http://da5id.org/tifi/tag/bestof/ Recent content in Bestof on TIFI Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/11/the-evolution-of-pace-in-popular-movies/ Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/11/the-evolution-of-pace-in-popular-movies/ James E. Cutting (name checks out): Movies have changed dramatically over the last 100 years. Several of these changes in popular English-language filmmaking practice are reflected in patterns of film style as distributed over the length of movies. In particular, arrangements of shot durations, motion, and luminance have altered and come to reflect aspects of the narrative form. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/11/what-if-he-falls/ Sat, 03 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/11/what-if-he-falls/ http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/10/japans-hometown-tax/ Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/10/japans-hometown-tax/ Patrick McKenzie: The Japanese employment market has a curious feature: there are regions of Japan with extremely high economic productivity (such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, but for the purpose of this issue think “Tokyo” and you won’t be wrong) and regions with low economic productivity (substantially everywhere else). This counsels that a young person born and educated in e.g. Gifu move to Tokyo after graduation to earn a living. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/10/whole-earth-flashbacks/ Sun, 21 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/10/whole-earth-flashbacks/ http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/09/the-map-we-need-if-we-want-to-think-about-how-global-living-conditions-are-changing/ Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/09/the-map-we-need-if-we-want-to-think-about-how-global-living-conditions-are-changing/ Max Roser at Our World in Data: To show global data it is convenient to use a map. But despite the popularity and familiarity of world maps, they can mislead our understanding global living conditions. Maps are made for a different purpose; they show us where the world’s land masses are. They don’t show us where the people are. If we want to show where the world’s people are we need a population cartogram, a geographical presentation of the world where the size of the countries are not drawn according to the distribution of land, but according to the distribution of people. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/09/how-the-other-half-learns/ Mon, 03 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/09/how-the-other-half-learns/ Oren Cass at the Manhattan Institute: America’s education system, from kindergarten through the state university, is designed to produce college graduates. Those who stop short of at least a community-college diploma are widely regarded as failures, or at least victims of a failed system. Yet most Americans fall into this category, and current trends offer little hope for improvement. Politicians and policymakers are finally paying attention to this population—which, roughly speaking, comprises the working class—and calls for more vocational education and apprenticeships have become fashionable. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/07/keijiro-takahashi/ Sat, 28 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/07/keijiro-takahashi/ So many good things here. A random sampling: http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/05/the-quiet-americans-behind-the-u-s-russia-imbroglio/ Wed, 09 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/05/the-quiet-americans-behind-the-u-s-russia-imbroglio/ Keith Gessen in The New York Times (use the archive link to bypass the paywall): During two decades, on and off, reporting in Russia and the post-Soviet states — in the turbulent ’90s, the wealthy but depressing aughts and finally during the eruption of violence in Ukraine — I occasionally heard people talk about how “the Americans” wanted this or that political outcome. The events in Ukraine demonstrated, or seemed to demonstrate, that behind the visible facade of changing presidents and changing policy statements and changing styles, “the Americans” were actually a small core of officials who not only executed policy but also effectively determined it. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/04/mr-president-i-m-not-saying-we-won-t-get-our-hair-mussed/ Fri, 27 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/04/mr-president-i-m-not-saying-we-won-t-get-our-hair-mussed/ Via Marcus Trimble http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/04/the-silurian-hypothesis/ Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/04/the-silurian-hypothesis/ Gavin A. Schmidt and Adam Frank with a corker of a paper: If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to our own era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? We summarize the likely geological fingerprint of the Anthropocene, and demonstrate that while clear, it will not differ greatly in many respects from other known events in the geological record. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/03/why-earths-history-appears-so-miraculous/ Sun, 18 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/03/why-earths-history-appears-so-miraculous/ Fairly psychedelic musings on The Great Filter by Peter Brannen in The Atlantic: It was hard times for the bomber pilots that floated over Europe, their planes incinerating cities below, like birds of prey. Even as they turned the once-bustling streets beneath to howling firestorms, death had become a close companion to the crews of the Allied bombers as well. In fact, surviving a tour with the Bomber Command had become a virtual coin flip. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/03/possibly-in-michigan/ Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/03/possibly-in-michigan/ Cecelia Condit: Also on Vimio. Her website http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/03/you-cant-have-denmark-without-danes/ Thu, 01 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/03/you-cant-have-denmark-without-danes/ Megan McArdle in Bloomberg: Denmark had been on my mind since it surfaced so oddly during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign as a challenge to the American faith that individualism is the best engine of social and economic improvement. Then came the election of President Donald Trump, which did nothing to lessen my curiosity about a place that seemed immune from the stresses that were tearing U.S. society apart. http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/02/frank-bretschneider-boiler-room-berlin-live-set/ Wed, 28 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/02/frank-bretschneider-boiler-room-berlin-live-set/ Frank Bretschneider: One of the key activists of the electronic music underground in former East Germany, Frank Bretschneider has continued to revolutionize electronic music as part of raster-noton for the past 20 years. Today he presents his brand new album! On Facebook http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/02/but-what-is-the-fourier-transform/ Sat, 03 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2018/02/but-what-is-the-fourier-transform/ 3Blue1Brown: An animated introduction to the Fourier Transform, winding graphs around circles. http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/12/the-hard-road-of-free-markets/ Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/12/the-hard-road-of-free-markets/ John Cochrane lays down some wisdom: The sad paradox of free markets is that free markets do not need people to understand them to work. But democracy does require voters to understand how things work. http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/12/how-trust-shapes-nations-safety-rules/ Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/12/how-trust-shapes-nations-safety-rules/ Veronique Greenwood in The Alantic: When I moved to China nearly two years ago, one of the first things I bought was a bicycle. I live on a university campus, where everyone rides, and the bike was cheap: $17 for an ancient Five Rams cruiser, with a lively color scheme of teal and rust. I used to cycle to work when I lived in New York, dodging tourists and threading in between delivery trucks. http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/10/politicians-reject-evidence-that-conflicts-with-their-beliefs/ Wed, 18 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/10/politicians-reject-evidence-that-conflicts-with-their-beliefs/ Casper Dahlmann and Niels Bjørn Petersen in the WaPo: We conducted a survey of 954 Danish local politicians. […] We then divided the politicians into two groups. One group got the data — but without any information as to whether the school was public or private. The schools were just labeled “School A” and “School B.” The other group got the exact same data, but instead of “School A” and “School B,” the schools’ titles were “Public School” and “Private School. http://da5id.org/tifi/holding/economics-of-ai/ Mon, 09 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/holding/economics-of-ai/ On 13-14 September, 2017, we held our inaugural conference in Toronto to set the research agenda on The Economics of AI. Paper presentations are good, but holy shit the comments are amazing. Check the conference site for the papers and slides. http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/10/economics-of-ai/ Mon, 09 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 http://da5id.org/tifi/2017/10/economics-of-ai/ On 13-14 September, 2017, we held our inaugural conference in Toronto to set the research agenda on The Economics of AI. Paper presentations are good, but holy shit the comments are amazing. Check the conference site for the papers and slides.