obouba"Faire le pari des universités" http://letudiant.fr/educpros/opinions/… par JFBalaude"Concours de professeurs des écoles, la polémique des zéros éliminatoires" http://lemonde.fr/education/… via http://tomroud.cafe-sciences.org/ … de tomroud (avec qui je suis une nouvelle fois d'accord)et pour aller plus loin sur la qualification par le Conseil National des Universités, et les débats de chambres (en l’occurrence le Sénat) http://rachelgliese.wordpress.com/…"A quoi bon faire des études aujourd'hui ?" http://lemonde.fr/enseignement-superieur/… via fabrice_bmLe capitalisme, par Voutc via Zgur_"Les banques restent fidèles à Cobol, plus performant que Java" http://lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/… via ravelineDid I miss something ?