SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

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SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance (Freakonomics #2)

by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner (Goodreads Author)

3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 · rating details · 37,604 ratings · 2,625 reviews

The New York Times bestselling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling more than four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world.

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with Superfreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.

SuperFrea...more

Audio CD, 6 pages

Published October 20th 2009 by HarperAudio (first published January 1st 2009)

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Sep 06, 2010 Jim rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mostly more of the same as Freakonomics with riffs on Malcolm Gladwell's books thrown in. The glaring difference is the chapter on climate change which attempts to go waaay beyond the author's expertise in behavioral economics and contains unfortunate misrepresentations of climate science. For a detailed critique, I'd recommend: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/... Still, there's no denying that convincing the public to recognize the need to curb CO2 emissions is an almost impossible task.

A...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Ron rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, current_affairs

An interesting dog's breakfast of apparently unrelated essays supposedly on microeconomics, though the chapter on global warming ended up almost entirely on "global" issues. One gets the impression they wrote a bunch of columns for a newspaper, say the New York Times, then decided to cash in on the fame of their previous book by publishing the essays together. Oh. That's what they did!

That global warming chapter "What to Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo have in common?" is the best in the book. No, th...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Khaya rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Huge fans of the first "Freakonomics" and/or of Malcolm Gladwell, maybe

Shelves: audiobooks, readablenonfiction

A reluctant 3 stars. I'll give this book the benefit of the doubt and say that it probably would have worked better for me had I read it rather than listening to it. While I love the fact that audiobooks allow me to multi-task, it means that I'm less focused when I'm listening to them. That's fine if it's a book like Savannah Blues but this book demanded more concentration, especially since the writing style was highly tangential to begin with.

Those who read “Freakonomics” are familiar with what...more

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Jan 19, 2010 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essays

TABLE OF CONTENTS (close to verbatim):

Intro--In which the global financial meltdown is entirely ignored in favor of more engaging topics:
the perils of walking drunk
the unlikely savior of Indian women
drowning in horse manure
what is freakonomics
toothless sharks & bloodthirsty elephants
things you always thought you knew but didn't

Chapter 1--In which we explain the various costs of being a woman:
LaShanna, part-time prostitute
One million dead "witches"
The many ways in which females are punished f...more

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Apr 11, 2011 Ryan Melena rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books

Ugh, pop culture trash masquerading as economics (in turn masquerading as hard science).

There were so many glaring flaws in the authors' assumptions, "logic", and conclusions that within just the introduction they had already lost all credibility.

Right up front the authors declare that fears about global warming are overblown because the issue will likely be solved by technological innovation and then offer as proof the fact that cars eliminated the problems caused by horse-based transportation....more

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Sep 02, 2012 Ummu Auni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, non-fiction, business-economics

I bought this from BookXcess at the price of MYR 24.90 (USD 7.50) yeay for that!

Another bestseller. Answered questions and issues that suddenly had me thinking especially on women lower wages compared to men, the quick & simple fix and global warming. It isn't surprising why certain women turns to prostitution instead of working with their hands and intellectual minds.

Who would have thought that locally produced harvest contributed to global warming compared to big distributors' chain? Who...more

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Mar 23, 2010 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, meridian

Once again, Steven and Stephen have provided food for thought in the form of odd but illuminating juxtapositions and intentionally provocative questions. It's refreshing to know that there isn't just one way of looking at the world; the "common knowledge" that is so pervasive it's not even questioned anymore can be not just wrong, but spectacularly so. It's also a bit unsettling. I learned about the "bystander effect" in my entry-level under-grad psychology course; it was a fact, a given, in my...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Zainil rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sequels disappoint; don't ask too much of this one. Perhaps you cannot blame authors for wanting to cash in on their popularity, but if Super Freakonomics had been written before Freakonomics, few people would have bought it. The authors are trying very hard to shock and amaze, but the organization is scattered and the research seems questionable.

