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Assorted links
1. Some economic benefits of gay marriage, via Richard Florida
2. Why it is hard to catch diseases through air travel, plus a defense of the TB guy who got on the plane
3. European writings on economics, a new web site
4. Why are there so many dumb blonde jokes? Bob Frank says maybe blondes are smarter but less educated
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 7, 2007 at 12:25 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Your blond link is to the wrong place, I suspect.
Posted by: Matthew at Jun 7, 2007 1:07:38 PM
Yeah, how about a deep link, Tyler_Cowen.
Here's my blonde joke:
A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks to speak to the head loan officer.
She asks to borrow $2000 for two weeks. He responds:
"Alright, let me just check your credit."
She says back,
"You may not check my credit."
"Well, then I can't make the loan unless you offer collateral."
She pauses for a second. "Oh, how about if I offer my Ferrari as collateral?"
The loan officer if floored. He has a team look at the car and decides that such collateral would be well
beyond what is needed to secure the loan, and approves it. They take the Ferrari into possession.
Two weeks later, the blonde returns and pays the loan plus interest. The loan officer, still perplexed asks her:
"Now, ma'am, I've gotta ask: You're obviously very wealthy. Why on earth would you want to borrow so little?
And for only two weeks? And overcollateralize so much?"
She replies, "Well, where else can I securely park a luxury car in downtown New York for two weeks for only
$20?"
Posted by: Person at Jun 7, 2007 1:19:03 PM
Person, that's one of my favorite jokes. Originally heard it as a socialite with no mention of hair color. Am I the only one who prefers brunettes?
Posted by: nelsonal at Jun 7, 2007 1:59:36 PM
I found Frank's article rather "blonde".
Posted by: Keith at Jun 7, 2007 2:36:15 PM
Franks doesn't consider that not everyone who appears blonde is genetically blonde.
Posted by: DK at Jun 7, 2007 2:59:57 PM
In love scenes in Hollywood movies, the leading lady is fairer-skinned than the leading man the vast majority of times. Anthropologist Peter Frost pointed out that this is because skin color is a mildly-sex linked trait. Medieval poets called women "the fair sex" because they really are about 10% fairer on average (as measured on the inside of the upper arm, where skin never gets tanned). This average sex difference was quite noticeable in monoracial societies, but in modern multiracial societies it's harder to notice because of the much bigger racial differences.
http://www.vdare.com/sailer/050612_blondes.htm
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jun 7, 2007 3:08:02 PM
Regarding the site of supposedly European economics writings, several of those
there are not strictly European. Richard Baldwin is an American in Europe, Alberto
Alesina is a European in America, and Barry Eichengreen is an American in America.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Jun 7, 2007 3:16:52 PM
Regarding the defense of the TB guy - that's basically what I thought when I first read about the situation: A lot of incompetence and miscommunication by the government and a scared person who doesn't want to die.
Posted by: Bob Montgomery at Jun 7, 2007 4:11:19 PM
Makes sense. Blonde women are hotter than average, so men like them more. Women like high status men, high status me usually have high IQ's, so eventually beauty and intelligence converge. It's simple Darwin.
Posted by: adrian at Jun 7, 2007 4:16:27 PM
Naturally I would want my daughters to be attractive, but not so attractive that they collect early attention from boys, since this seems to always distract girls' efforts from creative/productive things (anecdotal, although the blondes-are-less-educated data supports this).
Posted by: Paul N at Jun 7, 2007 6:21:50 PM
What I know about blondes, teaching at a prep school full of alarmingly rich people:
I can tell where a woman falls on the full-time-job/stay-at-home-mom spectrum by how thin and how blonde she is. (And I think most of the blondes are really and truly blonde, given how many of their sons are.) Thin and blonde? Stays at home. Thin and not blonde? Works part time or is a grad student. Not thin and not blonde (very rare among our mothers)? Has a career.
It is positively eerie how accurate this is.
Posted by: Andromeda at Jun 7, 2007 9:40:56 PM
I'm surprised that the Hollywood archetypes of the dumb blonde don't play any part in the NYT analysis- Judy Holliday, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren, to name a few, suggest a rich background of imagery, particularly in view of the roles they played on screen, that certainly have had a large effect in the growth of this genre.
Posted by: Barry Ross at Jun 8, 2007 11:39:45 AM
Intersting look at gay marriage, but there is nothing about the costs of divorce. What would be the impact after the divorces are figured in?
Posted by: scott at Jun 8, 2007 9:06:28 PM
tb guy is son in law of a doctor that worked in CDC.He knew what he was doing. And he was in Europe, where ,we have been told too many times here ,has a better health care than the States
Posted by: Mja at Jun 8, 2007 10:24:40 PM
I used to work at the New York City Comptrollers office back when we worried about taxi-cab medallions,
bridge construction and other banal concerns. Gay marriage does appear to contribute to the City's
line according to the report. I would advocate that polygamous marriage be included as it is likely
to have a higher impact per unit of marriage ceremonies conducted at the marriage bureau on #1 Centre
Street (nyc Muni building where marriages are "performed").
Posted by: Robert C at Jun 9, 2007 5:15:00 AM
Blondes/intelligence: Being perceived as intelligent isn't just a matter of heredity, it's also a matter of hard work and effort. Hey, effort probably matters a lot in intelligence testing as well. If you're not trying that hard, you won't be perceived as particularly intelligent. And if you're a high status, attractive woman, why try? You have better things to do. That's been my explanation.
Posted by: jult52 at Jun 9, 2007 6:26:09 AM
I don't know why you and PZ keep linking to Effect-Measure. His squawks during the Bird-Flu epidemic were unbearable enough, but this pronunciation on the TB scandal is just indulgent and delusional.
Does anyone comfortable with science feel smarter after reading revere?
Posted by: Chi at Jun 10, 2007 5:18:17 AM
