Some “scientists” are now claiming that drinking more than four cups of coffee per day can increase the risk of death in some persons. But, aside from the fact that most published research findings are false, here is prior probability‘s response (via xkcd):
xkcd.com
According to Bored Panda, this is what a political map of the world would have looked like during the Permian geological period 300 million years ago.
prior probability wonders what will the world look like 300 million years from now?
There has been a lot of talk lately, especially in the legal blogosphere, about the new Department of Justice (DOJ) policy on mandatory-minimum sentences for drug offenses. See, e.g., these posts on popehat, volokh, and simple justice. What many commentators are neglecting, however, is the bigger picture: the dubious constitutionality, absolute stupidity, and gross injustice of the failed and racist “war on drugs.” Instead of just reducing sentences for a small class of drug offenses, prior probability favors a bolder approach: Eric Holder and his DOJ lackeys should use their prosecutorial discretion to refuse to enforce these stupid and unjust laws in the first place. After all, just because Congress passes a law does not mean that the executive branch is required to enforce it.
Does the policy of “network neutrality” or NN really make any economic sense? Does NN not lead to a tragedy of the broadband commons?
Consider the Google Fiber project in Kansas City, Missouri. For Google Fiber to work, Google needs to distinguish and price discriminate between (i) ordinary or “low-capacity” users, who move lower volumes of data through the network, and (ii) commercial or “high-capacity” users, who run greater volumes of data through the network.
But many smart people don’t understand this problem. Consider, for example, the opening lines of this recent report: “When Google was just a mighty search engine, the company championed an open, unfettered Internet. Now that it’s selling ultra-fast broadband Internet and TV service in Kansas City, Mo., with plans to repeat the service elsewhere, the tech giant bars customers from hosting servers on the Google Fiber network without written permission.”
But if ordinary consumers want to have access to Google Fiber at one low price, Google has to make this distinction between regular and commercial uses of the network and enforce this rule.
In her beautiful book American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, Pauline Maier, a historian at MIT who died on Monday of lung cancer, described Thomas Jefferson as “the most overrated person in American history.” Is this statement a classic case of revisionism from a bookish scholar with no sense of reality or an accurate assessment of a man who avoided active combat during the entire course of the Revolutionary War? At the very least, TJ has to be one of the most ironic, if not hypocritical, men in our history: the author of “all men are created equal” owned as many as 177 slaves when he wrote those (empty?) words …
prior probability asks, what’s wrong with this famous picture? Who was left out at the Founding of the Republic?
Note: prior probability is reblogging this TED post because the visuals are so cool … By the way, do we really need standard universities, with their aloof professors and textbook rip-offs, when we have TED?
The Times is reporting that one of Banksy‘s public art works, “Flower Girl,” which features the silhouette of a girl peering up at a security camera, is going to be auctioned soon by Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California. According to the Times, Banksy, a street artist from Britain, had stenciled the mural on a wall of a gas station in Los Angeles in 2008.
prior probability asks, doesn’t street art belong to the public, and if so, is this proposed auction legal?
Last week, the White House announced that master politician and blow-job connoisseur Bill Clinton as well as billionaire TV mogul Oprah Winfrey, among others, will be awarded the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
But aside from their real or perceived contributions to the cause of freedom, both Clinton and Oprah are so rich and famous that they don’t really need another prize, do they? So here’s my “modest proposal”: Why don’t Clinton and Oprah do the right thing and donate their “freedom medals” to more deserving persons, like Private Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden (or both!), who, after all, are making real sacrifices for our freedoms?
Maybe next year!
Image Credit: http://www.popularresistance.org/manning-and-snowden-show-way-to-a-better-united-states/
Maybe so, but under what legal theory? According to TMZ and this report in the New York Post,
* Alex Rodriguez hasn’t “knowingly” used PEDs since 2003.
* A-Rod has been tested no less than 11 times since 2011 and all his tests have come back negative.
* He feels “persecuted” (compare the length of his suspension, 211 games, with that of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun, 65 games).
* There’s “no proof” that A-Rod impeded MLB’s drug investigation.
These are good points, but again, if A-Rod were to sue MLB, in which court should he sue (federal or state?) and what legal theory (e.g. intentional interference with contractual relations?) could he use to get past summary judgement and get his case to trial?
talkshoe.com
Can you think of a way of improving the quality of lawyer ads? Perhaps a course on “The Fundamentals of Advertising” should be a mandatory part of the law school curriculum for One-Ls …
By the way, here is Breaking Bad‘s Bob Odenkirk judging crappy local lawyer ads.
Hat tip: Walter Olson of Overlawyered
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