1. I lot of people have asked me what I think about the stimulus package and I have no idea what to tell them. Bigwig economists are of little help, as well: everyone has a different view on whether this thing will work or not. Some recent pieces in The Economist's Voice illustrate the diversity of opinions on the plan. All well written and worth checking out.
2. I'm sure by now you've heard about PETA's banned Super Bowl ad, which unabashedly claims that "vegetarians have better sex." Justin Wolfers at Freakonomics checks this contention out in the data, providing an interesting discussion on the whole correlation vs. causation angle to boot (it's not what you think).
3. The link between vaccines and autism (which has some frighteningly strident supporters) always seemed a bit dodgy to me. Turns out that at least parts of the original Lancet article this whole movement was based on may have been falsified. A good lesson on responsible science: said paper precipitated a drop in MMR vaccination coverage from over 90% to just 80% in Britain. It's worth being careful in publishing results that will induce people to do potentially unwise things based on tenuous evidence.
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