Mid-week Links

Dahlia Lithwick outdoes herself in this recap of the oral argument in US v. Stevens (pdf file) (see Calvin’s post on this here).  The ending scene?

Katyal ends his rebuttal by agreeing with Millett that since there is currently no robust consumer market for human sacrifice videos, Congress could probably not constitutionally ban Channel 115—the human-sacrifice channel. So at least everyone on both sides is agreed that the human-sacrifice channel is constitutional. And that's a relief.

How do news organizations land interviews with militants and terrorist groups?  Slate

Dave Hoffman in the first of a series of posts on the content of veil piercing complaints.

Jack Chin on chalking on campus.

GW Law School reduces size of evening student class in an attempt to combat an eight-place drop in the U.S. News and World Report Rankings, a school dean told alumni. (The GW Hatchet, via WSJ Blog, Paul Caron)

Via Michael Heise, Wired on Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.  And discussion at Social Science Statistics Blog.

Andrew Ross Sorkin in Vanity Fair on Wall Street’s Near-Death Experience. Excerpted from Too Big to Fail, by Andrew Ross Sorkin, to be published this month by Viking:

With the implosion of Lehman Brothers, in September 2008, the realization dawned: Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs could be next. In an excerpt from his new book, the author reveals the incredible scramble that took place—desperate phone calls, seat-of-the-pants merger proposals, flaring tempers—as Washington got tough and Wall Street titans Lloyd Blankfein and John Mack fought for survival.

Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker, INSIDE THE CRISIS: Larry Summers and the White House economic team.

Comments

[Eric Fink]

My hunch is that placebos are getting more effective because people are getting more gullible.

[Kim Krawiec]

lol. I guess all those internet check-cashing scams are evidence in favor of your theory. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud )