My colleague Mark Bils has an almost infinite number of delightful thoughts about the world. Recently we were discussing ideas for undergraduate research papers and he proposed something like:
Have the student go all over Rochester taking pictures and making measurements of various mailbox configurations (out in the ‘burbs all of the boxes are the ones out on the street). The thing to be looking for is whether the mailboxes and mailbox posts that have more mailboxes on them are more crooked with decaying and old posts than the mailboxes with 2 or even 1 mailbox on them.
Brilliant! And fun! Any takers? Brownie points if anyone can clearly state the theory such an experiment would be testing and what predictions you would make from it.
The problem of the commons?
Check out the condition of the driveways, too.
Property Rights