The Supreme Court is about to tackle online threats for the first time →

The case centers on Anthony Elonis, who was convicted after writing graphic, gory fantasies about mutilating and killing his wife and other women and posting them to Facebook. The issue before the Supreme Court is whether "a true threat" requires finding that the threatener subjectively intended to be threatening. Elonis is arguing for a subjective intent requirement, claiming that his posts were meant as rap lyrics and not as threats, while the prosecutors are arguing for an "objective" standard—a threat counts as a threat if a "reasonable person" would think the statement is a threat.

The ‘Busy’ Trap →

Take some time to busy yourself less and reevaluate priorities this weekend. :)

Three big reasons to be thankful — yes, I said thankful — in 2014 →

It would seem that the United States has little to be thankful for in 2014. It seemed like U.S. foreign policy fell apart during the course of this year. The tragedy in Ferguson, Mo. has gone national in response to the grand jury’s decision not to indict anyone for the police shooting of Michael Brown. Campus rape appears to be something of an epidemic. Inequality continues to skyrocket in this country. One side of the political divide is frustrated over the outcome of this month’s midterm elections; the other side is frustrated over the president’s abject refusal to acknowledge the outcome of those elections. Oh, and to top it off, the IMF now estimates that China has surpassed the United States to become the largest economy in the world — the first time it hasn’t been the United States in well over a century.

So what is there to be thankful for as a country?  Quite a lot, actually. Here are three big things worth appreciating as 2014 draws to a close: ...

The economics of rape →

In 2006, approximately 49% of violent crimes were not reported to police. Being the victim of sexual assault is expensive; each incident imposes an external cost of over $100k on the victim. However, recent estimates of the total social cost are an order of magnitude larger suggesting that from a social welfare standpoint rape is likely to be underreported if the victim’s demand for reporting is price elastic.

Please excuse the jargon. The old adage that "what you tax, you get less of" is what this is saying. We can't both yell at victims to report crimes against them, and slam them with the costs for doing so. It's hard enough to report, given common feelings of societal betrayal.