This week, the suffering French nobility; adjusting for crime inflation, is New York really safer? Climate concerns: getting closer to that garden hose to the sky? And two signs of the times: Sesame Street debuts an impoverished Muppet, and Friendly’s goes bankrupt.
This week, it’s official: coffee helps women with depression, charting the world mood through Twitter; our gloomy consumer confidence levels over the last three years; a marijuana DNA database; how geo-thermal plants can help produce lithium for electric car batteries; and Harvard and Yale’s endowments post killer returns.
Is loud sex a billion dollar problem? A town in Brazil creates their own currency to boost local economy. Yawning might not mean you’re bored, but that your brain needs cooling. Bonus for your employees: gifts are more effective than money. Video gamers beat scientist at enzyme structuring; could lead to new AIDS drug. Pricing the atmosphere: worth 100 times . . .
This week, why SpongeBob hurts kids’ willpower, a restaurant in Saudi Arabia fines you for unfinished plates, robots inventing their own language, Indonesia’s floating trash problem, jet packs are finally for real, and lie detectors that actually work.
This week, the European debt crisis explained with lego, why American mobility causes uniformity, a new way of cheating in college, why we make drunken mistakes, an interactive map of the history of war, and why pro athletes are giving themselves frost bite.
This week, Cornell’s robots talk to each other, Linkedin mines its own data for stats on what makes an entrepreneur, Dan Ariely thinks algorithms should replace financial advisors; how old is human brain chemistry? And a Rutgers study shows most unemployed Americans wish they were younger.
This week, do bees have feelings? Deaths in Yosemite are twice the normal amount this year; evidence that El Nino causes tropical civil wars; surgeons’ cells are adapting to regular, safe doses of x-rays; and Australia’s strange strategy to combat the dengue fever virus.
This week, the fastest human-like robot, why the government just bought $40 million of chicken, an iPhone app to keep you from hitting the snooze bar, the environmental upside of cloud computing, and a scientific explanation of the phenomenon known as Beer Goggles.
This week, why being a king is the most dangerous job in history, an etiquette group in Germany wants to ban workplace air-kissing, Jonathan Stark’s social experiment with a Starbucks card, anti-technology terrorists attack in Mexico, and why Google and Wikipedia are bad for our memory.
This week: an economic analysis of gang colors; a chopstick shortage in China; the mathematics of basketball; the social networks of elephants, and are smart people getting smarter?
Georgia’s shriveling peach economy, one-third of Michigan teachers feel pressured to cheat, the annual Big Mac index, a public library incentive scheme, and why West Virginia is awash in car crashes the week after a televised NASCAR race.
The remedial science of boarding an airplane, a 3-D printer for personalized chocolate, the true meritocracy of Japanese police dogs, charting undergraduate grade inflation through the years, and would you give up the Internet for $1 million?
The economics of law schools (now more expensive than 4 years of college), a fake Apple store in China, what Carmageddon taught us about behavioral economics, JSTOR hacker gets indicted on felony charges, and an insect that’s survived for a million years without sex.
Using science for art, and art for science. How much does it cost to go to Hogwarts? Stephen Hawking: If we can colonize space within 200 years, humans will survive. World map: 7 billion people and their income. Creating a market for cigarette butts: at $3 a pound, it’s well worth it. Monkeys and fair use: if a monkey takes . . .
This week: No more drunk puppy-buying; the price tag of a hit song; a human homerun; the end of the mancession; why Americans’ cars are getting heavier; and why a pretty woman causes some men to crave war.
This week: Why is our vision getting worse? Could an airline-style loyalty program work for public transportation? Why rich people are bad at reading the emotions of strangers, and a Cornell study uncovers corruption among Amazon’s top reviewers.
This week: Researchers say it pays to be loyal; are ovulating women better at detecting sexual orientation? Nathan Myhrvold on risk and the state of the Earth; a Gallup poll suggests slowing migration, and why your paycheck just might kill you.
This week: Why life expectancy for women is decreasing in some parts of the U.S. Iceland crowdsources its new constitution. How brain scans of teenagers can predict future pop hits, and may even be able to determine whether they’ll grow up to be a criminal.
This week: Does having a full bladder help you make more rational decisions? A survey of the best Civil War facial hair; why wheat beer is good for marathoners; and whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the largest field study ever in behavioral economics.
MIT turns 150, women prefer sad men to happy ones, an interactive map of wages in cities across the U.S., and more.
Would you like your salt kosher or Christian? Either way, look out for the aptonym. Soviet breadlines were depressing and long — so it’s a bad idea to use them as models for managing traffic. (Earlier) It’s basically a cat brothel where patrons pay by the hour for feline companionship; you don’t pay them for love, you pay them for . . .
Ants invented farming millions of years before we did. They perfected traffic control, too. Thanks, ants. Everything you know about Darwin is wrong. (Earlier) What does oil sand mining look like? National Geographic finds out. Six-word stories: in several genres. For those who thought books like Freakonomics were too scattered — a list of single-subject nonfiction.
The Wall Street Journal asks economists: what’s the most economy-conscious way to spend an extra $8 a week? (Earlier) International Oscar winners are good for Hollywood. Nuclear energy is in vogue in Latin America. (Earlier) Can kids get better at math by mimicking Italians?
How about a blogger stimulus? (Earlier) Being murdered by a pacemaker hacker is possible, but highly unlikely. (Earlier) The Brian Lehrer Show wants your “uncommon economic indicators.” The streets of Central America proclaim a different football champion than we do. Photo from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
For dairy cows, just having a name makes them more productive. (HT: Karl Matulis) (Earlier) In the world of startup competition, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington draws the line at death threats and being spat on. Out of Queens, N.Y., here’s another pay-what-you-wish cafe. (Earlier) A traffic sign warns of “Zombies Ahead.” It’s just the work of hackers, assures the local . . .
What happens when Monty Python puts its videos on YouTube for free? It increases DVD sales by 23,000 percent. (Earlier) How much are your friends worth? (Earlier) It’s like online dating, except you’re seeking cities. (Earlier) Will Wilkinson asks: are economists clueless? (HT: Jarrod Hunt) (Earlier)
Are business schools good for their graduates? (HT: Theodore Pappas) Calling all data crunchers: a grant opportunity. (HT: Brian Kelsey) Police stop two German children attempting to elope to Africa. (Earlier) Are fire sprinklers really necessary? (Earlier)
The Economist‘s open debate: Is the world getting smarter or not? Look who got listed as an “amazing resource” for small businesses looking to cut costs. Instead of just deleting old computer documents, dispose of them with The Unloader. (HT: Kevin Allen Jr.) The top 2008 news articles that nobody cares about now. (Earlier)
The winter holidays listed by Wikipedia word count. (Earlier) Is this blogger a financial Nostradamus or a really clever insider? The economics field takes time for some self-reflection. (Earlier) Lighten up with The Economist‘s Credit Crunch board game. (Earlier)
Which cars do thieves prefer these days? (HT: Raj Haas) A personal savings website uses the nosy-friends-and-family incentive. (Earlier) From the Department of Oops: mistakenly using a brothel ad as your magazine cover. (Earlier) How is buying a plane ticket like getting a seat at a baseball game? (HT: Patrick McGrady)