Links

1. Curt Rice in The Guardian: Don't be fooled by the closing gender gap in science PhDs.

   [The researchers] found that historically men have had higher persistence rates than women, with a greater proportion of men having continued for a PhD. Since the 1990s, we see something else. The persistence rates have coverged: men and women continue in equal rates. That’s great news. Or so it would seem.

   Unfortunately, the new study doesn’t actually show a pipeline being tightened up to leak less – it shows the opposite. The convergence in persistence rates for men and women is not a result of an increase in the rate of women taking a PhD: it’s the result of a decline in the rate of men doing so, which now stands at 3%.

   Is this something to celebrate? I can’t imagine why. ...

   See also: Bob Grant's article in The Scientist -- New Look at the Leaky Pipeline -- on the same research.

2. An idea whose time has come! Noah Smith on Affirmative Action for Conservatives.

3. Finally, do yourself a favor and go to the 58th minute of the video below (or at YouTube) and wait for Bobby McFerrin's magic over the next several minutes. [I know I have linked to this stuff a long time ago, but it's worth watching any number of times]: