Comments on: ECONOMISTS MAJOR IN DUH STUDIES

By: Brandon Lang

Brandon Lang — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:41:33 +0000

Check out “Super Crunchers” by Ian Ayres, a buddy of the guy who wrote “Freakanomics”. It’s a good discussion of the regression movement.

Took Latin in high school as a freshman and was knee deep in hot senior girls for the whole year.

By: bevo

bevo — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:17:47 +0000

Brian @26. I do not think Levitt put that much effort in his analysis. In reading his book, I am pretty sure he inserted his hand into his large intestine via the anus opening, and gently tugged. His leaps of logic in the conclusions are wider than the Grand Canyon.

We’ve all had a good laugh over Freakonomics and the people who quote it.

Robert and TCOAN: As a good, pompous PhD jackass, I must point out that SPSS and R are statistical software packages. And, as everyone knows, real researchers use SAS..

By: robert

robert — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:07:40 +0000

TCOAN:

It’s all about the STATA9. Or R.

By: Herb

Herb — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:24:12 +0000

#26, please understand, Mr. Levitt thinks about people like you, laughs, then returns to counting his money.

By: oc phil

oc phil — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:57:51 +0000

#14 My ex-wife was going to take Latin in high school as an independant study, but the teacher got busted for murdering another teacher and her kids. And the principal got taken down for armed robbery of a Sears.

It was apparently quite a school.

By: kleph

kleph — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:40:56 +0000

Until you get busted for plagiarizing a Ugandan newspaper. (See the Economist�s corrections from a few weeks back.)

this, i hate to inform you, is the way foreign journalism is done.

By: UTEx

UTEx — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:11:19 +0000

Wow. They got paid money for that study???? I should have gone into economics instead of web/graphic design.

#14 Mine did. I was lousy at Spanish (hate the language, my state (Texas) being over run with it…I’m a badddd liberal), but loved Latin. Great stories and you only had to translate, no pronunciation. Latin is extremely helpful when you are in the art museums and you need to read the writing on all the old silver. Also, I easily impressed my friends at UT because I could read and translate the words on the buildings around campus. Some of my friends played football at UT so it didn’t take much to impress them. (’Hope they don’t read this blog…) The rest of us actually got in because we were in the top 10% of our class at competitive high schools and not because we could run the 40 in 4.5, bench press 350, etc.

By: daviehamsufferer97

daviehamsufferer97 — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:50:03 +0000

Explain ND’s ranking in 04/05 then 25. here they are:

Class 2005 Rankings
1. Southern California, 2. Florida State, 3. Tennessee, 4. Oklahoma, 5. Nebraska, Tie 5. Michigan, 7. Iowa, 8. Miami-Florida, 9. Georgia, 10. California, 11. Texas A&M, 12. Ohio State, 13. Auburn, 14. Florida, 15. Virginia Tech, 16. Texas, 17. Alabama, 18. Virginia, 19. Arizona, 20. LSU, 21. South Carolina, 22. Clemson, 23. Maryland, 24. North Carolina State, 25. Penn State, Tie 25. Arkansas, Tie 25. Purdue, Tie 25. UCLA.

Class 2004 rankings
1. Southern California, 2. LSU, 3. Florida State, 4. Miami-Florida, 5. Michigan, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Georgia, 8. Florida, 9. Ohio State, 10. Texas, Tie 10. Tennessee, 12. Texas A&M, 13. Oregon, 14. Penn State, 15. Michigan State, 16. Alabama, 17. Maryland, 18. Washington, 19. California, 20. Purdue, 21. Missouri, 22. Washington State, 23. Kansas State, 24. Auburn, 25. Boston College

By: Will (the other one)

Will (the other one) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:15:33 +0000

Why are recruits going to ND? It seems there’s a sizable chunk of Top 150 players that are just dying to be featured on NBC’s “Hey our production values are straight out of the 80s, early 90s” broadcast 7-8 times a year.

“Every game you play looks like ESPN Classic” says Frontbutt Charlie.

By: The Conscience of a Nation

The Conscience of a Nation — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:12:44 +0000

Oh come on now Brian, he may have used SPSS!

By: Out of Conference

Out of Conference — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:53:31 +0000

Well, as someone that was once offered $5 a question in school by his econ professor to come up with questions for a textbook on econmics he was co-authoring, I still say it has a shitload to do with how much weed, ass, coin, and ride a recruit thinks he can get on his way to the NFL.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:45:58 +0000

Please understand most people with economics degrees like me look at something like Freakonomics and laugh and say: “Wow what an asshole, he made a book out of doing simple linear regressions and then assuming causality out of correlation.” AKA: he threw some numbers into excel and wrote a book about it – which is as lame as Glen Dorsey after a particularly nasty chop block.

By: NewAZTiger

NewAZTiger — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:43:52 +0000

#14 – Recruiting rankings are made by recruiting magazines to sell….magazines. ND will always be in the top 10 because the fanbase is large enough and stupid enough to believe recruiting rankings.

By: Boston Frog

Boston Frog — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:43:02 +0000

“Also, those schools that are members of conferences affiliated with the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) are found to have a significant recruiting advantage compared to other institutions.”

Whaaa? The guy who presented the trophy at the BCS title game told me that all 11 1-A conferences were part of the BCS. You mean… You mean to tell me that some of us AREN’T part of the BCS? That there’s some sort of inequality there? Well, this is shocking…

By: Rival

Rival — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:35:59 +0000

Proximity + School standing + Cadillac = Committed Recruit!

I think that used to be the equation.