prior probability

Via kottke, we discovered this comprehensive database of 1,157 NBA hardwood courts complied by Flickr user kodrinsky. His online collection includes pro-basketball courts for every NBA team dating back to the 1950s, and it documents changes in arena names, team logos, free-throw lane layouts, paint schemes, sponsors, and even wood patterns! Below, by way of example, are the courts for the Denver Nuggets from the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons.

“And who here is to do the regulating? Government is one of the biggest violators of our privacy, and also a driving force behind electronic medical records, another massive medical privacy violator (for better or worse) …. The governmental system of identity and privacy is based around the absurdity of using Social Security numbers. Government software is generations behind the cutting edge and OPM was hacked very badly, not to mention Snowden made away with all that [classified!] information. And government is to be the new privacy guardian?” In other words, who is the lesser evil? Facebook or the Feds?

–Tyler Cowen (emphasis in the original, via Marginal Revolution)

How much would you be willing pay Facebook or Google to use their Internet platforms without being subjected to ads? (Hint: “$0” and “they should pay me” are the wrong answers.) Geoffrey A. Fowler poses this thought-provoking question in this excellent essay (via The Washington Post). Here is an excerpt from his essay (with editorial comments by us in brackets):

Today, Zuckerman calls advertising “the Internet’s original sin.” Facebook doesn’t sell our data, but it uses it to sell marketers highly targeted access to us. These ads pay for billions of people to get information and have a voice online. But they also create an online world where surveillance is the norm and we’re not fully in control of data about us. And to compete [with whom, though?] Facebook has [has?] to keep collecting data like a hungry, hungry hippo. It started with what we post on Facebook, but grew to include what you do when you surf the Web and use other apps. It even lets marketers marry their own data with what Facebook has in its dossier. When I recently downloaded all my Facebook data (which anyone can do here), it included a frightening list of “Advertisers with your contact info.” Mine had a lot of giant corporations and … and Britney Spears.

In other words, people: there are no free lunches! If we want privacy, how much is it going cost us?

Update (4/12/18): The Fox

Hat tip: The Amazing Tyler Cowen

Our favorite line (sung too Cardi B’s Bodak Yellow) is, “The tax code is the worst thing scribbled since Ben Affleck’s back tattoo …”

Below the fold is an extended excerpt from this excellent essay by Kai Stinchcombe: Continue reading →

Julia Angwin suggests “four ways to fix Facebook” in this essay. We restate and then critique each one of her suggestions below: Continue reading →

Below the fold are two fun quotes comparing and contrasting civil law versus common law approaches to judging via the Volokh Conspiracy: Continue reading →

We are so over Facebook, and we don’t use Instagram or Snap, but we have really grown to love Twitter. Below the fold is just a small sampling of some of our favorite Twitter accounts on our Twitter feed (@lawscholar): Continue reading →