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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Self-defense?
How many civilians, on average, do police forces in the United States kill each year? Legal scholar Richard Epstein, however, asks a different lethal-force question: Police officer deaths in the line of duty, year to date for 2014, were 67 of which … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Current Affairs, Law, Uncategorized
Tagged Police Killings, Richard Epstein
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Tax-collection devices
This little yellow fire hydrant, located at 393 University Avenue in Toronto, has raked in more than $289,000 in parking-infraction revenue for the City of Toronto since 2008. (You can read the full report here.) As you can see from this … Continue reading
Reading The New Yorker
Originally posted on Book of words:
The New Yorker folks have been sharing some love with its readers recently, particularly so if you do enjoy reading longer pieces like myself. This summer, the American weekly magazine will overhaul the design…
The Ethics and Economics of Vampire Re-ensoulment
Originally posted on Economics of the Undead:
(cross-posted at the Volokh Conspiracy) io9 contributor Greta Christina, after re-watching the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, raises serious questions about the ethics of vampire-slaying. SPOILER: At the end of Season…
Do free agents play game theory?
Who will sign first? Melo, Lebron, or Bosh? In game-theory terms, what type of “game” are these free agents playing: Prisoner’s Dilemma, Chicken, Stag Hunt, or Battle of the Sexes?
We saw a Black Swan today!
Nate Silver — yes, that Nate Silver, who had predicted Brasil to win the World Cup (see diagram in the post above, courtesy of FiveThirtyEight) — compares his complex (and, dare we say, opaque) statistical methods, like the Soccer Power … Continue reading
William Faulkner Reviews Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea
Originally posted on Biblioklept:
His best. Time may show it to be the best single piece of any of us, I mean his and my contemporaries. This time, he discovered God, a Creator. Until now, his men and women had…
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What if the colonies had never declared their independence?
Amid today’s Independence Day festivities, let’s reflect … Why don’t we see closer political cooperation among all English-speaking peoples, to borrow Winston Churchill’s beautiful phrase? Suppose, for example, that the 13 North American colonies had never declared their independence from Britain or that the British … Continue reading
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What the world’s urban poor really want …
… relief from traffic congestion! Here is an excerpt from Michael Hobbes’s excellent essay “What I learned from the crippling gridlock in Dhaka, Bangladesh”: I am in a tiny steel cage attached to a motorcycle, stuttering through traffic in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In … Continue reading
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