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Posts Tagged ‘Youtube’

A Dad-or-Daughter Songwriting Contest

My daughter, Anna, spent a bunch of time this past summer writing songs. One thing led to another and we ended up coauthoring a song together. I have more than 50 academic coauthors, but this is the first time I’ve ever tried writing music with someone.
Is it easy for people to tell the difference between songs she wrote by herself and a song where I wrote most of the lyrics? Is it possible for a 52-year-old lawyer/economist to emulate the lyrics of a 14-year-old Gleek? I think a lot of people would have a surprisingly hard time. But the question is testable.
So today I’m announcing a contest where you could earn a chance of winning an iTunes gift card worth somewhere between $50-$500. To play, just click through and listen to these three songs – Friend Zone, Longer, & Your Way, and then leave a comment to this post or as a YouTube comment to one of the three songs saying: i) which of the three songs you think I coauthored; ii) identifying a line in that song you believe I wrote; and iii) identifying a line in that song you believe Anna wrote. Here they are:


From MTV to the Stanky Legg

YouTube may become the digital generation’s replacement for MTV, reports NPR’s All Things Considered, as musical artists use it as a cheaper way to be discovered, promote their albums, and post music videos that would never have made the cut at MTV. Getting a video noticed on YouTube, meanwhile, requires a different set of “tricks” than MTV, which may produce a new generation of videos that forgo bling and fancy production for dance crazes and badly shot paparazzi videos.


And Sarah

My family is somewhat obsessed with all things Sarah Dooley. We were first won over by her oddly moving songs. Check out this love song, “Watching Goonies at My House.” But she is also writing and staring in her own comedies. As an undergraduate at Barnard College, she has started posting to YouTube a series of short And Sarah films . . .


Was It Something We Posted?

| Google doesn’t know why, but China blocked the entire YouTube site on Monday, cutting off access for all Chinese citizens. Maybe, posits Wired‘s Eliot Van Buskirk, one of China’s censorship workers mistakenly blocked the entire site (instead of just select URL’s, as had been done in the past); maybe a single video really offended the Chinese government; or maybe . . .


Hey, Paul Krugman

As noted here earlier, this recession (depression? repression?) is inspiring some pretty decent pop music. I think the apex has been reached. Listen for yourself to “Hey, Paul Krugman,” by Jonathan Mann: It’s a pretty great song, and not just because of the lyrics:


The FREAK-est Links

What happens when Monty Python puts its videos on YouTube for free? It increases DVD sales by 23,000 percent. (Earlier) How much are your friends worth? (Earlier) It’s like online dating, except you’re seeking cities. (Earlier) Will Wilkinson asks: are economists clueless? (HT: Jarrod Hunt) (Earlier)


Ballerinas and Information Asymmetry

We’ve written quite a bit about various information asymmetries — i.e., when one party in a transaction has a lot more information than another — and how the Internet is very good at correcting that asymmetry. Among the examples we used were the cost of term-life insurance, the price of coffins, and real-estate listings. The Wall Street Journal recently published . . .


Poor People With Checks

What kind of people use check-cashing places? How do they work? Do such places contribute to inequality? And most important — why are people paying for their own money? In their video “Checkmate,” the Internets Celebrities, a.k.a. Dallas Penn and Rafi Kam, explore these questions and eventually, in their words, “make it rain.”


Can $5 Improve Reader Comments?

On the Web site thatsaspicymeatball, you can view the latest comments from MetaFilter (which requires a one-time, $5 membership fee to post a comment) and YouTube (free) side by side. The site’s creator, Bertrand, uses Yahoo Pipes to retrieve comments from the most recent posts on both sites and displays them on one page, which is updated every hour or . . .


I.Q.R. in a Box

Levitt doesn’t get why Yankovic’s “White and Nerdy” video generated thousands of YouTube comments when there’s the Johns Hopkins Department of Biostatistics. They do mostly poetry, but also have a music video: “I.Q.R. [interquartile range: a measure of statistical dispersion] In a Box” — a spoof on S.N.L.‘s slightly racier version. Zero comments so far, but video director Allison Lind, . . .


Baby Got Stats

It blows my mind that Weird Al Yankovic’s “White and Nerdy” video on YouTube has over 45,000 comments. I’ve said this before, but I just don’t understand what motivates commenter No. 45,093. There’s no video — only audio — but if you like “White and Nerdy,” you will love “Baby Got Stats” — courtesy of the Johns Hopkins Department of . . .


The FREAK-est Links

How effective are price promotions? (Earlier) Can YouTube help fight crime? (Earlier) MPAA admits statistical error (Earlier) The debate over heart stents continues (Earlier)