Double the Platinum, Double the links...

1. This article empirically verifies what I pretty much knew; people are naturally social and for the most part, not interested in conflict in any form. This is a positive in many situations, but not all. Fascinating stuff. (HT: LT)

2. Someone smarter than I describing why she doesn't like government-run health care.

3. Chick flicks that men can like. Some I agree with more than others. I definitely enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada, though it's doubtful I will ever watch the Sex in the City Movie. The unstated part of this whole article is that men should tolerate watching these movies on the off chance that it gets your lady friend in the mood. The whole thing makes me think of this....(wait for the 1:50 mark)

4. Congrats to my friend, Courtney. She is going to be working at this school in Chicago. Here's an article about the new school they are opening up near my college.

5. This article is interesting in that it describes the dramatic transition communities go through when they modernize. To be certain, it is not always pretty and it is a process that can radically change in a few years much of what an agrarian society has become accustomed to over centuries. All I could think of while reading it is that an observer probably would have said the same thing about settlers in the United States two and three hundred years ago. I, for one, have a new blog to subscribe to. (HT: LT)

6. This is very odd. It's a charter school being run by a school district. This seems to defy the definition/logic of charter schools. Other than the school being allowed to choose their own employees (sort of), all this seems to prove is how districts recognize that they can't centrally control schools - even when they are still centrally planning the schools that are not centrally controlled. Weird.

7. This list is remarkably good. There are only two movies I'd replace: Goodfellas and Saving Private Ryan. Points to the person who can figure out which two movies I'd replace them with. The first should be very easy.

8. This is an extremely long post about basketball and the link to the Ewing theory is also a pretty decent length. Both are great posts. The main post provides an intellectual analysis of basketball that you just don't see very often. Great stuff. Another example that goes unmentioned is this article about Shane Battier. It fits so perfectly, it's scary. Make sure you give yourself a half hour before clicking on any of these links.

9. This seems remarkably accurate given what I know about New Yorkers. And having heard Rudy speak about a week ago, I completely believe his quote. Thoughts, anyone?

10. Here's an article that takes a pejorative tone against, ironically, one of the only bankers who did not help to get us into the recession. I'm no objectivist, but it's interesting that the article, in describing people that understood the crisis before it began, seems to take a higher than thou tone about laissez faire capitalism, and misses the crucial point that there is a difference between how markets operate and how the individual actors within a market should behave if they want to survive and thrive in the long term.