Posts tagged as:

QOTD

QOTD: hindsight edition

July 10, 2011

Kaiser Fung writes on uncertainty and thinking probabilistically about events that have already transpired. The full post is worth a read, but this line sticks out for me: The fact that you won the lottery does not change the fact that economically, it was silly to play the lottery in the first place. This fallacy pops [...]

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QOTD: asset allocation edition

November 10, 2009

After finding former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of misleading investors, one juror revealed just how convincing the defense had been: [Juror] Hong said that if she had money, she would invest it with Cioffi and Tannin.

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QOTD: cryptoracist edition

October 16, 2009

A Louisiana justice of the peace refused to marry an interracial couple. Trying to defend his actions, he then stated: "I try to treat everyone equally." The mind boggles.

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QOTD: March of Progress edition

May 18, 2009

Just received this gchat from MB: i'm on a virgin america flight with wifi And now I know exactly how Alexander Graham Bell felt when he called Mr. Watson in 1876.

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QOTD: cow tipping edition

May 13, 2009

Michelle Obama is speaking at UC Merced's commencement, and it is big news for the relatively low-profile school. But the best line from the NYT's coverage is this, describing the setting of the graduation activities: ...the campus, which sits in a former cattle field surrounded by hay-laden farmland and cows of unknown political leanings.

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QOTD: anecdotal evidence edition

April 21, 2009

Few things bother me more than the use of random or one-off stories as evidence. Reasoning like that does absolutely nothing to sway me, and I'll probably just mumble something about Taleb's Fooled by Randomness. In a somewhat related post, Megan McArdle put it succinctly: The plural of "anecdote" is not "data". Brilliant.

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QOTD: disgusting arrogance edition

April 20, 2009

Makes me angrier than anything yet (spotted over at AK): “No offense to Middle America, but if someone went to Columbia or Wharton, [even if] their company is a fumbling, mismanaged bank, why should they all of a sudden be paid the same as the guy down the block who delivers restaurant supplies for Sysco [...]

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