Their standard formula is to begin with a counterintuitive statement and before your very eyes show you how clever they are. I, for one, do not see how...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Boris Limpopo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Levitt, Steven D. and Stephen J. Dubner (2009). Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. London: Allen Lane. 2009. ISBN 9780713999914. Pagine 256. 14.99 £

Moltissimi anni fa, pochi giorni prima della morte del Grande Timoniere (quindi doveva essere la fine d’agosto o l’inizio di settembre del 1976), in viaggio alla volta della Sardegna con gli zii, ci fermammo a mangiare da quello che all’epoca era il più reputato ristorante di Ca...more

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Apr 21, 2013 DW rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: good-to-know

This book was super-readable and interesting, which was the main reason I liked it. It might have to do with the fact that I never read Freakonomics (I just happened to pick up this book at the library and they didn't have the first one).

The authors like to turn conventional wisdom on its head, for instance by pointing out that more people die from walking drunk than from driving drunk, or that car seats don't save children's lives because seat belts actually pass car seat standards tests. They...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: calibre, non-fiction, economics

EDITORIAL REVIEW: The *New York Times* bestselling *Freakonomics* was a worldwide sensation, selling more than four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with *Superfreakonomics*, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the *freak*quel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first. *SuperFreakonomics* challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The basic premise of this book is simple: to apply economic principles and methodology to understand the reasons why people do the things they do (or as the authors call it, the incentives behind behavior).

Or, as the authors paraphrase Gary Becker on page 12, the "economic approach."

That being said, it is very similar to their first book, which I also read. This one builds upon it in that it goes on to explain more cases of things that seemingly have no connection or common theme, but in fact d...more The basic premise of this book is simple: to apply economic principles and methodology to understand the reasons why people do the things they do (or as the authors call it, the incentives behind behavior).

Or, as the authors paraphrase Gary Becker on page 12, the "economic approach."

That being said, it is very similar to their first book, which I also read. This one builds upon it in that it goes on to explain more cases of things that seemingly have no connection or common theme, but in fact do once you look a little deeper.

They use the same processes as any other data-driven field of study: they make a few guesses, do an experiment or ten (or get others to do it), collect data, analyze the data, and then revise their initial guesses in light of what the data says.

The book is a fun, quick, and for the most part easy read. If anything it'll make you think a bit more about why people do the things they do, at least in a more "economic" sense. When they use jargon, they do so sparingly, and they always either include an explanation or use the context of what they are discussing in order to explain the concept to the reader. They try not to get too technical or complicated in their explanations for anything, and when they do, they almost always include a separate "this is what we're trying to say" way of explaining it. They realize who their audience is (non-economists), and do their best to keep our attention and focus on what they're saying.

Most important of all, though, is that they include their sources in the endnotes - their own studies and the sources and studies of others who they included in the book. This is important because while they are writing for a more general, non-economist audience, they also know that they need to show their sources so people who are interested can follow up. More than that, though, is the fact that all of this is legitimate research that has been used by other organizations and institutions (including the government), and thus is subject to peer review and analysis.

So their inclusion of their sources indicates that while the book may seem a bit... silly... at times, it is really a well-written cover for some serious research and investigation. This, I might add, is a bit more of the journalistic side of the book - taking the hard to understand stuff and distilling it down into something that the rest of us without Ph.Ds in economics can understand, and in this, the authors have done a pretty good job, to say nothing of the investigation and fact-digging and checking that was probably done while this was being written.

Some of the reviews on here about this book have said that the authors got this thing right and that thing wrong, and while that may (or may not) be true, the fact is this: they've included their research sources, so if you really do have an issue with them, then it's game on.

However, that isn't their aim with this book. While they are using economic principles and methods to explain some rather unusual, non-economic things, they aren't trying to be the end-all source of wisdom. They probably say it best here:

"Many of our findings may not be all that useful, or even conclusive. But that's all right. We are trying to start a conversation, not have the last word. Which means that you may find a few things in the following pages to quarrel with.
"In fact, we'd be disappointed if you didn't." (pg. 17)

It seems that they're just trying to use their own discipline-specific approach to understand and examine things in a way so that they can be discussed, in order to try and understand why people do the things they do. That's all. (less)

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Jul 30, 2012 Karl-Friedrich Lenz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: global-warming

I bought this because a Google search with "solar panel" and "albedo" brought up a page discussing this book.

