Friday Links

See all Friday Links posts.

1/ Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right, British National Party (BNP) appeared on Newsnight last night. By all accounts he was given a rough ride and rightly so – no one gets off easy on Newsnight. There were plenty of protests and people likening it to Hitler appearing on the BBC – slightly OTT. I AGREE with my friend and fellow blogger, Pinolona, politicians should be held to account, however odious they are and there is no better platform. I like her facebook status update best as a great summary: I am “pleased to be from a country grown-up enough to allow extremist minority parties to show themselves up on the telly, pleased that people are protesting about it and generally glad about freedom of speech and open debate”.

2/ It is a National Tree Planting Day in Lesotho today. Government officials are strongly ‘encouraged’ to participate. I think that in 50 years time, it might be seen as a far-sighted policy and it might be so that Government is setting an example. Nonetheless, I am concerned with the idea that it is implicitly assumed that people with masters degrees in economics have a comparative advantage in planting trees. Is it really a good idea for civil servants to stop work and plant trees? Would it not be better if the day focused on school children? It would then be a great catalyst for all sorts of lessons (environment, geography, agriculture,…)

3/ This young economist beautifully describes how strange economics seminars can seem to the uninitiated and contrasts them to those of other disciplines. As other economists, he has “‘grown up’ thinking:

• Arguing with the presenter about his introduction is appropriate seminar decorum.
• If the presenter is not interrupted in the first five minutes with a question, no one is interested.
• You present your work at a seminar to have people tear it to shreds so you can see what level of criticism your ideas can withstand.”

4/ Chart Porn has a nice amusing cartoon about management decisions and economic upturns.

5/ Tall people do better in life. Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in his great book, Blink. In fact, as far as careers go, discrimination of short people seems to at least match that of females and ethnic minorities in the US.

6/ There has been some positive results on a concoction of drugs which reduce likelihood of catching Aids.

7/ Free will only works slowly. Very interesting. But, as suggested by Blink, I think that we take a conscience decision to train our unconscious mind to act in a certain way.

8/ Some great charts on Human Transportation around the world.