Who doesn’t need a good alibi every now and then? It helps, of course, if the alibi is legit. But if that’s too much to ask for, then AlibiNetwork.com is there to help you: “Alibi Network is a cutting edge full service agency providing alibis and excused absences as well as assistance with a variety of sensitive issues. … We . . .
According to Thomas B. Edsall, guest OpEd columnist in the New York Times: 1. She is a woman. 2. Democrats tend to pulverize their leading candidates in primaries. 3. She is a woman. Edsall doesn’t put it in those words exactly, but that’s the gist. And he offers some compelling evidence from the recent midterm elections: Evaluations of men and . . .
That was the question posed by the very first single-topic issue of the New York Times Magazine, which I had the privilege of editing, more than 10 years ago. (Now there are a panoply of single-topic issues each year, including the wonderful Ideas Issue of this past Sunday.) The thought back then was that New York City was in full . . .
We know you like to play contests (like this one and this one and this one). And we know that at least some of you have a fierce literary bent (as judged by your response to this post and this one and this one). So there should be at least some interest in the following: a six-word memoir contest. That’s . . .
Our post last week about the possibility of pilotless commercial airplanes produced a vigorous, fascinating, and civil discussion in the comments. Here’s a bit of followup for those of you who are still interested. My brother the pilot, a.k.a. Joe Dubner, wrote to tell me that “about 80% of commercial airliner takeoffs and landings are already remote-controlled” is not quite . . .
According to an A.P. report, the recent Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson broke his left wrist after falling out of a golf cart. “I was in a golf cart,” Johnson said, “and the driver took a sharp turn.” Fortunately, it was Johnson’s non-shifting hand, “and he should be able to participate in pre-season testing at Daytona next month.” NASCAR just . . .
One of my favorite types of stories to write about is when people say one thing and do another. This gap between what economics call “declared preferences” (what you say you’ll do) and “expressed preferences” (what you actually do) does not necessarily constitute a lie. Sometimes we say we will do something with the full belief that we will do . . .
Academics, myself included, love coming up with counterintuitive arguments that change the way people see the world. The media probably loves to publish such articles even more than the academics like to find them. Sometimes, though, these same academics/media do a big disservice by raising issues that are theoretically possible, but not at all important in reality. A great example . . .
Here’s the story. Our previous posts about autism can be found here and here and here.
Last night the Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Cleveland Browns, a game between two losing teams on a freezing Thursday night. But I couldn’t wait to watch it. The Steelers have meant a lot to me for a very long time, and my 6-year-old son Solomon has become as devoted to them as he is devoted to his family, school, and . . .
Yesterday, after posting this item wondering whether 9/11 had begun to diminish our collective remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day, I wrote to Bill Tancer of Hitwise.com. I asked Bill to take a look at his search-query data for any insights into this subject. Here’s his reply: Unfortunately, I only have access to 24 mo. of historical data. However, the question . . .
So I survived my interview on the Colbert Report. He asked crazy questions. I smiled and did the best I could. At least I did better than this guy, which was my goal. Not much interesting to report really, except that before the show, Colbert introduced himself and made sure that I understood that in real life he is not . . .
Some of the heavy hitters in economics at the University of Chicago — Gary Becker, Bob Lucas, Gene Fama, and Sam Peltzman — got together to talk about Milton Friedman’s impact. You can watch the webcast. My favorite part is when Gary Becker says that he went back to look at Friedman’s 1962 book “Capitalism and Freedom” for the first . . .
That’s what Mark Leibowitz, one of our readers, wants to know: “Public men’s rooms have a mix of urinals and toilets, but private homes only have toilets. At first I thought it was simply a matter of space, but even when there’s room for a second installation the second choice is always a bidet rather than a urinal. Urinals use . . .
Because it might be a lifesaver: a soldier can spray the Silly String to look for trip wires around bombs. According to this A.P. article, “Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the . . .
When I blogged yesterday about Swivel.com, the site had nothing but a “coming soon” banner. Well, one day later, Swivel has gone live. There’s not too much there yet, and things seem a little buggy, but it’s well worth a look. One commenter on the original post wrote: “Coming soon” on a website is similar to “Closed for renovations” in . . .
