Collop Monday Links vol. CXII

[NickFitz]

Greetings, and a fine Collop Monday to you!

• Is Economics a Discipline? - Brad DeLong thinks not: "...if you look at the current state of the Chicago School, it seems to me that, among that group of economists at least, it is definitely not a science. Moreover, it is not even a discipline. There were a lot of things that economists like Frederic Bastiat, Jean-Baptiste Say, and John Stuart Mill knew in 1830 about the origins of aggregate demand shortfalls and the usefulness of expansionary fiscal policy in a downturn that modern Chicago never bothered to read, never bothered to learn, or have long forgotten."
  
  
• Geodemographics of Housing in Great Britain - Oliver O'Brien has created an excellent mapping tool using Ordnance Survey Vector data and government open data sources. More details at Suprageography
  
  
• The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia - "For the past 10 years I've immersed myself in the details of one of the most famous events in American labor history, the Haymarket riot and trial of 1886. Along the way I've written two books and a couple of articles about the episode. In some circles that affords me a presumption of expertise on the subject. Not, however, on Wikipedia." Timothy Messer-Kruse discovers being an expert isn't good enough for some dozy twonks given a bit of power.
  
  
• Whip-Its: Why Can Killing Brain Cells Feel Good? - "Why has evolution let drugs be fun?" Gary Marcus explains.
  
  
• The Boy Who Played With Fusion - "When I meet Taylor Wilson, he is 16 and busy—far too busy, he says, to pursue a driver’s license. And so he rides shotgun as his father zigzags the family’s Land Rover up a steep trail in the Virginia Mountains north of Reno, Nevada, where they’ve come to prospect for uranium." Excellent profile of a prodigy by Tom Clynes.
  
  
• The Amazing Staircase - "We created a 'secret' staircase, hidden from the main reception room, to access a new loft bedroom lit by roof lights. Limited by space, we melded the idea of a staircase with our client's desire for a library to form a 'library staircase' in which English oak stair treads and shelves are both completely lined with books." At last, a use for architects
  
  
• Sloppy Reporting on the Self Driving Car - Clay Johnson explains how this story was misreported.
  
  
• '05 Annual Performance Review: Albert Einstein - Peter Norvig imagines what Einstein's line manager might have said: "...famous physicists are beginning to visit the offices here in Bern; Albert you must make sure that any hours spent in talking to them are subtracted from your time card and made up for later. You are responsible for making sure these visits do not cause a distraction for others in the office."
  
  
• Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool - Dan Lyons explains how tech "journalism" works in Silicon Valley: "Almost before you could stop throwing up in your mouth at the idea of Michael Arrington accusing a Times journalist of being less than noble, Arrington’s partner at CrunchFund, MG Siegler, weighed in with his own attack in which he basically said Bilton is a nice guy who was either too lazy or too busy to do a good job."
  
  
• Terrible Taxidermy - it really is...
  
  
  

Happy invoicing!

[mudskipper]

I like the library staircase.

But think I'd prefer one of these

[DimPrawn]

Loved the terrible taxidermy.



I'm one sick b@stard.

[TimberWolf]

I like the library staircase.

But think I'd prefer one of these

I thought the staircase was barking mad. Presumably they have covered the books/music with something to stop them getting squished and filthy as feck.

Liked the geodemographic images though. Take a look at the awful red splodge at the M5 and M6 confluence.

[NickFitz]

I thought the staircase was barking mad. Presumably they have covered the books/music with something to stop them getting squished and filthy as feck.

As the article points out, it was designed in collaboration with and was approved by the couple of avowed bibliophiles who live with it, and is a staircase within the flat that only leads to a bedroom. Presumably they aren't in the habit of walking through their living room and upstairs to the bedroom in manure-coated wellies; they probably only ever use that staircase either barefoot or in slippers.

Of course that could still bruise the books if they were constantly banging their toes against them, but it looks as if they're set well back from the edges, and you'd have to take a very carefully-aimed kick to hit them, and would still risk bruising your shin or ankle.

It's probably safe to assume that even if the architects had been up to one of those mad and unworkable schemes they often seem so fond of, the book-lovers wouldn't have paid for it to be done in their home if it was likely to damage their books

[doodab]

[*]Terrible Taxidermy - it really is...

Happy invoicing!

I feel an avatar change coming on....

[Scrag Meister]

I like the library staircase.

But think I'd prefer one of these

wk2p2s

Very clever idea, couldn't see the taxidermy at clientco.