prior probability

Check out this ambitious “Syllabus for Generalists” created by Cristina Jerney, “an actor, technical writer, and pest based in London”. I say “ambitious” because week one alone covers algebra, geometry, trigonometry, the calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology, along with eight problem sets, three experiments, 29 texts, and dozens of suggested readings! Hat tip: @Kottke

This deadly storm (Milton) unleashed dozens of destructive tornadoes and knocked out power lines across the Florida peninsula, so I am going to call this surreal A.I.-generated image “The Last Stand of Siesta Key”. Hat tip: @DeebsFLA

My 2014 paper “Trolley Problems” surveys the two standard versions of the famous (infamous?) trolley problem and solves both versions with a novel thought-experiment of my own: an auction conducted from behind a Rawlsian veil of ignorance!

We dodged a bullet last month when Hurricane Helene veered toward North Florida, but now another major storm (Milton) is heading our way, so I won’t be blogging for the next few days.

I have just posted a revised and corrected draft of “Adam Smith in the City of Light“. Among other things, I have added my colleague and friend Alain Alcouffe as a co-author, for we have collaborated closely on this paper since June of this year. His comments have not only been invaluable; almost all of the revisions, corrections, and clarifications to the paper have been due to his good counsel. (A screenshot of our abstract pictured below.)

To commemorate the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre:

Via YouTube channel Great Art Explained; hat tip: Kottke.

The stark landscape, the humble simplicity of Father Anatoly, the remoteness of the monastery on the White Sea, and the miracles of his redemption converge into a timeless snapshot of lived spirituality. The Patriarch of Moscow, Alexei II, praised The Island for its profound depiction of faith and monastic life.

Sarah Conover

Although I loved The Island–the 2006 Russian film directed by Pavel Lungin, written by Dmitry Sobolev, and starring Pyotr Mamonov as a fictional 20th-century Eastern Orthodox monk–I am giving it three (out of five) stars because the resolution of the film is too pat. 

The movie begins with a tragic choice during wartime. It is 1942, a German destroyer captures a Russian coal station, and the Nazis round up the captain and his first mate. The Germans hand the first mate a gun and put him into an impossible moral dilemma: kill your captain, or we kill you.

The next time we meet our tragic sailor, it is 34 years later, and he is a monk who lives in a boiler room next to an Orthodox monastery on a remote island. He is now Father Anatoly, still atoning for his sin. He wears rags, toils all day, and refuses to follow to proper church rituals. As one reviewer puts it (Sarah Conover), “Is Father Anatoli a madman or a holy man? For most of the film we aren’t really sure. By the time the movie ends, we’ve likely made a decision.”