Watch Dubner’s “Good Morning America” appearance from Wednesday, Aug. 8, in case you missed it the first time.
Freakonomics.com introduces its new video feature, FREAK TV
On August 7, 1987, Lynne Cox swam the Bering Strait; no word on whether she was then asked to submit a urine test.
On August 6th, 1941, the U.S. government imposed a nightly curfew on gas stations to reduce fuel use in anticipation of entering World War II. By the way, oil sold at the time for an inflation-adjusted $12.75 a barrel.
On August 3, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell succeeded in making the world’s first coherent telephone call. Little did he know that, less than 150 years later, more than a billion people worldwide would be surfing the Internet on phone lines and broadband.
Via the Chicago Sun-Times: A University of Chicago and Yale-New Haven Hospital survey of 1,260 doctors found that those who considered themselves atheist or agnostic were just as likely to provide care for patients with little or no health insurance than those who were religious — a departure from studies finding that religious people are more charitable towards the poor. . . .
August 2 marks the 70th anniversary of the passage of the Marihuana [sic] Tax Act of 1937, which, while not explicitly banning the drug, did effectively render it illegal by assigning a tax to “[e]very person who imports, manufactures, produces, compounds, sells, deals in, dispenses, prescribes, administers, or gives away marihuana.” While the tax itself ($1 a year) wasn’t bad, . . .
August 1 is the 26th anniversary of MTV, which launched in 1981 with “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. Appropriately enough, during the 2006 MTV Video Awards the Raconteurs performed a parody of that song, called “Internet Killed the Video Star.”
On July 31, 1914, officials shut down the New York Stock Exchange following news that Germany had declared Kriegsgefahrzustand (defined as an “imminent-danger-of-war situation“) while Austria and Turkey were already mobilizing.
Here’s a unique solution to the problem of incentivizing organ donations: ABC News reports that a chain of kidney transplants has been started by a 28-year-old father of four, who donated his kidney to a stranger he found online. His generosity led the recipient’s husband to donate to another stranger, whose mother is now donating, and so on. Miguel Helft . . .
July 30 is Father In Law’s Day. Recently exonerated terrorist suspect Mohammed Haneef, however, may not be inclined to celebrate: he was given a one-way plane ticket out of Australia by his father-in-law that was later used as evidence against him.
July 27 is the 8th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day, described on the SysAdminday Web site thusly: “[I]f you can read this, thank your sysadmin — and know he or she is only one of dozens or possibly hundreds whose work brings you the email from your aunt on the West Coast, the instant message from your son at college, . . .
Via CNN.com: In the current New England Journal of Medicine, Brown University assistant medical professor David Dosa profiles Oscar, a cat in a Rhode Island nursing home who has demonstrated an ability to predict when patients will die. His means of communicating an approaching demise is uniquely feline: he curls up and naps next to those close to death. (Hat . . .
July 26 is All Or Nothing Day, described by Kidzworld.com as “the day to give something your all or don’t even bother.” Sound advice, assuming that that “something” isn’t betting on NBA games you are also officiating.
At Psychology Today, Carlin Flora examines the personal and social effects of rejection, noting that “rejection sensitivity” is on the rise (in conjunction with increasing depression rates). The result, she says, is that we pay “a collective cost of individual hypersensitivity to rejection. People become unwilling to take even the smallest social risks … Public life shrinks and civil society . . .
July 25 is Thread the Needle Day, referring both to sewing and the aphorism “to thread the needle,” meaning “walk a fine and difficult line between two things or issues,” according to HolidayInsights. An appropriate segue into Natural Family Planning Awareness Week.
Following Steve Peisner’s infiltration of the Texas state database, BBC News reports that Equifax, a credit information service, is warning that users of social networking sites are heightening their risk of identity theft by putting too much personal information on their MySpace and Facebook profiles. Via the New York Times: Despite efforts by U.S. communications companies to bring high-speed Internet . . .
July 24 is Amelia Earhart Day, commemorating the flight pioneer’s birth date on July 24, 1897. Ten years ago, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery launched The Earhart Project, a non-profit investigation that is still piecing together conclusive evidence of Earhart’s disappearance in 1937.
July 23 is Mosquito Day, prompting one business-promotion site to see an opportunity for some customized sales: “Your clients will be glad to zap these irksome critters with customized mosquito repellant or bug-shaped fly swatters.” Not terrible advice, given L.A.’s recent West Nile outbreak.
Via the U.K. Guardian: A team of Edinburgh University psychologists led by Christopher Bale and Peter Caryl conducted a survey of 266 women and 115 men on the use of pickup lines. They found that women respond positively to lines that indicate the suitor is a “nice guy,” while men are “consistently over-optimistic” about the success of sexually explicit come-ons. . . .
July 20 has been declared National No TV Day by the U.K.’s IndyMedia. While the boycott has more to do with protesting Channel 4’s cancellation of a particular music show than about getting rid of TV in general, it would be fun to measure the unintended consequences if it really works. Will we see a surge in … bar fights? . . .
After Dubner’s questioning of libraries, Folksonomy.com interviews Greg Boesel, co-founder and CEO of Swaptree, a Netflix-esque online trading site for books, DVDs, CDs, and video games — that’s also free of charge. Via Bloomberg.com: While the athletes have been busy training for the Pan Am Games in Rio De Janeiro (July 13-29), the city’s prostitutes have also been preparing for . . .
July 19 is Flitch Day, a surviving relic from Medieval England in which married couples appear before a “mock court.” Those who can prove that they had “lived in harmony and fidelity” for the past twelve months were awarded a flitch, defined as a “salted and cured side of bacon.” According to Thinkquest.org, “very few [couples] ‘took home the bacon.’”
Via Reuters: A study led by Max Planck Institute biologist Keith Jensen found that, unlike humans, chimpanzees are capable of revenge but not spite. Researchers tested the apes’ reactions to theft by their peers using collapsible tables that allowed chimps to steal food from each other. While the chimps who were left hungry later sought revenge as punishment, they showed . . .
July 18 is National Ride to Work Day, in which commuters are encouraged to abandon their cars for the day in favor of motorcycles or scooters.
More on the clash of sex and legal issues in Second Life: Tech.Blorge.com reports that one Second Life user is suing another (in real life) for copyright infringement over a virtual “sex bed” that lets avatars simulate 150 different carnal acts. Plaintiff Kevin Alderman, founder of Eros LLC, alleges that the defendant, “Second Life resident” Volkov Catteneo, copied and is . . .
July 17 is Yellow Pig Day, which was started in the ’60s by the founder of Hampshire College’s prestigious summer math program. Each year, alumni return to celebrate the mysterious Yellow Pig, a seemingly random inside joke that’s inextricably linked with the number 17 (a “random number,” according to program founder David Kelly, in that “the chances are more than . . .
There are a lot of things to think about, and a lot of ways to assess the stream of flawed and dangerous Chinese imports, the accumulation of which has lately captured the public and media imagination. (We touched on the issue briefly here; a new book by Sara Bongiorni, A Year Without “Made in China”: One Family’s True Life Adventure . . .
July 16 is National Get Out of the Doghouse Day, a stunt created by a motivational speaker named Heidi Richards to promote her flower business. Let the commoditization of guilt bloom.
Driven by a question similar to Dubner’s theory on libraries, University of Texas economist Stan Liebowitz examines the effects of radio play on record sales, and finds that heavy radio rotation may actually hurt sales. Reader Geoffrey Wiseman pointed us to an alternative explanation for violinist Joshua Bell‘s remarkable inability to draw a crowd during his impromptu concert in a . . .
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