Newmark's Door

Lynne Kiesling lists some "dominant themes" of recent coverage of oil and gasoline markets. I especially like these two observations:

• Every spring like clockwork, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin whinges about "greedy, price-gouging" oil refiners who are sticking it to consumers.
• Every spring like clockwork, the Federal Trade Commission spends a lot of time and effort to investigate the competitive conditions in retail gasoline markets. Every spring like clockwork, they find no evidence of oil refiners' abilities to influence retail prices in an anticompetitive fashion

Congratulations to the students and staff of Raleigh Charter High School for combined SAT scores that are continuing to rise briskly:

	2003	2004	2005
Raleigh Charter High School	1190	1240	1257
Number Taking	88	110	132
NC School of Math & Science	1327	1313	1311
Number Taking	276	263	301
Wake County	1067	1063	1075
Number Taking	4531	4655	4958
William G. Enloe	1146	1153	1178
Number Taking	460	445	438
Chapel Hill High	1175	1174	1166
Number Taking	325	331	369
East Chapel Hill High	1181	1197	1207
Number Taking	308	304	325

From http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/accountability/reporting/sat/2005/sat_report_2005_part2.xls

An economist's work is never done . . .

Economists don't understand well why people tip. Now Tyler Cowen wants an explanation for why some restaurants are getting rid of tipping. An economist's work is never done . . .

"Roughly 86 percent of U.S. teachers say computer technology has changed the way they teach at least some . . ."

Me, too . . . when the equipment is working.

(Rim shot.)

How placebos work.

Edward Tufte, quoting Dr. E. E. Peacock, Jr., tells a lovely little story to remind us that good statistical analysis is always about comparisons:

One day when I was a junior medical student, a very important Boston surgeon visited the school and delivered a great treatise on a large number of patients who had undergone successful operations for vascular reconstruction. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, "Do you have any controls?" Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, "Do you mean did I not operate on half of the patients?" The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, "Yes, that's what I had in mind." Then the visitor's fist really came down as he thundered, "Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their deaths." God, it was quiet then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, "Which half?"

And then there's this: "Most Scientific Papers Are Probably Wrong". (Well-known in social sciences, even if it's big news to the media.)

Dave Barry, helpful as always, has some advice for young people starting a new school year.

Two articles from the New York Times suggesting that for better and worse, Google is the new Microsoft:

"Relax, Bill Gates; It's Google's Turn as the Villain"

"Google Gets Better. What's Up With That?"

Best article about computer programming ever: "Why Good Programmers Are Lazy and Dumb".

The Rock Snob is dead, killed by technological advance:

But there's a dark side to the iPod era. Snobbery subsists on exclusivity. And the ownership of a huge and eclectic music collection has become ordinary. Thanks to the iPod, and digital music generally, anyone can milk various friends, acquaintances, and the Internet to quickly build a glorious 10,000-song collection.