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.
I once had the honor of sharing a meal with Steven Pinker. He was as fun and brilliant in person as he is in his writing. The Chicago Sun-Times recently published a piece by him (which we’ve mentioned before) that’s also the preface to a book entitled “What is Your Dangerous Idea? Today’s Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable.” The article . . .
I wrote last week about the “invitation” I received to give an interview that would only cost me $3,995. Today I get another amusing spam email. This one is from Worldwide Law Enforcement Consulting Group, Inc. They are putting on a conference. There was nothing notable about the email, except for this one line: DUE TO GREAT RESPONSE EARLY REGISTRATION . . .
Nick Kristoff‘s OpEd column in today’s New York Times (sub. req’d) will set to racing the hearts of many readers of this blog. His column is about voting, and he makes several points that would not get much of an argument from a roomful of economists. (Wait, scratch that: there is nothing that a roomful of economists will not argue . . .
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.
From a Q&A with John McCain in today’s N.Y. Times Magazine: Q. Well, maybe you will strike it rich with your coming book, “Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them.” How did you have time to write a 450-page look at history? A. Mark Salter, my co-writer, did it. What we usually do is use a . . .
For those seeking a little variety in the name department, the U.K. Times ranks the fifty “craziest celebrity baby names,” including such gems as “Aurelius Cy,” “Fifi Trixibell,” “Moxie CrimeFighter” and “Jermajesty.” Lucky for them, none of the featured celebrity parents live in Malaysia. Reader John Wilson alerted us to his blog, WhereIsJohnWilson, which documents his quest to have his . . .
Yesterday, I posted a short piece called “Should We Just Let the Tour de France Dopers Dope Away?” It wasn’t an outright call for legalization of sports doping, but I wanted to put the idea on the table. Well, Joe Lindsey, a contributing writer for Bicycling magazine, wrote in to say that there are a lot of compelling reasons to . . .
The economist Justin Wolfers, who has turned up on this blog more than a few times, has an interesting OpEd in today’s New York Times about the N.B.A. referee-gambling scandal. Wolfers is a sensible choice since he wrote a widely discussed paper about point-shaving in NCAA basketball and an even more widely discussed paper about racial bias among NBA referees. . . .
After Freakonomics got popular, it was unbelievable how many interview requests/invitations I received. I don’t think I’m exaggerating in saying there were at least 10 per day for a year, or over 3,500 in that time. Now I get “only” three or four a day. Needless to say, I got really good at saying no, much to the chagrin of . . .
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, . . .
Today is the birth date of Michael Philip Jagger, known to the world as Mick. As true fans know, Jagger isn’t just the long-tenured front man of the Rolling Stones; he was also a student of finance and accounting at the London School of Economics. He did not graduate from LSE, however; he attended for just a short time. I . . .
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 . . .
Do you ever wonder why the media covers election campaigns so vigorously? Is it really necessary to know what each of the dozen-plus major-party early presidential candidates are doing on a daily basis, and what’s going on among their campaign staffs, and what their spouses like to eat and what sports their kids like to play? It may just be . . .
Now that virtually every cyclist in the Tour de France has been booted for doping, is it time to consider a radical rethinking of the doping issue? Is it time, perhaps, to come up with a pre-approved list of performance-enhancing agents and procedures, require the riders to accept full responsibility for whatever long-term physical and emotional damage these agents and . . .
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 . . .
Last night, Levitt posted this discovery of what seemed like a phishing expedition (and revealed to the world his late-night poker habits). As of 9:10 a.m. today, the site in question (http://www.fulltilt-cnn.com) was down. (Back when we wrote a column about Steven Peisner and identity theft, a fake Bank of America site was also summarily disabled, showing that if nothing . . .
Regular readers of this blog know how much we admire Tyler Cowen, especially for the Marginal Revolution blog he keeps with fellow George Mason University economics professor Alex Tabarrok. You may also remember some fulsome words of praise on this blog for Cowen’s forthcoming book, Discover Your Inner Economist. There is a really good profile of Cowen in this week’s . . .
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.
I was playing poker at Full Tilt Poker tonight when across the chat board comes an official-looking message saying that an employee of Full Tilt was arrested for stealing $200,000. The message says for full information go to http://www.fulltilt-cnn.com. (Don’t go clicking on things there until you read further!) The URL seemed fishy. So I went to Google News and . . .
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.
A reader named James Thompson recently sent in a request for help in solving a wildlife conservation problem. We decided to put the question to a set of diverse, smart people we know or tracked down, who might have particular insights to this particular problem. As such, we bring you the inaugural Freakonomics quorum, composed of the following group: the . . .
I was at O’Hare airport yesterday and saw something very unusual: a person actually using a pay phone. Airports have enormous numbers of pay phones which, if you observe them, go virtually untouched. At best you will see a senior citizen using one from time to time (as I did yesterday). The pay phone is one invention whose time has . . .
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.
News reports yesterday say the FBI is investigating an NBA referee who allegedly bet on games that he was calling. This is a perfect problem for an economist to answer with data, and the obvious man for the job is Justin Wolfers, who has written papers on NBA referees and on point shaving in basketball! Message to Justin: Freakonomics blog . . .
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. . . .
Tomorrow morning — at 12:01 AM, to be precise — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will go on sale. While coverage of the event has been crammed with reports of lawsuits over early shipments, outrage over Internet spoilers, and protests over potential Sabbath desecration, there’s also been plenty of Freakonomic-ish news in the Potter realm. Here’s a summary: A . . .
The first time I saw a TV commercial about Restless Legs Syndrome, I was pretty sure it was a spoof. I figured I had stumbled across a prime-time Saturday Night Live special and was seeing a well-done fake ad. It was pretty funny, I thought — Restless Legs Syndrome, ha! Who thinks of this stuff? Of course, it turned out . . .
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? . . .
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