I liked reading most of it. The book basically is a collection of stories, which makes for easy reading. And most of them make sense to me.

That is not true for all their points in the chapter on global warming, which was the reason I bought the book in the first place.

At location 2898, they city Nathan Myhrvold with an interesting anti-solar talking point I haven't heard before. Myhrvold...more I bought this because a Google search with "solar panel" and "albedo" brought up a page discussing this book.

I liked reading most of it. The book basically is a collection of stories, which makes for easy reading. And most of them make sense to me.

That is not true for all their points in the chapter on global warming, which was the reason I bought the book in the first place.

At location 2898, they city Nathan Myhrvold with an interesting anti-solar talking point I haven't heard before. Myhrvold points out that solar panels are black, since they are designed to absorb light. And they only convert 12 percent of the energy to electricity, radiating the rest back as heat. So solar panels make global warming worse.

That's an interesting point. And the first thing one should actually do after hearing it is make sure that all other parts of the system (like frames) are painted white. One might also contemplate adding some kind of white sheet in all the spaces between the solar panels, if that can be done at reasonable cost.

Another thing would be to deploy more solar panels over water, especially oceans. Water absorbs 80 percent of energy; melting the Arctic ice will work as a feedback mainly because of that. If the area used has unfavorable albedo to begin with, adding solar panels won't change much. If you have white platforms for floating the solar panels, it might on balance actually be an improvement over open sea.

Yet another point would be that, yes, solar panels have unfavorable albedo, but mirrors don't. So this might be another advantage of concentrated solar power (besides the ability to deploy electricity any time the operator chooses, as opposed to only when there is sunshine).

Also, for albedo changes to make any measurable difference, a massive amount of solar panels would need to get installed first. The Earth has a surface of about 510,072,000 square kilometers (Wikipedia). Desertec is talking now about using 2,500 square kilometers of desert area for powering 17% of Europe's energy requirements (http://www.desertec.org/concept/quest...). Obviously, that kind of area use even for a very large project won't change much in the big albedo picture.

Myhrvold also pioneers dismissing wind and solar as "cute" (at location 2886), something found in similar language from Bill Gates later on (http://k.lenz.name/LB/?p=3802). He thinks it doesn't scale to a sufficient degree.

We'll see about that in the coming decades. Once solar beats coal on price, it will scale even faster than it is already. And there is no inherent limit.

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Jul 04, 2012 Martina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I haven't read the first book by the same authors, but judging from the introduction in this one it had a similar approach.

I wasn't impressed at all with this, and I'm sorely disappointed because it had gotten some favourable recs. They start the book of with saying how it's not really about anything, or more like everything, and I couldn't agree more. I think Dan Ariely approaches many of the same subjects, in a more methodical, lucid and coherent way.

Especially unimpressed with the bit that h...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: business

Four years ago, Freakonomics became something of a hit for Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, when they discovered some quirky facts about life that noone had noticed before, and wrote about them. As an example of how their mind works, they discovered that legalising abortions contributed to a reduction in the crime rate.

This book works in a similar vein. They come up with strange little facts and explain them to you in a quirky and humorous way. The book is funny, accesible and enjoyable. You'll...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Brian rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I enjoyed the original, which, if memory serves had much more cohesive chapters around specific theses. While the chapters treated the topic at hand, they seemed to be much more scattershot in terms of finding a number of correlations in data that "swirled" around the main hypothesis of the chapter.

As with many reviewers, I think that Dubner and especially Levitt have stepped a little outside their expertise with some of the topics in this book and with the ongoing Freakonomics "brand," particul...more

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May 12, 2012 Andrew Breslin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was captivating enough that I finished it the day after I got it from the library. It was my all-day companion to an all-day hangover, if you must know why the hell I was sprawled out on the couch from sun-up to sun-down reading a book. Thanks for prying, and please stop your eyelashes from fluttering so loudly.

