I find the idea that students start performing better as soon as they find out the results of the lottery fascinating. So much of life is about perspective and expectations.

Freakonomics » Evidence on School Choice

We then examine the impact attending a chosen school has on student test score outcomes. We find substantial test score gains from attending a charter school and some evidence that choosing and attend…

I have a lot of friends from Singapore and so I’ve heard a lot of Singaporean stories, but this one is over-the-top even for Singapore. Wow.

The culture that is Singapore

A Singapore property developer is targeting the super rich with parking problems by marketing luxury apartments that allow owners to keep their cars next to their living rooms, even if they are on the…

I’ve long been a China skeptic because of things such as the ghost cities, but I must confess I never really considered the opportunity costs of their actions the way he highlights them here.

From the excellent Yichuan (Lulu) Wang

You all should be following him, or so it would seem to me. Here are excerpts from his post What China Could Be Building: The real risk is not that the housing won’t be used, but that the crash would…

This is one thing I miss about reading books on a Kindle — I have less flexibility in how I mark them up. On the plus side, it’s easier to snag a verbatim quote.

Annotating Texts: Some Suggestions (with Pictures!)

A friend of mine who is also a doctoral student recently asked if I had any sort of system for how I annotate books, particularly primary texts. It was an interesting question, because annotating book…

I love comic strips. “That shirt’s got more holes than a Goth chick’s nose.” I might actually use that line someday.

Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley, August 26, 2012 Via @GoComics

Housecats are known to be aloof, but cat-titude reaches new heights in Get Fuzzy, the bitingly hilarious comic strip from cartoonist Darby Conley. Available daily and Sunday and appearing in 650 newsp…

Marriage Matters

Yet another reason to view divorce (and the societal systems that make it easy) negatively. Marriage matters.

What’s the single strongest predictor you will die an early death? — Barking up the wrong tree

Barking up the wrong tree. I want to understand why we do what we do and use the answers to be awesome at life. About. Eric Barker; First visit? Start here. Bakadesuyo.com is proud to be listed on blo…