MetaFilter posts tagged with risk

a coherent platform for the grand new party?

kliuless — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:01:55 -0800

Keeping America's Edge (via) While the prescriptions are stock conservative boilerplate, I found the diagnosis remarkably congruent with, say, David Simon, altho I have my (not so minor) quibbles that 1) the US faces an existential threat from "those who oppose our values" -- if anything, it's the other way around -- and that 2) he doesn't properly account for regulatory capture, i.e. for libertarianism to be "roughly true in practice" we need something approaching perfect competition and there is far from a level playing field, moreover, "the political system seems incapable of addressing large-scale objective problems." BONUS -America's broken colleges -Do liberals have it wrong on inequality? -Asteroid Deflection as a Public Good -Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy [1,2,3] -Reforms to help China maintain growth [1,2,3]

Two words: business school.

boo_radley — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:22:31 -0800

Why can't Americans make things?

The "boy-killing, man-mutilating, money-making, education-prostituting, gladiatorial sport."

phrontist — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:55:54 -0800

Does american football unavoidably lead to brain damage over time? Does a culture favoring perseverance at the expense of well being begin in high school?

Making Space Omelettes

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:59:33 -0800

Last Tuesday, The Augstine Commission - an independent council created earlier this year to study NASA's human spaceflight objectives - released their findings. While many are responding to the report's grim findings on NASA's budget woes, former aerospace engineer Rand Simberg has a criticism of his own: "If our attitude toward the space frontier is that we must strive to never, ever lose anyone, it will remain closed. If our ancestors who opened the west, or who came from Europe, had such an attitude, we would still be over there, and there would have been no California space industry to get us to the moon forty years ago. It has never been 'safe' to open a frontier, and this frontier is the harshest one that we've ever faced."

Death Risk Rankings

OmieWise — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:57:19 -0800

"Death Risk Rankings calculates your risk of dying in the next year and allows you to compare that risk to others in the world." Fun with mortality data and statistics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Cell time for cellphone drivers?

storybored — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:33:00 -0800

“We’ve spent billions on air bags, antilock brakes, better steering, safer cars and roads, but the number of fatalities has remained constant,” said David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and a leading researcher in the field of distracted driving. “Our return on investment for those billions is zero,” he added. “And that’s because we’re using [cellphone and messaging] devices in our cars.” Despite an estimated death toll of up to 2600 each year, attempts to ban device use has made little headway. Regardless of how you feel about cellphone bans, Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman had this insightful comment : “There are so many things that can be forbidden. The stranger thing is that we believe everything that isn’t forbidden is allowed.”

Is Silicon Valley a systemic risk?

thedailygrowl — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:02:08 -0800

Is Silicon Valley a systemic risk? Treasury decides to treat venture capitalists like hedge funds The Obama administration wants to regulate venture capital firms to prevent systemic risks. Silicon Valley residents are scratching their heads and asking: What risks? The rest of us should ask why Washington is targeting a jewel of the American economy that had nothing to do with the housing bubble.

Fixing the Financial System

up in the old hotel — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:34:15 -0800

“There has been a failure of risk management to a point that is mind boggling." Obama advisor Paul Volker and the Group of 30 have issued a deceptively simple framework for fixing our financial problems.

Everybody wants to rule the world...

schyler523 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:45:17 -0800

Enjoy Risk? Then you may like Strategy Game Network [requires registration.] Strategy Game Network has similar gameplay and in addition to the classic map, there are many alternative maps. With 24 hour turn limits it isn't a huge time sink, just play a few minutes a day.

But if the vaults are empty, what will Scrooge McDuck swim in?

Asparagirl — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:58:40 -0800

According to the latest biweekly numbers released last Thursday by the Federal Reserve, for the two weeks that ended January 16th American banks had negative $1.3 billion in non-borrowed reserves. This is, historically, extremely unusual; just two months ago they had $30 billion (positive, of course) in non-borrowed reserves. The only reason some banks haven't been shut due to insufficient -- negative! -- reserve requirements is that the Federal Reserve is currently loaning them enough money through the brand new TAF (Term Auction Facility) program (also running in Canada and Europe) to make up their shortfalls. Today's TAF press release says that 52 American banks or institutions are currently receiving loans totaling ~$40 billion -- but the Fed refuses to name who they are. The banks' collateral for these TAF loans are those same yucky hard-to-price CDO's that caused the banks' liquidity problems in the first place -- and the Fed is purposely using outdated prices for the collateral to prevent their being marked-to-market and thus collapsing CDO prices and freezing matters even further. Not surprisingly, some economists see the creation of the TAF as a backdoor bailout of banks in trouble. But how much longer can this go on? [via] Coincidentally (one hopes), the banking system in the virtual online world Second Life has just collapsed following a run on their banks due to inappropriate valuations and bad counterparty risk, wiping out many players' real-world investments...

CONQUER CLUB

Dr.James.Orin.Incandenza — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:12:42 -0800

"You're a goddamn cheat Chris!"* were a string of words shouted at most of my childhood family reunions. For decades the males of my extend family have vented their most masculine, primordial, and often intoxicated angst around this small board. Today we find ourselves dispersed - DC, Florida, Rwanda, Los Angeles, etc - unable to throw temper tantrums over the loss Irkutsk. That is, until we discovered: THE CONQUER CLUB _{* I have no relation to these people}

Landmine! Has taken my dice, taken my land, taken my gamepiece!

