UC Berkeley lectures now online
For friends who have just come out of their batcaves, pick your courses here. Ironically, one of the lectures seems to suggest that face-to-face lectures are much better. "You can't beat the live performance," the professor says.

Economics professor as homo economicus
Watch him live la vida loca!


He is no other than Robert H. Frank of Cornell.

Economics has never been this funny!





If you can't get enough of the video, the text adds value.

Smart teens don't have sex (or kiss much either)
Here's the study, and a discussion. Now I know why I survived high school without losing it. :)

Science vs Religion, one more time
Religion wins, hands down. The Scientific American concedes. :)

Harry Potter and Economics
I've been looking for excuses to procrastinate on reading the last installment of the HP series. Once I missed a class because I was so engrossed reading the 3rd book that I totally forgot my class schedule. Now here's for the bashing and possibly my excuse too. Continue until you finish reading the comments as well. Probably the odds are not exactly in favor of my not reading it. Here's a piece that says exactly the opposite about HP not making any economic sense. Talk about economics being a dismal science.

Engineer vs Philanthropist
Who contributes more for the society's well being? An engineer or a philanthropist? Bill Gates the software engineer or Bill Gates the Philanthropist? It depends how you calculate their contributions. This guy has it his way.

Lead Exposure and Criminality
If you're a fan of Freakonomics that attributes the drop in criminality in the US to the institution of abortion, here's even more freakish link to criminality: lead exposure. Surges in crime correlate with heights of lead exposure in population. The evidence appears to be more solid than what's used to support the Freakonomics thesis on the abortion-criminality link.

Politically Incorrect Truths
Psychology Today (not exactly up there in academic reputation) published this nonetheless amusing article on "truths" about human "nature": why suicide bombers are Muslims, why men prefer sexy blonds, and so on.

College Buddies
The Harvard Crimson chronicles two college buddies who turned out to be stars in the same field.

Facebook v MySpace
I started using Facebook back when it was only for one school. MySpace, for me then, was just "there". Now here's an ethnographic account (sorta) of the two social networking sites and the kind of people who tend to use them, basically reflecting class division.

Diaspora calling
My intersecting interests in both Filipino diaspora and information technology recently got engaged with a report from the Economist [7 June 2007]. With the falling cost of IP telephony, everybody should be calling, right? Not so fast. It looks like in general there's really not much increase in the time we spend calling other people. But look who's dialing who over the Internet? Peoples in diaspora. Hmmm... no surprise there for me, since I myself spend a great deal of time talking to friends and family abroad. But other than the fact that these people are using Skype or Yahoo or what-have-you more than other groups, availability or accessibility of the VOIP technology doesn't automatically translate into its increased use.

"Scientific Consensus"
Here's one for my friends teaching Science, Technology and Society. "Scientific consensus" is supposed to be a good thing. But what if it stifles dissent and fosters false finality in debates over issues? Is science about consensus, to begin with? The Czech president makes his point.

Booked in NY
When I'm in New York, I stay with my sister. So this is probably something I can't experience for myself. But for my literate friends who are looking for a place to stay in the Big Apple, the Library Hotel is an enticing proposition.

Internet--the biggest generation gap since rock-n-roll
NY Mag has done a wonderful piece on Internet being a dividing line between Before Netters and After Netters. After Netters, the generations that grow up with the Internet, may complain that Before Netters, the folks who might know or not know how the Internet works, are clueless what privacy entails today. Do you have a Facebook profile? A YouTube video? A MySpace account? Oppss... don't tell. What you say might give away your age.

Blogging about blog
Everybody seems to be into blogging these days that it practically lost its novelty already. Here's something to note for my American blogging friends. For the rest of us, we can basically sleepwalk into blogging.

Watch this clip of an interview showing what has to be one of the most mind-blowing distinction from a blonde [www.videoplink.com]. Not that I have anything against blondes, but see for yourself if this woman has helped at all.