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superfreakonomics

A New Method to the Freakonomics Madness?

December 8, 2009 by John Whitehead
with 72 views
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One of the great early stories from SuperFreakonomics is the finding that “even after factoring in the deaths [innocent bystanders from drunk driving], walking drunk leads to five times as many deaths per mile as driving drunk.” The substantive fact is not only surprising, but the story also metaphorically foreshadows the book’s new... [read more]

Best. Review. Ever.

November 16, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 112 views
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Freakonomics got super freaky. And super wrong. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner are to blame for the global financial crisis. See, back in 2005, they wrote “Freakonomics,” a wildly successful book brimming with interesting stories about why incentives matter and how actions have unintended consequences. Indeed, incentives do... [read more]

Kolbert turns her pen to some Super Freaky Economics

November 13, 2009 by A Siegel
with 126 views
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Elizabeth Kolbert is one of the most beautiful and, often, thoughtful reporters on energy and environmental issues. In the latest New Yorker, she turned a quite critical pen to the Super Freaky Economists with her review of SuperFreakonomics. Kolbert opens with a discussion of the 19th century’s urban transportation.. In the eighteen-... [read more]

Some Thoughts on SuperFreakonomics

November 2, 2009 by John Whitehead
with 209 views
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I admit that I’m torn in my opinion about SuperFreakonomics. I was predisposed to fully embrace it. The first book, Freakonomics, did great things for the economics profession. It made economics interesting and readable. It broadened the scope of the field in the mind of the public. Plus, Dubner is a graduate of Appalachian State... [read more]

Harvard Business Review: SuperFreakonomics Ignores the Business Case for Sustainability

October 28, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 151 views
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The error-riddled book Superfreakonomics got the economics dead wrong, too, as Nobelist Krugman and others have noted.  Now Harvard Business Review weighs in on how they got the business side wrong.  I’m reposting an HBR piece by Andrew Winston, co-author of the best-seller Green to Gold and the author of the new book Green... [read more]

Media tipping point (at long last)?

October 27, 2009 by Lou Grinzo
with 458 views
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I have to admit, I was already very impressed with the smattering of mainstream media pieces I’ve seen that treated the superfreaks, a.k.a. Levitt and Dubner, the authors of the (apparently) spectacularly bad Superfreakonimics, like the truth abusers they are. The best example I had seen until the other day was Eric Pooley’s Bloomburg... [read more]

Myth of Cooling Globe shattered by AP-sponsored ‘blind’ test

October 26, 2009 by A Siegel
with 260 views
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Just over the weekend, my inbox was filled with a discussion attacking climate science with assertions that “none of the models predicted the current cooling period” and, therefore, the entire concept of Global Warming rests on very shaky grounds. Sigh … Those involved in that discussion have now received links to an excellent article... [read more]

Superfreak aftershocks continue

October 22, 2009 by Lou Grinzo
with 108 views
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The rumbles continue (and are likely still building) over the publication of Superfreakonomics, the book that is quickly shaping up to be the biggest single example we’ve seen recently of bad research and writing practices, whether accidental or as part of a willful attempt to gin up a controversy and make more money.[1] The latest... [read more]

Bloomberg interview of Dubner and Caldeira backs up my reporting on error-riddled Superfreakonomics

October 20, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 183 views
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Caldeira, like the vast majority of climate scientists, believes cutting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions is our only real chance to avoid runaway climate change. “Carbon dioxide is the right villain,” Caldeira wrote on his Web site in reply. He told Joe Romm, the respected climate blogger who broke the story, that he... [read more]

Superfreakeconomics and the glory of contrarianism

October 17, 2009 by Simon Donner
with 188 views
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The Union of Concerned Scientists, Joe Romm at Climate Progress, William Connolley and Tim Lambert have done a fine job rebutting the cynical and lazy "global cooling" section of the upcoming book Superfreakonomics*.Of the criticisms that climate scientists receive from those skeptical of climate change, the most ridiculous by far is... [read more]