• Everything that makes Chicago politics what it is: Gov. Blagojevich shook down a children’s hospital [Massie] Time to play Name That Goon: guess which statements are by Illinois governor and which by Tony Soprano [Daily Beast] The most closely watched Obama appointment is and should be the U.S. Attorney for Chicago [@patrickruffini]
• Many writers including me relied on UAW assertion that oft-heard $73/hour figure for GM compensation was misleading because it included vast army of retirees; but per one new paper, the number really does reflect only payments for currently active workers [James Sherk, Heritage] Contra, the New York Times sides with the original critique of the number [David Leonhardt]
• Green activists contact the authorities to report illegal logging, turns out to be beavers [OK!; Poland]
• Pride and Prejudice: the Facebook feed [DeeDee Baldwin]
• Economists invite volunteers to play game simulating investment behavior. Usual result? Bubbles & crashes [Postrel]
• “Watermelon smell”, “ferret odor”, “gasoline fumes”: Japanese site uses Google maps to track stinky locations [Japan Probe via Tyler Cowen]
• Subprime-implosion lawsuits haven’t gone well for plaintiffs, who’ve had trouble showing guilty state of mind [CCH Wall Street] But are things beginning to shift in their favor? [Frankel, American Lawyer]
• Nifty “Atlas of True Country Names” displays place names as their underlying meanings [Telegraph]

Filed under: autos, Chicago, environment, Facebook, Illinois, labor unions