The FREAKest Links: Potter Deathwatch Edition

Included in the hubbub leading up to the final Harry Potter installment is a prediction exchange in which participants bet on whether Harry lives or dies — although betting has now been influenced by an anonymous Web spoiler claiming insider knowledge that the hero doesn’t meet an untimely doom.

Gelf magazine has an interview with the economist Uri Gneezy, who conducted a 2002 study on the economics of splitting restaurant checks. His findings? Perhaps not surprisingly, people order less when paying individually and more when the bill is split evenly.

A paper by Turkish professor Kemal Yildirim in the Journal of Environmental Psychology concludes that sitting near a window at work leads to greater job satisfaction. No word on the effectiveness of those fake posters that look like windows.