Brain Matter

Dec 1

“Take your average devout Christian, transport him back to the cave where the newly crucified Christ has just been laid to rest, ask him to predict whether this body is going to be resurrected in the next week or so, and somehow convince him that the lives of his children depend on getting the answer right—and I’ll bet that in most cases good old-fashioned materialism will displace religion in a hurry.” Steven E. Landsburg

Nov 18

“If his team had gotten the first down and the Patriots won, he would have gotten far less credit than he got blame for failing. This introduces what economists call a “principal-agent problem.” Even though going for it increases his team’s chance of winning, a coach who cares about his reputation will want to do the wrong thing. He will punt, just because he doesn’t want to be the goat. (I’ve seen the same thing in my research on penalty kicks in soccer; it looks like kicking it right down the middle is the best strategy, but it is so embarrassing when it fails that players don’t do it often enough.)” Bill Belichick Is Great - Freakonomics Blog

Nov 17

“When faced with a decision involving risk, people have an overwhelming tendency to make the supposedly safe choice—to err on the side of caution—even though doing so may lead to worse results.” Belichick Gets Heat for Not Punting - WSJ.com by Darren Everson

Nov 16

“The problem with Gladwell’s generalizations about prediction is that he never zeroes in on the essence of a statistical problem and instead overinterprets some of its trappings.” Malcolm Gladwell, Eclectic Detective - by Steve Pinker, NYT

“Good evening peepers, prowlers, pederasts, panty-sniffers, punks and pimps. I’m James Ellroy, the demon dog, the foul owl with the death growl, the white knight of the far right, and the slick trick with the donkey dick. I’m the author of 16 books, masterpieces all; they precede all my future masterpieces. These books will leave you reamed, steamed and drycleaned, tie-dyed, swept to the side, true-blued, tattooed and bah fongooed. These are books for the whole fuckin’ family, if the name of your family is the Manson Family.”

James Ellroy’s opening greeting in San Fran.

via Ben Casnocha

hilker:

southpol:

jeffmiller:

More in U.S. Say Health Coverage Is Not Gov’t. Responsibility

There are no libertarian leaders in power. There are no libertarian thinkers with an influential platform. And yet people are becoming more libertarian.

The lesson: There is no better advocate for limited government than incompetent government.

Or, the GOP and business interests will use libertarian-flavored arguments when it serves to derail Democratic proposals, then forget every one of them when they are running the show.

i think it’s a little of both. i also think there are some citizens who have always been against large government are increasingly pissed off & vocal about it.

Nov 13

The Happiness Genie

I need a more accurate definition of “friends.” If it only includes the top 10 or so, then I’d be happy to take the $10 million. If however, the line is very blurry, and lots and lots of people end up with $20 million, that will effectively turn my $10 million into $5 million. And yes, feeling the poorest amongst everyone I know would suck.

via Dilbert Blog

Are Too Many Students Going to College?

“Most college courses teach few useful job skills; their main function is to signal to employers that students are smart, hard-working, and conformist.”

I tend to agree with this, even though I was going to spend until 30 in school. I wrote to a friend on January 26, 2009:

I’m going to get a PhD

For fuck’s sake!

You know what PhD stands for?

“I’m way fucking smarter than you!!”

Except anyone who’s smart

Knows that’s a load of shit.

PhD stands for-

Willing to jump through hoops

And go through a process.

P.S. This is a fellow fisherman friend from Kodiak.

“I argue that dreaming is not a parallel state but that it is consciousness itself, in the absence of input from the senses”

- Dr. Rodolfo Llinás, a neurologist and physiologist at NYU from A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain in NYT.

via Marginal Revolution

Markets in Everything: 8 year old child custody for two Damien Hirsts edition

Kapernekas, a 49-year-old New York art dealer filed a suit in federal court in Manhattan claiming an interest in the two Hirsts, which have been valued at an estimated $47.6 million, court documents show. The custody suit, involving their 8-year- old daughter, was being heard in New York County Family Court.

Kapernekas has agreed to drop the federal suit and claims on the Hirsts in exchange for: custody of their daughter (Brandhorst gets visitation and vacation rights); a one-time payment of $100,000; a $500,000 trust for the daughter’s education; a loft on Wooster Street in Manhattan’s Soho district valued at about $5 million to be held in the daughter’s name as sole owner; $5,000 a month in child support; and $640,000 to cover Kapernekas’s legal expenses, according to Kapernekas.

The full story is here and the pointer is from Felix Salmon. Felix writes:

Need I add that one of the Hirsts is entitled “In this terrible moment we are victims clinging helplessly to an environment that refuses to acknowledge the soul”?

via Marginal Revolution

Brain Matter

My name is Stephen. This is my blog. There are many blogs like it, but this one is mine.

The Happiness Genie

Are Too Many Students Going to College?

Markets in Everything: 8 year old child custody for two Damien Hirsts edition