Max H

Different maps that show life expectancy by county in the U.S., where the data is divided using different data binning methods.

Box plot style graphics show data points for adult percent obesity by county in the U.S.

Hi data people, check out Exploropleth! exploropleth.github.io/exploropleth/. It's free, open source software that shows how binning methods affect maps. There's also a teaching worksheet and a journal article in CaGIS: exploropleth.github.io
@arpitnarechania.bsky.social &
@alexendert.bsky.social

MLS is using generative AI to write match recaps. Writers used to get paid freelance rates to do that. Hssssss.

As someone whose time freelancing for MLSsoccer was a vital step in my career progression, and someone who generally gleans insight from the observations of others:

This sucks so hard.

With 5-3 victory at shambolic Inter Miami, Chicago Fire ends an eight-year MLS playoff drought — and leaves the befuddled D.C. United organization with the longest rut in the league (six years).

Watched Josh Johnson perform a comedy special last night, made a couple of jokes about Youth Soccer. His set was really funny in general but my weird soccer brain was like "even he identified youth Soccer tournaments in the US are whack and make you really tired for no good reason" 😭

They've already equalled their points total from their Europa League campaign last year 💀

Baltimore records 7 homicides in August, fewest for month in a half-century Baltimore is now in its third consecutive year of steep declines in homicides and nonfatal shootings.

Baltimore just recorded the FEWEST homicides for August in a half-century – proving that with the right investments and resources we can succeed.

Love to see that three teams confirmed their first ever appearance in the Champions League proper today. Good luck to Bødo 🇳🇴, Pafos 🇨🇾, and Kairat 🇰🇿!

Hot take, people who hate cities shouldn’t be in charge of cities

I understand that they're trying not to punish defenders , but the rule needs a rewrite (maybe make it so that any time the arm huts the ball it's at least an indirect free kick?).

The current handball rule is awful, if a ref wants to they can justify the arm being in a "natural position" whenever it comes into contact with the ball, even when it significantly impacts the outcome of the play.

Trump’s Deals With Top Colleges May Give Rich Applicants a Bigger Edge

“Any selective admissions process that ignores income, privilege & structural access while targeting race‑based efforts to increase diversity isn’t leveling the playing field. It’s cementing it.”

Trump’s Deals With Top Colleges May Give Rich Applicants a Bigger Edge www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/u...

“The second aspect of ignorance which has to be stressed here, is of a more psychological nature. Political news and comment like all other information poured out by the radio, the press, and the newsreels, is generally absorbed during leisure time and falls, in a certain way, within the framework of “entertainment.” Politics is viewed in much the same way as sport or the movies, not as something directly involved with one’s own participation in the process of production. Viewed within this frame of reference, however, politics is necessarily “disappointing.” It appears to people conditioned by an industrial culture and its specific kinds of “entertainment values” as drab, cold, dry—as boring. This may be enhanced by that undercurrent of American tradition which regards politics somehow as a dirty business with which a respectable person should have but little to do. Disappointment in politics as a leisure-time activity which pays no quick returns prob” Excerpt From The Authoritarian Personality T. W. Adorno This material may be protected by copyright.

“probably makes for indifference, and it is quite possible that the prevailing ignorance is due not merely to unfamiliarity with the facts but also a kind of resistance against what is supposed to serve as a pastime and mostly tends to be disagreeable. A pattern most often to be observed, perhaps, among women, namely, skipping the political sections of newspapers, where information is available, and turning immediately to gossip columns, crime stories, the woman’s page, and so forth, may be an extreme expression of something more general.” Excerpt From The Authoritarian Personality T. W. Adorno This material may be protected by copyright.

In 1950, Adorno argues that the authoritarian personality is in part a result of the US treating the news as entertainment.

He says here politics looks boring in comparison to sport, which encourages apathy. Implied is the fact that "entertaining" news is part of authoritarian projects.

Note also that the lawsuit alleges that because race and class are correlated, providing free tuition to lower income students is also racial preference.

They just want a pure aristocracy of inherited wealth

Really was one of the dumbest and most harmful things possible for “virtue signaling” to become some kind of epithet. Sending externally visible signals that you are engaging in pro-social behavior is normal, natural, and good, it’s how society works. Other people can’t read your fucking mind.

With tickets for the Club World Cup now affordable for fans, why did they not just do this at the outset and avoid the humiliating empty stadia? 🎟️

Feels like ranked choice was absolutely decisive in this race—not because of the vote count, but because of how it changed the incentives from zero-sum to cooperapetitive. It allowed a fractured left field to align organically through co-endorsements instead of falling into a circular firing squad.

Looks like it could be a retro kit out of the 90s, def drippin

Still nothing from @mls.bsky.social... #FairShareNow

The article's definitely helpful! Even if you don't like the remaining candidates and haven't used all 5 rankings, it makes more sense to continue using your rankings if you prefer 1 candidate over the others. It makes it less likely your vote will be thrown out and more likely your vote will count.

You don't have to rank five candidates, you can rank anywhere from 1-5 candidates and have your ballot count. They're just strongly suggesting you rank five since it decreases the chance Andrew Cuomo wins the primary (if you don't rank him)

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

US map via scienceimpacts.org visualization of economic loss due to IDC cuts to 15% as part of Feb 7, 2025 executive order, with shading denoting intensity of cuts.

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs.

Find out how your community may be impacted.

Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org

a 🧵

Promotion and relegation is coming to American soccer for the first time ever 🇺🇸⚽️

Per @paultenorio.bsky.social, USL owners voted to approve a three-tier pyramid—via a “supermajority”—when the new USL Division 1 launches in 2028.

An indirect free kick inside the box is a hefty penalty for a goalkeeper time-wasting, probably one of the reasons it was almost never called. Hopefully this means the referee will have more of an incentive to make the right call without feeling like they're tilting the outcome of the game.

YouTube video by Technology Connections Algorithms are breaking how we think

Surely this new video won't make me seem like a crank.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJp...

He should stop dropping f-bombs around the referee. He got sent off last season for something similar, I don't understand why he keeps swearing around referees and giving them a reason to send him off