July 12 is Different Colored Eyes Day, celebrating both “diversity of eye color” and Heterochromia, a condition in which a person’s eyes are different colors. Should genetic engineering become widely available, traits like eye color could cease to become inherited traits, a development that critics cite as a danger to society.
Search This Blog
- Previous Post:Nigerian Oil Spam Meets “Three Kings”
- Next Post:Stay Off the Internets If You Know What’s Good for You
FREAK Shots:
About Freakonomics
Stephen J. Dubner is an author and journalist who lives in New York City.
Steven D. Levitt is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago.
Their book Freakonomics has sold 3 million copies worldwide. This blog, begun in 2005, is meant to keep the conversation going. Recurring guest bloggers include Ian Ayres, Jessica Hagy, Daniel Hamermesh, Sudhir Venkatesh, and Justin Wolfers.
Annika Mengisen is the site editor.
Comment of the Moment
Naked Self-Promotion
Freakonomics is bolstering book sales at airports because it’s sexy, reports TheBookseller.com -- with or without its Turkish cover.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Archive
Recent Posts
November 19
(46 comments)
What Would You Do in the Worst Case? A Freakonomics Quorum
Photo: Jamesfischer
These are the economic times that try men’s souls, and women’s too. In the past few months, a lot of people have seen their net worth fall substantially, and I’m sure more than a few have contemplated what would happen if they lost everything.
So we asked a group of people — Nick Mills, [...]
November 19
(28 comments)
FREAK Shots: Who Are You Calling Third-World?
Blog reader Nick Turner sent along this photo of a Body Shop ad in San Francisco:
Photo: Nick Turner
He was surprised that the ad guarantees fair-labor conditions for workers in Italy:
I thought fair-trade protections were for third-world workers. I
wonder how the Italians feel about this designation.
The ad didn’t outright call Italy third-world; but if it had, [...]
November 19
(153 comments)
Eric Oliver on the “Bigot Belt”
Eric Oliver is a colleague of mine at the University of Chicago. He is the author of the absolutely fantastic book Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic.
He has some new and interesting insights on the “Bigot Belt,” which he has generously written up for the Freakonomics blog.
The Bigot Belt
By Eric Oliver
A [...]
November 19
(23 comments)
Bacon Ice Cream and Intertemporal Choice
Photo: lilivanili and shawnzam
Yesterday I suggested that tastes may not be stable. And then last night, I had the chance to confront the data directly; my local restaurant was serving bacon ice cream.
Bacon: Delicious! Ice cream: My favorite! The combination of bacon and ice cream: a direct threat to my views of economics. [...]
November 19
(3 comments)
The FREAK-est Links
Here are the stats and algorithms that explain why Kevin Garnett is an MVP. (HT: Phil Notick) (Earlier)
Justin Wolfers’s alumni magazine dubs him “The Seeker.” (Earlier)
Who’s making the fat jokes?
Stanley Druckenmiller is happy he didn’t buy the Steelers.
Chicago’s schools have third-world math scores. (Earlier)
Stuff We Weren't Paid to Endorse
1. Go to Hulu.com. 2. Choose Arrested Development. 3. Start with Season 1 and then watch every episode of all three seasons. 4. You can thank me later. (SJD)
I can scarcely tell a scarlet tanager from Scarlett O’Hara, but The Life of the Skies had me transfixed from the first page. Jonathan Rosen -- who happens to be a friend of mine -- writes with astounding insight, wit, and compassion. The story he tells here is the best kind of odyssey, an outward journey that ends up highlighting the beauty and daring that live inside of us. Here's a Times review of the book, and here's an earlier blog post about the book and the power of suggestion. (SJD)
Even if you don’t have a son fighting in Iraq, even if you don’t read poetry, even if you think you are immune to the power of a mother’s lament – pick up The Warrior and read it right away. Fran Richey has written some of the most powerful stories I’ve ever encountered. It is obvious that her life was changed by living these poems; yours may well be changed by reading them. (SJD)
From the Opinion Blogs
Necessary Steps
Inching Along the Edge of the World
In his last walk of the series, the author manages to avoid stepping out into thin air.
Abstract City
New York Cheat Sheets
All New Yorkers develop tricks that allow them to stay ahead of the pack in daily life. Here I offer some of mine in a couple of handy charts.
