"/>A space for mostly short form stuff and responses to things I see elsewhere.
Things private sector jobs get right – James and the Giant Corn
Not that it matters to me any more ...
Best analysis of US pull-out in Afghanistan
We started the Global War on Terror with a Leviathan force but we're continuing it - forever - with the SysAdmin force that does not wage war on states but on individuals.
Rings true to me.
The Fall of Rome (just the poem) (Interconnected)
So few words, so much intent.
New decade, new theme – Lea Verou
I was hesitating to blog about it because I was embarrassed at how my website looked. This is it, I thought. If it has gotten so bad that I avoid blogging because I don’t want people to be reminded of how old my website looks, I need to get my shit together and fix this, I told myself.
Isn't that the most perfect reason of all?
G-FEED: COVID-19 reduces economic activity, which reduces pollution, which saves lives.
"I calculate that the reductions in air pollution in China caused by this economic disruption likely saved 20-times more lives in China than have currently been lost due to the virus in that country"
Oh boy! Data analysis rocks.
Tim Harford — Article — Ten years of social media have left us all worse off
Last Christmas I vowed to spend less time on my smartphone. It worked — until a couple of months ago, when I started using Twitter much more. Why? I had something to sell. That seems wretchedly appropriate.
Yup, that seems right. Even when no money actually changes hands.
Galileo and failure. Tim Harford, are you listening?
Tim Harford certainly belaboured the point that safety systems may make things more prone to failure, what with the Oscars fiasco (two systems bad; three systems worse). Wheeling out Galileo was a masterstroke. Little could he have anticipated that someone who actually knew about statics would be listening..
Dr. Drang kindly shared his expertise.
I think we can forgive Galileo this lapse. He was creating new knowledge and, given his trouble with the Vatican, was desperate to get it published. Editing was of secondary concern at best.
I’m less forgiving of Tim Harford. Anyone who’s taken a statics class could have told him that the story on which he was basing “Galileo’s Principle” didn’t demonstrate that principle.
I wonder whether Tim Harford will even see that. Probably not; comments are closed.
Tim Harford — Hug your enemy rather than wrestling the pig
One starting point is the old proverb, “Don’t wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and the pig enjoys it.” There’s truth in that. We just need to find a version that doesn’t dismiss our opponents as pigs.
And there's the rub, really. You have to get over thinking of them as pigs.
Paper to Paperless: A Guide to Digitalizing Your Journals with a Scanner App
Very thorough guide that covers both how and why you might want to do this. Most interesting, it links to a Python script for adding a Table of Contents to a PDF, which would be very handy indeed.
But shouldn't it be "digitising"?
“If you want people do to something, make it easy.” Richard Thaler has Lunch with the FT
Brexit means Brexit — that is one of the dumbest statements that has ever been uttered by a head of state. And I’m aware that there are thousands of tweets one could compare it with. I mean, it’s simultaneously meaningless and wrong.”
Salsa in Central Park
I don’t agree with Roger Scruton on much, but I do agree with him that limiting social dance to clubs and EDM festivals where everyone is drunk or high is not good for us. Scruton’s solution is to yearn for the glory days of eighteenth century Europe. My solution is to look to our friends from the African diaspora, whose social norms around music and dance are very different from those of white people, and in a lot of ways, more grown up.
Very well said; one the other hand, there is always Irish, Scottish and English "folk dancing" and its many derivatives, which are so much fun and which I could do, more and more often.
Going to extremes
Extreme Economies by Richard Davies, as reviewed by Diane Coyle, does sound like a book I would enjoy reading.
Structured Procrastination
via gwern.net
[W]hat could be more noble than using one character flaw to offset the bad effects of another?
Thinking about the Land: A Personal Perspective on the Origin of Organic Farming – Rachel Laudan
Rachel Laudan is promising a personal look into some of the history of the organic farming movement in England. Looking forward to the rest of her series.
Tim Harford — Article — How the Brexit debate was flushed down the drain
Far too reasonable to be taken seriously.
Hearsay Festival is the Coachella of creative audio
I don't know what Coachella is (well, not directly) but I do know that Hearsay is the business.
We Built a (Legal) Facial Recognition Machine for $60 – Theoreti.ca
A particularly interesting take on a topic that most people have mostly reacted to with horror or naivete.
What counts? | The Enlightened Economist
Very interesting ideas on how classification systems affect the way we think, rather than vice versa.
"People can’t see what they take for granted until there is an alternative version not taking the same things for granted."
The research agenda we really need
Colin Tudge at the Campaign for Real Farming points up just a few of the ways in which the current approach to research into food and food production lets us all down.
"Going Paper-Free for $220 / Steve Losh"
PESOS from Reading.am.
"The Story of Why I Left Riot Games"
PESOS from Reading.am.
"The Human Story, as Told by Our Genomes"
PESOS from Reading.am.
"inessential: New World NetNewsWire"
PESOS from Reading.am.