Scrivener.net

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

An awesomely wondrous and inspiring collection of links! 

[] How to title and write a web article so the most people will e-mail it to others -- as per what data analysis says. (Guaranteed even better than “How Your Pet’s Diet Threatens Your Marriage, and Why It’s Bush’s Fault.”)


[] How to pose your picture on a dating web site so the most people will respond to it -- as per what data analysis says.

Hints: Cleavage shots do work for women (maybe surprisingly, the older the woman the better they work), and bare-shirted pecs-and-abs shots work for men (well, for teenagers -- the older the man the worse). That's for getting the largest number of responses. For getting the largest number of responses that lead to productive conversations there are other ideas.


[] Alan Greenspan prepares a defense against all the accusations that he caused the housing bubble, and thus the Great Recession, by keeping interest rates too low. His gist: It was a world-wide bubble, and how could he have caused all that? Hey, almost two years ago I was making this case for him with a visual aid. Alan, hire me!


[] The fiscal mess that Greece is in. I take back the "wondrous and inspiring" claim for this one, a longish read "between dire and disastrous". It is kind of awesome, though. Especially the thought that it could be just the start for the rest of us.


[] When others speak ill of you, there's no need to rush to confirm they're right it so quickly!

Arnold Kling writes at Econlog:
Being arrogant means dismissing your opponent's qualification to voice an opinion. By that definition, Brad DeLong is to arrogance what Michael Jordan is to basketball.
DeLong immediately responds in the first comment underneath...
Alas, many people who voice opinions are not qualified to do so. Consider Eugene Fama [etc.]...
Fama, one of the world's leading financial economists, gets pulled in from nowhere, having nothing at all to do with Kling's original post. Apparently it was "bash Fama week" for DeLong. But he replies to DeLong with tact and fact.


[] How many people die from not having health insurance? Megan McArdle starts a brouhaha with the Obamacare Legionaries by pointing to research that suggests from few to none.


[] Karaoke kills. At least in the Philippines, stay out of the karaoke bars. And if you go in anyhow, at least don't sing Sinatra's "My Way". Sounds to me like good advice when in New York and New Jersey too.