prior probability

Are you Team Carole or Team Joe? This summer, I will use “Tiger King” to explore the legal and ethical environments of business with my undergraduate students. For your reference, here is a link to a draft of my Summer 2020 Syllabus (PDF), via WordPress. The first two pages of the syllabus are pictured below.

Yes, I am referring to yesterday’s thrilling “Armageddon” chess match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi:

Check out this history of the world-famous slinky toy. (Why hasn’t Hollywood made this remarkable story into a movie yet?) The image below is from the original Slinky patent and is available for purchase here.

Say what you will about the rumors that creepy presidential candidate Joe Biden may choose Michelle Obama as his running mate, this ticket would give Donald J. Trump a real run for his money. (Full disclosure: I am voting Libertarian either way!)

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has published my latest op-ed explaining why “non-essential” employees and business firms must be paid just compensation–not loans or handouts. The logic of my argument relies on the leading case of Kelo v. City of New London, in which the Supreme Court interpreted the “public use” requirement of the takings clause very broadly. Although Kelo was a controversial decision when it was decided in 2005, it supports my argument that coronavirus lockdowns promote a public purpose and thus trigger the taking clause.

What if John Belushi, Steve Martin, Frances McDormand, and Gene Hackman had played the roles of the advanced Nexus 6 replicants in the classic 1982 Blade Runner movie? That is precisely what filmmaker Leon Chase re-imagines in Blade Runner: The Lost Cut. The only question I have is the one that my fellow Blade-Runner aficionado Jason Kottke poses: “Does this cut go too far? Or not too far enough?” More details about this crazy cinematic montage are available here, via Adi Robertson (The Verge).

The chess grandmasters pictured below are “social distancing” by staying at home and playing their rapid chess matches online (#magnusinvite), but truth be told, they’re all having a tough time not touching their faces! Julia Naftulin explains here why we are always touching our faces.