Danny's Pathologically Polymathic: June 2018

my failures in early years education - OxfordBlog

SimCity didn't include car parks "because the game would be really boring if it was proportional in terms of parking lots" - DevonZuegel

Oxford now has an on-demand mini-bus service! - Guardian

academisation of English schools has reduced freedom and autonomy - LSE

the traumas of Ofsted inspections - TeacherToolkit

one year on, residents of Walthamstow's mini-Holland areas do 40 minutes more active travel a week! - Guardian [via @peterwalker99]

neural networks are basically just polynomial regression models - arxiv

200 Years on Two Wheels - Re:Cyclists [my review]

why the NHS can't do IT, and how it should - @bengoldacre

background on how Seville built a cycle network in four years - StreetsBlog

how can schools measure and report progress meaningfully? - TeacherHead

grandmothers and alloparenting in the origins of human cooperation - NPR

petition to cancel the Oxford to Cambridge expressway - Change

the difference between being broke and being poor - LongReads

they start as toddlers: why Mexican children help out with chores - NPR

"Children appear to have an intrinsic motivation to help. And extrinsic rewards seem to undermine it."

the English school academy system feeds overpaid executives, corruption, and asset-stripping - Guardian

the origins and evolution of multiple mating in army ants - Evolution

designing cities for children - Arup

after the British and the Irish, the Dutch are going to be worst hit by Brexit - Rabobank

"a hard Brexit would cost the UK 18% of GDP growth until 2030 ... £11,500 per British worker"

US science paper topics are now being vetted by political commissars - @dburbach

literacy permeates life - OxfordBlog

the US is now taking two year olds away from their parents - NPR

and "staff said that federal regulations prevented them from touching or holding the child to soothe her"

affluence rather than willpower drives marshmallow test results - Atlantic

class photographs and market failures - OxfordBlog

Copenhagen and urban cycling in twelve graphs - Guardian

the messy complexity of USB Type-C - AndroidAuthority [via @phaseit]

brilliant timing for the Royal Mail Dad's Army stamp issue! - RoyalMail

cycle-touring with children - Guardian

another Home Office horror story, this time involving maltreatment of a pregnant woman - Guardian

extraordinary secrecy means that not even Whitehall (and its 10,000 extra staff) knows what's happening with Brexit - Guardian

the harm done by Ofsted's blunt approach to rating schools - BenNewmark

"Ofsted is frightening because a negative judgement may actually make it more difficult for a school to make the improvements it needs to."

"Many automatic emergency braking systems won't stop for stationary objects at freeway speeds" - ArsTechnica

how is reading a novel like reading a maths book? Jane Austen meets Kuratowski closure operators - @benjamindickman

formula milk companies target Philippines mothers with "aggressive, clandestine and often illegal methods" - Guardian

teaching primary school children to understand randomised trials - EvidentlyCochrane

concrete cycle paths can last thirty years - ViewFromCyclePath

they'd bring back the workhouses and punishment beatings if they could - Politics

surprisingly interesting obituary for poet Mary Wilson (wife of Harold Wilson) - Guardian

giving up a three course meal for a (possibly empty) packet of crisps - ProgressOnline

camels and needles, and other tales of mistranslation (mostly the Romans' fault) - StantLitore

the Copenhagen compromise: kerbside parking has to go, but loading and deliveries are essential - PeopleForBikes

going around in circles: ring roads and controlling through traffic - OxfordBlog

you'd have to use a cotton shopping bag 173 times to make it environmentally more friendly than single-use plastic bags - NZHerald

when you are right, it's easy to be consistent: a 280-character transport manifesto - RantyHighwayman

the economic policy of a con-man - @fawfulfan

including National Insurance, Council Tax and VAT, UK taxation isn't at all progressive - ResolutionFoundation [via @JolyonMaugham]

"every decile here pays tax in almost exact proportion to its gross income – implying a flat tax system as a whole"