Assorted links

1. Ginger Ambition on life in silicon valley.

2. On the future of gastronomy.

3. Who marries whom.

4. Uncle Sam at the bar.

5. Atlantic on the science of bad science. Lots to worry about here.

Hat tip on #3 to ASAK

Canada for president?

I think this option dominates all of the remaining red and blue team candidates.

Hat tip: Shannon Seitz

Immigration comedy

This is pretty well done. The one bit that is not explained is why we are not morally obligated to have open borders, which would seem to follow from the arguments he makes, absent other considerations.

Via MR

On college admissions

The New York Post offers an entertaining bit on Yale undergraduate admissions by a former admissions officer. Missing from this article is any understanding that the optimal number of admissions "mistakes" does not equal zero. It is interesting despite that.

For a deeper treatment, from a somewhat different place in the academic pecking order, I can recommend the book Creating a Class by Mitchell Stevens. The author embedded himself in the admissions office of a good-but-not-the-very top liberal arts college. I found the background it provided really useful in thinking about academic college match.

Super Bowl L

Some thoughts:

1. Defense wins championships.

2. Peyton Manning is a class act.

3. What happened to the Roman numerals? Last year was Super Bowl XLIX. This year, Super Bowl 50? Where were the angry mobs of high school Latin teachers demanding that the NFL "Go to L"?

Finding your dissertation committee - it is that time of year

Hat tip: Julian Hsu

On the water in Flint

Lots of incompetence (and concern with the daily battle of the talking points rather than with actually doing one's job) to go around at different levels of government and between the red and blue teams. This story by a reason writer attempts to allocate the blame.

This WaPo story seems more worried about loss of "trust in government" than about the health effects. No explanation is provided for why the residents of Flint should have trusted government prior to this episode.

Plus a nice piece from 538 detailing the roles of both local citizens and concerned professionals and a piece from David Warsh on the role, or lack of a role, of the press.