Newmark's Door

An interesting eight minutes.

A nice story.

The Boss and E Street, live in London, 1975.

"This is easily one of the handful of Bruce videos I would recommend to anyone unfamiliar with him or the band. This is rock ‘n’ roll in its purest form."

"This is one of the most dangerous videos on Youtube. Before you realise it you're an addict ;-)"

"Scientists have confirmed that it is physically impossible to see them and not have a great time."

I don't know if he's right or not. All I can say is that when a businessman pays twice as much as the previous "top dollar" for an important input sold in an apparently competitive market, he's either really smart or making a big mistake. 

Joe Cocker with Leon Russell, live.

A fine way to spend 3 minutes. (I don't know about Leon, but Joe had a good time.)

Sign me up. The prof has a sense of humor.

Very early work. We need more of this type of research . . . stat!

Pretty amazing looking. I remember the first version of Flight Simulator I saw. The Empire State Building was eight or so lines.

Ignoring "obvious confounders" is . . . not good.

In case you don't have enough things to keep track of.

A relatively brief exposition of just how weird quantum mechanics is.

More blunt, tough talk from Sabine Hossenfelder.

And so, what we have here in the foundation of physics is a plain failure of the scientific method. All these wrong predictions should have taught physicists that just because they can write down equations for something does not mean this math is a scientifically promising hypothesis. . . .

And please spare me the complaints that I supposedly do not have anything better to suggest, because that is a false accusation. I have said many times that looking at the history of physics teaches us that resolving inconsistencies has been a reliable path to breakthroughs, so that’s what we should focus on.

Yeah, but sorting out the inconsistencies is real damn difficult.

Yet another illustration of the magic of the market.

If the manicured, chain-ified, tightly patrolled mall, a hulking simulacrum of public space, is the commercial analogue to the McMansion, then Phillipsburg Mall in its current state may well be a rough analogue to the future of our built places in general—a little denser, a little scrappier, a little more uncomfortable, and a lot more full of wealth and life.

Florida is among the winners and Illinois, New York, and Alaska[?] are among the losers.

Related: "Where Did Americans Move in 2019?"

I don't know anything of the man or his work, but I really like these two ideas of his:

Because, as he explains elsewhere, the liberal has the easy job in the modern world. The liberal points at the imperfections and defects of existing institutions or the existing social order, strikes a pose of indignation, and huffs that surely something better is required, usually with the attitude that the something better is simply a matter of will. The conservative faces the tougher challenge of understanding and explaining the often subtle reasons why existing institutions, no matter how imperfect, work better than speculative alternatives. . . . 

“A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely relative,’ is asking you not to believe him. So don’t.”

And there's this:

In his last and moving article in The Spectator, indeed in the last paragraph he published in his lifetime, he stressed the importance of gratitude for what one has been fortunate enough to inherit. Take nothing for granted, preserve what is worth preserving, understand the fragility of things, remember debts to the past as well as to the future, take delight in the world. Such was the lasting message of this exceptionally gifted man.

Salena Zito defends Dollar General stores currently under attack--bizarrely--in some places.

Sounds good to me: Alberta for the 51st state.

"The 30-minute one-way work trip travel time has been called the Marchetti Constant, described by Italian physicist Cesare Marchetti."

"Extinction"? Heck, no. But maybe--just maybe, fingers crossed--we have seen the high-water mark.

Alex Tabarrok:

Among experts it’s well understood that “big data” doesn’t solve problems of bias. But how much should one trust an estimate from a big but possibly biased data set compared to a much smaller random sample? In Statistical paradises and paradoxes in big data, Xiao-Li Meng provides some answers which are shocking, even to experts.

Underemphasized point in undergraduate economics and a devastating reply to the dopey people who argue that economic growth can't continue on a "finite planet".

"If you plan to vote for Donald Trump in November, do me a favor, and think of Binyamin Appelbaum and the LSU Tigers when you do."

An excellent exposition of the great difficulties in understanding the causes of crime and what public policy should do about it. Three of the most interesting points:

In 1992, a meta-analysis of four hundred and forty-three published studies on juvenile-delinquency programs found that a third of them had done more harm than good. Evidence suggests that D.A.R.E. and Scared Straight—modern-day programs similar to the Youth Study—may have been counterproductive, too. . . . 

Such indirect effects of changes in the law are hard to predict. For this reason, Sampson argues, “practitioners (e.g., cops on the beat) may be better ‘theorists’ of what policy changes will trigger on the ground than academic criminologists who theorize at a considerable remove.”

Criminologists face a problem that’s common in many fields: overdetermination. Why does someone commit a crime? Was it peer pressure, poverty, a broken family, broken windows, bad genes, bad parenting, under-policing, leaded gasoline, Judas Priest? 

A well-done explanation of why your doctor is probably more confident than he or she should be.

Sad. 

But, hey, it's not all bad in Baghdad by the Bay: some San Franciscans still turn out for the annual "pants-free BART ride". Does your deplorable city have that?

Related: "Bankers Flooding JPMorgan Event Bemoan San Francisco Squalor".

“San Francisco is the Bill Clinton of cities. It squandered itself with its flaws.”

Doesn't really give an answer, but the author deserves credit for raising an interesting question.

Made me smile.

My vote for best would be Wazza's bicycle kick against Man City. Son's recent spectacular run would be a close second.