The Signaling model of Education

What does college really give students for tens of thousands of dollars? Probably, mostly signal that you can do a good job. That you have the personality traits to succeed, mostly. Although, what about connnections that you, probably, couldn't get if you weren't at a institution? Though maybe you can nowadays through the internet? Also, I would assume practice matters.

Teachers though do seem to matter in K-12 though. Though they don't seem to get better with more credentials or more tenure (past the first three years). The key point is

What we see is that the difference in teacher effectiveness is largest within any school as opposed to between schools.

So, it's not JUST innate ability, because why would kids in the same neighborhood/school have larger variation in (testing) results then the average kid between two schools. Of course, maybe testing results aren't the correct target to measure students' success.

Diagnosis and Solution

They aren't always named after the same person. Even when the person is JM Keynes. Aggregate demand might be the problem, but that doesn't mean fiscal stimulus (specifically spending) is the solution.

Soccer & Randomness

Compared to other sports, soccer is unpredictable. Not surprising, given January 7, 2006 comment at 8:46 AM from george. Of course that makes Barcelona's dominance even more impressive (urgh).

Interesting Statistics on Marriage

Not that a lot of this stuff surprises some one who lives in the generation of living with some one before (assuming you go through with marriage) getting married, but still interesting. Divorce rates falling back to 1860-1945 trend line. Of course that's largely because of the upper middle class divorce rate being around 10%.

15 Helpful Household Tips

Some fun, some useful.

Education versus Supermarkets

It would be an odd world, if our supermarkets worked like our K-12 education system.

Social Security

And what it means for Restribution of wealth. Simply put, the wealthiest generation in history, up to this point, the baby boomers, is getting money from younger people. Don't get me wrong, the odds are, given history, that my generation will end up richer then the baby boomers, but who knows. Or given the debt we're in, the crappy job market, who knows.l

Thank you Health Care "reform"

Ok, the trend started happening well before "reform", though certainly not before the government had a big footprint in the health care market. And all in trying (in the short run) to do the "right" thing. More info.

Something ELSE to worry about

And not something that hasn't happened before. A big solar flare, that could mean months or YEARS without power. And while we're at it (being worried).....

How ObamaCare will "save" money

Sigh. Technocrats get to try to work a plan that can't be done in any obviously good way. We have to save money through Medicare as part of the plan to pay for Obamacare without being allowed

"by law to restrict treatments, ask seniors to pay more, or raise taxes or the retirement age"

So, one choice across the board lower payments for Medicare, kind of like Medicaid, which very few doctors take right now.

Ah well, who said elected officials can design a system that that technocrats can implement in a good way.

I can deal (not be happy) with a system that actually tries to look at cost effectiveness, at least theoretically, but it doesn't look like that is what was implemented.

Which Science Fiction show should you watch on NetFlix?

For fun? Depends on what you've seen, what you haven't, whether you like Sci Fi or Fantasy,....

Autism

A possible explanation, that's not being followed up on or advertised, like vaccines.

Sigh.....

Something that seems so obviously a "free market" problem, doesn't seem to have been. Apparently, even in the 1940s people knew that smoking was bad for you. But, the FTC disallowed companies, as in tobacco companies, from noting that in advertisements.

3D printing

Really cool. Though interestingly it would mean putting more people out of work, though probably (hopefully) for better jobs.

Some interesting notes on the 'Jeopardy' Challenge

Some interesting notes about the latest Men v. Machine. Day one. I find it interesting that Watson apparently doesn't have to do some of the processing that the human brain does. Specifically, it doesn't seem to need to process the questions visually or verbally, or need to process the command to "press the button". Of course, it could do these things, but that would take time, at least if you "assume" the amount of time it takes for the brain to "press the button" for a human.

Kind of related.

UPDATE: More thoughts on what it means.

Different kind of biases

Like most other things, there are different kinds of bias and different effects of it.

Politics in six dimensions

Just five less then string theory. Or at least some versions of string theory. Anyways, I think I'm in the Pragmatic Libertarian area, though I do feel a little pull to consequentialism and 19th century nostalgia.

The Money League

Real Madrid and Barcelona top the list, with Manchester United just behind.

Sarbanes Oxley's results

Shockingly, not particularly good, at least for IPOs.

A Civil Rights Hero

Not named Martin Luther King Jr. And a capitalist, at that.

Dave Barry's 2010 Year in Review

Teehee.