prior probability

That is the conclusion of this new research paper by Eric Martinez (MIT), Frances Mollica (Edinburgh), and Edward Gibson (MIT). Their fancy paper is awkwardly titled “Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives processing difficulty in legal language,” so I am guessing that most academic researchers and “social scientists” are shitty wordsmiths too! (A more interesting paper would try to explain the reasons why most legal–and social science–writings are so terrible in the first place.) File under: true but trivial?

More details here.

More details about Eric Tabuchi’s 2008 art project are available here.

… if you have ever had to take a “conlaw” class.

I visited Tampa, Florida last week to attend a jury trial (my wife Sydjia was co-counsel for the defense); here are some snapshots from our hotel, which was a former federal courthouse:

More details here and here.

Via u/Texas2Putts, check out this this amazing map showing all 254 county courthouses in the great State of Texas! More details here.

If you are feeling somewhat somber or sad about recent events (e.g. the one-year anniversary of our disgraceful surrender to the Taliban or the death of a monarch in Europe), this haunting piece of music really captures the moment.

On this day (11 September) in the year 9 A.D. the Romans suffer their greatest defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest; thereafter the Rhine is established as the de facto border between the Roman Empire and the so-called barbarians for the next four hundred years.