Even if I were capable of doing anything else, I might not have set it down. It and its predecessor are like intellectual crack. As soon as you consume a little you just want to keep...more

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May 06, 2012 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I very much enjoyed Freakonomics. Although there was no thread to directly connect the seemingly random wanderings of the authors through the varied world of "economics", there was a common feature: unintended consequences. Whether this was from changing the laws on abortion, or selling cookies in offices, there were consequences to these events which the authors examined and, indeed, revelled in.

The new book again starts with a controversial statistic (the first began with a contention that the...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Kerry Nietz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a quick read, partially because of the subject matter, and partially because it is just over 200 pages long. I think what is especially cool about “Super Freakonomics” is that you never quite know what you’re going to read about next. The chapters deal with seemingly disconnected (but all interesting) topics and even within the course of a single chapter a half dozen different topics might be touched upon. This also means that it isn’t necessary to have read...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Justine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a card carrying MBA I hereby admit that in the course of my long and expensive education, I have taken a total of 2 economics courses. One of them was with Kevin Murphy, so I feel like it should get bonus points, but in reality, it just means I was super confused most of the time. I’m not fundamentally opposed or disinterested in this fancy social science—rather, in the wide world of all the subjects in the world, my inner intellectual magpie (lobster biology! Prehistoric humans! Jewish pirat...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Kelsey rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I liked Freakonomics. I checked this out from the library in hopes that it would be similar. It wasn't.

Here's what I think went wrong: the authors were more interested in shocking readers than with informing them. Freakonomics felt like the authors had come to sincere conclusions about data that was surprising yet true (or at least they believe it to be so; I know lots of people dispute it). Superfreakonomics felt like the authors dug up very little data and presented it in a way to make the rea...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Justine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: academic

If you liked 'Freakonomics' then you will enjoy this sequel. I couldn't help but chuckle at some of the quirky economics-driven [read incentive vs cost/penalty] insights revealed in this book, such as:

* Letting a friend walk home drunk being infinitely more dangerous than letting him drive home drunk;
* Pimps being more valuable than real-estate agents;
* People who would have died from heart disease are now living long enough to die from cancer instead;
* A disproportionate number of parents dyin...more If you liked 'Freakonomics' then you will enjoy this sequel. I couldn't help but chuckle at some of the quirky economics-driven [read incentive vs cost/penalty] insights revealed in this book, such as:

* Letting a friend walk home drunk being infinitely more dangerous than letting him drive home drunk;
* Pimps being more valuable than real-estate agents;
* People who would have died from heart disease are now living long enough to die from cancer instead;
* A disproportionate number of parents dying in the week after the Australian estate tax was abolished in 1979;
* Thomas Jefferson and John Adams 'expiring' within 15 hours of each other on 4 July 1826, exactly 50 years after the ratification of the US Declaration of Independence (the anniversary being the incentive);
* The Law of unintended consequences being the most potent of laws in existence, exemplified by such instances as:
- Americans intentionally cutting down trees on their properties to not attract endangered animals, thus defeating the Endangered Species Act;
- Germans resorting to flushing uneaten food down the toilet to avoid trash tax; and
- A spike in Irish backyard trash burning leading a tripling of people who'd set themselves on fire while doing so, just to avoid garbage tax.

The last chapter's focus on global warming is an eye-opener while the story about how doctors were contributing to significant incidences of patient deaths (even up to 1999) simply by not washing their hands is alarming! The epilogue, with its attention on monkeys, is hilarious!!

In their introduction, the authors make a very interesting point, which is "When the solution to a given problem doesn't lay right before our eyes, it is easy to assume that no solution exists. But history has shown again and again that such assumptions are wrong. [H]umankind has a great capacity for finding technological solutions to seemingly intractable problems ... It isn't that the problem isn't potentially large, it's just that human ingenuity - when given proper incentives - is bound to be larger." Let's hope this continues to prevail.(less)

