Freakonomics

The World Wide Web Keeps it Local

By Freakonomics — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:58:36 PDT

Rather than create a "global village," the Internet may have actually "shrunk people's horizons," reports an Economist article about a new study by Hebrew University researchers Jacob Goldenberg and Moshe Levy. They used a common Freakonomics topic -- baby names -- to study how far ideas have spread since the advent of the Internet.

FREAK Shots: Big Macs on Fancy Plates

By Freakonomics — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:26:15 PDT

On his website Fancy Fast Food, designer and writer Erik Trinidad revamps fast-food meals to look like plates you'd see at a five-star restaurant. His tagline: "Yeah, it's still bad for you -- but see how good it can look."

Fertilizer Nudges

By Freakonomics — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:24:04 PDT

We've blogged before about the efforts of the international aid community to increase fertilizer use among small farmers in Africa. Many economists, however, believe that the subsidies often used to deliver the input are "distortionary, regressive, environmentally unsound, and ... result in politicized, inefficient distribution of fertilizer supply." A new working paper by Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, and Jonathan Robinson examines the fertilizer-buying patterns of farmers in Western Kenya.

The Duty to Rescue and the Registry for Caregivers: A Guest Post

By Stephen J. Dubner — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:38:10 PDT

In two previous posts, we examined laws exempting family members from prosecution for harboring fugitives and laws either granting or permitting sentencing discounts on account of one's family status, ties, or responsibilities. These are two of the benefits defendants receive on account of their family status in the criminal justice system.

Time for Tort Reform?

By Freakonomics — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:34:14 PDT

A family in Saudi Arabia is suing a genie for theft and harassment. The family accuses the genie of "leaving them threatening voicemails, stealing their cell phones, and hurling rocks at them when they leave the house."

For Sale: One Kidney?

By Freakonomics — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:20:23 PDT

Virginia Postrel examines the kidney donation system in the United States, where 11 people die every day waiting for a kidney transplant. Exchanging organs for payment is illegal in the U.S. although recent developments in organ exchanges, including donation chains, have been successful. These innovations alone, however, won't solve the problem, and Postrel advocates a new system that includes both financial incentives and measures to protect donors.

Do You Owe $23 Quadrillion?

By Freakonomics — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:12:00 PDT

An unidentified computer glitch has led Visa to overcharge several of its cardholders for routine purchases at drug stores, gas stations, and restaurants, to the tune of $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 each. These charges, as far as we can tell, exceed the sum total of wealth accumulated in human history.

Quotes Uncovered: The Punchline, Please

By Fred Shapiro — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:40:14 PDT

A while back, I invited readers to submit quotations for which they wanted me to try to trace the origins, using The Yale Book of Quotations and more recent research by me. Hundreds of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week. Javy asked:

Scientists (professors, physicians) will know more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing, or will know less and less about more and more until they know nothing about everything.

Reducing Traffic by Closing Roads

By Freakonomics — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:51:06 PDT

The city of Vancouver has turned one lane of traffic on the busy Burrard Bridge into a bicycle route. Critics predicted chaos, but the first day of the experiment found traffic moving smoothly. This seems to be in line with recent studies suggesting that road closures actually lead to fewer traffic jams.

Can't NASA Find a Better Launch Site?

By Freakonomics — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:41:50 PDT

After bad weather foiled several launch attempts, the Space Shuttle Endeavor finally took off last night from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Cape Canaveral. With stormy weather so typical there, why does NASA continue to use it as a launch site?

Crime, Punishment, and Typewriter Tape

By Freakonomics — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:30:36 PDT

Just because a technology has been superseded doesn't make it completely irrelevant.

Make It a Taedonggang River Beer

By Freakonomics — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:47:01 PDT

North Korea has come out with its first beer commercial for Taedong River Beer, "the pride of Pyongyang," which shows both Western businessmen and a sweaty worker in uniform enjoying a cold one.

Sentencing Discounts for Parents? A Guest Post

By Stephen J. Dubner — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:59:20 PDT

Should Parents Who Offend Receive Sentencing Discounts? A Guest Post By Jennifer Collins, Ethan J. Leib, and Dan Markel Many states expressly tell judges to calibrate a sentence based, in part, on one's family ties and responsibilities in sentencing offenders.

Cash for Cells

By Freakonomics — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:45:36 PDT

Raise your hand if you have a drawer filled with old cell phones just waiting to be responsibly recycled. Keep your hand up if most of those phones have been in the drawer for over a year. Of the 160 million cell phones discarded annually, 75 percent of them end up in drawers or trash cans. A new company, Cycled Cells, takes in old cell phones, sometimes paying for them, and either recycles the phones or, if they can be rehabilitated, distributes them to phone-needy people around the world. They even pay for postage.

Greening the Brothel

By Freakonomics — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:42:09 PDT

Mason d'Envie, a brothel in Berlin, offers discounts to customers who arrive by bike or public transportation.