The Best Blog Posts of 2013

It's about time, so here.

As usual, brackets are appended to each link to indicate whether the post is Long, Medium lenght or Short; High-Brow, Mid-Brow or Low-Brow, and Funny or Not.

For other years' lists, use the tag.

15. Offsetting Behaviour: "Social Costs and HPV", by Eric Crampton

14. Discover: "Why Race as a Biological Construct Matters", by Razib Khan (L; HB; N)

13. The Power of Goals: "Home Sweet Home", by Mark Taylor (L; MB; N)

12. Crooked Timber: "New Tools for Reproducible Research", by Kieran Healy (S; MB; F)

11. German Joys: "The Metamorphosis (US Summer Movie) Elevator Pitch", by Andrew Hammel (S; MB; F)

10. Code and Culture: "You Broke Peer Review. Yes, I Mean You", by Gabriel Rossman (L; MB; N)

9. EconLog: "The Homage Statism Pays to Liberty", by Bryan Caplan (M; MB; N)

8. Scatterplot: "Annals of Self-Refuting Tweets", by Jeremy Freese (S; MB; F)

7. Overcoming Bias: "Future Story Status", by Robin Hanson (M; HB; N)

6. Gulf Coast Blog: "Defamiliarization, Again for the First Time", by Will Wilkinson (L; MB; N)

5. Armed and Dangerous: "Preventing Visceral Racism", by Eric S. Raymond (L; MB; N)

4. Askblog: "It Is Sometimes Appropriate . . .", by Arnold Kling (M; HB; N)

3. EconLog: "Make Your Own Bubble in 10 Easy Steps", by Bryan Caplan (M; LB; N)

2. Armed and Dangerous: "Natural Rights and Wrongs?", by Eric S. Raymond (M; HB; N)

1. Falkenblog: "Great Minds Confabulate Like Small Minds", by Eric Falkenstein (L; HB; N)

Thanks and congrats to all above.

The Best Blog Posts of 2012

Hmmmm . . . I had had the feeling that it had not been a particularly strong year for blog posts - so only ten this time, to keep up this series' ridiculously high standards.

As last time, brackets are appended to each link to indicate whether the post is Long, Medium lenght or Short; High-Brow, Mid-Brow or Low-Brow, and Funny or Not.

For the rest of this series, use the tag.

10. Scatterplot: "Eight Observations on 'Biology' and Social Science", by Jeremy Freese (L; HB; N)

9. iSteve: "Feminists: Still Making Children Cry on Christmas Morning", by Steve Sailer (L; MB; F)

8. Seth's Blog: "Two Dimensions of Economic Growth: GDP and Useful Knowledge", by Seth Roberts (M; HB; N)

7. EconLog: "My Beautiful Bubble", by Bryan Caplan (M; MB; N)

6. Meteuphoric: "Value Realism", by Katja Grace (L; HB; N)

5. Overcoming Bias: "Unspeakable Arrogance", by Robin Hanson (M; HB; F)

4. Cheap Talk: "Dogmatic Doesn’t Have To Mean Closed-Minded", either by Jeff Ely or by Sandeep Baliga, I don't know which (M; MB; N)

3. The Atlantic Business: "What Is Causality?", by Jim Manzi (L; HB; N)

2. Old School Panini: "The Lumberjack’s Top Ten", by Alex Bourof (M; LB; F)

1. Jaltcoh: "Why do people say, 'Life is too short?'", by John Althouse Cohen (S; MB; F)

Hats off to everyone on the list, and may everybody have a great year! "Everybody" includes people not on the list.

The Best Blog Posts of 2011

Eagerly awaited by all of the world wide web, here is the list of the best blog posts of 2011. For your convenience, brackets are appended to each link to indicate that the post is Long, Medium lenght or Short; High-Brow, Mid-Brow or Low Brow and Funny or Not.

If I counted correctly, economists take only four spots in the list below, which is much of an improvement over last time. This includes the two authors we met on last year's list. Which is still available, as is the 2009 edition. Without further ado -

15. Orgtheory: "Your ASA Vegas Bingo Card", by Kieran Healy (S; MB; F)

14. Dr. Boli's Celebrated Magazine: "Advertisement", by H. Albertus Boli (S; LB; F)

13. Dalrock: "Should I Divorce Him?", by Dalrock (L; LB; F)

12. Eli Dourado: "Peace through Political Assassination?", by Eli Dourado (M; MB; N)

11. Decision Science News: "Five Books That Changed a Statistician", by Dan Goldstein (M; MB; F)

10. Core Economics: "English Language Requirements for Immigration", by Joshua Gans (L; LB; F)

9. kenodoxia: "What Ancient Greek Philosophy Was Not Like . . .", by James Warren (S; HB; F)

8. EconLog: "The Overlords of Immigration", by Bryan Caplan (M; HB; N)

7. PJ Media:"The Myth of the ‘Ethical Vegan’", by Ward Clark (L; MB; N)

6. Overcoming Bias: "Why Men Are Bad at 'Feelings'", by Robin Hanson (M; HB; N)

5. Forbes: "The Moral Default Setting: Liberal or Conservative?", by Will Wilkinson (L; HB; N)

4. Less Wrong: "Working Hurts Less Than Procrastinating, We Fear the Twinge of Starting", by Elizer Yudkowsky (L; MB; N)

3. Armed and Dangerous: "What 'Privilege' Means to Me", by Eric S. Raymond (M; HB; N)

2. [Companion Pieces:] Pileus: "Cheap Sex as Collective Action Failure", by Sven Wilson and Armed and Dangerous: "Reconsidering Sexual Repression", by Eric S. Raymond (M; MB; N)

