links for 2008-07-19

The recipe for prof­it­able broad­cast tele­vi­sion is pretty simple: Develop large audi­ences that you can accur­ately meas­ure and sell them to advert­isers who need to reach them. The shows that do this even have a name, “Hits.”

The Law Of Unin­ten­ded Con­sequences: “I’m not watch­ing The Daily Show nearly as much as I used to, I think because Bush has dropped out of the scene so much that I don’t need the emo­tional release Jon Stew­art was provid­ing for me.”

“Little is known … about the bio­lo­gical basis of trust among humans. Here we show that intranasal admin­is­tra­tion of oxy­to­cin, a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attach­ment and affil­i­ation in non-human mam­mals, causes a sub­stan­tial increase in humans…”