Given my father’s medical specialty, you might think I’m referring to intestinal gas. Actually, though, I am talking about the kind of gas you put in your fuel tank. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Illinois have calculated how much extra gasoline is being used each year because Americans weigh more and thus require more fuel to . . .
Slate, the 11-year-old online magazine that can lean pretty hard to the left, has just launched a video channel called Slate V. By the current standards of web video, these things are genius. It is interesting to note that the two leading GOP presidential candidates, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson, seem to be abnormally enthusiastic about prescribing mental-health treatment. Click . . .
June 26 marks the beginning of PETA’s “Fish Are Friends, Not Food” Week, meant to raise awareness that “fish want to live as much as everyone else does.” But what about deer? In Japan, dwindling tuna stocks have led to venison sushi.
Included in the hubbub leading up to the final Harry Potter installment is a prediction exchange in which participants bet on whether Harry lives or dies — although betting has now been influenced by an anonymous Web spoiler claiming insider knowledge that the hero doesn’t meet an untimely doom. Gelf magazine has an interview with the economist Uri Gneezy, who . . .
As I’ve written before, I am a big fan of the writing of Atul Gawande, a surgeon who also happens to be a wonderful writer. His current book is called Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance. Between his operating and his writing, he also found time to answer this Q&A we sent him. After you read this, go read his . . .
Last year we blogged about the fascinating study written by economists Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel analyzing the patterns of parking violations among diplomats to the United Nations in New York. They find that diplomats from high corruption countries have more unpaid parking tickets, as do diplomats from countries that are more anti-American. Armed with that information, try to guess . . .
June 25 is LEON Day, explained as follows by ButlerWebs’ Holiday Guide: “LEON is NOEL spelled backwards. It is now six months until Christmas.” Also known as 1/2Xmas.
The Cornell economics professor Robert Frank (not to be confused with the excellent Wall Street Journal writer Robert Frank, or the great photographer Robert Frank) begins a semester by asking his students to ask and answer a real-world economics question in 500 words or less. He has now compiled these essays in a book called The Economic Naturalist. It is . . .
Here’s even more support for Levitt’s theory about the frequency of criminals having the middle name “Wayne”: Australian Christopher Wayne Hudson was arrested outside Melbourne and charged with triple homicide. (Hat Tip: Caty Harris.) Via CNN: Two New Zealand parents have been forbidden by the country’s Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages from naming their son “4real,” under the reasoning . . .
In today’s New York Times, Anthony Ramirez reports on the sharp decline in smoking in New York City. According to a study that interviewed 10,000 city residents, only 17.5% of the adult population now smokes, compared to 21.6% in 2002. What accounts for this huge drop? The article offers three potential causes: anti-tobacco TV ads, a smoking ban in restaurants, . . .
June 22 is Take Your Dog To Work Day, in which dog owners try to encourage the rest of the world to adopt dogs from shelters. As if there weren’t already enough dog poop on the streets.
Via the Wall Street Journal: Employers are starting to experiment with using Second Life to conduct job interviews. Candidates can create avatars and set up meetings at virtual job fairs in which they “communicate with executives of prospective employers as though they were instant-messaging.” Popular Science has released its annual “Ten Worst Jobs in Science” list, topped by Hazmat Diver, . . .
John Steele Gordon writes great historical non-fiction; his last book was Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power. Among many other things, he discusses how it was the Erie Canal that really turned New York City into the center of American capitalism, bringing crops and goods from the Midwest to be shipped to Europe and elsewhere. In . . .
Reporters have been abuzz recently over the release of a document revealing that, in 1994, the U.S. military asked for $7.5 million to develop a bomb filled with aphrodisiac chemicals intended to cause “homosexual behavior” that would “affect discipline and morale in enemy units.” Now, Jon Ronson of the U.K. Guardian writes of another leaked Air Force report containing additional . . .
There is a Shell station in San Francisco, at Sixth and Harrison, that was recently charging $4.33 a gallon for regular gas and $4.43 for premium. Across the street is a Chevron station that charges about 70 cents less per gallon. Can you guess why? I seriously doubt it. You might think it has something to do with Shell vs. . . .
My friend and co-author Roland Fryer, an assistant professor at Harvard, has just been promoted. Usually, for an academic, that would mean getting tenure. For Roland, it is a little different. He’s been named a CEO — not Chief Executive Officer, but rather Chief Equality Officer for the New York Public Schools system. You can read about it in this . . .
