eu-jin’s posterous

I'd known about the original experiment that demonstrated the paradox
of choice (where "more choices may lead to a poorer decision or a
failure to make a decision at all" --- wikipedia). More recent work
has failed to replicate the results, and a meta-analysis of all the
studies replicating the paradox of choice work also seems to indicate
that "offering lots of extra choices seems to make no important
difference either way.".

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9cebd444-cd9c-11de-8162-00144feabdc0.html

I've been reading articles recently suggesting that there isn't much
functional benefit to being very flexible, but this is the first
article that I've read that cites research stating that runners with
tighter hamstrings have a more economical stride.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/phys-ed-how-necessary-is-stretching/

Spray tanning has apparently come a long way since the days of the
tell tale orange cast on a person. It seems you can spray tan even 6
pack abs, sculpted arms, and cheekbones now.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125894440320760069.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

I met someone recently that told me that no one should ever use the
retail brokerages out there to trade foreign exchange, and he listed a
number of reasons that sounded convincing to me. The financial times
blog has just posted about the retail foreign exchange market using
the IPO prospectus of a retail forex brokerage with the juicy tidbits
such as:

1) The majority of our revenue is derived from our activities as a
market-maker to our retail customers, where we act as the counterparty
to our customers’ trades.

2) Our customer base is primarily comprised of individual retail
customers who generally trade in the forex market with us for short
periods

3) As a market-maker, we take an equal and opposite position to our
customers when executing a trade. We believe it is neither
economically optimal nor necessary from a risk perspective to hedge
all of our customers’ trades on a one-to-one basis

The post also goes on to explain why these brokerages allow such
insanely high leverage ratios (basically to make sure their customers
blow past their stops, guaranteeing the brokerage a profit since they
don't hedge the customer trades).

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/11/02/80866/the-100bn-fx-hustle/

Local officials in China often proclaim edicts that are poorly thought
out or simply hilarious. Some of them better ones include:

1) "Officials of Hanchuan, a city in Hubei Province, tried a similar
ploy, with the same effect. Determined to boost the local brand of
baijiu, a sinus-clearing distilled clear liquor, they ordered state
workers to buy a total of about $300,000 worth in a year. Reporters
calculated that each employee would have had to buy three bottles a
day to meet the quota. The rule was later rescinded."

2) "But a 2003 regulation that bars male officials in Sichuan Province
from hiring female secretaries may still be on the books. China Youth
Daily reported then that the official who initiated the regulation
wanted “to ensure that work can be carried out."

3) "No one ever precisely pinned down the origin of an order this May
to kill all dogs in the town of Heihe, on the Russian border in the
far northwest. Media reports suggested one town official became irate
after a dog bit him as he strolled along a river. But the official
refused to confirm that.

Town leaders organized teams of police officers and ordered them to
beat to death any dog who ventured into a public space. China National
Radio, a state-run agency, broadcast the citizens’ outrage. “When we
need to walk our dogs now, we have to first go out and look for cops,”
one dog owner lamented."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/world/asia/26salute.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

I did not know that Norway publicly publishes the income and taxes of
every citizen annually. As expected, there's a frenzy of interest when
the data comes out, leading to

1) tax porno --- "many treat the list like “tax porno” — furtively
checking the income of neighbors or co-workers"

2) questions in school and at the grocery store --- “The children of
people with low wages are being teased about it in the schools,” Mr.
Stordrange said Thursday. “People with low salaries are being met with
comments at the grocery store, ‘How can you live on these low wages?”’

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/business/global/24tax.html?ref=business

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at this list of 30 dumbest inventions ever. Some of them deserve to be classic.

http://www.life.com/image/3270485/in-gallery/25371/30-dumb-inventions

t seems like no all exercise is equal in terms of maintaining brain function. Aerobic exercise seems to maintain or increase brain function more than other forms of exercise, at least if you're a lab rat. This finding seems to correspond with what I experience anecdotally when I found that I could concentrate somewhat better after long aerobic sessions rather than climbing or lifting weights. Aside from brain function, I just feel better after a bout of aerobic exercise than any other forms.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/what-sort-of-exercise-can-make-you-smarter/?ref=magazine

A great post from okcupid's blog about what works on their online dating site. The author did some simple statistical analysis of how words in the initial message affect the probability of the other party replying. Some interesting results include that netspeak is a big turnoff, and saying that you're an atheist helps. Thanks to Hovav for sending me the link!

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/09/14/online-dating-advice-exactly-what-to-say-in-a-first-message/

An interesting take on why banker's pay is so lavish --- the argument essentially boils down to when you have one chance to get things like mergers and ipos right, the amount of money you could save by paying bankers less is negligible compared to what you could lose.

I actually found the part about why people who do movie trailer voice overs are paid so much the most fascinating part of the article. I had no idea that creating movie trailers was so lucrative.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/goldman