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Sep 14, 2011 Lindsey rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'll be honest and say that I didn't make it past the first chapter-partially because Brian stole it and partially because I didn't care to finish it. I thought that in his last book that he had some pretty unconventional conclusions from the information he came across but he didn't try to talk you into anything and he had respect for the other point of view. In the first chapter he talks about how being a prostitute is the best way for a woman to make good money. He quotes his "study subject" s...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Jesse rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

the first few chapters were just a continuation of the first book in terms of ideas, tone and excecution; thus, i was feeling pretty satisfied that i was reading such a book and becoming more of a "cold-blooded economist", than a "warm-blooded humanist" (or whatever condescending, self-congratulatory phrases they used were). and then these guys got derailed, in a very sad, strange and self-defeating way. they did this weird about face, where in one chapter they talk about the law of unintended...more the first few chapters were just a continuation of the first book in terms of ideas, tone and excecution; thus, i was feeling pretty satisfied that i was reading such a book and becoming more of a "cold-blooded economist", than a "warm-blooded humanist" (or whatever condescending, self-congratulatory phrases they used were). and then these guys got derailed, in a very sad, strange and self-defeating way. they did this weird about face, where in one chapter they talk about the law of unintended consequences and then - in the very next chapter - they talk about solving global warming (the phrase they consistently used, instead of the more accurate global climate change) by spraying sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. seriously. and after i picked my jaw up off the floor - because i mean talk about unintended consequences - i listened to them list there reasons why this would be a good idea and why other people (you know actual climate scientist, as opposed to inventors and economists) were afraid of this idea because of some ingrained dogma. and they did all this while consistently misrepresenting facts, stating easily falsifiable quotes without challenge, and dissing al gore, noble prize winner. did i mention they didn't talk to actual climate scientists. this was another stange aspect of this chapter: while in other sections they used large amounts of data to come to their conclusions, in this chapter they talked with the folks at "intellectual venture" and presented everything they said as truth without: 1)checking their statements for factual accuracy, 2)checking for logical fallacies and specious arguments, or 3) talking with a disinterested or antagonistic party to try and understand the full scope of the idea. if i took their chapter at face value, i would think that the solution for global climate change was simple cheap and without scary consequences, but a real easy (and fast) google search showed me the many mistakes that they made. they started their climate change chapter by presenting the "gobal cooling scare" of the 1970's as something that was scientifically agreed upon and reported in trade journals, when in reality (again, a quick google search) there were publications in popular magazines (with natgeo being the most "scientific", but not exactly peer-reviewed), and scattered papers that were never conclusive and there was nothing even close to the scientific consensus that we have today about human induced global climate change. the story about cooling in the 70's is something you hear alot from global warming skeptics, which is concerning when you read it in a book by so-called "cold-blooded economists", a simple look at the meta-analysis will show you there was no scientific conclusion about the 1970's "global cooling".

this chapter made me pause, and wonder about the whole freakonomics phenomenon. when i read the first book, i was astonished at how many things they discovered that were caused by simple adjustments to human incentives, or were just sitting there in the data the whole time and they were the ones smart enough to find the pattern. but now it makes me wonder how much of their "data" and "conclusions" were just a presentation of one side of the arguement. because just the way they use the phrase "cold-blooded economist" makes it sound like if you don't agree with their conclusions it must be because you are irrational and don't see the workd for what it really is: one large incentive experiment (which i don't wholly disagree with). but maybe the authors are missing their own incentives: having a new york times bestseller and becoming known for irreverant, yet spot on conclusions that others just "fail to see" - these are very strong incentives. just look at james frey, people will do alot to be famous and be seen as a genius. i'm not saying that this is what they did, just that if i learned anything from these books, it is to find out where the incentives come from and there you will usually find your causation. maybe the pressure to live up to the success of their first book got to them, or maybe they wanted to try and show how you could solve the world's biggest problem with a simple, cheap solution. or maybe, against all odds (and most climate scientists) they actually believe all that they wrote to be true. but i can't see how people this intelligent would take a problem this complex and ignore the power of unintended consequences – of which they just wrote – and take the word of just one company (for-profit, I might add), consult zero climate scientists and pretend that they have some sort of actual solution to climate change. following incentives on this one, it’s hard to conclude anything else but a selfish desire to appear clever, forward-thinking, and best-selling - and using a seriously dangerous problem to do so. and this is sad, from two guys who really can do great work.
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Jul 29, 2011 The Young Urban Unprofessional rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoy reading books that challenge you to question conventional wisdom. If you like Malcolm Gladwell I definitely recommend this book. HOWEVER, many of the topics are covered it Gladwell's books The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, so be prepared to hear some regurgitation (the brutal murder in queens with 38 onlookers who didn't call the cops, how the month you were born greatly affects your ability to play professional sports, and many others that have been covered in other more po...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Trpnstn rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

