10/14/14 Today's Inquiries

Early to rise, early to shine.


The links:

So, let's start your day off bright! In one year, the life expectancy in the US dropped by 12 years.

U of Minnesota expert thinks ebola is a "black swan" event.

Lesson No. 1: “There is now clear evidence that an infectious disease such as Ebola virus disease can threaten the stability of a country’s or region’s government, economy, and social fabric,” Osterholm and his colleagues write.

Francis Collins, head of the NIH, says we'd have an ebola vaccine by now if it weren't for all those budget cuts. Republicans can kill.

Charities are gifting surveillance gear to major metro police departments. I don't get it. Why don't they just use all that civil asset forfeiture money?

Infrastructure investment is a no-brainer. Then we have no brains!

Results of a survey show Americans know almost nothing about their economy.

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren ticket in 2016? Oh, I can only hope.

US public schools are better than they've ever been. Yeah, but they aren't making anybody any money and that's why they need reform.

The value of a great teacher? Maybe not so high.

Further investigation, however, reveals that the quasi- experiment is invalid: Teacher switching is correlated with changes in students’ prior grade scores that bias the key coefficient toward a find- ing of no bias. Estimates that adjust for changes in students’ prior achievement find evidence of moderate bias in VA scores, in the middle of the range suggested by Rothstein (2009). The association between VA and long-run outcomes is not robust and quite sensitive to controls. 

More classy behavior by young tech bros as they kick neighborhood kids off a soccer field. Also, since when did public parks start charging fees to use public spaces? Oh, when they only wanted the rich people to use the park. Got it.


Some historical context for Hong Kong. Wait, you mean the legacy of colonial ownership and a century of western oppression still matter to China?

Fun with mercenaries.

Some called it G.I. Joe Fantasy Camp, and for good reason. In the piney woods of north Mississippi, professionals and wannabes alike would come to the 60-acre compound of an outfit called SCG International to play war games, fire live weapons, conduct mock interrogations, and run around like kids, zinging paintball rounds across creeks and seeking cover in open fields. 

But this was serious business, too. During SCG’s heyday, between 2008 and 2012, the U.S. government and local law-enforcement agencies paid a lot of money to get people trained so they could function capably in war zones, shoot-outs, and other dicey situations.

Liveblogging the conquest of England.

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