June 21 is Recess At Work Day, described on its Web site as “your day to relive your youth, create team spirit, increase employee morale and just have some fun.” Otherwise known as Drop in Productivity Day.
I have been alerted that my recent post on PowerPoint and its failings would have been richer had it referenced the earlier work on the subject by Seth Godin. He’s been trying to help PowerPoint people help themselves for years. His e-book on the subject, reproduced here on his blog, is called Really Bad PowerPoint. As with many good ideas, . . .
We’ve written quite a bit about the science of happiness. Now a study by Nattavudh Powdthavee, a research officer at the University of London’s Institute of Education, has taken the debate a step further, assigning monetary values to intangibles like good health and better relationships. He argues that more time with loved ones merits a $179,000 happiness-equivalent raise, while marriage . . .
Even though I try hard to avoid meetings in general, and business meetings in particular, I have sat through my share of PowerPoint presentations. In general, I hate them. There are at least two big problems with PowerPoint presentations. The first is that the speaker, because he’s got the visual crutch of the slide show, doesn’t work very hard to . . .
When I saw the first headlines, I thought it was some kind of a prank, but it’s not: the Vatican has issued a document concerning “the pastoral care of road users,” which includes a sober discussion of “the phenomenon of human mobility.” It also contains a section called “Drivers’ ‘Ten Commandments,’” which has been the focus of tons of news . . .
June 20 is official Ice Cream Soda Day — and for those still in need of a cool beverage after their tasty soda, it’s also National Ice Tea Month. NOTE: Yesterday, June 19, was also the anniversary of the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Ethel, whose maiden name was “Greenglass,” was the first cousin of Dubner’s mother, a fact . . .
Here’s a new way to improve the emergency room experience: Hospitals nationwide are starting to issue meal vouchers, movie passes and MLB tickets to emergency room patients who’ve been made to wait a long time for care. Other hospitals, meanwhile, are eliminating waits entirely by allowing patients to check in from their beds. (Hat tip David Brick.) Reader Fred Telegdy . . .
I recently flew business class on Northwest Airlines. When it came time for dinner to be served, I decided I would decline dinner for three reasons: 1. I had eaten just a few hours earlier. 2. I was busy working and I didn’t want to put away all the papers I had spread out on my tray. 3. I caught . . .
It seems that there are few things more fun than playing massive multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft. I don’t play these games, but an incredible number of people do, investing significant amounts of time and money in them. Last week, the New York Times Magazine published an article on what it seems to consider the dark side . . .
Last week, I blogged about the conservative/Christian website Conservapedia, one of several Wikipedia copycats. Another of these sites is Uncyclopedia, which pokes fun at Wikipedia’s credibility issues by fudging practically every fact. The site is an impressive piece of mockery, perhaps best judged by its very excellent entry on Freakonomics — a book written, per Uncyclopedia, by “economist Bill Reichstag . . .
June 19 is World Sauntering Day, described by HolidayInsights.com as “a day to saunter here and there, wherever you go” — with “sauntering” defined as “not a walk, jog, trot, or run. Sauntering is a form of strolling. Sauntering is a very casual, yet stylish, form of movement from point A to Point B.”
1. Tired of Google Street View yet? Here, via TechCrunch, is the next step on the horizon: Microsoft’s Photosynth Project is developing a network of 3-D virtual maps depicting actual places. Meanwhile, 3-D street views of ten cities will launch this fall on Everyscape. No word yet on whether the scenes will feature virtual peeing bystanders, dozing cats, or Dubner’s . . .
After two years of submitting cartoons and getting nothing but rejection, Robert Mankoff finally succeeded in selling his first cartoon to The New Yorker in the 1970’s. He went on to become one of the magazine’s premiere cartoonists and ultimately its cartoon editor. He also had the clever idea of founding The Cartoon Bank, a company meant to syndicate and . . .
Despite our slight incredulity, Freakonomics has beaten Jane Austen and advanced to the final round of Time Out New York‘s “Ultimate Book Bracket,” meant to determine the book most essential to cocktail party conversation in New York City. Now Freakonomics is up against the winner of the “American Classics” category, none other than Vladimir Nabokov‘s Lolita. At first blush, the . . .