Congratulations to David Deming, winner of APPAM's Kershaw Award

Here is an announcement from Mathematica, after whose first president the award is named.

Best xkcd ever?

Perhaps, perhaps not, but definitely in the top quartile.

Hat tip: Don

Yours truly in the NYT ...

... in this article about the Job Corps program by reporter Glenn Thrush.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Glenn but I am a bit surprised that the National Job Corps Study did not make it into the article.

Addendum: an exchange between Glenn Thrush and Alan Krueger. As I expected, Glenn argues that the NJCS is too old to be relevant. I would disagree given the stability in program design and operation. Glenn, Alan and I might all agree that we should be doing "rigorous" evaluations of active labor market programs more often that we do.

John McCain, R.I.P.

Matt Welch at reason provides a realistic obituary.

Marvels of the past: miniature golf edition

No one ever believes me when I tell them I can remember watching miniature golf tournaments on television when I was little ...

Goth ice cream in Toronto

The ice cream is pretty good but the real selling point here is not the taste, nor the dubious health claims, but the fact that it looks really cool.

Insert your own comment about how this is some sort of metaphor for modern society here.

The return of IQ tests for work

The Atlantic documents the return of IQ tests, now re-branded as tests of cognitive abilities, to the private labor market.

I would have liked more about the legal angle - I had thought that the courts had made it rather difficult to require general tests like this that are not directly and obviously related to specific skills required on specific jobs.