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Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol
Cable TV Pop Quiz
What’s your favorite cable TV show or channel? Ours is NFL RedZone. We get to see “every touchdown from every game” without commercial breaks. (Bonus question: What is the NCAA waiting for?) For the record, we have no financial or family interest in … Continue reading
Should “The House” always win?
To be more precise, should casinos be able to use the law of negotiable instruments to get around the law of contracts? Or should gamblers be able to use the law of contracts to get around the law of negotiable … Continue reading
The right to recline?
Professors Christopher Buccafusco and Chris Sprigman describe their ingenious Coasean experiment (which at last count has garnered over 1500 comments!) to test how much people value the “right to recline” on airplane seats. Their findings? People’s valuation of reclining vs. not being reclined upon depend entirely … Continue reading
Research at Facebook
Research about research? We are reblogging Facebook’s official (and self-serving) statement in defense of its non-consensual and possibly unlawful research methods. Among other things, Facebook states that “our own research … indicat[es] that people respond positively to positive posts from their … Continue reading
If philosophy is a game …
… who are the umpires? Created by Landon Schurtz.
Posted in Games, Logical Fallacies, Philosophy, Uncategorized
Tagged Logical Fallacies, Philosophy
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Are we all Bayesians now?
F. D. Flam’s essay “The Odds, Continually Updated” revisits the famous Monty Hall Problem and appears in this week’s Science Times. (The science section of the N.Y. Times, which appears every Tuesday, offers a fascinating glimpse into the wonderful world of … Continue reading
Are “nudges” ethical?
Moral philosopher Jeremy Waldron offers this powerful critique of “soft paternalism” or the use of state-sponsored “nudges” to change behavior (emphasis ours): … it may help to think about a slightly different sort of nudge—an informational nudge, where we manipulate the information given … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Deception, Law, Questions Rarely Asked
Tagged Jeremy Waldron, Risk, Soft Paternalism
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Captain Kirk’s Constitution
What theory of constitutional interpretation does Captain Kirk subscribe to? Hat tip: Will Baude. Addendum: At the end of the film clip, Dr Spock logically asks: “… but does our involvement here also constitute a violation of the Prime Directive?” (Note: … Continue reading
Posted in Questions Rarely Asked, Science Fiction
Tagged Captain Kirk, Omega Glory, Star Trek
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Things that cost more than space exploration
Pop Quiz: What do presidential libraries, advertisements for prescription drugs, and pennies (yes, pennies!) have in common? They are all things that cost more than space exploration! (Hat tip: Tyler Cowen.)
Battle of the computer-chess engines
Albert Silver recently conducted a fascinating computer experiment — a chess tournament between the Komodo 8 chess engine (running on an Android smart phone) playing against the Shredder chess engine (running on a much faster desktop computer — 50 times faster, to be exact). In … Continue reading
prior probability 