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Category Archives: History
Review of Stigler (2016)
We just finished reading Stephen Stigler’s latest book The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom (Harvard, 2016), pictured below. (Spoiler alert: Professor Stigler, a historian of statistics at the University of Chicago, summarizes the seven most revolutionary and counter-intuitive ideas in the history of statistics: … Continue reading
Posted in History, Probability
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We miss Vin
Dear friends… pic.twitter.com/akgzIU1UdW — Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 2, 2016 Vin, don’t go … Did the suits at the front office of the Dodgers force you to retire? If so, shame on them. Whatever the case may be, the great Vin … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Sports
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Trump, mercantilist
Lately, Donald Trump has been accusing Hillary Clinton of being “stuck in the past.” This assertion is highly ironic, coming from a mercantilist! Via Tyler Cowen, quoting Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser Peter Navarro, here is the essence of Mr … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History, Politics
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Amazon’s first hire
Via kottke, we learned that the first person Jeff Bezos ever hired at Amazon was Shel Kaphan. In this illuminating interview in The Macro, Kaphan describes his first meeting with Bezos and the early days of Amazon.com. Here is an excerpt: … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Economics, History, Questions Rarely Asked
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#14juillet
Emma Ockerman writes (via Time): “Back in July of 1789, France had already experienced a rough summer that included food shortages, high taxes, and the militarization of Paris. Sensing distress, [King Louis XVI] called upon the Estates-General—an assembly that hadn’t met in more than … Continue reading
Posted in History
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Wittgenstein’s door handle
Via Dan Wang’s twitter feed, we unexpectedly stumbled upon this insightful but speculative essay by Christopher Benfey in the N.Y. Review of Books. In summary, Benfey describes the beautiful door handles (pictured below) the philosopher Ludwig Wiggenstein designed for a … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, History, Philosophy
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The Greatest of All-Time
In addition to the video below of Muhammad Ali’s greatest moments in the ring, we want to share this loving memory of Ali by our friend and colleague, the poet/writer Luanne Castle. Here is an excerpt: When I was a little … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Current Affairs, History, Truth
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May Day
Markets or diktats? Our friend and colleague Ilya Somin recently reiterated his call for repurposing May 1st as “International Victims of Communism Day.” We want to be the first to second his modest proposal …
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Current Affairs, History, Truth
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Visualization of counterfactual history (Pres. Trump edition)
Posted in Current Affairs, History, Politics
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The Seven States of America?
What if we just abolished the 50 States or replaced them with seven mega-regions or provinces? (See below for a hypothetical example of what such a proposal might look like on a map.) After all, our northern neighbors in Canada have only 10 … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, History, Maps, Questions Rarely Asked
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prior probability 