Do you consume more electricity than your neighbors? How about when compared to the national average? Via the amazing Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution. Read more about “nudge theory” here.
The artist who created this beautiful 
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Blogs I Follow
Nudge theory in practice? (Singapore utility bill edition)
Two cheers for Lee Kuan Yew …
A pragmatic politician, a benevolent despot (he was prime minister of polyglot Singapore for 31 years), or … the most influential statesman of our time? (Image courtesy of The Encyclopaedia Britannica.)
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Current Affairs, Economics, History, Law, Politics
Tagged Economic Development, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore
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Sweet Spot
Via reddit, what’s your sweet spot? Ours is teaching …
Posted in Questions Rarely Asked
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77,777 miles
Our sturdy 1993 Jeep Wrangler (pictured above), built in Colorado with six cylinders and manual transmission, recently reached a milestone: 77,777 miles … Continue reading
St Patrick’s Bell
In honor of St Patrick’s Day, check out this paper “St Patrick’s Bell Shrine: Form and Layout of the Plates” written by Robert D. Stevick published in 2008 in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Vol. 138, pp. 26-46). Also, via the National Museum of Ireland, here is a picture of St Patrick’s bell and its shrine:
“Yes, the song was taught to us …”
Are we born racists, or do we learn racism from others? In his letter of apology to his fellow students at the University of Oklahoma, Parker Rice–one of the students expelled from OU for singing this racist and despicable song–confesses that “the song was taught to us.” We sincerely hope his classmates will accept his apology and give him an opportunity to make amends, but this startling confession begs the question: By whom? Who taught you this song? In other words, the infamous SAE song has a history. (In fact, the song and its connection to SAE should not surprise us. Google “Sigma Alpha Epsilon” and you will learn that it was “the first national fraternity to be established in the deep south, having been founded at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, on 9 March 1856.”) … but in the meantime, do you think David Boren, the President of the University of Oklahoma (and the proverbial “adult in the room,” so to speak), is simply “scapegoating” Mr Rice for the sins of the South? Is that fair?
prior probability 