Angrist

MIT Technology Review provides an interesting puff piece on economist Josh Angrist.

Highlights: the reporters noble but still unsuccessful attempt to explain local average treatment effects and the indirect criticism of a certain famous co-author of mine.

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Super Bowl Ads

Can there be any question but that the first Go Daddy ad was the winner?



Biggest losers: the Dodge Ram ad featuring the late populist radio announcer Paul Harvey and his sickly sweet peaen to farmers. I assumed until the very last minute that it would an ad for some agri-business welfare queen like ADM rather than for trucks. And the Budweiser "black crown" ads. It does not actually matter how many black-clad pretty people you you trot out; Bud will just never be cool.

I also liked the Gangnam pistachio ad and the Taco Bell party seniors.

The whole list, with videos, here.

Addendum: some interesting background on "The Kiss" from the Daily Mail.65 takes!

Hat tip on the addendum: Charlie Brown

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Movie: Trouble with the Curve

This doesn't happen often, but A.O. Scott, writing at his best, liked this one better than I did.

Still, at the end of the day, Clint - locals will know there is a picture of him in my office, courtesy of a postcard sent years ago by one of my best graduate school friends - outshines the smarmy story, making this one recommended by me as well.

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A new new bookstore for Ann Arbor's downtown

You probably have to be nuts to open a bookstore of any sort these days, but doing so in downtown Ann Arbor, which is presently without a general interest new bookstore due to the closing of both Shaman drum and Borders #1, is probably less nuts than opening one in many other places.

The owners have - of course - a blog describing their progress with the new store.

Good luck to them!

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Assorted links

1. Emma Watson on American boys.

2. One of my very favorite Emo jokes.

3. Avoiding police encounters from Slate's new crime blog.

4. 10 ways water can kill you, courtesy of a UM professor.

5. Crab lice holocaust, and what you can do about it.

#1 is via instapundit. .

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War on drugs: DC edition

Mike Riggs at reason remarks on the very different consequences of the marijuana front of the war on drugs for people of different social classes. This is, of course, just one of the many offensive features of American's deeply conflicted and often puritanical fascination with recreational chemistry.

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FT on Sidney Rittenberg

The FT interviews Sidney Rittenberg, an American who was in Mao's inner circle during the early years of the People's Republic.

We unfortunately missed the movie when it passed (very quickly) through Ann Arbor.

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