Must Read

• Charles Derber and June Sekera, The Hidden Deficit
• Michael Mann, If You See Something, Say Something

Should Read

• NY Times, Running on Fumes in North Dakota
• NY Times, Sarah’s Uncertain Path

Economics

• Jared Bernstein, The Transfer of Income to Poor Children Can Be An Investment with Long Term Payoffs
• Jared Bernstein, The What, Why, and Will They Help of these New Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation
• Paul Krugman, The Undeserving Rich
• Washington Center for Equitable Growth, An Ongoing Pick-Up Internet Symposium on the 1%

Media Criticism

• Dean Baker, When Someone Says Paul Krugman Called for Greenspan to Create a Housing Bubble Back in 2002, They are Trying to Say That They are Either a Fool or a Liar
• Eileen McNamara, The Words ‘If’ And ‘Probably’ Have No Place In Journalism

Politics

• Paul Krugman, Conservatives and the CBO
• The Onion, Swift Boat Veterans For Truth Clear John Kerry After Exhaustive 9-Year Investigation [CG:  See Note 1 below]
• WBUR, WBUR Poll: Coakley Strong In Early Phase of Governor’s Race [2]

Big Chicken NJ Governor Chris Christie and His Associates

• Paul Krugman, The Pope and Chris Christie
• NY Times, Mayor of Hoboken Says Hurricane Relief Was Threatened
• Dan Aubrey, Defending the Arts Amid a Culture of Fear
• Charlie Pierce’s running commentary on “Bridgegate”

Criminal Activity

• NY Times, Hospital Chain Said to Scheme to Inflate Bills

Public Policy

• Politico, President Obama: Pot not worse than alcohol
• Politico, Patrick Kennedy to President Obama: Pot has changed

Climate Change

• RealClimate, The evolution of radiative forcing bar-charts
• R. Knutti et al., Challenges in Combining Projections from Multiple Climate Models
• xkcd, Cold:

Math and Science

• Andrew Gelman, Transformations for non-normal data
• xkcd, Automation

Recipes

• Pasta with Parsnips and Bacon
• Chicken-Liver Pate

Book Reviews

• Thug Notes [3]

Miscellany

• Quickmeme, I Wish This Guy Was My Neighbor… He’s Hilarious!
• The Crawfish Boxes, What’s In A Name?: When Minor League Teams Re-Brand [4]
• Gabe Kapler, Understanding Lars Anderson:  A Study in Baseball Makeup
• David Axe, The Best Little Air Force You’re Barely Aware Of

Notes on this week’s Digest:

1. This is not a real news story.   But if you thought it was then you wouldn’t be the first.
2. For the life of me I do not understand Martha Coakley’s popularity.  That she’d have some supporters in her bid for governor, sure.  That she’d leading the field and is the only Democrat who polls ahead of Baker?  AYFKM?  I can’t find it but a WBUR reporter Here’s WBUR anchor Bob Oakes interviewing her just after she declared last September.  For all her talk she said nothing – one platitude after another for five minutes.  Pathetic.  That was her M.O. when she ran for Senate in 2009 and she had her handed to her.   Baker may not have the “guy you’d like to have a beer with” appeal that Brown did but, unlike Brown, he’s not a dope.  If she keeps spewing platitudes then she’ll get her head handed to her by Baker too.
3. “Classical Literature.  Original Gangster.”
4. I know that I’m part of the 15% that goes to games for the baseball and I’m not their target demographic but there’s a not-so-fine line between tailoring your presentation to increase your popular appeal and doing anything – no matter how inane or undignified – to make a buck.  “Chihuahuas” and “RubberDucks” are over the line.  Team names can be fun without being undignified – witness the fact that we’ve got the Lowell Spinners, New Hampshire Fisher Cats, and Portland Sea Dogs within driving distance.  They draw decent crowds.  I’m skeptical that goofy names would attract more fans.