Superfreakonomics is the sequel to Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's wildly popular and successful Freakonomics, a bestseller of quirky facts that explain the economic advantages and disadvantages of human behaviors ranging from drug dealing to choosing a baby's name. Superfreakonomics, like its predecessor, is hard to pin down on any single topic or theme. It rambles amiably through a range of subjects, revealing the economic causes, unintended consequences, and solutions for prostitution, terrorism, the costs of medical care, apathy and altruism, child safety, and climate change. It explores the economics of eating kangaroo meat (hint: it has to do with flatulence!), sex change operations, and chemotherapy.
The book overturns conventional wisdom and bestows upon readers dozes of fascinating factoids that will surely add color to any cocktail party conversation. Which is more dangerous - drunk driving or drunk walking? Why was horse manure a major problem in New York City at the turn of the last century? Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance, even though life insurance policies don't pay out in the event of suicide? Why did traffic deaths increase in the three months following the 9/11 attacks? How did the 9/11 attacks highlight a problem that led to a revolutionary advance in medicine? You'll find the answers in Superfreakonomics.
This book answers questions no one ever stopped to ask - especially, for some strange reason, questions about sex, gender differences, and prostitution. Why are there 35 million fewer females than males in India? Why is it that men in India have a low success rate with condoms? Is a Chicago prostitute more likely to be arrested by a cop or have sex with a cop? Can monkeys be taught to pay for sex?
Superfreakonomics isn't all trivia. It will tell you the types of cancer for which chemotherapy works and those for which it is totally ineffective. In fact, it will make you think twice about what happens in the hospital, the doctor's office, and the emergency room. It also tells the truth about child safety seats.
Most people remember the story about the murder of Kitty Genovese. She was brutally murdered by an assailant in her Queens New York neighborhood while 38 neighbors watched; not one called the police. At least that's the story the newspapers reported - the story that subsequently appeared in dozens of sociology texts over the next decade. There's just one problem. The story isn't completely true. Levitt and Dubner tell what really happened, along with some surprising findings about altruism and self-interest.
Levitt and Dubner also show how cheap and simple solutions can sometimes be found or invented for costly and complex problems such as hurricanes, global warming, and infection rates in hospitals. Anyone who reads this book will undoubtedly say, "Wow, I never knew that!" or "I never thought about it that way!"
Superfreakonomics is intriguing, amusing, informative, and thought-provoking all at once. It gives a new perspective to topics that are grabbing today's headlines. Read Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics and find out how misinformed our politicians and government leaders really are! Now that I've read it, I understand why these two books have such a huge following! I've joined that following, much to my delight.
Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. is a licensed counselor, hypnotherapist, writer, speaker, and NLP Coach with a private practice, Motivational Strategies, Inc., in Springfield, Virginia. She is the executive director of the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists http://www.natboard.com/. She recently published The Weight, Hypnotherapy, and You Weight Reduction Program: An NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioners Manual. Her web site is http://www.engagethepower.com/
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