Duncan Foley, a professor of economics at the New School for Social Research, has written an interesting-sounding book: Adam’s Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology. The Adam of the title is not, as the subtitle might lead you to believe, the biblical Adam; it is Adam Smith. And the fallacy is that “the pursuit of self-interest is guided by objective . . .
Levitt was on The Colbert Report last night, and did great. What follows sounds like it comes from The Colbert Report or The Daily Show but, unfortunately, comes from a N.Y. Times report by Nazila Fathi, “Iran Invites Scholars to Assess Holocaust as History or Fiction”: The Iranian authorities, who have frequently accused the Jews of distorting history to legitimize . . .
Remember yesterday’s item about how the N.Y. Times and Wall Street Journal published their very, very different editorials on John Bolton’s resignation? In answer to a Brazilian commenter’s question, the Times is the liberal paper (and therefore anti-Bolton) while the Journal, and most famously its editorial page, is the conservative one. In today’s papers, there is evidence that those irreconcilable . . .
We’ve just learned that Freakonomics — a.k.a. Фрикономика — has been published in Russian. Here’s more information. I know very little Russian but among my most prized books are a handful of Isaac Bashevis Singer novels in Russian that I picked up while visiting Moscow several years back. And even though my elders were chased out of Russia a few . . .
In case you missed Levitt’s weekend(!) blog quiz or late-night clarification, let it be said plainly and loudly here that yes, Steve Levitt will be appearing on The Colbert Report tonight (Tues., Dec. 5), at 11:30 p.m. Eastern/10:30 p.m. Central. I would gladly go watch Levitt at the taping — I did when he was on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, . . .
If you go to your Web browser and type in www.swivel.com, all you get is a pretty little “coming soon” banner. But if you read about Swivel here on TechCrunch, it sounds like a godsend — or at least a tremendous way to waste time — for data freaks. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch says that Swivel’s founders describe the forthcoming . . .
It’s a good thing that the editorial pages of the N.Y. Times and Wall Street Journal aren’t people, and that they aren’t married to each other. Can you imagine the fights the two of them would have? One would want the housekeeper to come on Mondays and Fridays; the other would insist on Wednesdays only. One would want to keep . . .
The answer to the last quiz was indeed The Colbert Report, as blog reader Risingson astutely guessed 8 minutes after I posted the quiz. Congratulations to him. Having watched Colbert interview others, I have immense respect for his ability to find a person’s absolute weak spot. Hopefully I know my weak spots well enough to do some advance preparation, but . . .
A few weeks ago, my seatmate on an airplane was a fantastically interesting guy who’s been flying airplanes since he was a kid. He has flown Air Force cargo planes, fire-fighting planes, and is currently employed as a long-haul pilot for a West Coast cargo company. (FWIW, my oldest brother is also a former Air Force pilot; here’s what he’s . . .
With the bookselling year nearly over (though with its best few weeks yet to come), Publishers Weekly has published its list of best-selling books for 2006 to date. The top 3 hardcover novels are: 1. For One More Day, by Mitch Albom 2. Beach Road, by James Patterson 3. Cell, by Stephen King And the top 3 hardcover nonfiction books . . .
The quizzes we’ve been offering periodically seem to be popular. The answers always turn out to be much easier to guess than we have predicted. So, for a switch, here is a quiz that we know will be answered correctly within 10 minutes: What show is Levitt (against his better judgment) going to be a guest on next week? Same . . .
Economists have long recognized the potential value of artificially restricting one’s choices. Tying your hands can be useful in strategic situations. The old idea of burning bridges behind an army so they can’t retreat is a classic example. Strategic situations usually involve you and some adversary, like an opposing army, a competing bidder, or maybe the goalkeeper when you are . . .
John Noble Wilford writes in the N.Y. Times about a strange contraption found in a shipwreck off the coast of Greece. It was discovered 100 years ago, and was known as “the world’s first computer,” but recent high-tech analyses have shown that the contraption was even more sophisticated than researchers first realized. The instrument, with gears and dials made of . . .
Apparently, quite a bit, at least in Detroit. The price of copper has risen 56 percent this year, probably due in large part to construction demand in China. The high price of copper has led to an increase in people breaking into construction sites and even homes to steal copper pipes. In Detroit, someone stole the copper pipes from the . . .