Category: Web/Tech

1. $5 million advance for Audrey Niffenegger's new book (she wrote "The Time Traveller's Wife").

2. Happy and sad states (Utah wins, WV loses).

3. Showdown: Brad DeLong vs. Luigi Zingales.

4. Glenn Loury: America is a nation of jailers.

5. Can we increase our intelligence and if so how?

6. You, too, are a replicant.

1. Uh-oh.  I once appeared on New Zealand TV in a penguin suit, but I would never do that.

2. The reality of jetpack use, including photos and a discussion of injuries.

3. Sectoral shifts, sectoral shifts, sectoral shifts.

4. The economics of the Kindle; best piece on the topic so far.

5. Brilliant post by Simon Johnson; too good to excerpt.

Imagine a site of links chosen for you by very smart British people, including Bob Cottrell and Mary Ann Sieghart.  They present some links from MR as well, plus by Jonathan Rauch, Oliver Morton, and other notables.

You are much more likely to find something good there than at www.digg.com.  The site is here, check it out.

1. All of sociology in one short blog post.

2. New economics blog on political ignorance.

3. $500 billion for the FDIC, ho-hum.  Fortunately it is just "a loan."

4. Lying with your writing, and Robin Hanson's new favorite book.

5. Lying with your reading, and more here, including a discussion of motive.

1. When does paying for grades work?

2. Michael Barone is a very special man: he has driven through all of the 100 worst traffic intersections in the United States. 

3. Amazing that we would send her back, no?  Something is wrong.

4. Michael Lewis on Iceland, a very good read.

5. Should you respect the debts of the dead?

6. Why hasn't NBA free-throw shooting improved?

1. Electronic cigarettes from China.

2. America's worst traffic intersections.  It is amazing how many are near NYC.

3. Richard Posner writes faster than he can be published.

4. Happiness interview with Penelope Trunk.  Here is Trunk on business vs. dating.

5. More details on the cat cafes in Japan, with photos and analysis.

1. Chat with a vulture investor.

2. The Geithner banking plan is not confusing; under my interpretation it is explained in a 45-second Japanese video.

3. Stephen Dubner interviews me, including a discussion of which smell I dislike and what I hope to spend more money on.

1. Amber's review of *Twilight*.

2. Does Facebook cause cancer?

3. GMU to withdraw from the Persian Gulf.

4. Basketball lender of last resort.

1. Weekly word cloud from the econ blogs.

2. China mixed messages of the day.

3. Is Obama leaning toward a health care mandate?

4. Only six percent of TV stimulus commentators are economists.

5. Puffins on YouTube, with Icelandic puffin souvenirs.

1. Yves Smith on how to nationalize the really big banks.  And more here; Citi's half trillion in foreign deposits is another issue.

2. Data paparazzi.

3. Dambisa Moyo.

1. Rauch and Bartlett say yes.

2. Why did stress testing fail?

3. Notgeld, via Kottke.

4. Beyond the Revolution.

5. Nigerians try to swindle Citibank.

1. How is the Massachusetts health care plan working out?

2. NCAA as cartel.

3. Why it's hard to apply the FDIC model to failed big banks.

4. "Suicide by cop."

5. Finally, a campus boycott I can support.

6. Democratic chess.

7. Peter Orszag, the effective economist.

1. Hacking Obama's Blackberry.

2. Hacking a university press.

3. Hacking Obama's housing plan.  And here is a good critique.

4. Markets in everything, sell advertising space on your bald head.

5. China mad architectural design plan of the day.