Emil O. W. Kirkegaard blog
Very interesting two papers by Somin! I will definitely check out his other stuff when i have time. I just took the time off reading papers before i start reading book #2 on patents (Against Intellectual Monopoly). Deliberative Democracy and Political Ignorance – ABSTRACT: Advocates of ‘‘deliberative democracy’’ want citizens to actively participate in…
Continue ReadingKnowledge About Ignorance New Directions in the Study of Political Information Quotes from If political ignorance is rational and most voters choose not to learn much about politics for that reason, widespread ignorance is a phenom- enon that democracies will probably have to live with for the foresee- able future. The challenge for democracy…
Continue ReadingSome quotes from Giving Debiasing Away: Can Psychological Research on Correcting Cognitive Errors Promote Human Welfare? by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Rachel Ammirati, and Kristin Landfield. I was happy to learn that Lilienfeld is part of the neorational movement! I have already read one of his books, 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions…
Continue ReadingFollowing recent news that Google will start downgrading sites that have received many DMCA complaints, it is time to show Google why this system is hopeless. To do so, we must game the system, to show how it doesn’t work. To avoid collateral damage, we do so by using it against Google’s own services. Youtube,…
Continue ReadingCertainly every person with an interest in patents shud read this book. It is rather clearly written, it is not overly long (260 pages), has a good use of illustrations. The authors take an admireable clear-headed, disinterested, empirical look at the patent system. I definitely recommend this book. James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer –…
Continue Readinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalienable_possession In linguistics, inalienable possession refers to the linguistic properties of certain nouns or nominal morphemes based on the their always being possessed. The semantic underpinning is that entities like body parts and relatives do not exist apart from a possessor. For example, a hand implies (someone’s) hand, even if it is severed from the…
Continue Readinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybristophilia Hybristophilia “is a paraphilia of the predatory type in which sexual arousal, facilitation, and attainment of orgasm are responsive to and contingent upon being with a partner known to have committed an outrage, or crime, such as rape, murder, or armed robbery.” The term is derived from the Greek word “hybridzein,” meaning “to commit…
Continue ReadingIn general, this book is full of repetitions, and so it can easily get boring to read. The book shud have been 50-100 pages shorter, then it wud have been much better. Aside from that, the book is okay. I wudnt particularly recommend reading it, but i wudnt particularly recommend not reading it either. Altho…
Continue Readinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics Freakonomics expanded In general, this book is not so bad. But it is not so good either. Light nonfiction reading. I didnt read it for any particular reason other than curiosity and knowing that it wudnt take long anyway. Chapter 2 An analysis of the language used in real-estate ads shows that certain words…
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