14 April 2005

Freak

Just listened to an interview with Steven D. Levitt on WNYC about his new book Freakonomics [Amazon]. He has some interesting ideas on par with Gladwell's The Tipping Point [Amazon]. A couple of his quirky observations: sumo wrestlers regularly throw matches, legalized abortion caused a drop in crime.

One of the (unpopular) comments on Amazon suggests that the abortion hypothesis has been debunked by Steve Sailor. Kottke has this interview with Levitt along with copius links to background info and an email argument between Levitt and Sailor.

[ posted by sstrader on 14 April 2005 at 2:06:49 PM in Culture & Society ]