Creative Commons
Blogs I Follow
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Thoughts On Northwestern Football Unionization
Originally posted on Cheap Talk:
These are my thoughts and not those of Northwestern University, Northwestern Athletics, the Northwestern football team, nor of the Northwestern football players. As usual, the emergence of a unionization movement is the symptom of a…
Disney theme parks to announce lower ticket prices
It’s about time! Here’s a sneak peek at Mickey’s official announcement …
Live Piracy Map
Check out this amazing live piracy map generated by the Commercial Crime Services of the International Chamber of Commerce. (Below, for example, is a partial version of the live piracy map from 2011 identifying the location of all piracy incidents during that … Continue reading
The tragedy of the outer space commons?
Check out this fascinating paper Earth Orbit Debris: An Economic Model in which the problem of space debris is modeled as a negative externality. What is the optimal number of space satellites, and who decides? Do you believe there are already too many … Continue reading
Another example of “reciprocal altruism” in nature?
The evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers published his influential theory of reciprocal altruism in 1971 to explain the emergence of cooperation in nature. For his part, Richard Dawkins memorably described Trivers’ theory a few years later in a single sentence–“You scratch my back, I’ll ride yours.” … Continue reading
“Do you know … bees have no judges or lawyers?”
This iconoclastic quotation — from the private correspondence of the late great evolutionary biologist W. D. “Bill” Hamilton — appears on page 46 of Nature’s Oracle, Professor Ullica Segerstrale’s masterful biography of the life and work of the man. Professor Hamilton spent … Continue reading
A beautiful five-minute film
This film speaks for itself …
Byzantium = Constantinople = Istanbul
Let’s say you want to rename a large metropolitan city with an ancient and long-established name. By way of example, let’s say you want to rename the historic city of “Constantinople” in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to “Istanbul”. How would you … Continue reading
Mr. Monopoly has a Facebook page
Note: this post was revised and expanded during the morning of 26 March 2014. Did you know that Mr Monopoly — the iconic, mustachioed, round little man in a top hat and coattails who also happens to be the official … Continue reading
Why do criminal defendants get to plead the Fifth?
Put differently, if you could turn back the clock or re-write the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, would you take out the right against self-incrimination? If you care about truth, or about the victims of crime, the answer has … Continue reading
