prior probability

With the fall semester now upon us (I begin teaching today! — but I cannot comprehend why college courses in the southeast have to begin in hot and humid August; does it have anything to do with college football?), I am posting the first half of my new A.I.-themed syllabus under the fold below:

This summer, I made substantial revisions to my paper on “Outer Space Auctions“, and I just posted my revised work to SSRN (see here). Among other things, a Canadian colleague had recently brought to my attention an important international organization called the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which plays a pivotal role in the allocation of property rights in outer space; see here, for example. Specifically, once the FCC has parceled out an orbit for a satellite, it must then submit its proposed orbit and radio-frequency allocations to the ITU in accordance with the provisions of the international treaty governing the use of radio frequencies, called the Radio Regulations. The ITU not only allocates radio frequencies for every radio-transmitting or radio-receiving satellite in outer space; it also records these allocations in a Master International Frequency Register or MIFR. In addition to allocating radio frequencies in outer space, the ITU also allocates orbital positions for GEO satellites as well as orbital characteristics for non-geostationary satellites in order to avoid signal interference among different satellites in outer space as well as “guarantee equitable access to spectrum and orbital resources for each country.” So, why not auction off those orbits instead of giving them away for free?

Note: I found this fanciful map on the reddit thread r/MapPorn, one of my favorite subreddits. (Here are a few others.) One commentator (u/albardha) notes: “The character of Odysseus might be fictional and never actually done that journey, but some of the choices of locations match with Greek colonizations after Bronze Age collapse, so it’s possible who wrote down the bardic stories matched them with real-life locations known at the time, likely for political propaganda purposes.”

FYI: A Lego version of the famous Concorde jet is available here. Hat tip: kottke. Bonus link: all my previous Lego posts.

I mentioned in a previous post that I am a college professor who teaches an undergraduate survey course in business law and ethics. Before proceeding, however, I should explain that I always choose an overarching course theme from the world of popular culture in order to grab my students’ attention and spark their intellectual curiosity. In previous semesters, for example, the pop culture themes of my courses have included the award-winning film The Social Network about the founding of Facebook and the hit Netflix documentary Tiger King, which I assigned during the dark days of the global pandemic. This semester, the theme of my survey course will be “A.I. and the ChatGPT Revolution,” so my micro-essay consists of the following thought-provoking question:

“What excites you the most about A.I.? Also, what scares you the most?”

As promised, I am sharing the second half of my new ChatGPT-themed survey for my upcoming business law course this fall. (The first half is posted here.) The second half of this graded survey contains four additional questions, all of which are posted below the fold:

Alternate title: The problems with State and federal RICO laws

The original Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act was enacted by the Congress in 1970. (Thirty-three States, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have also adopted local RICO laws.) Putting aside the oft-overlooked question of whether the Congress has the constitutional authority to punish purely local acts of racketeering, below are some additional critiques of these State and federal laws:

1. “Debate Rages Over the Long Arm of RICO” by Scot J. Paltrow (Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 1989).
2. “Law as a Weapon: How RICO Subverts Liberty and the True Purpose of Law” by William L. Anderson and Candice E. Jackson (The Independent Review, Vol. 9, 2004).
3. “RICO Overreach: How the Federal Government’s Escalating Offensive against Gangs Has Run Afoul of the Constitution” by Matthew H. Blumenstein (Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. 62, Summer 2009).
4. “45 Years, 45 Days: How the RICO Law Violates Liberty” (Reason Magazine, 8 Aug. 2013).
5. “The Checkered Past (and Present) of the RICO Act” by Regan Jarvis (Juris Magazine, 17 Nov. 2021).

Bonus link: “Appeals court rules in favor of pair challenging Arizona civil forfeiture as unconstitutional” by Perry Vandell (Arizona Central, 6 Oct. 2021).

Today (15 August) is a Holy Day for Catholics and Orthodox Christians: the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgen Mary; look it up! To commemorate this occasion, I am posting below a screenshot of El Greco’s first major Spanish commission and first large public work: “The Assumption of the Virgin.”

Hello! I am a college professor who teaches an undergraduate survey course in business law and ethics. Among other things, my home institution requires faculty to assign an “academic engagement activity” during the first week of the semester. Ordinarily, I assign a three-part academic activity consisting of a graded survey, an essay question on law and strategy, and an ice-breaker in which students post their profile pictures and introduce themselves. This fall, however, I have decided to completely redesign my business law course in order focus on new A.I. platforms like the popular ChatGPT (here, for example, is an early draft of my new syllabus), so I have created a new survey, which I have posted below the fold: