prior probability

Check out the website “Beautiful News Daily” for additional infographics. (Hat tip: @kottke.)

My cousin Natalia Renee Mastache, a graphic designer & illustrator from Miami, painted the self-portrait pictured below. Check out more of her work here.

One of my favorite Spanish pop songs of all time, the song “Sólo Quédate en Silencio” was officially released 15 years ago on 2 December 2004 by the now-defunct band RBD. Below is the “WalMart Soundcheck Version,” which was released in 2006:

Given that millions of people will be boarding commercial aircraft this holiday season, we have compiled below three of our previous blog posts that may be of interest to the flying public:

1. What is the fastest way to board an airplane? (7 August 2013).
2. Why are airline boarding procedures so inefficient? (29 April 2014).
3. The science of aircraft boarding (24 July 2014).

Also, check out the bonus video below:

Let me be clear, I am on the side of the Native Americans (see here, for example), but that said, let me recount the five things I am most thankful for:

1. I am grateful for my mother and father–Oilda Antonia & Francisco Florentino–who taught me that love has no limits and who made so many great sacrifices so that I would receive a decent education. May we one day return to a free and prosperous Cuba!

2. I am grateful for being blessed with four extraordinary children–Adela, Aritiza, Adys, and Kleber–who are all healthy, smart, and full of potential. May we one day all be reunited in our beloved Puerto Rico!

3. I am grateful for my wife Sydjia, for her love and loyalty. May we one day renew our vows in my adopted home of Jamaica!

4. I am grateful for La Catolica in Ponce, PR and UCF in Orlando, FL, for providing me the opportunity to teach. May you one day grant me tenure!

5. Last but not least, as a scholar of constitutional law, I am thankful for our enduring Constitution. May she last another 130 years!

During the last ten years (2009-2019), I authored or co-authored the following ten papers in which I applied the methods of game theory (i.e. strategic decision-making) to a wide variety of legal and political questions:

1. A game-theoretic analysis of public-private contracts in the water sector (2009). I presented this paper at the National University of Singapore in July of 2009.

2. El caso de Puerto Rico: a game-theoretic analysis of the Puerto Rican status debate (2010). I presented this paper at a LatCrit conference at American University in October of 2010.

3. Modelling the Coase Theorem (2012). This was my second peer-reviewed research article, which was published in Volume 5, Issue 2 of The European Journal of Legal Studies.

4. Evade or comply? (2014). This work in progress models the strategic decision whether to evade or comply with the law.

5. The evolutionary path of the law (2014). This paper reviews Ullica Segerstråle’s beautiful biography of evolutionary biologist W. D. (Bill) Hamilton.

6. Does the prisoner’s dilemma refute the Coase Theorem? (2014). This paper, co-authored with my friend and colleague Orlando Martinez, relaxes some assumptions about the prisoner’s dilemma in order to allow Coasian bargaining between the prisoners.

7. The poker-litigation game (2015). This paper presents a simple game-theoretic model of litigation.

8. Law is a battlefield: the Colonel Blotto litigation game (2016). This draft paper presents a more complex game-theoretic model of litigation.

9. Condorcet’s Paradox and Puerto Rico Status (2019). This draft paper models the Puerto Rico status debate as a voting paradox.

10. So long suckers: bargaining and betrayal in Breaking Bad (2019). This is my most recent game theory paper. It presents a four-player bargaining game called “So long suckers” in order to model strategic negotiations and unenforceable agreements.

If you want to look “under the hood” and learn about the nuts and bolts of game theory, check this online course on “Game Theory” led by Professor Ben Polak (Yale) or this online course on “Model Thinking” led by Scott Page (Michigan). Suffice it to say I am grateful for the opportunities I have had to learn about game theory and build my own simple game-theoretic models. Enjoy!

Source: Jesus Rodriguez, via Medium.

Check out this beautiful tribute by Gerald Dworkin to the late G. A. (Jerry) Cohen (pictured below). Here is one excerpt:

We had contests to see who could come up with the best question after a philosophical paper. Jerry’s best–“I would like to make a distinction here. Unfortunately, I cannot think of one.” We would make up titles for philosophical articles. Mine: an article criticizing John Stuart Mill and his father “The Dark Satanic Mills.” Jerry’s: an article by Norman Malcolm (a rather phlegmatic man who wrote on the logic of dreaming) “Am I , all appearances notwithstanding, not Dreaming?”

And here is another:

I presented Jerry with Nozick’s famous Wilt Chamberlin example: If each of his fans chose to contribute money freely to Wilt in order to watch him play, and as a result his income was far above that of his teammates, what could be wrong about the resulting inequality of income? It was, in Nozick’s phrase, simply capitalism among consenting adults. Jerry’s eventual reply was , very roughly, what they consented to were individual transaction not the consequences of the eventual inequality.

Happy Thanksgiving. (Hat tip: @AgnesCallard.)

For those of you who are as fascinated by drug deals and narcocorridos (Mexican drug ballads) as I am, check out this fun Ipse Dixit podcast (episode #427) with yours truly hosted by the inimitable Brian Frye. Also, here is a link (via SSRN) to the most recent version of my work in progress “Breaking Bad Promises.” Enjoy!