a variety of topics

Today's nonpolitical entry!

1. Kanye
I like Love Lockdown, the new single from Kanye West, but I'm not sure exactly how much. This was the natural next step for Kanye, who was probably always a little closer to Gnarls Barkley and Andre 3000 than he was to Jay-Z. Love Lockdown features a great hook supported by a phenomenal beat that sounds like its being played by the Blue Man Group or something. The only problem is its repetitiveness; I felt the same thing about Andre's The Love Below (which I felt ultimately was inferior to Big Boi's Speakerboxxx). I kind of feel like people coming from a hip-hop background are much more creative lyrically than singer-songwriters but are lacking melodically and so their songs end up pretty monotonous. Still, I don't think he was going to write a better album than Graduation, so I'm glad to see that he's looking for new challenges.

2. ER Visits
Slate (yes Alex, Slate) has a very interesting article that questions the uninsured as the sole culprits for ER overcrowding. Among the most interesting points: 1) everyone is using the ER more (not just the uninsured), and this can be explained mostly by looking at how the incentives align (aka, economics!). The value of having immediate, reliable treatment is worth the additional cost, not just to those who can't pay, but to those who can. Intriguing.

3. The Value of Blogs in Africa
On the Takeaway today there was a nice story on the Kenyan blogosphere and the emergence of independent reporting in the presence of mainstream media shutdown. I found a nice article on this phenomenon, and on Ushahidi, a site that allows public reconstruction and recording of, for example, post-election violence:

We as Kenyans are guilty of having short-term memories. Yesterday’s villains are today’s heroes. We sweep bad news and difficult decision under the carpet... and get shocked when the country erupts as it did two months ago. Ushahidi gives everybody, anybody, the opportunity to get his or her experience recorded. Through SMS, through email, through the Internet, through meeting an NGO worker who will write down what happened and share it with us. Ushahidi is a project that has to be owned by those who use it; they have to believe in it.

This is something to both admire and to note, as in Zimbabwe some political reconciliation is being attempted. Independent coverage of violent outbreaks will be critical here, especially given Mugabe's history of strongarm tactics.

4. Freakonomics
Finally, as a lead in to tonight's heavily political blog entry, I'll leave you with a tip of the hat to the amazing Freakonomics blog. I'm a huge Freakonomics homer, mostly because I appreciate how they are able to solve problems by constructing questions and experiments in unique ways (rather than using cutting-edge technology or previously unknown methods). A quick perusal of recent freakonomics entries yielded the following interesting questions and answers:

1. Part of what makes people vote? Extrinsic incentives (aka, you don't want your friends to know that you didn't vote)
2. But that's OK, because voting may make you happier. And finally,
3. Rather than asking all the standard questions about Sarah Palin, Steven Levitt asked the most fascinating questions I've seen so far: Why would Sarah Palin get an amniocentesis (threatening the life of her baby) if she planned on having the baby regardless of any medical anomalies?

Stay tuned for political rants, later!