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Category Archives: Deception
Dear Robert Kraft …
You recently had the audacity to demand an apology from the NFL. You said, and I quote, “If the [NFL] investigation is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure in the footballs, I would expect … Continue reading
Gaming the peer review system
Check out this exposé of peer review scams. Among other things, Cat Ferguson, Adam Marcus, and Ivan Oransky write: In the past 2 years, journals have been forced to retract more than 110 papers in at least 6 instances of peer-review rigging. What all these … Continue reading
The evolution of deception
What do fork-tailed drongos, tufted capuchin monkeys, Mexican free-tailed bats, Tiger moths, and humans have in common? Check out this beautiful essay by Lesley Evans Ogden describing various forms of deception in nature. Props to Tyler Cowen for the pointer. Here is another … Continue reading
Why vote?
Pay especially close attention to Congressional District #12. (Click on the map above for a larger version.) In addition, check out this damning map of “Gerrymander index scores” across the U.S. (Hat tip to rhiever for the pointer.) Why do people still vote when … Continue reading
Posted in Cheating, Deception, Law, Maps, Questions Rarely Asked
Tagged Gerrymandering, voting districts
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Can you spot a fake $100 bill?
Frank Bourassa, the world’s most prolific counterfeiter, shows you how.
How easy is it to fix an NFL game?
Match fixing has occurred in soccer leagues around the world, so why should the NFL (or college football, for that matter) be any different? In fact, according to this devious report by Brian “The-Fix-Is-In” Touhy, it is much easier to “fix” or … Continue reading
Posted in Deception, Economics, Law, Questions Rarely Asked, Sports
Tagged bets, Match-fixing
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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
4 Comments
What ESPN doesn’t want you to hear
Addendum: By the way, while we’re on the subject of ESPN’s three-week suspension of Bill Simmons, check out this original analysis of the economics of employee suspensions here. (Tyler Cowen offers two possible economic explanations of employee suspensions.) This part of … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Deception, Language
Tagged Audio, Bill Simmons, SoundCloud
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Questions for Roger Goodell
Where are you hiding? (Your last tweet was two weeks ago; see below.) Have you replied yet to this letter dated Sept. 10 from several members of Congress? Also, what are you waiting for in the Adrian Peterson case? A video? I had a … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Deception, Sports
Tagged Adrian Peterson, House Judiciary Committee, NFL, Roger Goodell
3 Comments
“The moral tragedy of Scottish independence”
That is the melodramatic title of this short essay by Emile Simpson, an English scholar and former British infantry officer. (Thanks to Tyler Cowen for the pointer.) Although we are not certain when a tragedy becomes a “moral tragedy,” Simpson’s paper is worth reading because he … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Current Affairs, Deception, Politics, Rules, Voting
Tagged Scottish independence referendum
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prior probability 