Five years have passed since the New York Times covered Professor Jay Wexler’s study of laughter in the Supreme Court. Professor Wexler’s study provided a simple tabulation of laughter notations in Supreme Court oral argument transcripts and was the first of its kind to systematically examine laughter at the Supreme Court. This article expands on Professor Wexler’s topic by exploring the communicative function of laughter in Supreme Court oral arguments. Using first hand observations during nine weeks of Supreme Court oral arguments, audio files of 71 oral argument cases, and transcripts from 2006-2007 Supreme Court oral arguments, I argue that laughter plays an important social and communicative function in Supreme Court oral arguments that enables advocates and justices to negotiate the complex institutional, social, and intellectual barriers to obtain brief moments of equality within the Courtroom.

Much of financial theory and practice is built on the presumption that markets are liquid. In a liquid market, you should be able to buy or sell any asset, in any quantity, at the prevailing market price and with no transactions costs. Using that definition, no asset is completely liquid and there are wide variations in liquidity across asset classes, across assets within each asset class, and across investors. After presenting evidence to back up this proposition and recognizing that investors care about and price in illiquidity, we evaluate how introducing illiquidity into the decision process not only alters portfolio composition but has a divergent impact on investors with different time horizons and investment strategies. The presence and pricing in of liquidity opens up profitable opportunities for two classes of investors: long-term investors who care about less about liquidity than the rest of the market (liquidity arbitrageurs) and investors who can time shifts in market liquidity (liquidity timers). In illiquid markets, firms will also be more sparing in their use of debt, will pay higher dividends, will buy back less stock and will accumulate more cash.

For our inaugural glimpse inside the archives, we bring you “J-School Confidential,” Michael Lewis’s perceptive and hilarious look inside Columbia University’s graduate program in journalism. At a time when our profession is reassessing its very purpose, it’s good to have a reminder of what journalism is—and isn’t.

Now numbering in the millions, these shockingly destructive and invasive wild hogs wreak havoc across the southern United States

One is a gadget-maker, the other a search engine—but now they are at odds. Robert Lane Greene on a clash of cultures ...

The reign of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family

Many of life’s most fascinating phenomena emerge from interactions among many elements—many amino acids determine the structure of a single protein, many genes determine the fate of a cell, many neurons are involved in shaping our thoughts and memories. Physicists have long hoped that these collective behaviors could be described using the ideas and methods of statistical mechanics. In the past few years, new, larger scale experiments have made it possible to construct statistical mechanics models of biological systems directly from real data. We review the surprising successes of this “inverse” approach, using examples form families of proteins, networks of neurons, and flocks of birds. Remarkably, in all these cases the models that emerge from the data are poised at a very special point in their parameter space—a critical point. This suggests there may be some deeper theoretical principle behind the behavior of these diverse systems.

Futbol, or soccer, has long been a national obsession in South American countries like Brazil and Colombia. But it is another story for Ecuador, which took 68 years to qualify for the World Cup.

In 2002, when Ecuador finally made it to the tournament in South Korea-Japan, it was such an historic event for the country that everything stopped. Businesses and schools closed while people took to the streets to celebrate. The media lionized the team and the coach as national heroes. History was made again in 2006, as Ecuador, despite being heavy underdogs, advanced to the second round by beating Poland and Costa Rica.

The paramount object is to protect and promote freedom of expression and the environment for freedom of expression in Norway, particularly by encouraging lively debate and the dauntless use of the free word.

An operational platform to develop projects/initiatives between foundations and other types of organised philanthropy.

To promote quality journalism in Europe by giving journalists the chance to carry out journalistic research projects.

A non-profit organisation working to support local media in countries affected by armed conflict, human insecurity and political transition. In more than 30 countries worldwide, IMS helps to strengthen professional journalism and ensure that media can operate in challenging circumstances.

An independent not for profit organization established by Arab media activists and media organizations in cooperation with the Copenhagen-based International Media Support (IMS) and the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism(FUJ).

This article argues that America needs to better protect its local communities against monopolist sports leagues' demands for publicly funded stadiums. Part I of this article discusses the evolution of sports stadium subsidies. Part II discusses why American communities continue to provide subsidies to professional sports teams. Part III explains why providing stadium subsidies is a bad idea for most local communities. Part IV discusses four types of proposals intended to reduce sports teams' power to demand stadium subsidies. Part V proposes a federal bill that would better protect the interests of American communities by ensuring that any community which builds a professional sports facility is able to keep the pro rata share of that facility's revenue stream.