When Freakonomics.com was launched in 2005, it was essentially a blog (c’mon, blogs were a thing then!). The first Freakonomics book had just been published, and Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt wanted to continue their conversation with readers. Over time, the blog grew to have millions of readers, a variety of regular and guest writers, and it was hosted by The New York Times, where Dubner and Levitt also published a monthly “Freakonomics” column. The authors later collected some of the best blog writing in a book called When to Rob a Bank … and 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants. (The publisher rejected their original title: We Were Only Trying to Help. The publisher had also rejected the title Freakonomics at first, so they weren’t surprised.) While the blog has not had any new writing in quite some time, the entire archive is still here for you to read.
Back when I was a graduate student at MIT in desperate need of a haircut, I stumbled into a place called The Hair Connection. Little did I know it would change my life. A pleasant woman named Carmella cut my hair, and even offered me a generous student discount. I soon became a loyal customer, dropping in every three to . . .
Last week, we ran the first installment of Jessica Hagy‘s special- Freakonomics-edition “Indexed” posts. Here is her homepage, and here is her latest for us: DREAMS & NIGHTMARES _____________________________________________________
First, Dubner graduates. Next, they beat Michigan in football. Then Miss Teen South Carolina Lauren Caitlin Upton plans to attend Appalachian State. Not sure if they offer this as a major, but perhaps Miss Upton has a future writing librettos.
September 4 is the day in 2002 when Texas singer Kelly Clarkson was voted the first American Idol. Sadly, her vote-winning song of choice was not “Girl, Your Marginal Benefit Is Far Greater Than Your Marginal Cost.”
I have blogged now and again about my undergraduate alma mater, Appalachian State University, especially its accomplishments as a Division I-AA football champ. I also accepted a dubious-achievement award on its behalf for creating the “best” college-recruitment video ever — see No. 8 on the Yahoo! link. But never did I dream that the Mountaineers would play the Michigan Wolverines; . . .
Levitt and Dubner have blogged quite a bit about the growing literature on happiness studies. Meanwhile, the media has been abuzz recently over the relationship (or possible lack thereof) between happiness and wealth. Enter Angus Deaton, a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton. Deaton has a published new paper, “Income, Aging, Health and Wellbeing Around the World: Evidence . . .
The Freakonomics blog is now available on the New York Times‘s mobile site, which offers a full (yes, full) text feed of each day’s newspaper stories and blog posts in mobile-friendly format. (To read the comments, however, you still have to come to the site.) You can subscribe by going here on your BlackBerry, Treo, iPhone, or any cell phone . . .
Starbucks to take Russia by storm. Now in Travelodge rooms: the Bible and Alastair Campbell’s memoir. (Hat tip: MR.) Clothes beat computers in online sales. Medical Hypotheses journal trapped in the Dark Ages?
Why do brands of whiskey, rum, and gin stay constant, while new vodkas spring up like weeds? Dubner offers one explanation.
August 31 is the day in 1897 when Thomas Edison patented the first movie projector, the Kinetoscope. Who knows whether High School Musical 2 was the future he envisioned.
On his excellent blog, the Harvard economist Greg Mankiw (written about most recently here) posted a one-line item about a new ranking of economics blogs. The rankings are apparently determined by the number of incoming links for each blog. A commenter named Karl Smith had this to say: Freakonomics I believe is artificially high because it has a shadow blog . . .
See? Even bacteria cheat. (Earlier) Dissed by Oprah: one author’s tale. Global warming hits the fashion industry. (Earlier) Can railroad track layouts show the causal effects of segregation?
Over the past several weeks, we’ve hosted discussions on obesity, street charity, real estate, and environmental conservation. Here now is a quorum that lets people relive the just-about-gone summer. The participants below were asked the following question: What’s your idea of a nightmare family vacation? Here are their responses. Feel free to give yours as well. Dan Gilbert, Harvard psychology . . .
A few days back I posed the question “Why are we eating so much shrimp?” Between 1980 and 2005, the amount of shrimp consumed per person in the U.S. has nearly tripled. I didn’t expect more than 1,000 responses! I asked the question because Shane Frederick, a marketing professor at MIT’s Sloan School, had contacted me with an intriguing hypothesis. . . .
August 30 is the day in 1963 when a direct phone line was established between Washington D.C. and the Kremlin, so that President Kennedy could communicate easily with the Soviet premier. Presumably it wasn’t to discuss chess collusion.
Video We’ve written about the putative deterrent effect of capital punishment both in “Freakonomics,” and here on the blog. But none of those explanations were delivered by our International Video Woman of Mystery (known to her friends, natch, as Ivwom), whom you first encountered in a video last week about sport and violence.
Ron Paul takes all? ABC’s Langer on online “poll” results. (Earlier) Get Botox today, but possible melanomas require a wait. Kasparov, despair: computers learn checkers, Scrabble, Sudoku. (Earlier) New N.A.R. sales release overly optimistic? (Earlier)
Can you beat the aptonym “Paige Worthy” for a magazine fact-checker? Come and try your luck in the Freakonomics “Aptonym-Off.”
You never know when you are going to get a tough question like this one.
August 29 is the day in 2000 when Pope John Paul II endorsed organ donation. No word on his endorsement of trading organs for shorter prison terms.
I am a fan of the blog Indexed, on which a young Ohio copywriter named Jessica Hagy creates sweet and simple graphical pictures, on index cards, that tell a story. The blog allows her, she writes, to “make fun of some things and sense of others. I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual . . .
New book advocates following your gut. U.S. obesity rates keep on climbing. (Earlier) Ways to avoid hospital-transmitted infections. (Earlier) Red Lobster launches health-conscious Web site. (Earlier)
In the wake of the Andy Rooney scandal and Alberto Gonzales’ resignation, Dubner takes a closer look at the social and political costs of discriminating against Latino-Americans.
The most surprising thing I learned today comes from the opening paragraph of a paper by Anne Case and Christina Paxson: In late 19th Century Europe, adult height was attained at age 26. This is just one reminder of how radically life has changed in the last 100 years. At least in the developed world, we have moved from a . . .
August 28 is the day in 2005 when Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a full evacuation of New Orleans in anticipation of Hurricane Katrina. Little did he know that his order would temporarily drop the city’s crime rate to zero.
Home sales hit five-year low. (Earlier) Second Life’s future: “bigger than the Web“?(Earlier) Delta starts a blog. (Earlier) Risk analyst sets next year’s median of U.S. terrorism deaths at zero. (Earlier)
Courtesy of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Last week, we solicited your questions for Playboy editorial director Chris Napolitano. You responded with vigor. And now, so has he. This may be the longest Q&A in the history of the printed word. Unlike our previous Q&A subjects who picked five or ten of your questions to answer, Napolitano answered every last one of . . .
We need your help with a little social experiment. Between 1980 and 2005, the amount of shrimp consumed by Americans nearly tripled, from 1.4 pounds per person to 4.1 pounds per person. Shane Frederick, an M.I.T. management professor, has made a hobby of asking anyone he meets why Americans eat so much more shrimp today than they did 25 years . . .
August 27 is the day in 1900 when U.S. Army physician James Carroll allowed a mosquito infected with yellow fever to bite him, thereby enabling his colleague, Army pathologist Walter Reed, to prove that the insects transmitted the disease. While their research led to development of a vaccine, the disease is still rampant, and often fatal — as is the . . .
Thieves hack Monster.com, steal user info. (Earlier.) Study shows we’re poor predictors of our own emotions. (Earlier.) Advertisers to see your every detail on Facebook. Gambling to be monitored at U.S. Open. No word on doping. (Earlier.)
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