(More) Friday links for bored but curious people

My ODI colleague in Southern Sudan, Lee, now does a list of interesting Monday Links J Here are some interesting things I’ve read recently on t’interweb:

Neuroworld. The Hot Waitress Indicator. A new economic indicator.

Dear Economist… . An economist as agony uncle. Here is an example:

“Dear Economist,
I believe that there is an inexplicable shortage of sex. Given that studies show that women and men enjoy it more than most other activities, and given its intrinsically low cost, it appears that even a crude approximation of a utility-maximising person would probably spend much more time having sex than most. Do you know of any economic discussion of this?
Michael Vassar, New York”

See the economic agony uncle’s reply here.

Brit. Psychological Society. Your facial expressions influence speakers’ language.

and There is a surprising link between anger and perception of time.

Personally, I have no idea how a meeting moved forwards two days from Wednesday can possibly be on Monday and not Friday. I am surprised anyone might think that, and I don't consider myself at all an 'angry person'. Still, live and learn!

and Intervention helps reduce homophobia

Only I think there is a flaw in the study. I am wondering whether it was actually the lecture on homophobia that made things worse. There should have been a third control group which did nothing to avoid this issue.

Neuroworld. Left-wing, Right-wing. Both nuts. See here and here.

BBC article on the fear of a ‘land grab’ in Africa to produce food and ship it away. Not sure about my own opinion on this. Increasing productivity of Africa’s agriculture is a good thing even if it is done by foreigners – there is more food for the whole world. Only, it would be nice if some of that food could stay in Africa too… But if African Governments prefer money through rent, then who am I to say otherwise. Of course, there is a slight issue of corruption too. An interesting read.

Zoulous blancs. Pour les francophones. Thomas, mon collègue ODI fellow au Burundi a écrit un blog intéressant sur la culture de don dans ce pays et ses expériences là-dessus ainsi que les difficultés que doivent faire face les étrangers qui n’ont pas l’habitude d’en participer. Voir De chacun selon ses moyens.