Jacob Christensen

Belgium is a strange country. A very strange country, as a matter of fact.

Holy cows: I’ll have to admit that this year’s Tour de France is as fascinating on track as well as off-track.

Okay, following Floyd Landis’s resurrection last year, the latest piece of news was hardly surprising. But still…

(And the answer to the obvious question is: No, I wouldn’t be surprised if…)

• VoxEU – Wake-up call for the ECB
  Even the ECB were more transparent, its decisions are bound to be controversial, if not always, at least quite often. This implies that the ECB has an important advocacy responsibility to perform.
  (tags: europe economics institutions politicalscience)
• Organisations and Markets: Is Social Capital Path Dependent?
  A new paper by Marta Felis Rota … Evidence for path dependence is weak; all countries enjoy long-run increases in social capital but rates of change vary widely
  (tags: research sociology socialcapital)
• VoxEU – Why some do I.T. better: research on firm-level data
  It has taken a long time to confirm that computers boost productivity. The key seems to lie in management and internal organisation. That’s why IT has helped US firms so much more than their European counterparts.
  (tags: economics Computers research sociology organization)
• VK – Ola Nordebo: Stark välfärd förutsätter en positiv människosyn
  …Utgångspunkten har varit, och är ofta fortfarande, att medborgare ska betraktas som rädda, hjälplösa, omyndiga och i behov av en överhet som bestämmer och ordnar…
  (tags: sweden welfarestate politics publicadministration)
• Marina Hyde: Don’t flatter terrorists with po-faced hush. Mock them
  Taking the mickey out of these criminals is a serious necessity – by laughing at them we deny them all dignity
  (tags: politics humor terrorism UK newspaper)

The alien invasion reaches Umeå. Yes, according to local media an unsuspecting gardener encountered a suspected snail among his plants

Be afraid! Be very afraid!

The Chemical Express – that was funny. Maybe we should start calling the cyclists “The Chemical Brothers”? It’s really annoying that the Tour de France is so exciting both on and outside of the track this year.

Ezra Klein’s post “The Chicken and the Edwards” turned out not to be about the you-know-what…

Due to spamming, I’ve had to change my e-mail address at the domain jacobchristensen.name. Please check the page “contact” to see the new address.

If you’ve been in touch with me through my gmail-address or through Flickr, you don’t have to change annything. But you might want to consider changing your e-mail application.

• Crooked Timber – The death of social democracy: greatly exaggerated
  Large parts of the article are good and perceptive, but Bogdanor also seems to be using the book to make his own, rather odd claims.
  (tags: europe politics socialdemocracy research politicalscience)

Yes, the Wall Street Journal is statistically challenged.

But what a great specimen for methodology courses in the social sciences.

And just as you thought that July was safe, that guy Rasmussen had to destroy everything!

Ploegleider Erik Breukink was dolblij. ,,De dag begon voor ons niet zo goed. We zaten met niets mee voorin. Dit is een sterk staaltje. De concurrentie is wat laat in actie gekomen. Rasmussen had zes minuten voorsprong aan de voet van de laatste klim. Dat is veel.”

Politiken, NRC Handelsblad (see quote), even the BBC has the details.

Now all of Denmark will be in agony until he loses the yellow jersey or reaches Paris, whatever happens first.