Freakonomics

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is the debut non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. It was published on April 12, 2005 by William Morrow. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics. By late 2009, the book had sold over 4 million copies worldwide.

Overview

The book is a collection of 'economic' articles written by Levitt, an expert who has already gained a reputation for applying economic theory to diverse subjects not usually covered by "traditional" economists; he does, however, accept the standard neoclassical microeconomic model of rational utility-maximization. In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner argue that economics is, at root, the study of incentives. The book's topics include:

Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers, as well as a typical Washington DC area bagel business and its customers

Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents

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Freakonomics (film)

Freakonomics: The Movie is a 2010 American documentary film based on the book Freakonomics by economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner. The film had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2010, with a theatrical release planned for later in the year. Reception was lukewarm, with Rottentomatoes giving a 65% fresh rating.

Segments

A Roshanda By Any Other Name : Morgan Spurlock's investigation of the possible implications of names, especially "black" vs. "white" names, in personal development and social advancement.

Pure Corruption : Alex Gibney's exploration of the Japanese concept of yaochō (match fixing) in Sumo wrestling.

It's Not Always A Wonderful Life : Narrated by Melvin Van Peebles and directed by Eugene Jarecki, this segment explores the question of what led to a decline in the urban crime rate in the US during the mid- to late 1990s. The authors of Freakonomics suggest that a substantial factor was the 1973 US Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, in the US which permitted people to have legal abortions, leading to more wanted children with better upbringings.

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Clutch

A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages the power transmission, especially from driving shaft to driven shaft.

Clutches are used whenever the transmission of power or motion must be controlled either in amount or over time (e.g., electric screwdrivers limit how much torque is transmitted through use of a clutch; clutches control whether automobiles transmit engine power to the wheels).

In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). In these devices, one shaft is typically attached to an engine or other power unit (the driving member) while the other shaft (the driven member) provides output power for work. While typically the motions involved are rotary, linear clutches are also possible.

In a torque-controlled drill, for instance, one shaft is driven by a motor and the other drives a drill chuck. The clutch connects the two shafts so they may be locked together and spin at the same speed (engaged), locked together but spinning at different speeds (slipping), or unlocked and spinning at different speeds (disengaged).

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Clutch (sports)

Clutch performance in sports is the phenomenon of athletes under pressure, often in the last minutes of a game, to summon strength, concentration and whatever else necessary to succeed, to perform well, and perhaps change the outcome of the game. It occurs in basketball, hockey, football, and other sports. The opposite is "choking": failing to perform as needed, when under pressure.

It is a phenomenon that is studied in psychology and in the more specialized area of sport psychology. The greatest part of the academic literature is focused on baseball, specifically on clutch hitting, and addresses the academic issue of whether it exists or not.