Machine (Still) Learning →
The Los Angeles Police Department asked drivers to avoid navigation apps, which are steering users onto more open routes — in this case, streets in the neighborhoods that are on fire.
Blockheads →
The good doctor is being too charitable here.
The Price He Will Pay →
“What’s taking so long?” everyone asks.
Seth Masket reminds us to be patient, that democracy is a process, generally a plodding one. He concludes with this gem:
Overall, it’s worth remembering that Trump is just finishing up what is usually the most productive year of any presidency. The current GOP tax bill notwithstanding, he doesn’t have much of a record of accomplishment, he’s deeply unpopular, and he and his children are in substantial legal jeopardy. His main legacy will likely be a series of new laws and practices designed to prevent someone like him from abusing power or even obtaining it in the first place. This is what pushback looks like. It’s no doubt incomplete, dissatisfying, and slow for Trump’s critics, but rest assured that Trump is not “getting away with it.” He’s paying a price for his behavior, and that price is likely going up.
The “Batman Effect”: Improving Perseverance in Young Children
From a recent study published in Child Development:
This study investigated the benefits of self-distancing (i.e., taking an outsider’s view of one’s own situation) on young children’s perseverance. Four- and 6-year-old children (N = 180) were asked to complete a repetitive task for 10 min while having the option to take breaks by playing an extremely attractive video game. Six-year-olds persevered longer than 4-year-olds. Nonetheless, across both ages, children who impersonated an exemplar other—in this case a character, such as Batman—spent the most time working, followed by children who took a third-person perspective on the self, or finally, a first-person perspective. Alternative explanations, implications, and future research directions are discussed.
Via the indispensible Marc Bernardin during episode #198 of Fatman on Batman.
Postmortem: Every Frame a Painting →
Every Frame a Painting is officially dead. Nothing sinister; we just decided to end it, rather than keep on making stuff.
Democratic Group Will Invest $4 Million to Train 50k Candidates in 2018 →
The National Democratic Training Committee (NDTC), which makes a free online candidate training program, plans to spend $4 million in 2018 in the hopes of getting 50,000 Dems to use their services to run for office.
Fwiw this seems like a way better thing to invest money in than investing heavily in every quixotic challenge as a way to achieve a full slate of 435 candidates for the House in 2018. It’s easy to say, “do both,” but opportunity cost is a real thing.
This Is What a Sidelined President Looks Like →
Jonathan Bernstein for Bloomberg:
So the smartest thing for all concerned is to just treat the president as if he would automatically sign on to any deal that was reached while ignoring any specific input he may have up to that point.
The Mac Still Feels Like Home →
If every product had to be built for every possible user, the world would be a really dull place.
— Jason Snell
The Mac Still Feels Like Home →
If every product had to be built for every possible user, the world would be a really dull place.
— Jason Snell
Is There an Evangelical Crisis? →
[I]t is a paradox of this strange time that serious evangelicals should probably be rooting for a real post-Trump crisis in their churches — because its absence will tell them something depressing about where their movement’s strength lay all along.
— Ross Douthat