Lazy Linking, 32nd in an Occasional Series

What I liked lately on the Internets:

* Proof that urban bicycling has hit a tipping point - 1) sexy women are turning riding into a fashion statement, and 2) the New York Times is covering it. [Hat tip: Governing.]

* Here's how bad it's going in NYC - visceral opposition against Walmart has softened. This is called "thinking outside the box by thinking about the big box."

* Fun stat of the day is courtesy of this slide show presentation that is the education reform version of "An Inconvenient Truth" - 40 years ago, 52 percent of college-educated working women were teachers, and today it's 15 percent.

* So we're fat AND dumb - a recent study shows we're more likely to order the combo meal than individual items because we think it's a better deal . . . even when it's not. [Hat tip: the Consumerist.]

* If we've become more price sensitive in our transportation choices, as this paper suggests, then policies to more accurately price driving will be more effective, and policies to force higher fuel efficiency will be less effective and may even lead to more driving. [Warning: large pdf.]

* Another positive for pricing as opposed to fuel efficiency standards - the former influences all fuel consumption, the latter only that of new cars.

* To me, this year's "World's Best Presentations" don't hold a candle to 2007's winner, "Shift Happens." (Although the gooing and gawing over MySpace reminds you that this was made so many moons ago.) [Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.]

* NYC's having trouble dealing with the latest star to snub them.

* What's cooler than used books? How about bookstores that used to be something else? [Hat tip: Abebooks.com.]

* Yale University is a great school. So why is its art school's website so shoddy? [Hat tip: 2leep.com.]

* My in-laws call California "the land of the fruits and the nuts," and while I am trying to convince them otherwise, the state produces a harried mom who is suing McDonald's for having the audacity to offer cheap plastic toys with their Happy Meals, which cause her daughter to whine for it and her to have to buy it in response. Hoo boy. [Hat tip: Megan McArdle.

* The 2000's - not as bad a decade as you might have thought. [Hat tip: New York Times.]

* Careful, social scientists, about grand theories based too much on only the behavior of W.E.I.R.D. people instead of all people. [Hat tip: Freakonomics.]