SuperFreakonomics

I loved the book Freakonomics and just received its sequel SuperFreakonomics the other day. The book's premise is that the authors, one a journalist and the other an economist, debunk things that we think are true (but actually aren't) and also probe into things that we rarely think about but are in fact fascinating when you look at what's going on underneath the surface. The books have revealed such nuggets as

• your child is more likely to die in a swimming pool than by a gun in a home (yet we give no almost no thought when children swim at a friend's pool or at a hotel birthday party and yet instantly worry when we learn that a friend's home has guns)
• you're more likely to die as a result of an elephant attack than a shark attack (and yet shark attacks get all of the press when they occur, and elephant attacks never do. The authors attribute this somewhat to pop culture, in that elephants get portrayed as cute and fun, think Dumbo or Babar, while Jaws forever immortalized the shark).
• the most popular names for babies come from the wealthier social classes and make their way to the middle class
• a realtor will take more time to sell their own home than they will to sell your home

In the sequel, the authors will also look at child seats, and supposedly reveal how they aren't any safer than a normal seat belt for children (I've thought this for awhile, and it explains my rather lax use of child seats).

Finally, one of the more shocking conclusions from the first book has to do with a connection between abortion and crime rates. I'll be preaching on that in January so more to come later.