Monthly Archives: August 2011

The Unaddressed Question

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Jonathan

Sam Harris, in a followup post defending his call to use taxes to reduce income inequality, complains that his rich readers foolishly give themselves credit for their own well-being, failing to see that, in large part, they have other factors … Continue reading →

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Moral Absolutes

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Jonathan

I just read an essay by a guy named Jeremy Waldron who discusses “moral absolutes,” and attempts to defend his own “absolute” position against torture, i.e. the view that torture is always morally wrong, no matter the circumstances. He identifies … Continue reading →

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Sam Harris Weighs In on Income Inequality

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Jonathan

Sam Harris has a question about how conservatives would feel about extreme income inequality: And there is no reason to think that we have reached the upper bound of wealth inequality, as not every breakthrough in technology creates new jobs. … Continue reading →

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Warren Buffet’s Taxes

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Jonathan

After Warren Buffet suggested that rich people like him should pay more taxes, conservatives predictably encouraged him to voluntarily give more money to the government if he so desperately desires to do so. (E.g., from Michelle Bachmann: “If he’s worried … Continue reading →

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Government Inefficiency and Disrespect towards Citizens

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Jonathan

Here is the story of a Politico reporter who, taking Obama’s advice, tried to inquire with the USDA about rules and regulations related to noise pollution for farmers in Illinois. The reporter got passed around via phone and email from … Continue reading →

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Dice Puzzle

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Jonathan

Steve Landsburg has posted a puzzle about dice. I haven’t thought about it much and I don’t know whether I can solve it but it looks pretty good: A standard pair of six-sided dice induce a probability distribution on the … Continue reading →

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Vibe-based Reporting

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Jonathan

One point of contention in a debate about religion between Sam Harris, a prominent atheist, and Chris Hedges, the former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief, was the issue of how common among Muslims worldwide is the support for … Continue reading →

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Bug Eating

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Jonathan

From a New Yorker article on the movement to promote eating of bugs by people: Matthew Krisiloff, who just finished his freshman year at the University of Chicago, recently started a company called Entom foods, which is working on deshelling … Continue reading →

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Coin Flipping Puzzle

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Jonathan

Suppose your friend offers you the opportunity to play this game for free: Your friend will flip a biased coin 1000 times, which has a 60% chance of coming up heads each time, and a 40% chance of coming up tails. Every … Continue reading →

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Financial Advice which is Totally Bogus but Often Given

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Jonathan

We’ve all heard one form or other of the following bit of financial advice: “You should only invest in the stock market if you are going to leave your money in it for a long time.” It sounds sensible, but … Continue reading →

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