Kieran Healy’s Weblog Sociology and other distractions

The Blimp Menace

Never mind the oxytocin. What about the goddamn adrenaline?

Go read it. You’ll laugh yourself off your chair. (Via Teresa Nielsen Hayden.)

Your Cheatin’ Hormone

Brad DeLong points to an article by Virginia Postrel about the nascent science of neuroeconomics. There’s a lot of experimental work showing that people typically trust each other much more than homo economicus would. In standard bargaining games, where it’s rational to stiff the other guy but better (in terms of your prize money) if […]

This is your brain on drugs

When you’re cruising around the suburbs on a Saturday night, make sure you don’t crash the wrong kind of party. What with all the depressing nonsense that surrounds the war on drugs, it’s good to find some entertaining nonsense every now and again. (Via Czelticgirl.)

Sauce for the Kettle

Or possibly the pot is calling the goose a gander. Or something. Anyway, Tacitus says

One of the truly annoying things about so much of the leftist internet commentariat is their assumption that anyone on the right is ipso facto a die hard supporter of the President. This is ridiculous on its face … Obviously there […]

Ain’t ism

I’m “ain’t ism”. I ain’t any ism. If there’s any formal political persuasion you can put a name on, it’s virtually certain that I disagree with it in some way, on at least one substantial issue – almost always because of practical evaluation of outcomes, given that I’m not particularly impressed by ideology … The […]

Visions and Revisions (again)

Chris Bertram is done with his Rousseau book. Good for him. Meanwhile I am just trying to revise an resubmit an article. The deadline is Friday. Ack. Let me just say that—basic reasonableness of the reviews notwithstanding—it is a complete pain to have to rip out and rewrite the entire front end of your […]