Not to mention the Queensland Reds, who are too depressing even to think about.

When are they going to be promoted to the Under-19 comp, do you think?

Yes he is (mostly talking about legal marriage, that is), but I still think you’re talking at cross purposes. Becker largely ignores the existence of de facto “intact” families. However he does observe in passing:

Even if having two parents in a household is beneficial to children, it is far from clear whether marriage per se benefits children compared to having parents who live together without being married.

The Bjorklund, Ginther and Sundstrom paper you link demonstrates that, although there are clear advantages (on average) conferred by being the child of an “intact” (i.e. two parent) family, it doesn’t matter whether those parents are legally married or not. Thus Becker’s post doesn’t contradict the studies you linked, although he then goes on to discuss at length whether there should be tax or other subsidies for legal marriage (concluding that there shouldn’t).

Minor comment. You say:

As far as I can see they’re talking at cross purposes: an intact family need not involve a marriage.

I just re-read Becker’s post, and I’m pretty sure he’s talking about marriage (the post title is “Should marriage be subsidized”).

As for the Eels, well there are 25 rounds still to go. The season is a long way from over for all sides.

That said sadly I had all ready read all the posts I was interested in earlier today.

Keep it up guys.

How did he do it?
Were there less trains?

He redefined the meaning of ‘on time’, a tactic later known by the railway cognoscenti as ‘The Scully Obfuscation’.

Apologies.

From Snopes:

….The Italian railway system had fallen into a rather sad state during World War I, and it did improve a good deal during the 1920s, but Mussolini was disingenuous in taking credit for the changes: much of the repair work had been performed before Mussolini and the fascists came to power in 1922. More importantly (to the claim at hand), those who actually lived in Italy during the Mussolini era have borne testimony that the Italian railway’s legendary adherence to timetables was far more myth than reality…..

I thought this might be the place to ask:

I’ve always wondered if Musso actually did make the trains run on time.

What was happening before?
How did he do it?
Were there less trains?
Less stops?
Was there a fare increase or decrease?
Are there any lessons we can learn?

Hmmmm. A notable lack of posts about the Tahs from the regular yawnion crowd.

Heh.