1. From the blogosphere:

Look, I think we should assume honesty of scientific peers until we have reason not to.

This is from Daniel Kuehn’s excellent statement of the strengths and weaknesses of the Conley and Dupor paper on the employment effects of the 2009 “stimulus” bill. One highlight from Daniel’s analysis:

The point is, I think everyone is missing the biggest problem with this paper: state level analyses can’t capture (1.) interstate effects, and (2.) impacts on national markets.

BTW, even though I love the line about honesty I quoted above, my own working assumption is slightly different. I would say that we should give a 90% probability to the idea that scientific peers are honest until we have reason to lower–or raise–that percent.

2. From “The Middle,” one of my favorite shows on TV. I thought of co-blogger Bryan and author Lenore Skenazy and grinned when I heard this. The line comes after the parents have given up trying to get their son to cross a bridge that he’s afraid of crossing:

Sometimes quitting can be the best form of parenting.