coming from a research background heavy in statistics, I immediately recognized the interpretive errors contained in Freakenomics. Initially I found it amusing to see the absurd conclusions made through cherry picking outlier results based on correlational and/or poorly designed research studies. Half way through the book, I got bored but continued through just so I could quote my concerns first hand during debates with the many non-scientists that became so excited about the book. The second bo...more

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Jun 14, 2011 D Rhoades rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

subtitled: Global Colling, Patriotric Prostituties and why Suicide Bombers shoudl buy LIfe Insurance

For those of you who read their first book, Freakonomics, which was a best-seller for months and months, this book is just as fascinating as the first. One of the authors is an economist by trade; the other is a journalist. This combination makes for some fascinating reading. Interesting facts and stories, combined with great writing. Excellent! Engrossing non-fiction--I love that.

While the first...more subtitled: Global Colling, Patriotric Prostituties and why Suicide Bombers shoudl buy LIfe Insurance

For those of you who read their first book, Freakonomics, which was a best-seller for months and months, this book is just as fascinating as the first. One of the authors is an economist by trade; the other is a journalist. This combination makes for some fascinating reading. Interesting facts and stories, combined with great writing. Excellent! Engrossing non-fiction--I love that.

While the first book discussed the real economic facts of gang life and drug selling (not a good economic choice let alone the danger, risk, etc.), the new book discusses prostitution. What I really enjoy about these books organization is that a chapter may start discussing the economics and facts of one subject, then it wanders off into subject 2 and then subject 3 and then, whammo, it brings you back to the first subject and ties them all together in a most interesting way. They talk about the lowest form of prostitution (black girl who does it part time along with 3 other jobs--and at the lowest possible rates) all the way up to a professional woman turned call girl. Pretty interesting stuff. It really is. They make everything super interesting.

For those of you who don't like long books, its about 200 pages. The end has notes and an index, so its really a pretty short book and fast read.

One are talks about hurricanes (of more interest to me now that I live in Houston). Moreover about the brilliant man who has a "cheap and simple", relatively speaking, way to eliminate hurricane behavior of the oceans. Not that they would really want to eliminate them entirely. After all, the rain is needed. But they could use his method to dial down the intensity so that Katrina would be a very heavy storm but not an earth-shattering flood and windswept destruction. AND this is all interesting. They are great writers.

Near the end they write about global warming. I dare to say that whatever your opinions, beliefs or knowledge on this matter, this chapter will up-end what you thought you knew. He talks about this experiment company near Bellevue, WA that is owned by, not surprisingly, former Microsoft big-wigs and some of the smartest people in the world. They take on what the media says and what scientists of varying opinion say, and give some really interesting information about global warming, cap-and-trade and more. And they write about it in an accessible way. They write about economics from a point of view of "what motivates people to do what" and cite statistics and numbers and studies. So when they talk about global warming, they talk about things that can be done, from research (won't do any spoilers here), versus the Al Gore method of trying to change human behavior. I would say the main thread of this book is that people are motivated to do things that help them. They're not so motivated to do things to help you, the guy next to me, for example. So the carrot-and-stick approach isn't really immediately rewarding, shall we say, with people being people. He lists some actual things that are possible to do, to address various climate issues. The one thing I really had an issue with was his suggestion about using coal-fired plants output to shoot up in the air--well, you'll have to read the book. But I worry about the possible mercury poisoning from such a scenario. So I won't say that I have a 100% belief in the things they propose or write about. However, I will say that I am somewhat relieved that some really smart people are thinking about these things and working on simpler solutions--solutions that don't require changes in people's behavior--something that they demonstrate, in several different ways, is a very, very difficult thing to do.

