I'm going to Paris for a few days. Where should I eat? Bonus points if it's in or near the Marais. I'll have a four month old baby with me, so nothing too fancy, please.

This is a very good example of writing about an almost-incomprehensible subject in a clear, 'Show, Don't Tell' way that actually conveys the mechanics of what's going on.

anthropic.com/research/mappi…

As Labour looks for new town sites, and how to make HS2 work, might I suggest Calvert, where HS2 and EWR cross? 5km radius population is only 7,000. Land rated poor for farming. Huge transport capacity. You could fit a city the sized of Rennes (250k) here. Sam Bowman, as discussed!

Weirdest of all is the notion that postwar Britain became services-oriented because free trade-ism let manufacturing wither.

Britain in the 1950s-70s is a poster child for industrial policy propping up poorly-run companies / unviable industries and holding back growth!

They’ve only gone and done it. Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie 🇺🇦 on Johann Hari.

Wonder if he’ll respond!

thestudiesshowpod.com/p/paid-only-ep…

Our new piece, ‘Why Prediction Markets Aren’t Popular,’ was featured on Money Stuff today

How difficult would it be to repair the leather surface here?

Terrific piece in the latest Works in Progress mag by Nick Cowen on drunk driving and the lessons for criminal justice policy more broadly: worksinprogress.co/issue/how-the-…

It is generally assumed that making ornament is labour intensive. This leads many to think that the rising cost of labour in modern societies led to the decline of ornament, as it was outcompeted by smooth machine-made forms. Here, public buildings from the 1900s and 2000s.

As predicted, caps on in-tenancy rent increases lead to rents that are higher up front. That, in turn, will probably lead to calls for traditional rent controls that impose full caps on rents. It's a pity Labour seems to plan on adopting this in England.

thetimes.co.uk/article/c9d724…

Are mobile phones the reason for the phenomenal drop in crime (both violent crime and other kinds) over the past thirty years?

edwest.co.uk/p/did-mobile-p…

On Thursday 23 May, I’ll be in Paris for a special Stripe Press pop-up. They’ll have Replay and my Making of Prince of Persia™ journals on hand in both English and French editions, AND a limited-run POP-game dev zine! 📕💾
Come say hi and get your books signed!

Sign up free at

Van Tulleken’s definition of ultra-processed is getting even more ridiculous. But also more revealing. (From the FAQs in the paperback edition of his book.)

'Some anti-gentrification strategies are even less focused. Seattle, in recognition of city’s historic use of ‘race-based zoning as exclusionary practice’, renamed single-family zoning to ‘neighborhood residential zones’, without actually changing rules.'
worksinprogress.co/issue/gentrifi…

28,175 overall rank for fantasy football this year for me. Slightly disappointing because I dipped near the end but still a lot better than recent seasons for me, so progress!

How confident can we be that detections and sanctions were the cause. A great paper by Hansen based on Washington State admin data shows that drunk drivers respond to harsher sanctions at the margin. But how does this scale to a community?