prior probability

What is the maximum number of solid moons that can be packed into a hollow Earth? Sunil K. Chebolu has given this theoretical question some sustained thought and his answer (via ArXiv) is here. Hat tip: @pickover.

Or a “A Rational and Simple System of Legal Citation.” The introduction of my legal citation rulebook is below:

“Why are legal citation rules so convoluted and complicated? Suffice it to say that the Holy Grail of legal citation, the The Bluebook, is over 500 pages long, while the third edition of the competing Redbook style manual requires over 650 pages. For their part, the supposedly simpler and user-friendly Indigo Book tops out at 201 pages, while the ALWD Citation Manual contains 400 pages of complicated rules. Why don’t we abandon these confusing citation systems once and for all and start from scratch? The purpose of any citation system is to enable one’s readers to quickly identify one’s sources for future research. Since the existing rules of legal citation no longer serve this essential purpose, we propose an ‘anti-Bluebook’ consisting of the following simple and rational system of citation rules ….”

My next “Advanced Topic in Law” class will be devoted to the topic of digital privacy and “big tech” companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. Are these companies “evil,” i.e. do they exploit our data in ways that are harmful or do they manipulate our choices and beliefs for their own commercial gains? For the “pro” side, I will assign the documentary “The Social Dilemma” (see the official trailer below), and for the “con” side, I will assign Chapter 6 of Tyler Cowen’s Love Letter to Big Business.

We mourn the loss of Alex Trebek and Sean Connery, two icons of Hollywood and two of my favorite role models when I was growing up. Below: Sean Connery at the 1988 Academy Awards Ceremony and Alex Trebek’s response to the question, “Have you ever met Sean Connery in person?”

Update (11/20): The post was slightly revised on Nov. 20, 2020. (Previously, this blog post corresponded to footnote 16 of my “Adam Smith in Love” paper, but with subsequent revisions of my paper, it has now become footnote 24.)

Footnote 24 of my work-in-progress addresses the tradition of going on a “Grand Tour of Europe,” a rite of passage in which many young British aristocrats, with their appointed tutors in tow, would travel to Italy and France during the 18th Century:

“… In setting off for France with his tutor Adam Smith, the future Duke and the future father of modern price theory were following an elite and well-established tradition, for the Grand Tour was a rite of passage of the sons of elite British families as well as ‘the “crown” of [their] education.’ (See Cohen (2001), p. 129. See also Brodsky-Porges, 1981, p. 178, quoting Ogilvie, 1939.) Michèle Cohen (1992, 2001) has explored the educational and cultural ideals of the Grand Tour and has identified many deep ‘contradictions and ambiguities’ of these tours. In addition, the sexual aspect of European Grand Tours by young British aristocrats (and their tutors?) during this era should also not go unnoticed. See, e.g., Chapter 5 of Black, 2011 [1985], which is titled ‘Love, Sex, Gambling, and Drinking.’ See also Black, 1981, p. 660 & p. 666, n.7; Black, 1983, pp. 413-414; Cohen, 1992, pp. 255-256.”

Below are my sources:

Jeremy Black, “British Travellers in Europe in the Early Eighteenth Century,” Dalhousie Review, Vol. 61, No. 4 (1981), pp. 655–667.

___________, “France and the Grand Tour in the Early Eighteenth Century,” Francia, Vol. 11 (1983), pp. 407–416.

___________, The British and the Grand Tour, Croom Helm (2011) [1985].

Edward Brodsky-Porges, “The Grand Tour: Travel as an Educational Device, 1600–1800,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1981), pp. 171–186.

Michèle Cohen, “The Grand Tour: Constructing the English Gentleman in Eighteenth-Century France,” History of Education, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1992), pp. 241-257.

___________, “The Grand Tour: Language, National Identity, and Masculinity,” Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2001), pp. 129-141.

More details here; hat tip: @aaron_stagoff. Also, check out my September 27, 2013 blog post (one of my very first blog posts!) in which I describe the USA as an oppressive “Police State“: more people are locked up in the United States than in China.

Here is another extended excerpt from my work-in-progress “Love and Liberty: A Short History of Adam Smith in Love.”

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Hurricane Eta, a dangerous Category 4 storm, is now heading for my beloved Island of Cuba; may she dislodge the corrupt and obsolete Cuban Communist Party from power forever!

Alternative title: Romance in L’Ancien Regime: Adultery, Kept Women, and “le demimonde”

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