Anyway, I hope I have made it sound boring and scientific, because its funny, provocative and fascinating. I highly recommend this book and think it would make GREAT discussion material.(less)

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Jun 11, 2011 John-Philip rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: electronic-books-i-license, economics

A few years ago I read Freakonomics. I loved the stats and conclusions so much I started considering studyingbehavioraleconomics. Not long ago they released a sequel, SuperFreakonomics. It's my first book for Kindle and it was gifted to my by a friend on Christmas Eve. (If you don't have an e-reader I highly recommend it!)

Like the first book, its common theme is finding out the real reason for why people do the things they do - usually by following the money. The most memorable person from the...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting tidbits. Engagingly written. A fun, quick, interesting read.

It was fun to read about all of this data analysis, as I'm starting to do that myself at work.

p31:

More than 150 years ago, the French economist Frederic Bastiat wrote "The Candlemaker's Petition", said to represent the interests of ... "Generally Everything Connected with Lighting."

These industries, Bastiat complained, "are suffering from the ruinous competition of a foreign rival who apparently works under conditions so fa

...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Blog on Books rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and for the authors of the blockbuster series “Freakonomics,” the pictures, graphs and charts contained in their new illustrated edition are proof of that concept big-time.

“SuperFreakonomics: *The Super-Deluxe, Super Illustrated Edition Thereof,” (yes, that’s its title!) prides itself on comparing and contrasting empirical data grabs against information from seemingly unrelated categories to create thought-provoking mash-ups of information (Prostitut...more They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and for the authors of the blockbuster series “Freakonomics,” the pictures, graphs and charts contained in their new illustrated edition are proof of that concept big-time.

“SuperFreakonomics: *The Super-Deluxe, Super Illustrated Edition Thereof,” (yes, that’s its title!) prides itself on comparing and contrasting empirical data grabs against information from seemingly unrelated categories to create thought-provoking mash-ups of information (Prostitutes vs. Santa Clauses, as an example) designed to turn traditional thinking on its ear. By actually illustrating the results of these concepts, the two authors have created an easy to use, in-your-face analysis of trends from health care to highway safety to make the reader re-think popular misconceptions while learning all manner of obscure but interesting information about the world around them. It’s much the same as the original version, but this time with pictures – lots of pictures (and graphs, charts, diagrams, etc.)

Global warming vs. meat consumption, a better model for ER facilities, drunk driving vs. drunk walking, and product price discrimination are but a few of the myriad topics covered in this colorful, 281-page edition. While looking at the past as well as possibilities for the future (e.g. cooling the earth with a ‘chimney to the sky’), it’s sometimes hard to discern if the authors are serious or pulling a mickey with certain aspects of their analysis. (They even openly admit that “many of our findings may not be all that useful.”) But this, of course, is the appeal of their books. Are they serious? Perhaps only time will tell. In the meantime, Levitt and Dubner have succeeded wildly in getting their readers to think and to look at problems from a host of different comparative points of view.

Early in the book, they have a list of topics that the book doesn’t cover. (Average ratio of Facebook friends to real friends, why songs you like least are the ones you remember the most, salad dressings that never caught on, the actual price of all the tea in China.)

Sounds to us like a blueprint for Volume Two. (or is it Three?)(less)

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About Steven D. Levitt

Steven David "Steve" Levitt is a prominent American economist best known for his work on crime, in particular on the link between legalized abortion and crime rates. Winner of the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal, he is currently the Alvin H. Baum Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, director of the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Bu...more

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“And knowing what happens on average is a good place to start. By so doing, we insulate ourselves from the tendency to build our thinking - our daily decisions, our laws, our governance - on exceptions and anomalies rather than on reality” — 8 people liked it

“In the United States especially, politics and economics don’t mix well. Politicians have all sorts of reasons to pass all sorts of laws that, as well-meaning as they may be, fail to account for the way real people respond to real-world incentives.” — 4 people liked it

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title link	preview: SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
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SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance (Freakonomics #2)

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