Category: Web/Tech

1. Paul Graham on writing by enumeration.

2. Doing Business: Rwanda's is the world's top reformer of business regulation this year.

3. New Malcolm Gladwell book of collected essays.

4. Why do so few U.S. college students graduate?

5. Ho-hum: James Patterson signs 17-book deal.

6. "…you'd rather add 17 more items to the line than one other person": a statistical look at when the express lane is faster.  Remember: the y-intercept isn't zero!

1. The recalculation story.

2. Markets in everything: lingerie football.

3. Receiving income payments can kill you.

4. Is government, on net, pro- or anti-suburban?

Who says you can’t buy friends? An Australian online marketing
company is selling friends and fans to Facebook members after offering
a similar service to Twitter users.

Advertising, marketing and promoting company uSocial
said it was targeting social networking sites because of their huge
advertising potential. “Facebook is an extremely effective marketing
tool,” Leon Hill, uSocial CEO, said in a statement.

“The simple fact is that with a large following on Facebook, you
have an instant and targeted group of people you can contact and
promote whatever it is you want to promote,” he added. “The only
problem is that it can be extremely difficult to achieve such a
following, which is where we come in.”

The company offers packages for Facebook, the world’s number one
social networking site, that start at 1,000 friends up to 10,000
friends at costs ranging from $177 to $1,167.

“All we do is send them a welcome message or friend request from the
client. If they decide to go ahead and add that person as a friend or a
fan then they will; if not, then they won’t,” Hill told Australian
media.

Here is more information and I thank Steve White for the pointer.

1. Drugging the political opposition.

2. The substantive bottom line.

3. Did Hitler and Lenin ever play chess?  Probably not I say.

4. Markets in everything: how good is your book? non-published Kirkus reviews for indie authors.

5. How to make restaurant visits worthwhile: bill them for your time.

6. Is there a cupcake bubble?

1. Colorized photos of Tsarist Russia (includes Russian women!).

2. Nixon's health care plan.

3. Rant against Norman Mailer.

4. Brian Arthur's theory of innovation.

5. Mars from the air, new photos.

6. Education as placebo effect; from Create Your Own Economy.

1. Robert Fogel on health care.

2. Living wills for banks: a way out of the mess?

3. Meta-data errors in Google book search.

4. Paul Krugman: how did economists get the crash so wrong?

5. William Galston: where is the U.S. economy headed?

1. Praise for Alex and Tyler.

2. The economics of fairy tales.

3. The New Yorker reviews Peter Leeson.

4. Arnold Kling on bailouts.

5. Libraries in everything: lending out human beings.

1. El Plan público.

2. The price for spending eternity with Marilyn Monroe.

3. South Africans comment on District 9.

4. Margaret Thatcher and other conservative ringtones.

5. Megan on high-speed rail.

1. How much will TARP have cost?

2. Google trends: Wolfram Alpha.

3. Within a company, the powerful think that rules are more important.

4. Which countries are hardest for informed people to find on a map?  Kiribati appears to come in first; source here.

5. Underwear as an economic indicator.

1. Neurodiversity and fandom.

2. Photo of Titan.

3. Why it's hard to inflate away the debt.

4. What are the highest circulation periodicals?

5. Beryl Sprinkel passes away at 85.

6. Reihan's web project; "Eventually, I’d like it to be a buzzing hub of Reihan-related activity:
illustrations, videos, posts, perhaps a podcast, crushed skulls,
diamond-encrusted elephant tusks, and more."

1. How good are hand-held computers at chess these days?

2. Robin Hanson thanks lusty old men. 

3. Is the Arts Endowment too heavily into partisan politics?

4. I've always wanted to speak Swedish.

5. AIG: the new bubble?  Yikes!

6. Paper towels > hand dryers.

7. Our true fiscal position.

1. What's the chance you'll die in the next year?  Here is a new calculator.

2. Markets in everything: revenge flyers.

3. One good way to think about why placebo effects are getting stronger.

4. The conference bike: will it make meetings longer or shorter?

5. The P vs. NP problem and its importance.

6. Incompetence as a signaling device.

1. Jeff Miron is blogging again.

2. What makes a greenhouse gas, parts I and II; I've not seen this basic science angle discussed elsewhere.

3. Profile of Craig Newmark.

4. Don't think about the elephant.

5. What is the psychological dynamic of the politician?

6. The dangers ahead for Bernanke, a NYT symposium.

1. A new theory of embarassment.

2. Micropatronage, using the web.

3. It seems placebo responses are becoming stronger.

4. Ecclesiastical insurance and hot lead.

5. The history of law and economics.

1. Which firms give the most to politicians? (David Henderson comments.)

2. The Attention Festival.

3. Top twenty tracks of the decade?

4. Meat in desserts, a survey.

5. Adam Thierer review of Create Your Own Economy.