Mid-week Links

John Cassidy in The New Yorker on this year’s economics Nobels (includes a roundup of links to reactions from the econ community). 

There’s been less talk in the blogoshere about this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes, which “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.” 

The 2009 prizes were awarded on October 1.  My favorite: Public Health Prize winner Dr. Elena Bodnar who invented a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander.  (image at right) From the patent abstract:

A garment device convertible to one or more facemasks wherein the garment device has a plurality of detachable cup sections. Each of the cup sections has a filter device, an inner portion positionable adjacent to the inner area of the user's chest, and an outer portion positionable adjacent to the outer areas of the user’s chest.

Malcolm Gladwell asks, how different are dogfighting and football?

Like humans, monkeys are freaked out by almost-but-not-quite-real depictions of themselves.

Wired’s “Terminal Man” appears to have passed the ultimate mental health test — 30 days without leaving an airport terminal except by plane — with his sanity completely intact.

Techdirt on professors claiming copyright over their lectures.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, NY Times, Don’t Fail, or Reward Success

InstaPundit and Eugene Volokh on burning bunnies for heat and energy.

Re: Blogs on Westlaw Chris Lund asks, “Am I just late to the scene, but when did that happen?” Not as late as me . . .