A veritable variety, autumnal tomes a-tumblin'...
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
In 2005’s quirky four million bestseller Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner contend that many apparent unknowns of life can be made known by asking the right questions and connecting the right dots. In the most entertaining kind of economics you might find between covers, the writers looked at a wide array of data, including online dating services, KKK membership rolls, and names for children, discovering in the calculations and permutations startling solutions of mystery and imagination. The chapters address such fascinating facts and factoids you thought you never wanted or needed to know, such as the shared traits between schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, what makes a perfect parent, and why drug dealers still live with their mothers.
Now with SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, economist Levitt and business journalist Dubner challenge the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of the world as it is: it’s a freak, it’s superfreaky… Or don’t you think its important to know if eating kangaroo can save the planet, as opposed to, say, considering if people are hard-wired for altruism or selfishness? Econometrics can be a more conflict-ridden affair, so the authors may spur some controversy with such accounts that in the UK, "a person with neither a first nor last Muslim name stood only a 1 in 500,000 chance of being a terrorist," whereas for a person with both first and last Muslim names the odds went to 1:2,000. They do add, however, that the odds diminish if the person has a savings account and a life-insurance policy.
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