Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today (1 November) is All Saints’ Day or “The Feast of All Hallows” in the Catholic calendar; I will therefore resume my series on gambling and democracy in the next day or two. More details about the history of this … Continue reading →

Yesterday (10/30), the Amazing Tyler Cowen linked to this 10/27 report in the Financial Times (FT): Gambling on democracy: US regulators weigh election futures market — calling it “the best article I’ve seen on prediction market issues in DC.” (He … Continue reading →

Is the proliferation of “fake news” and conspiracy theories a threat to democracy? If so, how should we deal with such dangerous ideas and falsehoods? Broadly speaking, there are two general approaches to this problem: one is the Mark Zuckerberg … Continue reading →

Inspired by the work of polymath Robin Hanson (check out Hanson’s blog here), I first posed this question in August of 2021 (see here). Since then, I published “The Leibniz Conspiracy“, which surveys a wide variety of “conspiracy theory theories” … Continue reading →

Beware of Venmo too, which is owned by PayPal; hat tip: the Amazing Tyler Cowen (see here).

That is the title of this haunting exposé (subtitled “Lynch Law in All Its Phases“) written by Ida B. Wells (pictured below), who was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious … Continue reading →

On this day (25 October) in 1971, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved Resolution 2758, which recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as “the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations.” Alas, Communist China continues … Continue reading →

I dedicate this beautiful song to my wife Sydjia!

Check out this new paper by Saul Smilansky, who turns the tables on Pascal’s Wager (see also here and image below). In brief, Professor Smilansky’s argument is that God will be more upset at people who accept the wager (i.e. … Continue reading →