Why Are US Presidential Elections So Close?

Whatever the case may be, this outlying campaign will be debated and dissected in lecture halls and journals for years to come. “I think the campaign will draw more scholars of American politics to the topic of populism,” says Hersh. And, perhaps, it will spur new ideas on the interplay and relative importance of policy, valence, the median voter, and close elections. In that sense, one thing is sure: punditry and political science will have to change, at least a bit, to account for it.

Revisiting why incompetents think they’re awesome.

“The presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect, as it’s been come to be called, is that one should pause to worry about one’s own certainty, not the certainty of others.”

Making a Language with JavaScript.

Programming language implementations vary wildly, but the steps are roughly as follows:

• Parse source code text into abstract syntax tree (AST) such as JSON
• (Optional) Static analysis of AST to report warnings and errors
• Depending on whether you want a compiler or an interpreter:
  • Compile to executable, bytecode, JS, etc. OR
  • Evaluate the AST to run the program

Relevant: What programming language should you learn first? ʇdıɹɔsɐʌɐɾ :ɹǝʍsuɐ

Memento Wien (…) bietet Informationen zu den Opfern der NS-Diktatur im Zentrum von Wien: Über den Stadtplan macht diese mobile Website die letzten Wohnadressen der Ermordeten sowie eine Reihe von Archivdokumenten und Fotos zu Personen und Gebäuden in der Stadt sichtbar. (Via science.orf.at.)

How the Internet Is Loosening Our Grip on the Truth.

(…) Caitlin Dewey, a reporter at The Washington Post who once wrote a column called “What Was Fake on the Internet This Week” (…) decided to hang up her fact-checking hat because she had doubts that she was convincing anyone. “In many ways the debunking just reinforced the sense of alienation or outrage that people feel about the topic, and ultimately you’ve done more harm than good,” she said.

Bridge Under Troubled Drivers.

For some, the mere thought of having to drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is terrifying. For others, though, it’s an opportunity to cash in on that terror.

JSCity is an implementation of the Code City metaphor for visualizing source code.

Think, Donald, Think!

‘Back to the Future’ Writer: Biff Tannen Is Based on Donald Trump.

How video games unwittingly train the brain to justify killing.

In 2016, technology and media have turned genocide viral. The video game Mortal Kombat X features spines being snapped, heads crushed and players being diced into cubes. In Hatred, gamers play as a sociopath who attempts to kill innocent bystanders and police officers with guns, flamethrowers and bombs to satisfy his hatred of humanity. Characters beg for mercy before execution, frequently during profanity-laced rants.

It looks like scientists and philosophers might have made consciousness far more mysterious than it needs to be.