Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank is introducing a bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana on the federal level. He says existing laws unfairly target legal users of medical marijuana in states like California. We held a Freakonomics quorum late last year to debate the pros and cons of legalizing the drug, and many of you weighed in. With Frank’s legalization . . .
Say you’re a talented young athlete. Would you rather be a doctor, a lawyer, or a Malaysian soccer star? Chances are, once you realize how little Malaysians pay their professional soccer players, you’d probably choose one of the first two. And maybe that’s part of the reason Malaysia’s two national squads were both defeated by Singapore in the A.F.C. Cup . . .
Homeschooling is no longer a constitutional right. Monks use YouTube to land an album deal. Neuroscience benefits from brains on jazz. U.S. begins trading pollution allowances.(Earlier)
People who punish others the least earn the biggest rewards in repeated interactions, according to a new study published in the journal Nature and authored by Martin Nowak, director of the evolutionary dynamics lab at Harvard University. At the same time, we are happiest when we’re spending money on others instead of on ourselves, says another team of researchers out . . .
Some towns promote good citizenship even though it doesn’t pay off. Dallas discovered this when the traffic light cameras monitoring its busiest intersections worked so well that the city had to decommission more than one-fourth of them. Dallas had anticipated an annual $14.8 million for red-light-running fines, money essential to keeping the cameras running — before people stopped running lights . . .
Facebook’s tally of basketball’s hated and celebrated.(HT: Michael Stevens)(Earlier) What’s most likely to kill you?(HT: Chris Flanagan) Forecast your news.(HT: Nigel Eccles) Verizon’s open-door policy, translated.
If the nuclear power industry is headed into a renaissance, it’s going to need the help of a renowned Japanese samurai sword maker. It turns out Japan Steel Works Ltd., in addition to hand-forging swords, also has a near-total monopoly on the manufacture of the steel containment vessels for nuclear reactors. But making the vessels is more of an art . . .
Trader sues over faulty lap dance. Does your home score high on the walk-ability scale?(Earlier) Is your doctor blogging about you?(Earlier) Motorcycles that look human are more safe to drive.
Can we do business with space aliens? Political scientist John Hickman thinks so. But he writes in a new paper that interstellar trade might be limited to information and entertainment beamed back and forth between planets because of the enormous distances involved. That kind of trade comes with its own unique risks. Hickman argues that in swapping information with alien . . .
If your GPS device said to drive off a cliff, would you? Computer program socks it to the spinners.(Earlier) A sport you can win by knockout or checkmate. Airborne: wonder tonic or just cleverly marketed?
Shame tactics used on johns. (Earlier) Radiohead asks fans for a new video.(HT: Daniel Lippman) Sick of Sudoku? Go to the Funny Farm. Business schools prefer familiar over revolutionary.
Shame tactics used on johns. (Earlier) Chicago Cubs to begin auctioning off season tickets. Six-word reviews of 763 music acts. (HT: Annitra Morrison) Do songbirds hold the secret to the origins of human speech? (Earlier)
Hats off to North Carolina residents, who, for almost a year now, have cut their water consumption by a third in response to a record drought. Now, the residents of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County are getting a hefty reward for their sacrifice: they’ll be paying more for their water. Perhaps ticked-off residents shouldn’t be surprised: less spending on water has left Charlotte . . .
Reader Jeffrey Mindich, a senior news anchor at International Community Radio in Taipei, writes: I just happened to be working on a story about traffic accidents while reading your March 10 post on the subject and I thought you might find my story of interest. About a year ago in Taiwan, they started installing countdown timers at traffic lights at . . .
Online education increases in popularity. (Earlier) Is jealousy linked to height? Microsoft turns down Blu-ray for Xbox 360. (Earlier) Want to stop junk mail? Sign this petition. (Earlier)
That is the question asked by the economists Barry Eichengreen (Berkeley) and Douglas A. Irwin (Dartmouth) in an NBER working paper called “International Economic Policy: Was There a Bush Doctrine?” When it comes to foreign economic policy, their answer is an emphatic “no.” From their abstract: While many political scientists and diplomatic historians see the Bush presidency as a distinctive . . .
