Danny's Pathologically Polymathic: May 2017

if a "bad deal" is expensive tickets, long delays + poor customer service, "no deal" would be an actual train crash - CER

a monument to the anonymous peer reviewer - Guardian

The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific - We, the Navigators [my review]

IFS analysis shows the Conservative proposals would cut school funding by 2.8% in real terms - Guardian

culture clash: escaped Australian convicts reach Japan in 1803 - Guardian

the financial differences between party manifestos are insignificant compared to Brexit... - Independent

a far greater danger to our living standards than policies on tuition fees, nationalisation, energy prices, social care, etc.

"the overall evidence for a causal association between air pollution and Autism SD is increasingly compelling" - PubMed

a nice application of causal graph analysis to multiple exposure windows

maps of the road-building Oxford averted - Bodleian

Britain's worst cycle lanes - Anorak

8 cats that changed Russian culture - RBTH

the history of free movement (and citizenship) in the UK - LSE

the Daily Mail: "the drunken lout at a party who can't get anyone to like him" - LRB

how the UK enabled Libyan extremists to fight Gaddafi - MiddleEastEye

The Singular Story of English Spelling - Spell It Out [my review]

do ocean dynamics 5 million years ago explain why whales got so big? - ScienceMag - PRS B

the UK is cheap: £390k will buy an industry "unprecedented support" - Guardian

regressive or progressive? an analysis of the proposed Conservative social care policy - PolicySketchbook

Hungary's war on education - NYROB

UK success with trade policy will need hard work, collaboration, openness, and focus - InstForGov [via @davidallengreen]

(so we're basically screwed, given Westminster's track record here)

the Conservative immigration policy is simply incoherent - Standard

the biggest innovation in transport in the last decade? - WEForum

six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar - NYT

pygolampidocracy would be "government by fireflies"

Germany, India and child marriage - VerfassungsBlog

is the UK going to retain access to the EU Schengen Information System? - Guardian

people who read have better interpersonal skills - IFLscience

bringing back grammars means bringing back secondary moderns... - Guardian

three of Walter de la Mare's short stories - Missing [my review]

Triple Talaq and the Indian constitution - Hindu

back in the 1850s, Victorian gentlemen could negotiate a trade deal in a month - @davidallengreen

the implications of Brexit for UK science - Prospect PDF

(but wishful thinking that we might be able to keep the EMA, or reverse the decision to leave Euratom)

Britain is still a world-class manufacturer of outrage - FlyingRodent [via @dsquaredigest]

end free movement into London! - NewStatesman

a look at intergenerational unfairness in the UK - Coppola

the negative externalities of government-created parking - MarketUrbanism [via @AlternativeDfT]

ten everyday phrases that come from printing - MentalFloss

the UK should consider some serious down-sizing... - OxfordBlog

air pollution and dementia - ScienceMag

one day driving motor vehicles in urban areas may be as popular as smoking in crowded rooms

sharing science through picture books - NCSU [via Visible]

Italy negotiates vastly better tax deal with Google than the UK - Twitter

dangerous bacteria and viruses are reviving from the permafrost - BBC

strawman arguments against a universal basic income - VoxEU

a different perspective on Jane Austen - LitHub

concrete examples of Article 50 challenges in protecting citizens rights - Europa

children who appear to be naughty rarely are - PsychToday [via JanetLansbury]

how the Suez Crisis affected UK newspapers - BBC

sprightly review of a "dry and dutiful" biography of Theresa May - LRB

May just wants to look like a fighter, doesn't care about actually winning? - Twitter

Brexit: "The problem is that the British government is drunk" - Politics

Brexit negotiations will be nasty, brutish and potentially short - IrishTimes

the Juncker-May dinner was something of a disaster: "10 times more sceptical than before" - Twitter