SUPERFREAKONOMICS

Four years in the making, 'SuperFreakonomics' asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones - What's more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary? How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa? Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands? How much good do car seats do? What's the best way to catch a terrorist? Did TV cause a rise in crime? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness? Can eating kangaroo save the planet? Which adds more value - a pimp or a Realtor? Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and storytelling, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is:- Good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky.