http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.16186,y.2014,no.3,content.true,page.1,css.print/issue.aspx One of my favorite Dilbert cartoons features a lizardlike creature that’s billed as a “random number generator,” but that only ever seems to spit out the number nine. Dilbert asks his guide, “Are you sure that’s random?” The guide replies, “That’s the problem with randomness. You can never be sure.” It’s funny (at least...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1271224, via this article on bathroom behavior in the Atlantic.

Via Tyler Cowen’s blog. The focus is on applied microeconomics, but very useful for anyone doing applied quant work in the social sciences: http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/jesse.shapiro/research/applied_micro_slides.pdf  

A colleague at RTI asked me about power analyses for PSM, specifically, should he assume dependent samples for his power analysis? Recall that with dependent samples, we pair observations at the analysis stage. For example, we might calculate the change over time for two observations of the same individual, or compare husbands’ and wives’ perception...

Takes on popular myths that the SAT does not predict college success, is only driven by socio-economic status, etc.: Yes, IQ Really Matters

http://phys.org/news/2014-04-soloists-violins.html Ten world-class soloists put costly Stradivarius violins and new, cheaper ones to a blind scientific test. The results may seem off-key to musicians and collectors, but the new instruments won handily. When the lights were dimmed and the musicians donned dark glasses, the soloists’ top choice out of a dozen old and new violins...

I attended this several years ago, and it is an excellent training opportunity: 2014 Summer Research Training Institute on Cluster-Randomized Trials