Some of our Grandchildren are occasional or even frequent readers of this web site, and this book contains heavily mature information. I don’t want them to read this book.

I reviewed Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner last week, was absolutely fascinated with most of that book, and highly recommend it (even to the grandkids, despite some “mature language”).  I wasn’t as fascinated with Superfreakonomics, but it has some great information.

You will know if you read my blog postings that one of my favorite subjects is global warming and what I believe to be the lack of solid scientific basis for most if not all of the dire predictions. I recommend that everyone should read Chapter 5, which is titled “What do Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo Have In Common?” It describes how the New York Times published an article quoting climate researchers who argued “this climatic change poses a threat to the people of the world.” Newsweek “…cited a National Academy of Sciences report…that climate change ‘would force economic and social adjustment on a worldwide scale’.” Both articles were published in the mid-1970s and were predicting the effects of global cooling. Average temperatures had fallen 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit from 1945 to 1968 and Newsweek declared that the decline “…had taken the planet about a sixth of the way toward the Ice Age average.” I won’t be surprised if the global warming predictions turn out to be just as inaccurate as the global cooling predictions being hyped in the media in the 70’s.

On the subject of predicting climate change, Superfreakonomics observes, “…even the most sophisticated climate models don’t do a very good job of representing…variables, and that obviously makes predicting the climatic future very difficult.” The predictions have obviously been that temperatures will continue to rise with increasing levels of carbon dioxide. However, temperatures have actually been mostly dropping the last few years. That insult imposed on the models by Mother Nature was termed a “travesty” by one of the prominent advocates of global warming.

I will summarize some fascinating information you will find in the book:

*  Drunk walking is proven to be much more dangerous than drunk driving (“…friends don’t let friends walk drunk”)

*  “Smile Train” began saving girls in India with cleft deformities by offering $10 for those delivered to the hospital to offset the $2.50 paid to midwifes to smother them

*  Many (60%) Indian men have penises too small to fit commercial condoms (Marketing suggestion: make a smaller condom and list it as “…tight to enhance sensitivity…”)

*  Horses in the 1900s caused a higher rate of deaths compared to autos today and caused immense health issues because of the huge amounts of manure

*  The media has “…never met an apocalypse it didn’t like…”

*  There were “…chilling tales of rampant shark carnage…” that resulted in the title “Summer of the Shark” in 2001 despite the fact there were an average number of attacks (68 with 4 fatalities)

*  Between the thirteenth and nineteenth century there were as many as a million European women executed for witchcraft after being blamed for bad weather that caused crop failures

*  Realtors take a 5 percent commission to sell a home while FSBMadison.com charges $150 to list a home

*  A Chicago prostitute is more likely to have sex with a cop than to be arrested by one

*  School children are currently likely to be taught by the college graduates with the lowest academic achievement since higher performing women are now becoming doctors, lawyers, etc. instead of teachers

*  Muslim women who become pregnant during Ramadan are more likely to have a baby with disabilities because they fast from food and drink during the day during that entire month

*  Terrorists are likely to be better educated and come from families who aren’t poor

*  There were 1000 extra traffic deaths after 9/11 because people drove instead of flying

*  Increased border security after 9/11 reduced foreign imports of marijuana to California and resulted in a boon to local growers

There are many more interesting facts, so you’ll have to read the rest of the book after you read the fun chapter on global warming.