IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, JUST ASK ME

Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News

1. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, JUST ASK ME

"But more strikingly, King and her colleagues found a huge difference in self-citation patterns between men and women. 'Over the years between 1779-2011, men cite their own papers 56% more than women do,' they found. And in recent decades, men have stepped up their self-citation game relative to women: 'In the last two decades of our data, men self-cite 70 percent more than women.'" Why? "For starters, studies have shown that men generally have a higher opinion of their own abilities than women do." Well, this is a blinding flash of the obvious! From WaPo - New study finds that men are often their own favorite experts on any given subject

+ This is just as bad as financial analysts/advisors actively manipulating the markets or customers for gain. "With their expertise and authority, think tank scholars offer themselves as independent arbiters, playing a vital role in Washington’s political economy. Their imprimatur helps shape government decisions that can be lucrative to corporations. But the examination identified dozens of examples of scholars conducting research at think tanks while corporations were paying them to help shape government policy." From NYT - Think Tank Scholar or Corporate Consultant? It Depends on the Day

+ "'We [The Brookings Institution] are proud of our scholars, their work, and our partnership with our donors,' the post reads. It argued that the New York Times 'cherry picked phrases' and 'fundamentally misrepresents our mission' and how the think tank operates." From Fortune - Prestigious Think Tank Says It’s Not Pandering to Corporate Donors

2. THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE OLYMPICS

"This is a difficult story to report. The person who knows best whether Tusup’s behavior crosses the line, Hosszú, emphatically says that it does not. But abused people often deny that they are being abused, and isolating somebody from her friends and telling her to kill herself are abusive actions. To merely gesture at those things is inadequate." From Deadspin - What Is Everyone Trying To Tell Us About Kantinka Hosszu' And Her Hot-Tempered Coah-Husband?

+ "While most nations around the world are preparing for the 2016 Olympic Games by pumping up their star athletes poised to win medals, India is celebrating something else: Its mere presence at the games. For anyone who’s ever received a participation trophy in youth sports, the situation may arouse pity." From Ozy - With 1.4 Billion People, Shouldn't India Suck Less at Sports? and From Quartz - The first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics vault final began her training on a discarded scooter

+ From Quartz - This Olympics image shows women athletes playing just as hard in a hijab as in a bikini and Saudi Arabia lets women compete in the Olympics, but bans them from playing sports back home

+ "The Scrap Value: $501" From Fortune - How Much Is An Olympic Medal Actually Worth?

3. THE DIRTY BUSINESS OF INTELLIGENCE

"A murky saga of global nuclear intrigue came to an end this week when the Iranian government returned the body of Shahram Amiri to his family, with bruises from hanging around his neck." From Quartz - After years of silence, Iran executes a scientist who spilled nuclear secrets to the US

Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News