Bjorn Carey reports on a new article in Nature talks about the economics of getting rid of parasites. (You can also get the actual scientific study here if you either have a link through a university or want to shell out $18 for it.) This is not about humans, but rather, a species of fish Scolopsis bilineatus that “hires” another . . .
I gave a speech at the PCBC builders conference earlier this week which Glenn Roberts, Jr. summarizes on the Inman News blog. (The link is to a subscription site, unfortunately. I could get to the article yesterday, but today it asks for a login.) In his article I am quoted as saying that the N.A.R. lawyers threatened to sue me. . . .
After the book “On Bullshit,” was a surprise commerical hit, everyone and their brother decided that the word “bullshit” could get you on the best-seller list. Now a new book figures maybe an apple combined with an orange will also do the trick: Judging from the Amazon sales rank of this book, it doesn’t seem like the apple/orange is getting . . .
Tyler Cowen of marginalrevolution.com devotes his monthly economic scene column in the New York Times to my colleague John List. (If you want to learn my opinion of List’s research, you’ll have to read the article.)
From the Financial Times, a picture of what it is like to have lunch with Gary Becker, seen through the eyes of Tim Harford. It is an accurate depiction, nicely capturing Becker’s unique mix of kindness, toughness, and genius.
In response to my last blog post, Steve Sailer posed the following question in the comments: The abortion rate among whites fell from 19 in 1991 to 11 in 1999, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute of Planned Parenthood. Should we thus soon expect an upturn in crime rates among white 14-17 year olds? This is a great question. And . . .
The FBI released preliminary estimates for crime in the year 2005 earlier this week. This is how the headlines read: From The Independent, a British newspaper, writes: “Violent crime on the increase, says FBI report” The first line of the article says “The United States is experiencing its biggest jump in violent crime in 15 years…” From CNN: “Violent crime . . .
Last month we wrote a New York Times column asking whether superstars are born or whether they are made through a combination of the lots of practice, the right kind of practice, and coaching. The experts in the area suggest that superstars are made. One conjecture we made in that column was that because the FIFA cutoff date for determining . . .
So many of the rules and regulations regarding what happens on airplanes seem completely ridiculous. For starters, there is the requirement that you turn off your electronic devices for takeoff and landing. Whatis the point of making me turn off my iPod? I guarantee you that it does not interfere with the airplane’s instruments (or if it does, I have . . .
We wrote about Seth Roberts’ Shangri-La Diet in the New York Times last summer, which he has since turned into a best-selling book. Seth’s research suggested that the key to weight control was consuming flavorless calories. Adam Scott has a new diet idea: Monkey Chow. For the next week, he plans an experiment in which he consumes only Monkey Chow. . . .
The guy sitting in the chair next to me was reading a book the whole time he was having his hair cut. As he left, I managed to catch the title: “Quantum Physics in America.” Only in Hyde Park.
I got my most expensive haircut ever yesterday: $117. Actually, the haircut itself was only $17. But, as I walked from the barber to work, I passed by a young couple eating breakfast on their stoop. The woman called out, “Aren’t you Steve Levitt?” So I stopped to talk to them. I asked her how she knew who I was, . . .
This story is so poignant in so many ways. As you read it, imagine yourself in the shoes of the various people involved. Mistaken identity follows tragic crash By Russell Working and Tim Jones Tribune staff reporters Published May 31, 2006, 8:15 PM CDT GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In a tragic case of mistaken identity, the family of an Indiana . . .
We get at least 50 Freakonomics-related emails a day. Here is a sampling of emails from the last day or two, just to give you a flavor of the mixed blessing that comes with a best-selling book. email #1: I think this email is actually serious, although maybe it comes from someone with such a great sense of humor that . . .
Reason #1: There is a huge Freakonomics poster on the wall behind the cash register in Authors Bookstore in Terminal C of the airport. Reason #2: They have my favorite restaurant, Dairy Queen, right in the terminal.