1. iSteve: "Racehorse Haynes", by Steve Sailer (L; LB; F)

The Best Blog Posts of 2010

Welcome to the Best Blog Posts of 2010. After the lukewarm reaction to last year's edition - as far as I'm aware, no tears of gratitude were shed - I've decided to spice things up a bit by adding five slots to the countdown and also handing out a few special awards. Work written for publication elsewhere remains disqualified, but there is now a special category for posts the strength of which is mainly based on a quotation. As last year,

brackets behind each link indicate that the post is Long, Medium lenght or Short and High-Brow, Mid-Brow or Low Brow - low-brow meaning in this context that it's easily digested, not that it's somehow lowly.

(Looking at the list, it doesn't really include a short post. Well, there you go.) This time round, it is also indicated whether the post is Funny or Not.

In summary, it's a surprisingly nondiverse collection, features three authors who made last year's top 10, and the slots are near-equally divided between economists and the rest of the world's population. But, hey, we don't do affirmative action here.

15. Mind the Gap: "In Which We Stand on the Shoulders of Midgets", by Jennifer Rohn (M, MB, N)

14. Marginal Revolution: "Haiti and the Problems with Foreign Aid", by Tyler Cowen (M, MB, N)

13. Marginal Revolution: "Don't Play Games with Your Kids", by Alex Tabarrok (L, HB, F)

12. The Mentaculus: "Cognitive Dissonance and Time Perception in Harry Potter", by Andy McKenzie (M, MB, N)

11. Meteuphoric: "Where Is Your Moral Thermostat?", by Katja Grace (M, HB, N)

10. Less Wrong: "Self-fulfilling Correlations", by Phil Goetz (L, MB, N)

9. EconLog: "Welcome to My Hypersensitivity Training Workshop", by Bryan Caplan (M, LB, F)

8. Overcoming Bias: "Real Rationality", by Robin Hanson (M, MB, N)

7. Meteuphoric: "Perfect Procrastination", by Katja Grace (M, HB, N)

6. Does That Make Any Sense? "The Silliness of the Coase Theorem", by Matthew Rognlie (M, MB, N)

5. Offsetting Behaviour: "In Defense of Price Gouging", by Eric Crampton (M, MB, N)

4. Jaltcoh: "We're All Hypocrites", by John Althouse Cohen (M, MB, N)

3. Total Drek: "Even I Think This Is a Bad Idea.", by Drek (L, LB, F)

2. @TAC: "Judging Bloggers by Their Books", by Austin Bramwell (L, LB, F)

1. Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: "Confessions of a Central Planner", by Nick Rowe (L, HB, F)


SPECIAL AWARDS SECTION

Best Blog Post Mainly Drawing on the Strength of a Quotation
The Sports Economist: "The Complexities of Olympic Cost Benefit Analysis", by Stefan Szymanski (M, LB, F)

The Church of Rationality Prize for Cool-Headed Contributions to an Emotionally Charged Debate in Memory of King Solomon
Marginal Revolution: "Do Women Today Have More Libertarian Freedom Than in 1890?", by Tyler Cowen (M, HB, N)

Comment of the Year
Overcoming Bias: Comment on Robin Hanson: "My Funeral", by Yvain (M, HB, F)

Special Prize of the Jury
Offsetting Behaviour: "Wage Discrimination: The Evidence", by Eric Crampton (L, MB, N)

The Ten Best Blogposts of 2009

Now, finally a "best of 2009" list about a universe that's so small the critic can confidently declare that we're not talking about "the best of the sample that I know", but the best, period!

Not qualified: Posts the strength of which is largely based on other people's work (sorry, BPS Research Digest; #s 7 and 2 are borderline cases) and work written for publication elsewhere (sorry, Bad Science; # 1 was close, but some discussion in New Zealand does not count as "publication").

Added: For your convenience, brackets behind each link indicate that the post is Long, Medium lenght or Short and High-Brow, Mid-Brow or Low Brow - low-brow meaning in this context that it's easily digested, not that it's somehow lowly.

So-

10. Jaltcoh: "The 2 Most Overused Chord Progressions in Pop Music Today", by John Althouse Cohen (L, MB)

9. Musselsoppans Vänner: "Danish 70s Interior Design Porno Style", by P - E Fronning (L, LB)

8. Scatterplot: "Great Moments in Student Course Evaluations", by Jeremy Freese (S, LB)

7. Political Scientist: "Viral Marketing", by Political Scientist (S, LB)

6. Scatterplot: "Maybe If I Added an Emoticon?", by Drek (S, MB)

5. Seth's Blog: "Will Like vs. Might Like vs. Might Hate", by Seth Roberts (M, MB)

4. Fly Bottle: "Big-Government Libertarianism vs. Limited-Government Liberalism", by Will Wilkinson (L, HB)

3. Bits & Pieces: "Random Thoughts", by Manish (L, LB)

2. Marginal Revolution: "The Inheritance of Education", by Alex Tabarrok (L, HB)

1. Offsetting Behaviour: "Sweatshops", by Eric Crampton (L, MB)

Thanks to Marginal Revolution and The Fourth Checkraise for pointers.