Who owns street art?

Posted on August 15, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

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?

Julien’s Auctions, via Associated Press
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Don’t Manning and Snowden deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom more than Clinton or Oprah?

Posted on August 15, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

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/

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Should #13 sue Major League Baseball?

Posted on August 15, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

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

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Why are lawyer ads so lame?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

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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Is Richard Dawkins an Islamophobe?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

Check out his popular Twitter account and decide for yourself …

libcom.org

(Andrew Brown of the Guardian has some thoughts on this matter too.)

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The logic of the world wide web

Posted on August 14, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

Can anyone explain the economic logic of the world wide web to prior probability? (If you are an economist, just leave and close the door behind you.) Traditional business firms provide private goods and services at some positive (non-negative) price. What happens, however, when the price falls to zero? Economic theory predicts zero supply. Yet the world wide web follows a different logic. For example, check out this cool graphic from designtaxi. It’s amazing how some of the best websites on the internet, like Youtube, WordPress, and Google Search, are free.

Hat tip: David Zetland
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Is “global warming” bullshit?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

The National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released this State of the Climate: Extreme Events chart. Click on the dot on the bottom of the chart and you will find this amazing heading:

<<Record High Antarctic Sea Ice>>

WTF? The NOAA’s chart further states that “Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent grew to 7.51 million square miles (19.44 million square kilometers) at the winter maximum on September 26, 2012, setting a new record high. The September 2012 monthly average was also a record high, at 19.39 million square kilometers (7.49 million square miles) slightly higher than the previous record in 2006.” Double WTF? So are the climate skeptics right? Is “global warming” a scientific scam?

Hat tip to P. Gosselin.

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Afghan opium

Posted on August 13, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

One oft-forgotten aspect of the war in Afghanistan are the (futile?) efforts of NATO and the US Armed Forces to eradicate the supply of opium. What if, instead of trying to eradicate the supply of Afghan opium through military force or coercion, the US and her Allies were to take a market or property-rights approach by buying out the entire supply of opium? In this interesting paper, David Zetland, an economist living in Amsterdam, considers what would happen to the market price of heroin if the US agreed to buy out the opium harvest from Afghan suppliers.

http://www.tumblr.com

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Oprah’s handbag

Posted on August 12, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

Three Questions:

#1 Is it ethical to manufacture, sell, or buy a product made from crocodiles?

#2 Regardless of your answer to #1 above, was Oprah Winfrey the victim of racism or classism (or both) in the Swiss city of Zurich, when a shop girl refused to show Oprah an expensive ($38,000 USD) crocodile handbag?

(Here is Oprah’s side of the story: “I was in Zurich the other day, in a store whose name I will not mention. *** I go into a store and I say to the woman, ‘Excuse me, may I see the bag right above your head?’ and she says to me, ‘No. It’s too expensive.'” And here is the shop girl’s side of the story.)

#3 Does your response to question #1 have any impact on your answer to question #2?

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Bayesian baseball

Posted on August 11, 2013 by F. E. Guerra-Pujol

File:Yasiel Puig 2.jpg

If you are a baseball fan, you might know the batting average or on-base percentage (OBP) of your favorite player, such as Yasiel Puig or Dustin Pedroia (two of prior probability‘s favorite players). But do you know your favorite player’s “Run Production Average” or RPA? According to Mike Gimbel, one of the pioneers in the field of sabermetrics (or the use of statistical methods to analyze player performance in baseball games), “The RPA is a comprehensive rating that takes into account offensive ability, defensive ability, pitching, the position played, the stadium where the performance took place, the age of the player and even his minor league performance.” More precisely, the RPA is a combined statistic that assigns the following weights to each of the following events:

Single = .29 runs
Double      = .41 runs
Triple      = .70 runs
Home Run      = 1.44 runs
Walk, Hit-By-Pitch (HBP) & Reached-on-an-error      = .165 runs
Extra Base taken as a runner      = .075 runs
Stolen Base, Wild Pitch & Balk      = .100 runs
Caught Stealing & Picked-off      = -.165 runs
Ground into Double Play      = -.165 runs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more on the life and times of Mike Gimbel, check out this recent article by Hua Hsu on Grantland

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