I’m curious who is standing out in Times Square asking people if they know who I am. I am even more skeptical than Dubner regarding the methodology in his post below. Four out of ten? Forget about it. Just for fun, how about we do an experiment. I will give $100 (or all the money I have in my wallet . . .
In Dubner’s last post, he noted that Wikipedia sometimes gets it right and sometimes misses badly. I just visited the entry on me in Wikipedia. What is amazing to me is that if you click on “history,” the page has been altered about 50 times in the last few months. Don’t people have anything better to do? The amount of . . .
Most people don’t like Ticketmaster very much. They have monopoly/quasi-monopoly in the market for selling event tickets. And they price accordingly. But their latest move is one that economists will love. USA Today reports that the best seats for some concerts will start to be auctioned off, rather than sold at below market prices, as has been done in the . . .
They teach you a lot of things when you study economics: about marginal cost, incentives, dynamic optimization, etc. But up until now, the real reason for why people study economics had been a closely held secret known only to economists — kept carefully hidden away from the hoi polloi. Well, it turns out Joey Cheek, of all people, is the . . .
The key is reliable feedback. On pain management, recent studies using fMRI technology finds that that showing you a visualization of your own brain’s pain center gives the sort of feedback that lets you figure out what works and doesn’t in fighting pain. Here is a discussion of another study on burn victims. Melanie Thernstrom wrote an interesting article about . . .
From Bill Tancer’s blog at hitwise.com, some interesting patterns regarding internet searches and the price of gasoline. When gas prices go up, Tancer sees a sharp spike in searches for hybrid vehicles and a less pronounced decrease in SUV searches. (And if you are obsessed with American Idol rather than the price of gas, here is another post by Bill . . .
In our recent New York Times column, we talked about what makes people good at what they do. As one example, we conjectured (based on some academic work done by others) that people born in the early months of the year would be overrepresented on World Cup rosters. The underlying theory is that in 1997, FIFA made January 1 the . . .
Last year the book On Bullshit by philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt was a surprise bestseller, even reaching #1 on the NYT Bestseller list for one week. That is an amazing commercial success for my friends at Princeton University Press. The success of that book apparently inspired some other authors: The golfer John Daly has a new autobiography out this week . . .
The Chinese version of Freakonomics has been released, and here is what it looks like: I am told that the title of the book is “Devil’s Economics” in Chinese. I kind of like that! How ironic that on the same day I heard about this choice of titles I spoke for the first time ever in a house of worship. . . .
I have bet on the Kentucky Derby just about every year for the last 25 years. The only winner I can ever remember having was Giacomo last year at 50-1. Accordingly, I have had zero requests for my picks in today’s Kentucky Derby. Here they are anyway. There are 20 horses. The early betting favorites at tradesports are: Brother Derek, . . .
One of the best books I have read lately is “Stumbling on Happiness” by Dan Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard. The book is about how what we think makes us happy and what really does make us happy are often two completely different things. It is based on decades of incredibly creative psychological studies. The conclusions are amazing but compelling. . . .
As of the last few days, the friends of Freakonomics are dominating the best seller list at Amazon. The number one book is by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz. Michael Roizen used to own the house Levitt now lives in and was a doctor at the University of Chicago; Mehmet Oz is a longtime friend of Dubner. The number three . . .
Almost all economics PhD students hate being PhD students. They get demoralized and abused constantly. The one day a year that they rise up in triumph is the “skit party.” Almost all the programs have skit parties where the students make fun of the faculty. This video (from the Columbia skit party as far as I can tell) is the . . .
My family just visited Disneyworld. It was fine and the people there were mostly nice and friendly. It was not cheap. We paid $400 a night for a standard hotel room and a 3 day pass to the park was over $1000 for my family. Renting a double stroller for a day costs $18 just as one example of inflated . . .
I had the chance to visit New Orleans and got to see the areas hit by the flooding. In most places the flood damage is enormous but invisible. The water is of course long gone, but the houses ruined by mold and rot are vacant. Where the levees broke and the water came with a rush, the scene is very . . .
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