Blog reader Dan Ciruli emailed us this photo from a California cemetery as another candidate for a recession magazine cover: Dan Ciruli It may be prematurely optimistic, but after last week, should it look more like this? If you have a Freak-worthy photo of your own, send it along here.
| During the boom economy, we took on historically unprecedented debt to finance our pursuit of the American Dream, all the while losing faith that we could achieve it. Now that the Wall Street party is over, we’re starting to dream anew. Vanity Fair contributing editor David Kamp has more, in an essay accompanied by some stunning photos of American . . .
Thanks to Flickr’s Creative Commons (made possible, in part, by Lawrence Lessig), where Flickr users make their photography available for public use, we often use Flickr images to spruce up this blog.
So how does Freakonomics show up on Flickr?
Eric Morris has been busting Los Angeles transportation myths with his L.A.: Fact or Fiction posts lately, which may have changed the way you view the City of Angels. Photographer Mathieu Young brings us yet another view of Los Angeles, via GOOD magazine. Young took a 20 mile walk around the city, snapping photos of everyone he came across.
Eric Morris has been busting L.A. transportation myths lately with his Fact and Fiction posts. For yet another unusual view of Los Angeles, check out this beautiful set of photos in Good magazine by Mathieu Young, who set out on a 20-mile walk across the city, taking photos of everyone he met along the way. A few examples: Mathieu Young . . .
Since the recession was made official, and even before, magazine covers brought out a host of recession-related imagery: downward-slanting arrows, roller coasters, and even (groan) the passé bear or bull. Back in October, Vanessa Voltolina, writing for Folio magazine’s blog, asked BusinessWeek‘s art director Andrew Horton what makes a good or bad recession cover. “There are a slew of recession . . .
An article in The Economist reports that “the lipstick index,” the theory that women buy more lipstick in tough economic times, is probably not valid. A better index might instead be hairstyles. As The Independent reports, Japanese researchers found that women tend to have longer hairstyles when the economy is doing well, and shorter styles during harder times. Later on . . .
Police in England have been criticized for posting signs with obvious messages such as “Caution: water on road during rain,” and “All fuel must be paid for,” according to a BBC report. The Plain English Campaign, a language watchdog group, claims the signs don’t deter criminals and are an insult to everyone else’s intelligence. A spokeswoman from the campaign blames . . .
Blog reader Paul Gorbould emailed us this photo from a parking lot at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada: Photo: Paul Gorbould Gorbould understands the good intent of the spots: The site was recently declared a Unesco World Heritage Site, and it appears to have taken the designation to heart. I’ve never seen . . .
I was stirring the syrup for a pecan pie when the phone rang. My friend Brenda Boozer called to tell me there had been a massive environmental disaster close to home, and could I possibly get away to take photographs?
Turkey fryers are fixtures at southern holiday parties. As I watched my friend’s husband gleefully fry his turkey in a big vat of boiling oil this Christmas, I became a bit concerned for his and my safety … and rightly so. Underwriters Laboratories has refused to put its label of approval on turkey fryers out of concern that “backyard chefs . . .
At around 231 million percent, Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation (which we’ve written about before) is currently the highest in the world. Blog reader Ben Saltsman sent us this photo of a restroom sign in South Africa, which hints at one use for Zimbabwe’s severely devalued currency: Photo: Eugine Baron But is it cost-effective for Zimbabweans to use money instead of T.P.? A . . .
Earlier this week, Nathan Myhrvold gave us his thoughts (and photos) from a visit to Shanghai. Here, as promised, is the second installment of his China trip, which takes him to Beijing. You will probably never look at Peking duck — or the Bird’s Nest — quite the same way again. His earlier posts on Iceland and Greenland can be . . .
Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer of Microsoft, now runs the invention company Intellectual Ventures. He is a polymath’s polymath: a physicist by training who practices many feats of technology as well as dinosaur-hunting, intensive cuisine, photography, and other, more esoteric pursuits. Earlier this year he contributed three guest posts about his visits to Greenland and Iceland. Now he . . .
I spent my Thanksgiving at the New Orleans Fair Grounds Racetrack in a gaudy hat, betting on horses. A U.S.A. Today photographer snapped this photo of me: Photo: Sean Gardner/U.S.A. Today By the time I left the track, I had spent $20 on bets, made back $33 in winnings, bought lunch for $5, and had a gin and tonic for . . .
Blog reader Nick Turner sent along this photo of a Body Shop ad in San Francisco: Photo: Nick Turner He was surprised that the ad guarantees fair-labor conditions for workers in Italy: I thought fair-trade protections were for third-world workers. I wonder how the Italians feel about this designation. The ad didn’t outright call Italy third-world; but if it had, . . .
