prior probability

Check out all of Max Roser’s weighted population maps here, via the website “Our World in Data”. (Hat tip: kottke.)

Credit: Max Roser

Via Channel NewsAsia: “China’s highest paid movie star Fan Bingbing … has not been seen in public since July …. The 36-year-old actress has been a household name in China for years and tasted Hollywood success with a role in the 2014 blockbuster ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. *** But she has gone quiet in recent months, following allegations of tax evasion. In [a] report by Beijing Normal University published earlier this month, 100 Chinese stars including popular actor Jackie Chan and award-winning actress Zhang Ziyi were ranked according to their professional work, charity work, and personal integrity. But with a pass requiring a score of more than 60 per cent, only nine celebrities made the cut, with Chinese actor Xu Zheng topping the list at 78. [Ms Bingbing] had a score of zero.” (Hat tip: Tyler Cowen. Credit for the image below: Fergus Ryan.)

Why do we still have to remove our shoes at airports, and when will we defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan? We are linking to our 9/11 post from two years ago, which in turn re-blogged Robin Hanson’s eloquent post on this matter. In brief, aren’t public commemorations of 9/11 defeatist and counter-productive, sending the wrong signal to the enemies of the U.S.? Isn’t it time to move on? If not, when?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was powered up for the first time on this day 10 years ago! #Science

Is the op-ed a hoax, or is there really a presidential nanny in the White House? According to one prediction market (see screenshot below), the top three suspects are VP Mike Pence, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. You can place your bets on this website (mybookie.ag). But hurry, you have until 9 September to place a bet!

Read the full story here, via our friend and colleague Brian Frye, a law professor at the University of Kentucky. Below is one tantalizing excerpt:

The Zapruder film is not only the most important home movie ever made, but also the most thoroughly analyzed 26 seconds of film in existence. Shortly after noon on Friday, November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. At least 32 people filmed or photographed some aspect of the event, but Abraham Zapruder captured the assassination itself more clearly and completely than anyone else…. [But copyright law] made it largely unavailable to the public until 1998.

Socialism for me but not for thee? Following up on this post by our friend and colleague “LawProfBlawg” (@lawprofblawg), we wish to pose the following simple question: why aren’t any law school faculties willing to implement true egalitarian principles or willing to operate along socialist lines by treating all faculty equal? Given the pervasiveness of “liberal” (i.e. leftist) faculty at most U.S. law schools (see chart below), the feudal hierarchy dividing full professors, associate professors, assistant professors (not to mention the divide between legal writing instructors and doctrinal instructors) is a moral scandal. Are these arcane hierarchies the product of path dependence, or are they the end result of something more sinister, like hypocrisy?

Via Cliff Pickover (@pickover): “Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. Imagine sailing, with someone you love, on its methane sea. (The sea, pictured here [below], is about the size of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes of North America.)” More details here.