[cowtown]

I saw Steven Leavitt, the author of Freakonomics, on Jon Stewart. He's the young Univ. of Chicago guy who draws out interesting correlations in datasets that other researchers have not thought to do.

My wife and I are both reading it. Interesting stuff, but his lack of numbers in the book make it difficult to say how much stock to put in his findings. He presents the conclusions with a wink and a smile without any of the underlying data.

Of course, that's also what makes his research something you pick up at Costco rather than finding it in some obscure econ journal.

There's more than enough material to p*** off just about everyone. Just for starters:

-Political contributions don't affect races - implies McCain/Feingold is a waste of time and effort.

-Abortion legalization in the 70s depressed crime rates in the 90s - the would be criminals were aborted - implies the tough-on-crime right wingers should change their stance on abortion.

-Even though they're on commission, realtors don't care if their clients get top dollar for their houses.

A bunch of other stuff is in there. Anyone reading it? What do you think?