Hi Bookworms!
Based on the poll and the turnout at our last meeting, Steph and I have decided that we aren't going to hold a meeting for August, but instead focus our efforts on making a great meeting for September!
We're planning on doing a cooking mystery for the September book, with a meeting at the end of the month. We're hoping to cook one of the recipes from the novel at the meeting! If you know of any good cooking mysteries, please email us your suggestions at uottawabookworms@gmail.com or leave them as a comment to this post!
In September, we are planning on actively recruiting new members. We'll be having a table during Clubs Week - Steph and I will be at the table all day on Monday, September 17th. If you have any suggestions for recruitment, please let us know! If you have any questions for us, drop us a line or find us at our table!
See you in September!
Stay Connected!
Monday, August 13, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Freakonomics: Bonus materials
Hello Bookworms! I hope you've all had a great month! There are a few things I'd like to mention to you all:
First, there's a meeting this Saturday (August 11) at 1PM, and it's going to be held in room UCU301. See you there!
Second, Steph and I are both out of town at the end of August. We'll still be able to organize a meeting if there's enough interest, but we figured we should put it to a vote to see if there are a lot of people who want to have an August meeting. To that end, there's a poll up on the blog. If you vote yes to having a meeting, we'll have one early in September, most likely the first week of school. If you vote no, we'll skip the August meeting and go straight into preparation for our September book club, which will most likely be the cooking mystery! Please vote - polls are going to close on Saturday at 1PM so we can discuss it at the meeting.
Last, it's time for some bonus materials for this month's book, Freakonomics. The authors Levitt and Dubner have had some pretty wild success with this book, so there's cool stuff online produced by them and about them. Check out some of these links:
In case your copy of the book didn't include it, here's the original article that NY Times writer Dubner wrote about economist Levitt: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/magazine/probability-that-real-estate-agent-cheating-you-other-riddles-modern-life.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
The authors keep up an ongoing blog here: http://www.freakonomics.com/
They also write an ongoing column at the NY Times. Here's an archive of past articles if you're interested: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/features/magazine/columns/freakonomics/index.html
They also wrote a "sequel" book to Freakonomics called Superfreakonomics: http://www.freakonomics.com/books/superfreakonomics/
Check out a couple of the TED talks that Levitt has given:
Are children's carseats still necessary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um5gMZcZWm0
The freakonomics of McDonald's vs drugs: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/steven_levitt_analyzes_crack_economics.html
Levitt was named one of Time's 100 best people of 2006 (or something), but the tribute to him was written by hugely popular nonfiction author Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers), and it's pretty interesting:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1975813_1975844_1976457,00.html
There was actually a documentary made that is based on the boo - one of the directors is Morgan Spurlock, the guy from Supersize Me.
Check out the trailer here: http://www.magpictures.com/freakonomics/
Here are a couple of clips from the film as well:
On real-estate agents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck
On abortions and crime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6gOeggViw
A lot of the material in the book was based on papers that Levitt had already published. You can see all of his published papers on his CV found here: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Levitt-CV.pdf
And here are the originals of some of Levitt's papers covered in the book, in case you want to see them in more detail:
Understanding why crime fell in the 1990s: Four factors that explain the decline and six that do not:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf
Market distortions when agents are better informed: The value of information in real estate:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/market%20distortion.pdf
Using repeat challengers to estimate the effect of campaign spending on election outcomes in the US House: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUsingRepeatChallengers1994.pdf
Rotten apples: An investigation of the prevalence and predictors of teacher cheating:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/JacobLevitt2003.pdf
Winning isn’t everything: Corruption in sumo wrestling :http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DugganLevitt2002.pdf
Testing theories of discrimination: Evidence from Weakest Link:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittTestingTheories2004.pdf
An economic analysis of a drug-selling gang's finances:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittVenkateshAnEconomicAnalysis2000.pdf
The impact of school choice on student outcomes: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/CullenJacobLevittTheImpactOf2004.pdf
Understanding the black-white test score gap in the first two years of school:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/FryerLevittUnderstandingTheBlack2004.pdf
The causes and consequences of distinctively black names:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/FryerLevitt2004.pdf
I hope you enjoy those materials. Please vote about the August meeting, and see you on Saturday!
First, there's a meeting this Saturday (August 11) at 1PM, and it's going to be held in room UCU301. See you there!
Second, Steph and I are both out of town at the end of August. We'll still be able to organize a meeting if there's enough interest, but we figured we should put it to a vote to see if there are a lot of people who want to have an August meeting. To that end, there's a poll up on the blog. If you vote yes to having a meeting, we'll have one early in September, most likely the first week of school. If you vote no, we'll skip the August meeting and go straight into preparation for our September book club, which will most likely be the cooking mystery! Please vote - polls are going to close on Saturday at 1PM so we can discuss it at the meeting.
Last, it's time for some bonus materials for this month's book, Freakonomics. The authors Levitt and Dubner have had some pretty wild success with this book, so there's cool stuff online produced by them and about them. Check out some of these links:
In case your copy of the book didn't include it, here's the original article that NY Times writer Dubner wrote about economist Levitt: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/magazine/probability-that-real-estate-agent-cheating-you-other-riddles-modern-life.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
The authors keep up an ongoing blog here: http://www.freakonomics.com/
They also write an ongoing column at the NY Times. Here's an archive of past articles if you're interested: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/features/magazine/columns/freakonomics/index.html
They also wrote a "sequel" book to Freakonomics called Superfreakonomics: http://www.freakonomics.com/books/superfreakonomics/
Check out a couple of the TED talks that Levitt has given:
Are children's carseats still necessary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um5gMZcZWm0
The freakonomics of McDonald's vs drugs: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/steven_levitt_analyzes_crack_economics.html
Levitt was named one of Time's 100 best people of 2006 (or something), but the tribute to him was written by hugely popular nonfiction author Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers), and it's pretty interesting:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1975813_1975844_1976457,00.html
There was actually a documentary made that is based on the boo - one of the directors is Morgan Spurlock, the guy from Supersize Me.
Check out the trailer here: http://www.magpictures.com/freakonomics/
Here are a couple of clips from the film as well:
On real-estate agents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck
On abortions and crime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6gOeggViw
A lot of the material in the book was based on papers that Levitt had already published. You can see all of his published papers on his CV found here: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Levitt-CV.pdf
And here are the originals of some of Levitt's papers covered in the book, in case you want to see them in more detail:
Understanding why crime fell in the 1990s: Four factors that explain the decline and six that do not:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf
Market distortions when agents are better informed: The value of information in real estate:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/market%20distortion.pdf
Using repeat challengers to estimate the effect of campaign spending on election outcomes in the US House: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUsingRepeatChallengers1994.pdf
Rotten apples: An investigation of the prevalence and predictors of teacher cheating:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/JacobLevitt2003.pdf
Winning isn’t everything: Corruption in sumo wrestling :http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DugganLevitt2002.pdf
Testing theories of discrimination: Evidence from Weakest Link:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittTestingTheories2004.pdf
An economic analysis of a drug-selling gang's finances:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittVenkateshAnEconomicAnalysis2000.pdf
The impact of school choice on student outcomes: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/CullenJacobLevittTheImpactOf2004.pdf
Understanding the black-white test score gap in the first two years of school:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/FryerLevittUnderstandingTheBlack2004.pdf
The causes and consequences of distinctively black names:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/FryerLevitt2004.pdf
I hope you enjoy those materials. Please vote about the August meeting, and see you on Saturday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)