Complex networks make up US power grid

Steven Weissman interviewed by National Public Radio, August 14, 2013

“From one perspective, there should be zero tolerance for the kind of outage that’s going to create physical and economic inconvenience for people. On the other hand, one major inconvenient episode every 38 or 40 years may not be all that bad. So the question is: how much do you want to spend? What do you want to sacrifice in order to get to a higher level of reliability?”

Holder announces sentencing reform for some drug offenders

Franklin Zimring interviewed by KQED Forum, August 13, 2013

“Attorney General Holder is signaling the U.S. attorneys to stop the flow of prisoners (who could go to state systems) into the federal system. The state prisons have grown about 700 percent over the period since 1974, but the federal system has actually been growing faster than that. This is the first attempt of an attorney general to push back on that growth process.”

What NYPD really needs: polite police

Franklin Zimring writes for TIME, Viewpoint, August 13, 2013

The most important reform to stop-and-frisk tactics will be reducing the hostility and indignity of the process. Most of the young men stopped on the street are not committing crimes. Only badly trained cops need to make street stops into contests of domination. Street policing can be firm but polite and respectful, and the very concentration of such efforts in those neighborhoods most impoverished for municipal respect makes a polite police force even more necessary.

Trade commission orders ban on some Samsung products

Robert Merges quoted in The New York Times, Bits blog, August 9, 2013

Friday’s order to ban Samsung’s products does not involve standards-essential patents. But Robert P. Merges … said it was possible the administration would overturn Friday’s decision as part of a broader move to diminish the power of patent litigation as an industry weapon.

Poll: Yes to affirmative action, no to racial preferences

Victoria Plaut quoted in Boston Review, August 9, 2013

“Surveys typically suggest a divergence between questions about affirmative action in general and more specific policies or programs,” said Victoria Plaut…. A concrete policy “can feel more proximal and more threatening to the dominant group—perhaps because it gets them thinking about limited resources.”

The loyalty test

John Yoo writes for The Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2013 (registration required)

The mishandling of Mr. Tsarnaev’s interrogation is clear. If the Obama administration had held Mr. Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant, it could have continued its questioning so long as it kept the answers out of any future trial. But trapped by an ideology that sees terrorism as a law-enforcement problem, the administration limited questioning only to imminent dangers and crimes but not the suspect’s broader network and training.

The ticking bomb of China’s urban para-police

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2013

Chinese citizen anger has been stoked to dangerous levels by reports of urban management officers, or chengguan, employing extreme violence against street vendors. Chengguan are auxiliary para-police organized and hired by city governments…. Despite years of bitter public complaints over the thug-like, and often violent, behavior of many chengguan, little has been done to rein them in.

Patent case has potential to give Apple the upper hand

Robert Merges quoted in The New York Times, August 8, 2013

If the commission hands Apple another victory, Robert P. Merges … said the Obama administration could again overrule any import ban the commission puts in place, as part of a strategy to diminish the power of patent litigation as an industry weapon. “I think there are a lot of political implications,” he said, referring to the possible reaction by other governments. “You’ll have the obvious favoring-the-home-team problem. But I would be shocked if they didn’t think this through carefully.”