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Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol
Anecdotal evidence does matter (United Airlines edition)
As members of the so-called “rationality community” like to say, the plural of anecdote is not evidence. (In 2016, for example, United Airlines denied boarding to only 3,765 of its more than 86 million passengers on overbooked flights, according to … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning
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Class No. 12 (“You better lawyer up …”)
In our next class, we will study the pleadings in the litigation between Facebook and Eduardo Saverin. In the movie The Social Network, for example, Eduardo confronts his best friend and business partner Mark Zuckerberg when he finally realizes that … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, Law
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Justice Scalia’s Living Constitution
From Judge Posner’s forthright concurring opinion in the recent case of Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, decided en banc by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit: “A diehard ‘originalist’ would argue that what was believed in 1964 defines the … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, History, Law
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How do you eat your chocolate bunny?
Ears first? The tail? Or feet first? According to this scientific report titled “Seasonality of auricular amputations in rabbits,” which was published in the latest issue of the journal Laryngoscope, most people prefer to start with the ears: “New research carried out online … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Questions Rarely Asked
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Compare X to Y
Let’s start with X. According to Jeff McMahan, here is a detailed description of the daily routine of one great thinker: There are many anecdotes about the ways in which [X] simplified his life to take as little time as … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning
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Country music awards query
Why don’t award shows reveal the actual vote tallies (not just the winners) when handing out awards? We were bummed, for example, that Luke Bryan did not win the “entertainer of the year” award and that “Dig your roots” didn’t … Continue reading
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Class No. 11 (Is Facebook a monopoly?)
“But with … incredible growth came new problems.” –Ben Mezrich, The Accidental Billionaires, Ch. 22. In our next class, we will debate whether Facebook is an illegal monopoly. After all, Facebook is the most popular social network in the world … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Ethics, Law
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Do we really need a supreme court? (In praise of judicial federalism: our final reply to Solum, for now.)
We will conclude our critique of public meaning originalism by posing the following judicial thought-experiment: What if we were to let the Supreme Court whither away? That is, what if the Senate simply stopped confirming any more new nominees to … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, History, Law, Questions Rarely Asked
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prior probability 