Doug Mills/The New York Times I was struck by the photo above, which accompanied a Times article about President-elect Obama‘s first news conference. Not only does it give us a good look at many of Obama’s economic advisers, but it’s a great study of photo-taking body language. Many photographers I know have nicknames for the way people stand when they’re . . .
My friend who reviews New York City cafes came across this at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center: Photo: Ana Dane According to Bouchon’s website: “Some people wish for their pets to take as much pleasure in food as they themselves do.” But are excesses like this actually selling right now? A recent survey by American Express Publishing and . . .
The more beer scientists drink, the less likely they are to have a paper published or cited, according to a new study by Thomas Grim, an ornithologist at Palacky University, Czech Republic. Grim surveyed the behavior of Czech scientists and found a correlation between amount of beer consumed and papers published. But the Czech Republic may just be an strange . . .
Driving a car can be depersonalizing. That’s why drivers use bumper stickers, bobble-heads, fish brake lights, racing stripes, etc. to show others on the road their personalities, explains Tom Vanderbilt in his book, Traffic. A recent study by Colorado State University psychologist William Szlemko found a link between road rage and the number — but not content — of personalized . . .
Cigarette advertisers generally don’t mention cancer, although Silk Cut seemed to use it (in the form of an alligator) to tell smokers they’re cool for tempting death. Playing up your product’s risk isn’t a new strategy. This whiskey ad from the 1990’s, sent in by Freakonomics reader Douglas Kysar, makes vice look pretty sexy. Photo: Douglas Kysar The ad, from . . .
While advertising may try to mislead you, this piece of marketing — which a Freakonomics reader named Matthew Limber found on his milk cap — takes a completely honest (and apparently self-sabotaging) approach. Photo: Matthew Limber So did Listerine’s TV ads from 2005, which claimed that “Listerine’s as effective as floss at fighting plaque and gingivitis,” but cautioned, “There’s no . . .
Freakonomics reader Rich Beckman took this photo in Washington, D.C. on the grounds of the Capitol building: Photo: Rich Beckman Then he asks a natural question: “If the hydrant isn’t working, what does it matter if someone parks there?” Dubner asked a similar question on this blog: why is parking in front of fire hydrants prohibited in the first place . . .
Reader Leonardo Piccioli sent this photo of one employee’s adaptation to smoke in Buenos Aires caused by natural fires nearby. In a similar fashion, Americans should begin adapting to man-made pollution instead of trying to reverse the inevitable, writes Spencer Reiss in Wired. “Climate change is inevitable,” he writes, and we should “get used to it” by focusing our energies . . .
Minnesota Representatives Michele Bachmann and John Kline are pushing to make English the official language of the United States (and reduce multilingualism). But would this put the U.S. behind other countries in global awareness and education? One of our readers, Andy Little, noticed his own language ignorance by his initial interpretation of this sign: When I saw this sign in . . .
A recent FREAK Shot sparked a series of photo submissions and comments about the best way for a sign to get people to do what it’s asking. In this video, Wired contributing editor Daniel Pink claims the most effective signs appeal to people’s empathies and don’t just give a command. (HT: Ross) He recommends, for example, preempting “Pick up after . . .
Judging from this sign (and its unsettling verbiage), Gray’s Papaya isn’t counting on the tax rebates. So it’s offering its own version of economic relief: Photo: Jay Jones A cafe in Venice is doing something similar for subprime victims. Any other instances of recession discounts? Addendum: Apparently Gray’s Papaya has been offering their discount for a few years — pessimism . . .
Last week, we asked to see your photos and you responded with vigor — and from around the globe (Burma, Buenos Aires, Canada). Keep sending them here. Here’s a photo from Omair Khan, who took this in 2005 in New York City: On his blog, Barry Popik cites a 1982 Times article in which Mayor Koch announced the creation of . . .
As Dubner has shown in the past, a quick snapshot — of a congestion-pricing poster in this case — can spark a lot of discussion. So send us your photo or snapshot (here) — and be sure to tell us where it was taken, who took it, and what makes it Freak-worthy. We’ll publish our favorites on the blog. They . . .
My wife is a photographer who once lived and shot in Romania, Russia, Chechnya, Israel, and elsewhere. She often worked in harm’s way and almost always with the sort of reckless abandon a photographer needs in order to document tragedies and farces. So I’ve picked up a little bit about what it means to tell a story with a camera, . . .