Magnus Carlsen is the 2014 FIDE World Chess Champion

From the comments (ZyTelevan): “Rb4 ‘killed’ Anand. Before that move the engines evaluated around -0.5, but after the rook sacrifice the evaluation skyrocketed for Carlsen. The game would look better in different circumstances, but in the context of this [World Championship], game 11 was a very, very disappointing game. I don’t think I am the only one who expected something spectacular in game 12 from Anand.” Our sentiments exactly!

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NYC subway signs as art

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Human-dolphin cooperation

Cooperation often occurs in the most unexpected places. Check out this original research paper — “The structure of a bottlenose dolphin society is coupled to a unique foraging cooperation with artisanal fisherman” — by , and 

 Social network of dolphins

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Legislative lotteries?

Did you know the U.S. House of Representatives uses a lottery to allocate office space to its new members? Why doesn’t the Congress use a lottery system for budget appropriations as well? By way of example, why not (a) set aside a fixed amount of revenues for such things as defense, agricultural subsidies, or social-welfare spending and then (b) allocate monies to specific programs within each category through a lottery? If properly designed, a lottery system of budget appropriations, by inserting a high degree of randomness into the process, could reduce the overall level of legislative rent-seeking behavior.

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NFL teams ranked by fines paid

Thanks to Jody Sieradzki for creating this informative map.

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Markets in infrastructure?

Why not? ‘s eloquent essay “Here’s an idea better than net neutrality” is by far the best thing we have read on this well-worn subject in some time. Spoiler alert: Mr Cusick recommends a market approach to Internet service. (Hat tip to the amazing Tyler Cowen for the pointer; image below courtesy of the Pew Center.)

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Derek Jeter table

Jeter era shortstops

Thanks to Andrew Mearns for creating this awesome table.

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Chess blitz

Round 9 of the 2014 FIDE World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand ended in a draw after just 20 moves. Note Anand’s 12th move in this game. Addendum (Nov. 22): Game 10 also ended in another draw.

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Legal confidence men

Jane Hu explains in this excellent essay why so-called “scientific jury selection” is not really scientific. But her essay misses the most compelling reason why trial consultants are basically high-priced charlatans: there is no way testing or falsifying their predictions! Karl Popper, anyone?

What would Popper say?
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Paper airplane tutorial

Hat tip to kottke for the pointer.

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