Video Today’s installment of FREAK-TV traces the history of male abs in culture and media, from the unveiling of Michelangelo’s “David” to James Dean‘s shirtless pose in Rebel Without a Cause to the Calvin Klein abs bonanza of the 1990s that made “six-packs” the norm (and turned an often-unattainable level of fitness into an anti-fat craze that continues today). Now . . .
I recently blogged about how well the Coase Theorem does online. It predicts that, regardless of who is assigned property rights, the interested parties will strike a bargain to put the asset in the hands of the party that values it the most. Thus, despite the fact that more or less anyone can purchase a URL for a small amount . . .
Tech experts cast their judgments on the Kindle. (Earlier) The science of collective attention tested on Digg.com. Could the Internet run out of space by 2010? The long road ahead for the mobile Web.
Care to create a better algorithm? The results from Netflix’s $1 million challenge. The next wave in fantasy sports sites. “The Best New Gadget You’ll Never Hear Of.” (Earlier) New prediction market ranks predictors against each other. (Earlier)
The next generation of sports viewing: fiber-optic fields. BusinessWeek profiles James Altucher. (Earlier) A case for the rationality of voting. (Related) The latest in e-mail trends: “Don’t Print Me” messages. (Earlier)
The Hydrogen Education Foundation’s 2007/08 contest challenge: fix airports. (Earlier) Does Dunbar’s “magic” 150 apply to social networking sites? South Korea creates camps to cure Internet addiction. (Earlier) The realities of vote buying. (Earlier)
The “Great American Smokeout” hits its 31st year. (Earlier) Can ignorance lead to greater wisdom? (HT: BPS Blog) Advice for getting off catalog lists. (Earlier) Australian Santas barred from saying “Ho Ho Ho”.
Read the Column » For their Nov. 18, 2007, “Freakonomics” column, Dubner and Levitt revisit a favorite topic: unconventional weight loss. In September 2005, they wrote about Seth Roberts, who shed 40 pounds with a diet he crafted through years of meticulous self-experimentation. This week’s column digs into the risks and benefits of using surgery to combat obesity. This blog . . .
“[H]ybrid record label and blog” launches with new plan for selling music. (Earlier) A lesson in “Marijuanomics 101”. (HT: Economics International) A classic aptonym. (Earlier) Japanese engineers develop “musical roads”. (HT: BoingBoing)
Music video depicts drug dealer counting cash in euros. (Hat Tip: Foreign Policy) Study finds gender discrimination in coffee shops. Devra Davis to speak at NYU. (Earlier) An alternative theory to the conventional wisdom on dinosaur extinction.
Are performance-based pay structures partly to blame for the mortgage crisis? Do our tastes in entertainment correspond to our political views? Do behavioral problems in kindergarten affect future school performance? Are there hazards to washing your hands? (Earlier)
Is the U.S. income gap as big as we think? Becker and Posner comment. Is virginity genetically influenced? Japanese company sells “exploding piggy bank” to incentivize saving. Woman named “Unique” arrested. (Earlier)
Ian Ayres is an economist and lawyer at Yale and the author of Super Crunchers, which we excerpted here. He has agreed to write occasional guest posts on our blog, which delights us, since he has a lot of compelling interests and insights. Ian is not the only notable guest blogger who will turn up on this site in the . . .
What does the first letter of your name say about you? The new wave of thought-operated technology. Is “iTV” the future of television? (Earlier) Marc Chandler lectures on patterns in global currency.
17 people indicted for identity theft in New York. (Earlier) Economists and psychologists tackle speed dating. Everything you ever wanted to know about U.S. cities. A foolproof strategy for winning at Monopoly. (Hat tip: BoingBoing)
Google directions soon to be available at gas pumps. Pet rental business thrives in New York. The economics of newspaper Web sites: do subscription models beat advertising models? What’s the all-time record high for oil prices?
How well has the Radiohead experiment fared? (Earlier) Employers adopting personality tests to avoid “hiring jerks”. A “How To” for corporate prediction markets. Are we more likely to vote for candidates we perceive as being “like us”?
PCs on the downswing in Japan. Can brain atrophies among the elderly lead to unintended racist views? The economics of death in the U.S. The Top 10 “wackiest” science experiments.
Will a TV writers’ strike send more viewers to the Web? Do conservatives eat sushi? A culinary breakdown An analysis of “pay what you want” music donations (Earlier) AFL team offers fans a deal: they make the playoffs, or season tickets are free (Earlier)
Can a future of Internet gridlock be avoided? Corporate prediction markets conference kicks off in Kansas City, Mo. A breakdown of Halloween spending. Expert debunks myths about current U.S. wages and productivity.
I hadn’t worn a Halloween costume in many years until last night, when my kids — Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and a man-eating shark, respectively — encouraged me to do so. I tried to think of something that would take almost no time, effort, or money. The idea came to me in a flash. With my kids, I . . .
The Long Tail author comes down on press release emails. New breed of mega-pumpkin creates market for carvers. Just how big is the American League advantage? Halloween fun facts: 90 percent of parents steal their kids’ candy. (HT: SugarShockBlog)
I was in Mexico City the other day, giving a talk at a conference sponsored by the Mexican Stock Exchange, which is considering going public. The conference was primarily an educational one (except for my talk). Among the big issues of the day: offering Mexican investors some of the shiny financial instruments that Americans are fond of, in particular REITs . . .
Magazine introduces “pay what you want” subscriptions. (Earlier) Which U.S. natural disasters have been the most expensive? (Earlier) Do “superagents” really exist in professional sports? Could Google’s slides spell the end of PowerPoint? (Earlier)
Congratulations to my friend and colleague Gary Becker who will receive the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. He’ll have to find a place in his trophy cabinet, which already has a Nobel Prize, a National Medal of Science, the John Bates Clark Medal, and sixteen honorary doctorates. No economist of Becker’s generation has had such . . .
Huge percentage of world’s births & deaths go undocumented. Making your baby smarter: the myths continue. (Earlier) Should paying line-standers to hold seats at Congressional hearings be banned? Happiness levels linked to race. (Earlier)
Female economist works to found Ethiopian commodities market. (Earlier) Nintendo decides against Wii price cut. (Earlier) Sports fans convinced their actions can bring good luck to their teams. Stanford professor to lecture on “a world without agriculture.”
“Anti-groping Appli” on cell phones now available for Japan’s female commuters. Will the growing wage gap affect elite colleges’ admissions? (Earlier) Coal-fired plants dominate electricity in China. (Earlier) Monkeys may have cognitive dissonance. (Earlier)
eBay structures micro-loans for businesses in impoverished regions. (Earlier) Is the “Kitty Genovese Effect” overblown? (Hat tip: BPS Research) Amazon quadruples profits from Harry Potter sales. (Earlier) Just how skin-deep is beauty?
GodTube.com picks up steam (Earlier) “No Nukes” campaigns, updated for the new millennium (Earlier) Would hiring only legal nannies hurt New York’s economy? (Earlier) Philadelphia residents named “least attractive” people in the U.S.
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