Freakonomics

Crate Expectations

By JAMES MCWILLIAMS — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:33:45 PST

If you ever find yourself in a room full of pig farmers and want to start a fight, just ask about farrowing crates. A farrowing crate is a cage that confines a lactating sow. Its dimensions are tight - a typical crate enables a mother pig to move a few inches in any direction. A crated pig can do little more than lie on her side, position her nipples in the right direction, and provide mother's milk to her piglets on the other end of prison-like bars. Some farmers deem this confined arrangement the cruelest manifestation of factory farming. It's not hard to see why.

Overconsumption in Your DNA?

By FREAKONOMICS — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:31:33 PST

Could half of Americans be carrying genes that predispose them to going into debt? At least one team of researchers thinks so.

Tonight on Charlie Rose

By FREAKONOMICS — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:11:13 PST

Levitt and Dubner are scheduled to appear on the Charlie Rose show tonight, talking about the importance of applying economics to "trivial" subjects; how Levitt learned to stop fearing death; and about SuperFreakonomics in general. The show airs on PBS at 11 p.m. in most cities, but check your local listings.

Let Me See You Wash Your Hands!

By IAN AYRES — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:37:54 PST

One of the heroes of SuperFreakonomics is Ignatz Semmelweis - who crunched numbers in the 1840's to champion the benefits of doctors washing their hands.

The Burglary Recession

By FREAKONOMICS — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:22:01 PST

There's at least one unexpected benefit of rising unemployment. More people are staying home during working hours, and going out less often at night. That means there's less chance they'll be burglarized.

Fare's Fair?

By ERIC A. MORRIS — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:37:41 PST

When does transit fare policy treat people unequally? When it treats them exactly the same. Why? At the risk of overgeneralization, there are two major constituencies for mass transit. First are wealthier workers who commute to jobs in city centers where parking is expensive. The other group consists of the very poor. Unlike the "choice riders," who could drive if necessary, low-income "captive" riders often have no other option.

Closing the Gap

By FREAKONOMICS — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:47:17 PST

We've blogged several times about Roland Fryer's research on education and the black-white achievement gap. Now Fryer thinks he has identified one system that successfully closes the gap. His new working paper, with co-author Will Dobbie, analyzes both the high-quality charter schools and the comprehensive community programs of the Harlem Children's Zone (which was chronicled in Paul Tough's excellent book Whatever It Takes), with hopeful results.

When You Have Honors Students in the Classroom

By DANIEL HAMERMESH — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:12:42 PST

Because we are so short of faculty, I have a section of 30 honors students in my lecture class along with the 500 regular students. Although the 30 also have a recitation with some additional assignments, five-sixths of their grade is based on the same tests, quizzes, and short essay as the other students.

Home Is ...

By FREAKONOMICS — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:46:30 PST

Photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen spent six weeks living in and photographing the slums of Nairobi, Caracas, Mumbai, and Jakarta. Bendiksen's photos of family homes portray a reality that clashes with popular perception.

On the Prevalance of H1N1

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:03:29 PST

In Seattle recently, I met a pulmonologist who said that the H1N1 virus has him busier than he's ever been, his hospital beds full of flu patients. The uptick hit particularly hard about 10 days ago, he said. How has the flu been playing out across the country?

Maps: Fighting Disease and Skewing Borders

By ANNIKA MENGISEN — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:23:49 PST

A while back, we blogged about a site called Strange Maps, which features all sorts of strange, fascinating, and even influential maps. (Maps in general have since come up on this blog quite a few times.) Frank Jacobs, the London-based journalist and creator of Strange Maps, has now published a book, Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities. He has agreed to answer a few of our questions about maps and why he finds them so compelling.

Happiness in Australia

By JUSTIN WOLFERS — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:47:32 PST

I'm currently back home in Australia for a couple of weeks, and just want to give a heads-up to the locals that I'll be giving a talk at ANU this Wednesday.

Is Jaywalking in the Eye of the Beholder?

By FREAKONOMICS — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:37:59 PST

When cars entered the mainstream in the 1920s, they were considered a menace to pedestrians, who were killed in great numbers. Cars rarely hit pedestrians any more; they hit jaywalkers. The term, jaywalking, shifted the blame for accidents from motorists to walkers, and ownership of the streets from walkers to motorists.

Is Ford Once Again Leading the Way in Auto Safety?

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:34:32 PST

In SuperFreakonomics, we tell the story of how Robert Strange McNamara, an outsider at the Ford Motor Co., led the charge the put seat belts in automobiles at Ford. It was not a popular decision within the company nor with the public; pushing for a safety device in a car did a bit too good of a job of reminding people that cars could be quite unsafe. But McNamara got his way. Over time (a long time, it turned out), the seat belt won widespread adoption, saving roughly 250,000 lives in the U.S. alone since 1975.

Was the 20th Century Unusually Calm?

By FREAKONOMICS — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:51:30 PST

People worry that disasters have become more frequent and more damaging since the close of the 20th century. But the 19th century's natural disasters were plenty devastating; but there weren't nearly as many of us around to suffer the consequences (nor as much media to record it).