Friday assorted links

1. How did the railway affect the diffusion of ideas in 19th century Germany? (Caterina Chiopris is a job market candidate from Harvard).

2. Yiong Huang on “breaking the spiral of silence,” job market candidate from Harvard.

3. “Notably, at selective institutions, new [course] content focuses on societal issues, while at less selective institutions, new content emphasizes job-relevant skills.”  Jacob Light is a job market candidate from Stanford.

4. My 2015 MR post on the future coming first to Israel (and Singapore).

5. Survival improvements of marine mammals in zoological institutions mirror historical advances in human longevity.

6. Have preferences become more similar worldwide?

7. Appealing to GPT-4.