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🔗 Eritrea: two students die in government clampdown

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Two students have died and up to 2,000 others are being detained in a detention camp following protests against the government. The camp in Wia, 30 kilometres from the Eritrean port of Massawa, is located in a desert region, and temperatures can reach as high as 49 degrees Centigrade (120 degrees Fahrenheit). It is reported that the students are being detained without adequate food, water and shelter.

🔗 The Regression-Discontinuity Design

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The regression-discontinuity design. What a terrible name! In everyday language both parts of the term have connotations that are primarily negative. To most people "regression" implies a reversion backwards or a return to some earlier, more primitive state while "discontinuity" suggests an unnatural jump or shift in what might otherwise be a smoother, more continuous process. To a research methodologist, however, the term regression-discontinuity (hereafter labeled "RD") carries no such negative meaning. Instead, the RD design is seen as a useful method for determining whether a program or treatment is effective.

🔗 New Statesman - Why does the western media ignore Egyptian dissent?

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The Egyptian government is listed as a client by two top K-Street lobbying firms, the Podesta and Livingston Groups, and although the exact cost of their services is confidential the fact that Podesta charged up to $13m over ten years to help the Turkish government persuade movers and shakers on Capitol Hill that there was no such thing as an Armenian genocide suggests that the Egyptian regime is shelling out an awful lot on polishing its image