2011 Books 36-37

36) Freakonomics  by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner: more in my commute audiobooks, it was interesting to listen to this one so soon after The Tipping Point as the pair give different explanations for the falling crime rate in the 1990s in NYC - Gladwell argues that the changes in police tactics were what tipped the scales in New York, where rates fell more and faster than other places, while Levitt argues that the legalization of abortion decades earlier removed a large enough percentage of the population whose socio-economic standing would have pre-disposed it to crime. As with all competing theories I'm not sure how much weight to put on either theory - chaotic systems tend to have lots of inputs after all - but Levitt doesn't do himself any favors by stressing the poor life performance of, among other factors, single parent children in the section on crime rates and then stating unequivocally that being in a single parent household has no effect on school performance. I know the two are not identical, but they'd seem to have enough points of commonality that it makes it feel like Levitt is changing which metrics to stress in his book based on which support his theory de jure. 

37) The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: How in the high heavens had I not read this prior to now?!?! This was freakin' wonderful - pure Falkenstein bait! Much as I like using the Captain Fasaad framing decide to do exploration stories I really would like to do a soup to nuts expedition to somewhere strange game.