Lazy Linking, 31st in an Occasional Series

What I liked lately on the Internets:

* This link could be entitled "See, casinos CAN be good for Philadelphia" or "Good news for New Year's Eve fireworks fans who go to bed well before midnight."

* Did you ever wonder why Pac-Man ghosts move the way they do? Yeah, me too. [Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.]

* Freakonomics strikes again: just like their research that car seats don't improve child safety was summarily denounced by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, their research on the implicit biases of NBA refs was summarily denounced by NBA Commissioner David Stern. But, as Rasheed Wallace might say: "Data don't lie."

* So wait: Sarah Palin will run for President because she has nothing else to do next year and will otherwise be bored? Please, make it stop. [Hat tip: Daily Dish.]

* Getting your bank statements emailed instead of mailed to you seems obviously greener, right? Not so fast, according to the educational campaign "Print Grows Trees," which notes that paper is renewable and reusable, while e-statements require energy-hogging data centers full of equipment that isn't very easily recycled or discarded. [Hat tip: Deliver Magazine.]

* Ta-Nehisi Coates with yet more thoughtful commentary on how interpreting history (in this case, the Civil War) from the perspective of the day, rather than on from the comfort of today, leads to a richer and humbler appreciation of what was going on back then. There's a lesson here for those of us lovers of history and of the Bible.

* A new econ blog to follow: Spousenomics. It is exactly as its name suggests, and it is delightful. Incidentally, did you know that the origin of the term "economics" is that of managing a household?