andrew_gelman_stats andrew_gelman_stats-2012 andrew_gelman_stats-2012-1177 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
Source: html
Introduction: Surfing the blogroll , I found myself on Helen DeWitt’s page and noticed the link to the Joshua Clover, alias Jane Dark. I hadn’t checked out Clover for awhile (see my reactions here and here ), so I decided to head on over. Here’s what it looked like: “The case against the Federal minimum wage,” huh? That surprised me, as I had the vague impression that Clover was on the far left of the American political spectrum. But I guess he could have some sort of wonky thing going on, or maybe there’s some unexpected twist? It seemed a bit off of Clover’s usual cultural-criticism beat, so I clicked through to take a look . . . and it was just a boring set of paragraphs on the minimum wage. Hmmmm. I went back to the homepage, looked around more carefully, and realized that the blog is fake, the online equivalent of those fake book spines that are used to simulate rows of books on a bookshelf. I don’t know what happened. My guess is that Clover got tired of blogging and
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1 Surfing the blogroll , I found myself on Helen DeWitt’s page and noticed the link to the Joshua Clover, alias Jane Dark. [sent-1, score-0.338]
2 I hadn’t checked out Clover for awhile (see my reactions here and here ), so I decided to head on over. [sent-2, score-0.335]
3 Here’s what it looked like: “The case against the Federal minimum wage,” huh? [sent-3, score-0.263]
4 That surprised me, as I had the vague impression that Clover was on the far left of the American political spectrum. [sent-4, score-0.08]
5 But I guess he could have some sort of wonky thing going on, or maybe there’s some unexpected twist? [sent-5, score-0.159]
6 It seemed a bit off of Clover’s usual cultural-criticism beat, so I clicked through to take a look . [sent-6, score-0.088]
7 and it was just a boring set of paragraphs on the minimum wage. [sent-9, score-0.317]
8 I went back to the homepage, looked around more carefully, and realized that the blog is fake, the online equivalent of those fake book spines that are used to simulate rows of books on a bookshelf. [sent-11, score-0.648]
9 My guess is that Clover got tired of blogging and let the domain name lapse, and then some loser entrepreneur noticed it was still getting some hits (from DeWitt’s blog? [sent-13, score-0.736]
10 Somebody has a webcrawler that looks for dead sites with links, then buys them up for something close to $0 and fills ‘em with crap? [sent-16, score-0.383]
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same-blog 1 1.0 1177 andrew gelman stats-2012-02-20-Joshua Clover update
Introduction: Surfing the blogroll , I found myself on Helen DeWitt’s page and noticed the link to the Joshua Clover, alias Jane Dark. I hadn’t checked out Clover for awhile (see my reactions here and here ), so I decided to head on over. Here’s what it looked like: “The case against the Federal minimum wage,” huh? That surprised me, as I had the vague impression that Clover was on the far left of the American political spectrum. But I guess he could have some sort of wonky thing going on, or maybe there’s some unexpected twist? It seemed a bit off of Clover’s usual cultural-criticism beat, so I clicked through to take a look . . . and it was just a boring set of paragraphs on the minimum wage. Hmmmm. I went back to the homepage, looked around more carefully, and realized that the blog is fake, the online equivalent of those fake book spines that are used to simulate rows of books on a bookshelf. I don’t know what happened. My guess is that Clover got tired of blogging and
2 0.10961002 886 andrew gelman stats-2011-09-02-The new Helen DeWitt novel
Introduction: I read the excerpt in n+1. As one would expect of DeWitt, it was great, while being nothing at all like her other book. THe new book reminded me a bit of Philip K. Dick. Here’s a brief excerpt (which is not actually particularly PKD-like) of the main character talking to himself: “I don’t have what it takes,” he said. He had never said it before because saying it would be like admitting he couldn’t make the grade. I’m not pulling out this quote to sell you on the book. The lines just struck me because of the exquisite distinctions, the idea that “don’t have what it takes” is somehow different than “couldn’t make the grade,” the idea that this character, who expresses his thoughts in empty phrases, ends up assigning to these phrases a set of precise meanings that make sense only to him. One reason Lightning Rods was so fun and refreshing to read is that it’s a non-formula novel that, unlike ChabonFranzenLethemBakerEtc—and, for that matter, unlike Virginia Woolf—is about c
3 0.10712367 111 andrew gelman stats-2010-06-26-Tough love as a style of writing
Introduction: Helen DeWitt links to an interview with Seth Godin, who makes some commonplace but useful observations on jobs and careers. It’s fine, but whenever I read this sort of thing, I get annoyed by the super-aggressive writing style. These internet guys–Seth Godin, Clay Shirky, Philip Greenspun, Jeff Jarvis, and so on–are always getting in your face, telling you how everything you thought was true was wrong. Some of the things these guys say are just silly (for example, Godin’s implication that Bob Dylan is more of a success than the Monkees because Dylan sells more tickets), other times they have interesting insights, but reading any of them for awhile just sets me on edge. I can’t take being shouted at, and I get a little tired of hearing over and over again that various people, industries, etc., are dinosaurs. Where does this aggressive style come from? My guess is that it’s coming from the vast supply of “business books” out there. These are books that are supposed to grab yo
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Introduction: Kaiser Fung discusses . It’s a good sign when statistical graphics are so popular that people feel the need to fake them!
