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Latest read: Superfreakonomics

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have released SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance a long awaited follow up to their hit Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.
If you enjoyed Freakonomics (my review here) or even Sudir Venkatesh‘s Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, the runaway hit from chapter three, then you will enjoy SuperFreakonomics.

I recall learning the book would be released in late 2009 but as soon as I saw it on the shelf I picked up a copy and began reading that night.  They have done another great job exploring new datasets.  Most readers will enjoy reading the data underlying a murder in New York of a woman in-front of 38 witnesses. Nobody called the police for help.  They explore what this says about society.  The book is more of the same: exploring the hidden side of everything.

From comparing street prostitution to a department store Santa to why suicide bombers should buy life insurance, Levitt and Dubner succeed in sharing unique datasets and telling a compelling story.  How did television empower women in India?  On the surface it may sound strange until you consider how they tell the story.

They provide inspiration as well. Their segment ‘The garden hose to the sky’ about global warming sounds funny on the surface until they share the idea is from Microsoft’s former technology director.  He is the principal owner in a scientific research firm that is developing tools to cool the earth.  It gets more interesting when you learn Bill Gates is an investor in the company.

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Latest read: The Post-American World

Most recognize Fareed Zakaria from his CNN show Fareed Zakaria GPS. His book The Post-American World is an enjoyable read. The bottom line:  The US is not falling behind but rather (quite simply) the world is catching up.  Some amazing technologies are lifting the citizens of the poorest third world countries.
The biggest elephant called out in his book is America’s educational system. It needs a much required re-boot in order to compete against tomorrow’s globalized students who have access to free, powerful computing tools including Linux, or new technology like water pumps in Africa.  He references Tom Friedman‘s The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century which I found to be a great read as well.

Zakaria is able to simply convey that America remains the top country for innovation, technology and intellectual property but India and China are catching up fast by introducing more of their citizens to the global economy.  India is first only in population growth while their level of poverty slowly dropped.

While true to some extent the reader may be surprised to see the detail about how splintered Al-Qaeda has become.  In Iraq for example the aim of this terrorist group has moved from targeting American and Israel to fighting other Muslim warlords and religious groups for control of Al-Qaeda’s future.

It should be noted Zakaria also addresses the issues of global climante and energy.  But to again point to Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America not a lot of new ideas or information.

Overall Zakaria’s book is a gentle wake up call for America and is much smoother on the American reader than Mark Steyn’s America Alone.  The war in Iraq and Afghanistan while critical, reveals Al-Qaeda‘s struggle since 9/11 to deliver any significant violence on American soil.  Why?  Zakaria’s position is that Bin Laden has been so tightly curtailed, his organization still under a microscope has evolved into a communications company and is no longer a true terrorist organization.

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Education Globalization Technology

Hot, Flat and Crowded

Finally I am pushing my way through Tom Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America. If your a fan of his The World Is Flat series you’re in for a fast, real-world update about the state of the environment.  Its safe to say our global carbon footprint is ruining the planet.

hot, flat and crowded

I was very impressed with his chapter on energy poverty was very well written.  Energy is the capacity to do work:  1 in 6 people do not have access to energy.  Even in India almost 700,000,000 citizens are not on any energy grid.  There has not been a power plant built in over 30 years anywhere across Africa … with the exception of white South Africa.  I never really considered Africa’s real problem has been an energy problem all along. Fighting AIDS, hunger and the other noble causes are quite restricted when you cannot even turn on a lamp at night.

But as Friedman outlines in the book Africa needs green energy. Coal burning solutions that would only contribute to the world’s global warming problems.  And China is bringing on new coal burning plants every other week?

For the health of the planet we need to place as much green energy as possible – Friedman acknowledges that many green solutions cannot yet scale to cover Africans, Indians, Chinese AND Americans – at the base of every country’s economic pyramid.

Looking forward to the remaining half of the book.