Danny's Pathologically Polymathic: July 2014

Israel's other war - NYer

"It's an awful thing to make a truly tragic mistake, one that costs many lives. It's worse to make that same mistake over and over again."

two Europeans adopted by Aborigines in the mid-19th century - ABC

the vast leaning book towers - Berfrois

Bangkok motorcycle taxi drivers and Thai politics - NYROB

outside Norway, not that many people have actually read Knausgaard - NYROB

trying to reform mathematics teaching - NYT

"children in rich countries are mind-bogglingly safe, so long as they look both ways before crossing the road" - Econ

I'd totally forgotten about Iran Air Flight 655 - Slate

teaching small cardinal numbers to a toddler - OxfordBlog

the history of Israel's Gaza policy - LRB

Australia has "a gambler's addiction to roads" - Age

"road agencies and other road project proponents in industry and the community spend next to no effort examining what problems their projects and plans are trying to solve, other than the perceived problem that they do not have enough road funding"

self-referential signage - Flickr - Twitter

the first of these is real, I have my doubts about the second

Switzerland needs some protection for whistleblowers - Economist

universities shouldn't try to be too clever with their web sites - NNgroup

a six hour video of a giant squid dissection - LiveStream [via Schneier]

remembering George Bell, bishop of Chichester - TonyMusings

"his speech in 1944, when he again demanded the House of Lords stop British saturation bombing of German cities such as Hamburg and Berlin as a disproportionate and illegal 'policy of annihilation' and a crime against humanity"

on past performance, a random refugee seems more trustworthy than the Australian Immigration Minister - SMH

fixing mysql/wordpress character set problems is a nightmare - Wordpress

the leader of the largest faction of Israel's ruling party openly advocates the ethnic cleansing of Gaza - EI

riding dinosaurs is the safest form of transport in the UK - Conversation

parking spaces are eating our cities - Citylab

money buys school grades more effectively than uni ones - Conversation

A Very Short Introduction - French Literature [my review]

Lydie Salvayre's biting satire on corporate paternalism - The Award [my review]

successful experiments in social psychology have no meaningful scientific value - Cosma

(clearly, if unsuccessful experiments have no value...)

asking drivers to behave nicely is not enough - WarWithMotorist - AsEasyAsRiding

an excellent piece on Gaza - RighteousTrayf

how a culture of rail safety in the UK has been achieved - WarWithMotorist

Helsinki plans to make car ownership pointless - Guardian

sports/recreational cycling is not a spur to everyday cycling - Wolmar

Australia: betraying the helpless to torture and murder - HeathenScripture

surreal aircraft fuselages climbing out of river - King5

Austrian economics is a mind-eating brainworm - Bloomberg

Israel blithely ignores laws against collective punishment - HRW

Tony Blair applies to be Caliph - DailyMash

"“In my previous role I was instrumental in creating networks of Islamic extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan using an innovative mix of aerial bombing and ground invasions."

NSA monitoring rules: Linux Journal is apparently "an extremist forum" - Schneier

Tony Blair should at least be in disgrace, even if not before the Hague - Guardian

placefaking: dressing up traffic routes as places - AsEasyAsRiding

JCPenney allowed to sacrifice employees to Cthulhu - MoonmontChronicle

The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation - Cross and Scepter [my review]