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the science of happiness, including on this very blog.. But could leading a happy life be largely a matter of genes? The U.K.’s Daily Record reports on a finding by Edinburgh University psychologists that “inherited genes control up to half of the personality traits that keep us happy.” Those with the “happy” . . .
Prostitution gets a technology upgrade. The new pricing scale for prostitution. (Earlier) Could adding vinegar make biofuels less inefficient? (Earlier) Are self-experimenters good for science? (Earlier)
Reader Roberto Ruiz alerted us to this mock news report from the Onion on an “anonymous donation” of 200 kidneys to a hospital. While the joke is graphic (and the accompanying video footage may not be suitable for the squeamish) the satire is right on point — in the absence of other ways to acquire urgently needed kidneys, some may . . .
The baby names debate continues. (Earlier) Head of new NYC Office of Financial Empowerment answers questions. (Earlier) Is public peer review necessary in security? (Earlier) Dirty, dirty biofuel
The American Political Science Review‘s Feb. 2008 issue has a new study by Alan Gerber, Donald Green, and Christopher Larimer testing the accuracy of voter turnout theories based on “rational self-interested behavior.” The researchers sought to “distinguish between two aspects of this type of utility, intrinsic satisfaction from behaving in accordance with a norm and extrinsic incentives to comply.” To . . .
Author visits all 22 countries ranked “happier” than the U.S. (Earlier) Scientists study the key to artists’ improvisation Bigger computer monitors may lead to greater worker productivity Will hefty cash prizes stimulate “revolutionary” science? (Earlier)
The next time a traffic jam materializes in front of you for no apparent reason, think about Japan. That’s where scientists have, for the first time, recreated “shockwave” traffic jams, in which one driver’s slowing down creates a ripple effect that moves backwards through traffic, grinding everything to a halt for miles. They say recreating the phenomenon successfully is the . . .
Can learning about the arts make you smarter? Are animals next in the sports doping craze? (Second item) (Earlier) Is economics “played out”? The rise of “freeconomics.”
In their March 9, 2008, column in the Times Magazine, Dubner and Levitt ask: why can’t a charity be run more like a business? They look at two philanthropies that have adopted unorthodox business models. Smile Train, which performs free cleft-repair surgery for poor children around the world, started training local doctors rather than flying in U.S. surgeons; this has . . .
A survey by BabyCenter, a popular Web site for expecting mothers, found that 58 percent of parents believe that the name they give their baby will contribute to his or her success in life. Apparently they didn’t read Freakonomics, or at least they didn’t believe it. So what qualities did these parents want their chosen names to have? For boys, . . .
The gender-swapping trend in online gaming. New software fights fraud on gambling sites. (Earlier) Atlanta man builds robot to chase away drug dealers. (Earlier) Doctors don’t get enough sleep for optimal functioning.
Reader Steve Harbeck writes: [This week]’s newspapers note that gold has hit a new high. This will predictably result in stories of senior citizens lining up to sell old jewelry and coins. But what of the more nuanced consequences? I discussed this with a colleague of mine, a risk manager, and we see the following possibilities … and opportunities: 1. . . .
In a new working paper called “Do Small Businesses Create Jobs? New Evidence from the National Establishment Time Series,” the economists David Neumark, Brandon Wall, and Junfu Zhang examine the National Establishment Time Series and conclude that small businesses create more jobs, on net, than larger ones. The earlier literature on this subject had reached contradictory conclusions.
Tips for naming your successful technology company. Does an oil-based economy hurt women’s rights? Why do more disasters seem to occur in election years? Team of physicists capture and store nothing.
You want to listen to Freakonomics Radio? That’s great! Most people use a podcast app on their smartphone. It’s free (with the purchase of a phone, of course). Looking for more guidance? We’ve got you covered.
Stay up-to-date on all our shows. We promise no spam.
