Talky weekend links

1. Private email from a friend points to a story documenting step 2 in my predicted fall of the ivory tower.  Summary:  not only was I right, but it's happening sooner.  The wager is now 50% of all college-level education done online by 2025 (Not sure to measure by student or credit hour).  
2. Robin Hanson castigates folks for racism in dating, a charge from which I'm happily immune.  However, I was trying to come up with a measurement for a person's racism-quotient yesterday morning.  Economists revealed preference-like.  On my list were categories for
   
   
   • %age of people dated of other races
   • %age of non-related non-work dinner companions of other races
   • %age of kids play-date companions of other races.
   Separate category for NAMs.  I'll grant that this measure massively disadvantages people who live in all-white, rich communities (like the one I grew up in, the one I live in now, or ).  However, intentionally so.   The original question I had was how to call out the fact that Portland's policies are tailor-made to make sure that poor people (like most NAMs) can't afford to live in town, and that this at least as racist as most other claims of racism.  I still think that biggest racism occurs primarily in places where
   
   • there's massive social-class differences -- west suburbs of chicago have rich white people, south suburbs have poor black people.  BIG problem.  
   • there's a scarcity of jobs that multiple racial groups want, and which may be subject to some sort of hiring bias -- chicago firefighters, michigan autoworkers. 
   Also, Robin closes with a question of why it's ok to discriminate in dating as per John Mayer, but not in hiring.
3. Robin again on night-owls vs. early birds.  10 years ago a friend brought to my attention some work on melatonin (??cant' remember which blood element) that can be measured to determine whether you're a morning or night person.  Just the measure-the-blood to determine was impressive.  Also, I've been a night owl for my entire adult life.  My preferred schedule is wake at noon, bed at dawn.   Oddly, no one else I know wants me to live on those hours.  Part of this, I'm sure, is my vampire nature, where I aggressively dislike bright light and warmth.  Our line back then was "damn farmers, repressing the rest of us".  Robin reaches similar conclusions, but the evidence is much more expansive and stronger.  Morning people are more conscientious, and follow rules a lot better.  
4. Seth Roberts throws a(n) hypothesis at why ~50% of all medical spending occurs in last 6 months of life.  Roughly, many old people are lonely (spouse dead?  No job), and when medical care is cheap or free, using doctors to alleviate loneliness is a good move.  Can we save massively on medical care by EITHER having more subsidized senior-hostel type activity, or moving back towards the extended family model?