A few months ago we wrote about whether shoemaker-to-the-starsChristian Louboutinought to have a monopoly over red shoe soles. Last week, in Kentucky, a similar issue arose concerning red wax. The red in question was on the neck of bottles of booze—specifi cally, Maker’s Mark bourbon and Jose Cuervo’s Riserva de la Familia tequila, which both feature a bottle cap seal made of red, dripping wax (Cuervo has since shifted to a straight-edged red wax seal)

President Obama’s personal evolution toward accepting same-sex marriage has certainly made plenty of headlines. But perhaps the bigger—and untold story—is the evolution of marriage itself, and how the generational shift in how we experience marriage under pins rising toward support for same-sex marriage

A while back, wesolicited your questionsfor social psychologistJonathan Haidt, author ofThe Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.(He recentlyappeared onThe Colbert Report.)

Hi, I just listened toyour podcast with NPR on the impact of shipping flowers. May I suggest, if you should ever air it again, you consider the song Plastic Rosesby theChenille Sisters. A sample line: He sent me plastic roses, the kind that never fade A touching love song about lasting memories.

Freakonomicsdescribed theeconomics of a crack-selling gang a tournament model where you dont earn much unless you can get to the top of the pyramid. Columbia Business School professorRay Fisman, who has shown upon this blogbefore, argues that politics isnt all that different.InSlate, Fisman summarizes his newworking paper, coauthored withFlorian SchulzandVikrant Vig, which uses disclosed finances of politicians in India in the last election cycle

We blogged a while back about how some retail firmssucceed by hiring more, not fewer, floor employees, and by treating them particularly well. Among the examples: Trader Joes and Whole Foods; among the counterexamples: Michaels.

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If you have been watching the NBA recently – and with the playoffs going on, you should be – you may have seen the following ad for Sprint:Often people don’t pay attention to what people say in ads. But this one – starringKevin Durantof the Oklahoma City Thunder – has a very interesting opening line: “Man I was double-teamed

Michael Specterhas written agood and interestingNew Yorkerarticleabout the history and current state of geoengineering, called The Climate Fixers: Is There a Technological Solution to Global Warming?Michael Specterhas written agood and interestingNew Yorke rarticleabout the history and current state of geoengineering, called The Climate Fixers: Is There a Technological Solution to Global Warming?, which is essentially aNew Yorkerized version ofChapter 5ofSuperFreakonomics, all the way down to theMount Pin...

Recycling your old eyeglasses may make you feel better, but, in Bloomberg View,Virginia Postrelargues thatits actually a waste of money. Postrel tracks the journey from eyeglass donation box to final destination glasses are first shipped to their destina tion, where theyre sorted and evaluated for usefulness (only 7 per cent of donations are actually useable)