*SuperFreakonomics*

Doing the math, you find that on a per-mile basis, a drunk walker is eight times more likely to get killed than a drunk driver.

The subtitle of the book is Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance and you can pre-order it here.  The authors are…come on guys…need I tell you?

The Harper and Collins press blurb offers this summary:

"SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we
think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such
questions as:

  • How is a street prostitute like a department-store
    Santa?
  • Why are doctors so bad at washing their
    hands?
  • How much good do car seats do?
  • What's the best way to catch a
    terrorist?
  • Did TV cause a rise in crime?
  • What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway
    deaths have in common?
  • Are people hard-wired for altruism or
    selfishness?
  • Can eating kangaroo save the planet?
  • Which adds more value: a pimp or a
    Realtor?"

I would stress different angles.  My favorite part of the book was the presentation of the List-Levitt critique of experimental economics.  In particular the authors discuss whether the subject participants are more cooperative to begin with and also whether they are primed to please the experimenter.  The biographical information on John List is fascinating.  There is a very good revisionist account of the Kitty Genovese story; the neighbors didn't perform as miserably as many people think.  Terrorists are especially likely to rent rather than buy, especially unlikely to take out life insurance (which doesn't pay off in cases of suicide), and likely to have a large number of cash withdrawals relative to other transactions.

Geo-engineering, as a response to global warming, receives more pages than any other single topic.

This book is recognizably in the style of Freakonomics, a book I suspect you already have made up your mind about.  I will say only that SuperFreakonomics is a more than worthy sequel, a super sequel you might say.  If you're a fan of Freakonomics, you'll like this too.  This really is the fall season of big, big books.

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