Delicious LiveJournal Links for 8-20-2008

[matgb]

Hah, managed to fiddle around and get a better method, and it works, yay! These are all links from June that never got posted...

• FactCheck: are we drinking less? - Channel 4 - News
  Yes, yes we are. Well, I'm not, I'm drinking loads more than I used to, but even though I'm officially a binge drinker I don't think it's an actual problem. Stupid neo-puritan moralising nannies
  (tags: alcohol politics)
• synecdochic: Announcing Dreamwidth Studios. Coming Summer 2008.
  This could be interestingâ”a full fork of the Livejournal code platform, making it easier to install and doing many of the things I've had on my wishlist for a long time. Definitely a project to watch.
  (tags: blogging livejournal)
• Why price-gougers should get a knighthood | FT.com | The Undercover Economist
  Those garages that put their prices up? Did the RIGHT thing. Supply, demand and panic buying. It's hard to face off against a mercantilist 'fair-price' arsehole or three, but it needs to be done.
  (tags: economics)
• Bad Science » Money money money money money
  Dr Ben with research on our approach to value and enjoyment. We prefer expensive stuff even if we know it's the same as the cheap stuff. WTF?
  (tags: behaviour economics research)
• nihilistic_kid: Sorry green-skinned dudes, he's taken
  Our George that is. Innit cool?
  (tags: george+takei equality)
• Mars lander may have found ice at polygon's edge - space - 16 June 2008 - New Scientist Space
  How cool is this?
  (tags: science mars)
• Hazel Blears, Her Computer and 42 Days - An Apology at Beau Bo Dâ™Or
  Neil has an interesting take on 42 days detention taking into account the Blears case
  (tags: Hazel+Blears politics detention+without+charge)

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Re: the bad science article. I hope you noted this comment:

maybe there’s another factor at work here:

- If the advice is free then in some senses you loose nothing by taking it, and it might mean you realise your answer was in fact wrong, so you might as well take it all the time (and ignore it if you think it’s wrong)

- If the advice needs to be paid for, then if you’re certain of the answer then you won’t buy it - so you’ll only buy it when you’re unsure. If you’re blindly guessing then you might as well go for the answer you’ve paid for, since it’s got to be better than nothing

Which I think means you’d expect to see people following the paid advice more often - not because they rate the paid advice higher, but because they’ve only bought it when they need it.