Thanks to my friend Jacob, who, with a throwaway "No mention of Disney stickers", pointed me to a press release about a fascinating study.¹ Barbara J. Rolls and her graduate student Maureen Spill watched preschoolers at a daycare centre having lunch. On three days there was a first course of c...

There is a fundamental rule I follow: more complex the concept, the simpler the graphics; conversely, the simpler the concept, the more fun you can have with the graphics.

There really isn't a lot more to say; nevertheless, I suggest you go and read how Thomas P.M. Barnett would have approac...

Unable to decide, this fine Mayday morning, I give you both. However, let this not be a mere indulgence. Let it be an opportunity for self-improvement. Note, for example, that the pelf on which the weak and base fix their minds is “money or wealth, esp. when regarded with contempt or acquired by rep...

Annals of Important Research: An Economist blog post alerts me to a study that has apparently roiled the blogosphere, and that I slept through. Elmo¹ can make broccoli attractive to children.²

Bottom line:

[I]n the control group (no characters on either food) 78 percent of children par...