Said and Done | In the Media | September 2016



A section of Said and Done
Full September 2016 edition


POLITICAL SCIENCE
The campaign to make Election Day a work holiday | Charles Stewart
Noah Fradin, founder of a campaign called Take Tuesday, which is trying to persuade U.S. companies to give their employees time off to vote, cites research by MIT political scientist Charles Stewart in an interview with NPR Marketplace.
Story at NPR
 

SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
Pyongyang Faces More-Punitive Sanctions | Jim Walsh
The Wall Street Journal cites a new report by MIT’s Jim Walsh, Research Associate in the Security Studies Program, which reveals that North Korea’s investments in China have softened the impact of global economic sanctions.
Story at the Wall Street Journal
 

ECONOMICS
‘No Empirical Evidence’ for Thomas Piketty’s Inequality Theory, IMF Economist Argues
Recent research by IMF economists as well as MIT’s Daron Acemoglu runs counter to the analysis of inequality put forth in MIT PhD alumnus Thomas Piketty’s watershed volume, Capital.
Story at the WSJ
 

LINGUISTICS
The curious case of and/or | Danny Fox
New research by MIT linguist Danny Fox indicates that children confuse words like and, or, both, neither, and some, not because they can’t puzzle out the concept, but because they lack the proper breadth of context to arrive at the correct conclusion.
Story at the Boston Globe
 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
63 Years After The Korean War Armistice | Jim Walsh
NPR’s "Here & Now" interviewed Security Studies research associate Jim Walsh about the legacy of the Korean War more than six decades after the armistice, discussing the immediate causes of US involvement, its major military operations, and more.
Story
 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Sherry Turkle makes her off-broadway debut
Or rather “Sherry Turkle,” played by Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch, appears in James Graham’s play “Privacy,” at the Public Theater in NYC. The implicit question: If you’re embarrassed watching your online footprint splashed across an LED screen in front of three hundred strangers, do you really want it out there for the whole world to see?
Review at the New York Times | Review at The New Yorker | Story at MIT Slice
 


Scene from “Privacy,” at the Public Theater, NYC; photograph © Joan Marcus


 

ECONOMICS
Ethics vs. Efficiency
Discussing a new book on free market efficiency and human values, the author notes the work of MIT's Paul Samuelson, the Nobel laureate economist who argued that classical economic analysis is neither coherent nor consistent with lived experience.
Story
 

ECONOMICS
In Pennsylvania, Nafta’s Not What Did the Damage | David Autor
In an article on the effect of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the author refers to research by MIT economist David Autor, which finds a relationship between pockets of US job losses and trade with China, but not trade with Mexico.
Story at the Wall Street Journal
 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
HASTS PhD student Anna Wexler on DIY brain stimulation
An op-ed in The New York Times, drawn from some of Wexler's dissertation reseach: "And while D.I.Y. brain stimulators are often characterized as reckless and foolhardy, my research has led me to view them differently....I’ve found that they are — for the most part — astute, inventive and resourceful."
Commentary at the New York Times


SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
New Photos Cast Doubt on China’s Vow Not to Militarize Disputed Islands | M. Taylor Fravel
China has vowed not to extend its military reach any farther into the South China Sea. His it kept that promise? Security Studies Program researcher M. Taylor Fravel sees recent construction of evidence of a breach of trust.
Story at New York Times
 



VIDEOS
 

THEATER ARTS
Sameera Iyengar gives TEDX talk on creative disruption
Iyengar now works as a theater maker and thinker in India.
Watch

 

LINGUISTCS
National Science Foundation video featuring the MIT-Haiti project
Watch Video

 

ECONOMICS
Four economists on how economics is a tool for solving human problems

 



SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Historian and physicist David Kaiser explains the traveling neutrinos
A Radio Boston interview with Kaiser and MIT physicist Joe Formaggio. 
Listen
 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
The Agony of the Digital Tease | Sherry Turkle
In this article on “sporadic noncommittal, but repeated messages — or breadcrumbs —” MIT’s Sherry Turkle explains, “These are connections, not conversations. … They can have the paradoxical effect of making the person who receives them feel let down rather than gratified”.
Story at the New York Times
 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Russia's Hyperloop Dream Stalls | Loren Graham
In explaining the foundering of Russia’s hyperloop program, MIT-SHASS Professor Loren Graham says: “The contradictory and strange fact is that Russians are excellent inventors and very poor innovators. The answer to this is the failure of Russia to develop a society in which the brilliance of its citizens can find fulfillment in economic development.”
Story at Bloomberg
 

DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS | J-PAL
When Women Win, Men Win Too | Esther Duflo
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof draws on research by MIT economist and J-PAL co-director Esther Duflo that reveals a relationship between high levels of diversity and high levels of economic growth.
Story at the New York Times


SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
3-Min video on North Korean nuclear test and security implications | Jim Walsh
In an illluminating video interview, SSP Research Associate Jim Walsh talks about DPRK's nuclear test, possible future sanctions from the U.N., security implications, and Korean leadership strategy.
Interview on CCTV
 

HEALTH CARE ECONOMICS
How do we know what really works in healthcare?
Amy Finkelstein, a professor of economics at MIT, discusses the use of random controlled trials (RCTs) to explore healthcare delivery — and the “accidental” RCT she discovered when Oregon expanded Medicaid.
Podcast on Freakonomics
 


Full September 2016 edition