Feeds
18 Comments
my english teacher had heterochromia- we called her bi-eye (yeah, we were punks)- why engineer?- it seems to me that coloured contacts are more efficient than genetic eye-tatooing
— frankendufI read the article linked about genetic engineering. It didn’t cite a danger. It raised the potential of greater “social inequity.”
Of couse, that’s exactly the point of it. It’d be like saying “order a nice steak, and you run the risk of not being hungry.”
The danger lies in the thinking that everyone has to have the same slice of “equity.”
— 711buddhaNo the danger lies in everyone giving their kids blue eyes only to find out 10 years later that those rare brown eyes are now “in”.
— egretmanNo, the real danger is changing your kids eye color because it is the “IN” thing in the first place. I’m not sure there is a good reason to change your child’s eye color but doing it because it is the “IN” thing to do is definitely the wrong reason to do it.
— travelerstalesI like cat eyed young female eyes.They have a sharp mesmerising attraction-a magical power.
— G.V.VarmaBased upon my detailed study of soccer moms, I fear that travelerstales and I are destined to be very disapointed in the ability of suburban America to ignore the “in” thing.
— egretmanIt’s bad enough when great swathes of kids get lumbered with the current celebrity name of the day.
Imagine a time when you can tell a person’s age just by seeing the celebrity they most look like. “Ah you look like a mid career Leonardo - you must have been born in the late 2010’s”
Scary
— farmgeekI got really cross when I read a poem by Paul Muldoon called ‘Blemish’ It related to people with different coloured eyes. I have always been proud of my distinctive feature.
— noreenI personally have two different coloured eyes and have always liked them although i have been noticing that as i have been getting older more and more people are finding them ‘freaky’.
— AmberI have two different colored eyes and I have a hard time accepting it.
— XSi have two different colored eyes and i love it. why would someone have a hard time accepting it? also, in each eye i have more than one color. idk, guess i’m extremely weird. it’s just eye color, and it makes you unique. i think it’s hilarious that there is a holiday for it, but alright, i guess. it makes me ME, and no one else that i know has heterochromia. soo… you know… it’s pretty cool. i don’t think people should get eye tattooing or wear diff colored contacts to “correct it”.
— carrieI have two different colored eyes. One blue, one brown. I can honestly say I prefer blue. I have heard people say behind my back that my eyes are freaky, but so, so many people have told me that they wished they had two different colored eyes. If I wanted to correct it, I guess I would wear contacts. Many people have known me for months and not noticed, and other notice the first day. Some people don’t say anything because they think I feel it is a “defect” like a cleft lip or something.
— Patsyi too have heterochromia one green and one blue, in my green eye there is a ring of gold around the pupil as well.i’ve always loved having it. it makes me more unique. i would never consider wearing contacts to cover them.
— kyleHey all….I also have 2 different colored eyes…I’ve had them since I was 2….and no doctor could explain the change! I think when you’re younger it’s harder to deal, I for one, know how mean kids can be. I didn’t really start liking them til my mid-teen years, they make for a great converstaion piece and, until I got married, they were a turn-on for alot of women. it went from a curse to a blessing, just totally boosting my confidence. Defect or not, you should be proud of what makes you stand out in a crowd.
— SteveMy right eye is blue and my left eye is about 2/3 blue and 1/3 brown. This is strange in itself but it gets stranger. My younger cousin’s right eye is brown and her left eye is about 2/3 brown and 1/3 blue. We are the only ones with two different colored eyes in a family (on my mother’s side)of 24 cousins, and 9 aunts and uncles.
— tobi ruth loveI have one black eye and one brown eye. It never bothered me until I was in my mid 20’s. I became obsessive about it and paranoid that everybody else noticed this freakish dilemma. I got a contact lense to make the brown eye black, so I had two black eyes. I wore the lense for about six months. I then woke up to myself and now am proud of the feature ( not that anybody else notices anyway)
— michaelI have one brown eye and one black eye. I never ever worried about it. Then in my mid 20’s I suddenly became obsessive and paranoid about this freakish characteristic. I wore a black contact lense so that I had two black colored eyes for about 8 months. Then I woke up to myself and became proud of the way I looked. Besides, nobody notices anyway and if they do, they don’t care.
— michaelI think different coloured eyes are amazing things to be blessed with! I would really love to have that. You guys should be proud of it, because anybody who treats you badly for being like that is simply close-minded, in-secure and possibly even a little bit jealous of your uniqueness!
— Juno