The Daily Dozen

1. What health insurance does cover, and doesn't.
2. What techniques do police use to get suspects to confess?
3. The joy of not cooking. Megan McArdle takes a look at the difference in how easy it is for her to cook compared to her grandmother.
4. Nature vs. nurture, as seen by economists.
5. Seth Godin on accepting false limits.
6. The sad, beautiful fact that we're all going to miss almost everything. (HT Tyler Cowen)
7. Angry Birds meets Star Wars.
8. A free book well worth your time: For those interested in the topic, click here to obtain a free download of Policy and Choice: Public Finance through the Lens of Behavioral Economics by William J. Congdon, Jeffrey R. Kling, and Sendhil Mullainathan.
9. Upper income people still don't realize they're upper income.
10. Can business be taught?
11. Privilege: How society's elites are made.
12. A look at iPad users: Apple still trouncing Android.

The History of Home Values in the US

Are housing prices headed for a reversion to the mean?

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(Graph via The Big Picture)

All Cups, No Tea?

If these allegations about Greg Mortenson prove true, this is a tremendous disappointment. Ali gave me a copy of Mortenson's book, Three Cups of Tea, a couple years ago. I loved the book and had been a big fan of Mortenson's work. Now it looks like he has exaggerated much of what he's done and engaged in some pretty serious fabrications and lack of financial oversight.

Another humanitarian hero has tumbled off his pedestal.

It remains to be seen whether Greg Mortenson, author of the best-selling “Three Cups of Tea,” will be able to avert a total reputation meltdown. But last Sunday’s 60 Minutes broadcast and a thorough exposé by Jon Krakauer provide convincing evidence for some serious allegations:

• That some of the most important, inspiring stories in Mortenson’s nonfiction books—stories that provide the foundation for his whole mission—fall somewhere on the spectrum between greatly exaggerated and completely invented.
• That Mortenson’s charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI) lacks sufficient transparency and oversight.
• That some not insignificant number of schools Mortenson claims to have built in Afghanistan and Pakistan either aren’t being supported by CAI, aren’t being used as schools, or don’t exist at all.

Mortenson refuted the allegations in a letter to his supporters, saying that the story “paints a distorted picture using inaccurate information, innuendo and a microscopic focus on one year’s (2009) IRS 990 financial, and a few points in the book ‘Three Cups of Tea’ that occurred almost 18 years ago.” But the rebuttals he’s provided so far do little to counter the weight of evidence against him.

What surprises me most about the story is not that yet another development demigod turned out to be a human.

What surprises me most is the way Mortenson’s charity—embraced by the US military and admired by President Obama, Oprah and literally millions of Americans—has managed to avoid scrutiny of its spending priorities for so long.

Read the whole thing and be sure to watch the 60 Minutes video.

More on this by Megan McArdle.

Jon Krakauer has an eBook on this called Three Cups of Deceit. It's available for free [PDF] through tomorrow.

Like I said, this is tremendously disappointing.

The Daily Dozen

1. Have we reached a tipping point? E-book sales top paperbacks for first time in February.
2. How to spend your way to happiness -- part 1 and part 2. Some of the takeaways include 1) buying fewer material goods and more experiences; 2) use money to help others; and 3) buy fewer expensive pleasures and more frequent, less expensive ones.
3. Why some of us get more done in coffee shops.
4. How to add years to your life? Develop a positive attitude about aging. It also helps to act like you are younger than you are. Looks like shopping daily might help too.
5. Human capital follows the thermometer.
6. 75 things worth watching on Netflix streaming.
7. Randomization is a dilemma to managed rather than a problem to be solved.
8. Computing research that has changed the world.
9. Women won't marry down: So Kay Hymowitz asserts. "...[T]he biggest reason we probably won't see a lot more college-educated women walking down the aisle with their plumber is one we don't like to say out loud: they want to have smart kids. Educated men and women are drawn to spouses they think will help them produce the children likely to thrive in the contemporary knowledge-based economy. That means high IQ, ambitious, and organized kids who will do their homework and take a lot of AP courses." As she points out, this serves to increase inequality. My guess is that it is a far more important driver of inequality than any government policy or lack thereof.
10. How worrisome is student debt?
11. Regulatory monopolies and interior designers. How long until lawyers face deregulation scrutiny?
12. A timeline of Holy Week:

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The Arlington Triangle

Yesterday, I went on a 16.29 mile bike ride with a friend around the Arlington Triangle. This is a loop around Arlington that goes rough an interconnection of four separate trails, including some great views of the monuments while riding along the Potomac. Turns out Arlington is not just a great place for walking, but for biking too.

You can see a detailed map of our route, including our ride times here.

In addition to biking, I have also done quite a bit of running and swimming over the past few weeks. After having so much success with my weight loss, I figured the next logical step is to start focusing on my fitness. Stay tuned for more on this.

P.S. - This post was entirely written and formatted on my iPad using a new Blogsy app. I hope to share some thoughts on this soon.