Category Archives: Law & Society

A quick look at congestion tolling for Boston

I’ve written in these pages before about creating a cordon-type congestion charging zone (à la London) for Boston, and argued for it to be geographically quite large to reduce shunpiking. And I’ve also supported doubling the motor fuels tax — … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2019-09-05 by | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

What’s Wrong with Metcalfe’s Law?

Posted on 2018-02-12 by

In a recent Medium post derived from a talk he gave at private invitation-only event for the IT industry, Dan Hon presents one view of Metcalfe’s Law, the theory espoused by Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe that “the value of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Law & Society | Tagged

Interlude: a better way of choosing presidential electors?

Posted on 2017-05-13 by

In a bitterly contested U.S. presidential election, like the one last year, the question often comes up about the perceived unfairness of the Electoral College, the system of indirect democracy we use for electing presidents. Every state is entitled to … Continue reading →

Posted in Law & Society | Tagged , | 3 Comments

One more day in 2016 for charitable giving

Posted on 2016-12-30 by

If, like many people in the United States and elsewhere, you give money to charities at the end of the year, you have only a few hours left. (Note that for tax purposes, a gift made using a payment card … Continue reading →

Posted in Broadcasting & Media, FreeBSD, Law & Society | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Quote of the Day

Posted on 2016-12-26 by

Hey, it’s been a really long time since I posted a quote of the day. So here’s one for you all: A society in which smart, hard-working young people with generic ambitions tend to become hedge fund and private equity … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2016-12-26 by | Tagged , ,

So what just happened?

Posted on 2016-11-09 by

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, and haven’t had a whole lot of time or energy for baking. But we just had this, um, shocking result in an election, and I wanted to put a few words down about it. Everything … Continue reading →

Posted in Language, Law & Society, States of mind | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Quote of the day

Posted on 2016-09-17 by

(A teacher in a sorcery school is giving an impromptu lecture:) “Each of you may live a long time; each of you is of significant strength. You could do good, if you could judge all the consequences of what you … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2016-09-17 by | Tagged ,

Protest-vote idiocy

I stumbled across some whiners on Twitter today who hate their country so muchhate Hillary Clinton so much that they would rather have their vote not count at all, or worse, throw the election to Donald Trump, rather than vote … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2016-08-01 by | Tagged

Quote of the day: One of many things wrong with the Internet industry

Posted on 2016-02-15 by

This has been making the rounds of, yes, social media — at least among the lefty circles I move in — and will appear soon in the paper New York Review of Books: [MIT psychologist Sherry] Turkle argues against using … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2016-02-15 by | Tagged , ,

Quote of the day: Fred Vultee on the usual suspects

Posted on 2015-11-18 by

Wayne State journalism prof. Fred Vultee is always good for a line when it comes to the depraved weasels at Fox News: Outrage appears to have a lot more to do with who you are than with the scale of … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2015-11-18 by