Interesting Links for 01-08-2019

[andrewducker]

Some fun crossings between Ireland and the UK. Would love to see 'technology' solve this...

(tags:borders NorthernIreland Ireland UK Europe )

In case anyone is still confused by the Irish Border Backstop, here's a nice simple explanation of why the situation is doomed

Of course, if Theresa May hadn't called an election she wouldn't have needed the DUP on board, and the border could have gone in the Irish Sea. And Brexit would probably be a done deal by now.
(tags:uk europe ireland NorthernIreland borders )

Edinburgh bus driver strike suspended after new offer

(tags:edinburgh buses transport unions )

Apparently the head of Vote Leave is not pure enough to be a _true_ Leaver.

(tags:uk europe )

We Need better research in to how progress works and what we can do to encourage it

(tags:technology economics thefuture society research )

The history of Tetris randomizers

(tags:random tetris design )

Why sometimes when you unsubscribe from an email list it says it can 'take a few days'.

(tags:email process OhForFucksSake design banking )

A Transparent Display with Per-Pixel Color and Opacity Control (will make Augmented Reality much more feasible)

(tags:displays technology screens augmentedreality video )

Tories could lose majority overnight as MP warns he could leave the party

(tags:politics uk Conservatives )

Comments

[cybik]

The “article” from the Atlantic about “omg we don’t understand ‘progress’” is being roundly mocked by pretty much every historian on twitter for being bullshit and ignoring the fact the writers don’t understand what the study of history entails. It’s yet another piece that ignores the humanities because the techbros are so obsessed with tech they can’t see beyond their own noses.

[andrewducker]

And I've also seen people defending it, pointing out that these people have done the research, and have worked in some of the fields they're being derided for not knowing about.

[andrewducker]

For instance
https://twitter.com/A_Dayan/status/1156571587241492480?s=19

[cybik]

https://twitter.com/lindstorian/status/1156340085400489986?s=21

https://twitter.com/arealbuffalo/status/1156655870824108032?s=21

https://twitter.com/yattarouze/status/1156814391670648832?s=21

Like... I am a historian and you are a tech person so I sort of feel we will always disagree on how humanity works!

[cybik]

(Sorry, should have been a reply to above, sleep has been lacking and using phone so cannae be arsed to fix it)

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure why we would automatically disagree.

I just think a starting point of "these are tech people, therefore they won't have some even basic reading about the area they're talking about" is so horribly patronising as a starting point that it's going to alienate anyone from engaging.

[cybik]

Yeah, but that’s not the starting point. The starting point is historians reading the article and saying “this is bullshit because it fundamentally misunderstands what the discipline of history is and ignores a lot of scholarship on the matter”.

And unconscious bias.

[andrewducker]

And, add I pointed out, the writers of that piece have engaged with the scholarship on the matter.

"Cowen and Collison have specifically engaged with the historical literature! Collison has discussed Mokyr , Robert Gordan etc and Cowen's blog is like 20% about economic history, the great divergence and the economic geog of the industrial revolution"

[andrewducker]

Note taking for later.
https://twitter.com/juliagalef/status/1156713070112079872?s=19

Tories could lose majority overnight as MP warns he could leave the party

[jack]

That would hopefully be improvement! I can't keep track of which single votes count where, but I think Con+DUP are just about at parity with everyone-else-except-SF.

I feel quite lost following how secure the government is though, as there's quite a lot of conservative MPs who might vote against them, but an awful lot of labour and independent MPs who'll vote with them :(

Re: Tories could lose majority overnight as MP warns he could leave the party

[andrewducker]

Yeah, it's on a knife edge.

[nancylebov]

I only skimmed the progress article, but I think it was focused on how to help progress. There should also be research on what tends to prevent progress and what to do to remove or weaken the hindrances.

Also, for the more dramatic sorts of progress, it might be hard to figure out how to help something really new.