A few assorted links for weekend reading
- The Myth of Small Schools via Marginal Revolution. An excellent post about bad statistics. “The Gates Foundation certainly spent a lot of money, along with many others, pushing for smaller schools and a lot of the push came because people jumped to the wrong conclusion when they discovered that the smallest schools were consistently among the best performing schools.”
- Mike Trick writes about the universities that are most likely to produce undergraduates who later go on to get science and engineering PhDs. I didn’t have time to write about this, so I appreciate Mike’s thoughtful post as well as the excellent comments made by his readers.
- The Pew Center reports tattoo frequency by generation: 36% of those aged 18-25 have tattoos, 40% of those aged 26-40 have tattoos, and 10% of those aged 41-64 have tattoos. Sometimes I feel like the only member of my generation who doesn’t have a tattoo, and it sounds like I wasn’t that far off the mark.
- Aurelie Thiele writes a nice post about AP tests no longer penalizing guessing. An interesting read for anyone who has ever taken an AP test.
- Anna Nagurney writes a nice post about getting good press for your research.
- The Washington Post has a nice article about whether college is a good investment. Are parents better off giving their kids $10K to start their own business to get real life lessons or $200K for a private Bachelor’s degree? They bring up a few good points, but even with a bad economy, college seems to be a great investment for those interested in science and engineering (particularly those interested in OR, as I wrote earlier today).
- Definitive word on the P != NP paper via Mike Trick has several useful links to other blog posts.
- Esquire has a nice, short piece about dishonesty in men’s pants sizes–vanity sizing is no longer just for women.
Punk Rock Operations Research 
September 10th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I’m with you Laura. No mark on my body.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Thanks for the links, particularly the first one (not so much the last one … I had been taking some pride in the fact that my pants size has not increased in years). In a stats review I do for an MS program in supply chain management, I’d been using the notion that (at least in the U.S.) women’s math scores have a similar mean but lower standard deviation compared to men’s to explain why there are relatively few women in both math departments (where presumably you need to be in the right tail of the distribution) and Congress (where the deficit suggests you need to be in the left tail). The small schools example will probably resonate better with the students, some of whom are parents (and none of whom are interested in joining math faculties).
September 13th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Paul, I would like to see a more comprehensive look at pants size inflation. Like you, my husband’s pants size has not increased in years and years. His old pants seem to fit him the same way that his new pants fit. I am not surprised that there are some outliers, but it’s not clear if this is really a trend.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Perhaps it’s a trend but only in certain brands. I tend to buy store brand or non-label slacks. I wonder if the better known labels are in essence charging a premium for making men feel better about their sizes?