Land Smugglers
Black-market smugglers are literally stealing Indonesia’s small islands, including the legendary Krakatoa.
Black-market smugglers are literally stealing Indonesia’s small islands, including the legendary Krakatoa.
Dave Jamieson’s new book (excerpted at Slate) covers the history of the baseball card, including the baseball card bubble of the 1980s and early 1990s.
During the 2008 presidential election, a lot of people — myself included — wondered if some sort of October Surprise might be launched. None were. In the U.K., however, Conservative leader David Cameron — the likely winner, per the prediction markets, in the yet-to-be called election — has just unleashed a doozy: his wife Samantha is expecting the couple’s fourth child.
New Moore Island in the Bay of Bengal, the subject of a long-running dispute between India and Bangladesh, was recently completely submerged by rising sea levels.
We’ve blogged a few times about the effect of calorie-count postings in restaurants in New York City – the extra information is valuable, but its efficacy in changing eating habits may be minimal among the people most likely to need a change. That said, the New York movement is now going national as part of the new healthcare law, which requires restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets to post calorie information at all their restaurants.
Each week, I’ve been inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent research. Here is the latest round.
Last post, I presented research showing that men are more deadly than women when behind the wheel. Researchers presume this is because men have a predisposition toward aggression and thrill-seeking, thanks to the testosterone that helped our male ancestors stalk, struggle and seduce their way to successful gene replication.
March 22 was World Water Day, and two excellent photo essays draw attention to the issue.
The 1989 ivory trade ban has led to government stockpiles of ivory (from seizures/arrests and herd culling), and no legal means of selling the stuff.
One point of our upcoming podcast is that economists — academic economists in particular — are generally free from the political and moral boundaries that restrict most people, and are therefore able to offer analysis or recommendations that politicians, e.g., wouldn’t go near with a ten-foot pole.
New research indicates that dogs and humans have some things in common in the willpower department.
There’s a new working paper (summary here; PDF here) from Ofer Malamud and Cristian Pop-Eleches called “Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital.”
A number of countries have passed naming laws, forbidding citizens from giving their kids certain types of names, but North Korea’s new naming law is more meaningful.
A charter school organization in Arizona offers a glimpse at what the educational system would look like if economists were in charge.
What good does green building do when our cities are, by design, ecological train wrecks?
These days, you can do pretty much anything online, except for one: submit your U.S. census forms.
Each week, I’ve been inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent research. Here is the latest round.
Annamaria Lusardi, one of the leading academic lights of financial literacy, has begun a new Financial Literacy Center.
Last post, I passed on some data showing that women are somewhat more likely than men to be involved in car accidents on a per mile driven basis. But men are far more likely (by between 50 and 100 percent) to be in crashes involving loss of life. Why are men’s crashes so much more tragic?
I have a brief visit to Hong Kong soon (my first!) and would like to bring back some material for our Freakonomics Radio podcast. Suggestions?
Economics departments in the U.S. and the U.K. use very different hiring processes for senior tenured positions. Which way is better?
In this interesting article from the American Prospect, Bruce Ackerman reveals how in 1957 Lyndon Johnson opposed an effort of Vice-President (and President of Senate) to reform the filibuster rule.
Does a bad winter equal more traffic fatalities? Not in Sweden.
This fall, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov made a bold declaration. With the help of the Russian Air Force, he was going to use cloud seeding techniques to keep it from snowing in Moscow this winter. Did Luzhkov vanquish Mother Nature as he predicted he would?