Eideteker — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 18:08:34 -0800

Remember Dice Wars? Remember how everyone wanted it to be multiplayer? Well, Ryan Dewsbury, creator of gpokr, has loosed kdice on the world. Your gpokr login works for kdice, too. (via jayisgames)

I'll put $300 on Diabetes

bove — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 10:52:12 -0800

Your Disease Risk is an interesting new website that quantifies your risk of contracting various diseases. From a Wall Street Journal story on the site: "The site goes beyond the standard questions about age, cholesterol and family history and explores the variety of lifestyle choices, environmental issues and other factors that can influence health risk. The questions are based on risk factors that have been established through credible scientific studies."

Dice War is Six Sided Hell

jonson — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 17:50:18 -0800

Dice Wars is a flash game, similar to Risk. The goal is to conquer the entire board. Start easy, with just the two player version (play goes up to 7 players max). In order to "win" a square, the randomized total of your die roll must be higher than your opponent's total. Tie/Lose, and all your dice (but one) are removed from your square. After each turn, the number of dice you earned is randomly distributed among your conquered squares. Strategically, it's good to build a solid base of contiguous squares, and staff your front lines with more dice than your edge squares.

Logical Risks

alms — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:02:00 -0800

Answer three ~~simple~~ tricky questions and predict your sensitivity to risk. via Washington Monthly

Deafening silence over GAO e-voting report, new evidence of abuse.

dinsdale — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:18:57 -0800

Mainstream Media to American Democracy: Drop Dead! Brad Friedman ask alarming questions about the complete lack of attention which has been paid to the GAO report on electronic voting technology (PDF link) released more than a month ago, which confirms what security experts have been saying for years: these systems are vulnerable to multiple independent attacks targeting system and network vulnerabilities, access controls, hardware controls, and overall management practices. If you're short of time, at least read Rep. Waxman's fact sheet summary.

Ultimately, there is no real security on these machines; the report shows that overturning election results would not be at all difficult for even a single moderately skilled attacker. And now Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are wondering if American Democracy has died an electronic death in the wake of massive discrepancies between final pre-election opinion polls and the results of several citizen initiatives designed to reform Ohio's electoral processes.

Take a RISK

KevinSkomsvold — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 07:30:35 -0800

Play RISK using Google Maps. From the FAQ: For some reason I decided a bit after the API for Google Maps came out that it would be awesome to be able to play Risk on it... I've always been a gamer and thought this was the perfect step.

Acceptable risk

lupus_yonderboy — Wed, 18 May 2005 21:16:16 -0800

Acceptable risk

(from these guys again).

titboy — Mon, 28 Oct 2002 12:40:22 -0800

Here is an excellent article on Rationality versus Values. Personally though, I'd rather be free of more mundane risks such as traffic accidents than say, extraordinary risks such as being held hostage in a theatre... but that's just my opinion.

humuhumu — Thu, 03 Oct 2002 03:34:23 -0800

Gambling Online a risky business... It is also big business. There are thousands of casinos out there, and the Vegas heavyweights are now starting to come on-line (though not for American players). The business has got its fair share of sharks and evil operators, but there's an awful lot of internet gamblers out there. A recent bill got through the House of Representatives outlawing on-line gaming in the US (though it probably won't get through the Senate to become law). Are any mefi's out there regular on-line gamblers? What do you think of current developments? The government says nuh-uh, but the players and the casinos say more tables! more slots! more spins!

feelinglistless — Sat, 23 Feb 2002 15:44:41 -0800

Steve McCurry has spent his life looking for beauty in warzones. This flash site pulls together some of his most vivid images, including the iconic image of a young girl from Afganistan. But his work hasn't been without a few dangers: "I've had a couple of close calls in my career, but part of my brain that's concerned with self-preservation is very large. I was almost drowned in India and I was in an airplane crash in Yugoslavia, where I found myself about 10 feet underwater. Miraculously, I was able to swim out from underneath the seatbelt. But I came within a fraction of an inch of not making it. I'd rather take the risk and have the adventure, than to be timid and not take those risks ... It's the best life."

kittyloop — Wed, 28 Nov 2001 14:38:35 -0800

In praise of bad habits. Interesting lecture that postulates our bad habits make us human, and help fulfill an evolutionary need for risk. The lecturer also poses some interesting moral questions about the "health police": "Engaging in risk - smoking, drinking, creating the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases, eating fat, sugar, salt and avoiding too much exercise - is characteristic of a different strata of society - the poor and marginalised, the working classes, ethnic minorities and 'deviant' groups. When the proponents of healthism are urging changes in lifestyle in order to achieve, in their terms, 'well-being', they are advocating changes for others much more often than they are for themselves. In this sense they are essentially moralists seeking to stigmatise specific members of society."

tranquileye — Thu, 02 Aug 2001 10:51:33 -0800

The problem isn't too much greed, but too much cowardly greed. "Spineless lenders, weak-kneed investors and meddling regulators intent on reducing risk pose a greater threat to the global economy than the volatile financial markets... 'The critic's image of the global financial markets as a giant casino is wrong," [writes British financial writer Daniel Ben-Ami], 'On the contrary, the modern financial markets are more often characterized by a fear of risk-taking than a reckless disregard for danger.'"

fil! — Wed, 05 Apr 2000 22:31:45 -0800

Justify your paranoia? A little dated, but it's the first time I've seen it.