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Category Archives: Culture
A recent example of the reference-class problem
As Zeynep Tufekci explains in this excellent essay, the now-infamous Catcalling Video was not based on a random sample of New York City neighborhoods. Here is the actual and non-random breakdown of time spent in each neighborhood: In other words, the methodology of the … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Culture, Logical Fallacies, Probability
Tagged Biased Samples, Catcalling Video, Reference Class Problem
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Is Banksy a woman?
We have always assumed that Banksy, our favorite mystery graffiti artist, is a man. But what if she is a woman? Kriston Capps makes a persuasive case in this beautiful essay for why Banksy is probably a woman. Hat tip to kottke … Continue reading
WWII films by country
Why are war movies so popular in the United States? What do these data say about North American culture? Don’t we need to know the total number of post-WWII films produced by each country on this particular list to answer these … Continue reading
A theory of Halloween
From Giorgio Agamben, “State of Exception,” translated by Kevin Attell, (University of Chicago Press, 2005), pp. 71-72: Folklorists and anthropologists have long been familiar with those periodic feasts (such as the Anthesteria and Saturnalia of the classical world and the … Continue reading
Costume contest
With pandemics on the mind, is the zombie costume too close for comfort? Nifty #Halloween #costume chart from @NPR pic.twitter.com/Xphlr15wOV — FATHOM+HATCH (@ppl_are_amazing) October 29, 2014 You can check out this interactive costume popularity chart here.
Best Halloween costume
Can you guess what lovelyulie is for Halloween this year?
“I am a Liberian, not a virus”
Check out #IamALiberianNotAVirus and this report by Yesha Callahan. Thanks to Shoana Cachelle for her video.
Music Monday: Mexican Coke
Triple hat tip to Erin Geiger Smith for writing up this in-depth report about Mexican Coca Cola in the Sunday Times and for bringing this hard-core Mexican Coke song and this cool thing to our attention. Here is an excerpt from her report (emphasis … Continue reading
prior probability 