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Introduction: Helen DeWitt writes about The Ask, the new book by Sam Lipsyte, author of a hilarious book I read a couple years ago about a loser guy who goes to his high school reunion. I haven’t read Lipsyte’s new book but was interested to see that he teaches at Columbia. Perhaps I can take him to lunch (either before or after I work up the courage to call Gary Shteyngart and ask him about my theory that the main character of that book is a symbol of modern-day America). In any case, in the grand tradition of reviewing the review, I have some thoughts inspired by DeWitt, who quotes from this interview : LRS: I was studying writing at college and then this professor showed up, a disciple of Gordon Lish, and we operated according to the Lish method. You start reading your work and then as soon as you hit a false note she made you stop. Lipsyte: Yeah, Lish would say, “That’s bullshit!” If they did this for statistics articles, I think they’d rarely get past the abstract, most of the ti
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same-blog 1 0.96220249 1177 andrew gelman stats-2012-02-20-Joshua Clover update
Introduction: Surfing the blogroll , I found myself on Helen DeWitt’s page and noticed the link to the Joshua Clover, alias Jane Dark. I hadn’t checked out Clover for awhile (see my reactions here and here ), so I decided to head on over. Here’s what it looked like: “The case against the Federal minimum wage,” huh? That surprised me, as I had the vague impression that Clover was on the far left of the American political spectrum. But I guess he could have some sort of wonky thing going on, or maybe there’s some unexpected twist? It seemed a bit off of Clover’s usual cultural-criticism beat, so I clicked through to take a look . . . and it was just a boring set of paragraphs on the minimum wage. Hmmmm. I went back to the homepage, looked around more carefully, and realized that the blog is fake, the online equivalent of those fake book spines that are used to simulate rows of books on a bookshelf. I don’t know what happened. My guess is that Clover got tired of blogging and
Introduction: Via J. Robert Lennon , I discovered this amusing blog by Anis Shivani on “The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers.” Lennon found it so annoying that he refused to even link to it, but I actually enjoyed Shivani’s bit of performance art. The literary criticism I see is so focused on individual books that it’s refreshing to see someone take on an entire author’s career in a single paragraph. I agree with Lennon that Shivani’s blog doesn’t have much content –it’s full of terms such as “vacuity” and “pap,” compared to which “trendy” and “fashionable” are precision instruments–but Shivani covers a lot of ground and it’s fun to see this all in one place. My main complaint with Shivani, beyond his sloppy writing (but, hey, it’s just a blog; I’m sure he saves the good stuff for his paid gigs) is his implicit assumption that everyone should agree with him. I’m as big a Kazin fan as anyone, but I still think he completely undervalued Marquand . The other thing I noticed
3 0.76397103 620 andrew gelman stats-2011-03-19-Online James?
Introduction: Eric Tassone writes: I [Tassone] had to Google “ Mary Rosh ” but remember that imbroglio now. Made my day, too. But really I wanted to write to ask you about something related to Bill James. I first encountered his works at age 13, when a baseball coach talked up his books and lent me one (that I fear I never returned). I then read his Abstracts from ’84 or ’85 until they went away, and then some of his other books in the ’90s. Anyway, my question is: Do you know if these works are available on a CD or DVD-ROM or the web something, like they do sometimes w/ collections like Mad Magazine or the New Yorker cartoons or whatever? Maybe through his website, to which I do not subscribe? (By the way, Google Books produces search results for the ’83-’87 editions, but at most just little clippings, not the full book or anything.) I wonder why we don’t see more of this, since the marginal cost of re-packaging and distributing already-created content for which there is at least some pent
4 0.75745076 258 andrew gelman stats-2010-09-05-A review of a review of a review of a decade
Introduction: At the sister blog, David Frum writes , of a book by historian Laura Kalman about the politics of the 1970s: As a work of history about the Ford and Carter years, there is nothing seriously wrong with it. The facts are accurate, the writing is clear and the point of view is not tendentious. Once upon a time, such a book might have been useful to somebody. But the question it raises–and it’s not a question about this book alone–is: What’s the point of this kind of history in the age of the Internet? Suppose I’m an undergraduate who stumbles for the first time across the phrase “Proposition 13.” I could, if I were minded, walk over to the university library, pull this book from the shelf and flip to the index. Or I could save myself two hours and Google it. I wouldn’t learn more from a Google search than I’d learn in these pages. But I wouldn’t learn a whole lot less either. As a textbook writer, I think about some of these issues too! I have two things to add to Frum’s rem
5 0.75053346 1641 andrew gelman stats-2012-12-27-The Möbius strip, or, marketing that is impervious to criticism
Introduction: Johnny Carson had this great trick where, after a joke bombed, he’d do such a good double-take that he’d end up getting a huge laugh. This gimmick could never have worked as his sole shtick—at some point, Johnny had to tell some good jokes—but it was a reliable way to limit the downside. For the purpose of our discussion here, the point is that, even when the joke failed, Carson had a way out. I thought of this today after following a link from a commenter that led to this blog on publicity-minded author Tim Ferriss. I’ve never read anything by Ferriss but I’ve read about him on occasion: his gimmick is he promotes his book using ingenious marketing strategies. Sort of like how Madonna is famous for being famous, and Paris Hilton is famous for being famous for being famous, Ferriss is famous for self-promotion. Matt Metzgar writes : I [Metzgar] saw a bunch of ads on the internet today for Tim Ferriss’ new book. Even though the book was released today, it already has all
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1 0.95761025 1828 andrew gelman stats-2013-04-27-Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences
Introduction: James Druckman and Jeremy Freese write: We are pleased to announce that Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS) was renewed for another round of funding by NSF starting last Fall. TESS allows researchers to submit proposals for experiments to be conducted on a nationally-representative, probability-based Internet platform, and successful proposals are fielded at no cost to investigators. More information about how TESS works and how to submit proposals is available at http://www.tessexperiments.org. Additionally, we are pleased to announce the development of two new proposal mechanisms. TESS’s Short Studies Program (SSP) is accepting proposals for fielding very brief population-based survey experiments on a general population of at least 2000 adults. SSP recruits participants from within the U.S. using the same Internet-based platform as other TESS studies. More information about SSP and proposal requirements is available at http://www.tessexperiments.org/ssp.
