After getting crushed by falling commodity prices two years ago, their ranks cut by 70 percent, Russian billionaires are back and more plentiful than ever. According to a recent study, Russia currently has 114 billionaires, more than the 101 it had in 2007.
How do people who love salty snacks like their toilet paper to hang? Are fans of carbonated beverage more likely to enjoy horror movies? A new website, www.correlated.org, has the answer to such pressing questions. Founded by Shaun Gallagher, the brains behind last year’s UnofficialCensus.org, it aims to uncover one surprising correlation a day.
Accepted wisdom generally holds that the presence of natural resources in a developing country is bad news, leading to a so-called natural resource curse. But a new research paper throws water on the theory and provides evidence that suggests the opposite, a “resource blessing.”
Ever wondered about the origins of the American flag? Why all the stars? A new paper (gated) by Eran Shalev offers some interesting insights.
An Atlanta Post article by R. Asmerom traces the cultural and historical origins of “bling” in the African-American community — all the way back to Africa.
Last week, we posed two questions regarding the NCAA basketball tournament: what are the odds that two teams from the same city would make the Sweet 16? And when was the last time that happened? To the first person to answer correctly, we offered some Freakonomics swag. And you responded, 147 of you to be exact.
Pi is an irrational number. Which means that as a decimal, it goes on forever. What’s the best way to memorize this infinite chain of numbers? How about music? Or poetry?
Slate reports that women are making a comeback in the funeral industry: “Today 57 percent of U.S. mortuary school graduates are women, up from 5 percent in 1970. Though this influx is stereotype bashing, it’s also something of a homecoming.”
Eight of the top 100 male economists (according to RePEc’s rankings) write a blog. But of the 39 women who ranked in the top 1,000, none blog.
Two teams from the same city have made it to the Sweet 16, the University of RIchmond and VCU, both from Richmond, VA. What, we wonder, are the odds of that happening?
At one Manhattan pharmacy, you can buy more than just cold medicine. DNAinfo reports that at one Upper West Side Duane Reade, “[y]ou can also replenish your beer supply at the pharmacy’s Brew York City, a service counter that pours out ‘growlers’ of beer, 64-ounce screw-top glass jugs.”
School of One, the New York City pilot program that aims to give every student a customized education (and the subject of a Freakonomics Radio episode), is about to grow.
The newest version of the widely used Principles of Economics textbook will run without a Tiger Woods reference: “Previous editions of the textbook used an example entitled, ‘Should Tiger Woods Mow His Own Lawn?’ The sixth edition of the book replaced the previous example with one featuring quarterback Tom Brady…”
Credit-card agreements seem to get longer and longer. Why? Planet Money explains some of the factors, which range from the necessity for less legalese to Congressional reforms.
New Census data shows that Detroit lost a quarter of its population in the last decade, some 273,000 people. That’s the fastest decline in the history of an American city with more than 100,000 people, leaving Detroit smaller than it was in 1920.
Things have been rough in the journalism business of late — so rough that one veteran sportswriter felt he had to pursue an alternate career. An award-winning sportswriter for a paper in New Hampshire, has pleaded guilty to running a prostitution ring.
A Freakonomics reader (we’ll call her “Sugar Baby”) is documenting her two-week experiment with online “Sugar Daddy Dating”: “beautiful women post pictures while wealthy men post their income and voilà! – the perfect Darwinian couple is created. Because the expectation is short term, it’s flirting with the title of an escort service, or worse, prostitution.”
More time with Mom can lead to lower high school drop out rates later on, particularly among children whose mothers do not have a lot of education themselves.
As dangerous levels of radiation thwart emergency work at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Japanese military fire trucks have reportedly resorted to spraying spent fuel rods with water in an effort to cool them.
In the wake of Japan’s tragic earthquake and tsunami, Felix Salmon argues against donating to the cause. Salmon cites concerns about the hobbling effects of earmarked funds, uncoordinated NGOs, and Japan’s wealth.
Somali pirates are apparently getting more sophisticated in their business practices: “A group of Somali pirates announced Sunday that they’re cutting their asking prices for hostages by 20 percent — to speed up the negotiation process, make room for more hostages and take in more cash,” reports Wired.
A new study from psychologists Jamil Zaki, Jessica Schirmer, and Jason P. Mitchell relies on brain scans to evaluate the effects of peer influences. “Participants rated the attractiveness of faces and subsequently learned how their peers rated each face. Participants were then scanned using fMRI while they rated each face a second time,” explain the authors. “These second ratings were . . .
If you’re looking for the next big alternative energy craze, look no further than your toilet. Gerardine Botte, a biomolecular engineer at Ohio University, has developed a “technology to generate hydrogen fuel from urine.”
Exiting a public restroom can be tricky. Touching a doorknob or push-plate means you take a chance of picking up a lot of terms. If you use a paper towel, you have to find someplace to throw it away.
Power econ couple Joseph Stiglitz and Anya Schiffrin weigh in on Spousonomics, the new book on the economic side of marriage by journalists?Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson. Here’s Schiffrin, who describes Stiglitz as “very romantic,” explaining one of his comparative advantages: “One of the concepts they devote a lot of time to is comparative advantage, which basically means ‘What are . . .
A few years back, we argued that Americans should want more IRS audits, not fewer. “Still, unless you are personally cheating by one-fifth or more, you should be mad at the I.R.S. — not because it’s too vigilant, but because it’s not nearly vigilant enough,” we wrote. “Why should you pay your fair share when the agency lets a few hundred billion dollars of other people’s money go uncollected every year?”
There’s been a lot written on this blog about the amazing things monkeys can do. Here’s more evidence that monkeys can be rational actors just like us: a new study reports that monkeys can feel self-doubt and uncertainty, and then make a rational decision based on that information.
In this week’s Freakonomics Radio podcast, “The Power of Poop” (subscribe to iTunes here), we meet Alex Khoruts, an immunologist and gastroenterologist at the University of Minnesota whose research concerns the human gut. It turns out that human waste, which for centuries has been regarded with fear and wariness, is now being redefined as the largest organ in your body — and, more important, as a potential source for new ways to treat ailments ranging from constipation to obesity to Parkinson’s disease.
Did you smile? Now your computer can answer that question: MIT’s Media Lab is developing technology whereby your computer, with the help of a webcam, can read facial movements to analyze whether you’re smiling.
A worthwhile Bloomberg profile of John List, the University of Chicago economist, frequent Levitt collaborator, and SuperFreakonomics hero who has championed the use of field experiments. List recently received $10 million from hedge funder Kenneth Griffin to track the performance of 600 students, including 150 at the Griffin Early Childhood Center.
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