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An interesting article by Stanford linguist Dan Jurafsky on why different sounds have different associations, e.g., why “ice cream sounds fat”. I’ve always been interested in the Saussaurean arbitrariness of sign—the notion that the sound or form of a word is independent of the meaning. (I hope to write on this in the future.) This offers an interesting counterexample to strong Saussaureanism.
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Lemonade Stands Don’t Teach Kids Anything About Capitalism or Entrepreneurship
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Good point by Yglesias on parking mandates.
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From the Times on nostalgia. Seems somewhat obvious, doesn’t it? (At least it’s obvious that the negative view of nostalgia as a disease is problematic; this positive view is interesting.)
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A provocative article about MSG and gluten intolerance, suggesting a psychological role.
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On the overuse of SWAT teams—for example, a man killed by a SWAT team for poker game.
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I don’t follow the NBA much anymore, but a convincing case for why the Celtics should sign Jason Collins.
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Victor Fleischer on the unseen costs of cutting law school faculty.
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A good discussion of the subtleties and challenges of testing, a guest post by Daniel Koretz on Cathy O’Neil’s blog.
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Somewhat amusing for those with literary interests: The Top Ten Writers Whose Success You’ll Resent This Year.
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Dustin Hoffman on how Tootsie opened his eyes to discrimination against women based on physical attractiveness.
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A bit old now, but good analysis of the Asiana crash.
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Choir singers synchronize their heartbeats. I’d always wondered about this. (It seems that it’s not simply from the music, but rather from their breathing patterns, which of course correlate with the music.)