2 0.93750691 1068 andrew gelman stats-2011-12-18-Faculty who don’t like teaching and hate working with students
Introduction: Peter Woit links to Steve Hsu linking to a 1977 interview by Katherine Sopka of physics professor Sidney Coleman. I don’t know anything about Coleman’s research but the interview caught my eye because one of my roommates in grad school was one of Coleman’s advisees. Anyway, here’s the key bit from the interview: Sopka: But you do enjoy working with students or do you? Coleman: No. I hate it. You do it as part of the job. Well, that’s of course false…or maybe more true than false when I say I hate it. Occasionally there’s a student who is a joy to work with. But I certainly would be just as happy if I had no graduate students… Sopka: I guess your remark means then that you would like to avoid teaching undergraduate courses or even required graduate courses… Coleman: Or even special topics courses. Teaching is unpleasant work. No question about it. It has its rewards. One feels happy about having a job well done. Washing the dishes, waxing the floors (things I also
same-blog 3 0.93374681 1177 andrew gelman stats-2012-02-20-Joshua Clover update
Introduction: Surfing the blogroll , I found myself on Helen DeWitt’s page and noticed the link to the Joshua Clover, alias Jane Dark. I hadn’t checked out Clover for awhile (see my reactions here and here ), so I decided to head on over. Here’s what it looked like: “The case against the Federal minimum wage,” huh? That surprised me, as I had the vague impression that Clover was on the far left of the American political spectrum. But I guess he could have some sort of wonky thing going on, or maybe there’s some unexpected twist? It seemed a bit off of Clover’s usual cultural-criticism beat, so I clicked through to take a look . . . and it was just a boring set of paragraphs on the minimum wage. Hmmmm. I went back to the homepage, looked around more carefully, and realized that the blog is fake, the online equivalent of those fake book spines that are used to simulate rows of books on a bookshelf. I don’t know what happened. My guess is that Clover got tired of blogging and
4 0.92977417 2166 andrew gelman stats-2014-01-10-3 years out of date on the whole Dennis the dentist thing!
Introduction: Paging Uri Simonsohn . . . January 2014: Alice Robb writes , completely uncritically: “If Your Name is Dennis, You’re More Likely to Become a Dentist The strange science of how names shape careers.” But look what you can learn from a quick google: Hmmmm, maybe worth following up on that second link . . . More details here , from 2011: Devah Pager points me to this article by Uri Simonsohn, which begins: Three articles published [by Brett Pelham et al.] have shown that a disproportionate share of people choose spouses, places to live, and occupations with names similar to their own. These findings, interpreted as evidence of implicit egotism, are included in most modern social psychology textbooks and many university courses. The current article successfully replicates the original findings but shows that they are most likely caused by a combination of cohort, geographic, and ethnic confounds as well as reverse causality. From Simonsohn’s article, here’s a han
5 0.92819357 4 andrew gelman stats-2010-04-26-Prolefeed
Introduction: From Anthony Burgess’s review of “The Batsford Companion to Popular Literature,” by Victor Neuberg: Arthur J. Burks (1898-1974) was no gentleman. During the 1930s, when he would sometimes have nearly two million words in current publication, he aimed at producing 18,000 words a day. Editors would call me up and ask me to do a novelette by the next afternoon, and I would, but it nearly killed me. . . . I once appeared on the covers of eleven magazines the same month, and then almost killed myself for years trying to make it twelve. I never did. [Masanao: I think you know where I'm heading with that story.] Ursula Bloom, born 1985 and still with us [this was written sometime between 1978 and 1985], is clearly no lady. Writing also under the pseudonyms of Lozania Prole (there’s an honest name for you), Sheila Burnes and Mary Essex, she has produced 486 boooks, beginning with Tiger at the age of seven. . . . Was Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) a gentleman? .
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