Favorites May 17 2021

Dr. Paige Harden @kph3k

remember when Trump said that we shouldn’t test so our coronavirus case numbers would go down, and most of y’all responded with outrage at the absurdity, b/c how could you think that abandoning an indicator of a problem makes the problem go away! See also: abandoning the SAT

Testing is a terrible way to measure students, except for all the other options. As biased as it is, almost anything else would add subjectivity, which would result in more bias, not less. Interestingly, the reason SAT scores aren’t a strong indicator success in college is probably the same reason NBA player height doesn’t predict their success.¹

Steve Vladeck @steve_vladeck

In Edwards, #SCOTUS holds that "no new rules of criminal procedure can satisfy the watershed exception." In English, this means that no prisoners whose appeals are final will ever be able to benefit in federal court from new procedural rules articulated by #SCOTUS (like Gideon).

There was a bunch of bad Supreme Court news, starting with this

Stonekettle @Stonekettle

Me <in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020...>: Show up and vote no matter what, even if you hate Obama, Clinton, and Biden, or you're gonna lose the Supreme Court. Twitter: FUCK YOU, NEOLIBERAL CENTRIST! ABORTION IS SETTLED LAAAAAAAAAAW! Welp, enjoy your Handmaid's Tale.

snopes.com @snopes

The court’s order sets up a showdown over abortion, probably in the fall, with a more conservative court seemingly ready to dramatically alter nearly 50 years of rulings on abortion rights. https://t.co/QwQhW8f1TF

More bad news out of the Supreme Court.

It’s-a Tyler Dinucci 🤌🏼 @TylerDinucci

It’s pretty incredible for Breyer to look at how Ginsburg’s hubris paid off and still go “yes, more of that”.

Bryer has indicated that he won't be retiring this year. This is unfortunate.

Tina Slater @TGSlater

WHO calls for 30 kilometer per hour speed limit in cities - that's ~19 mph.

p.dw.comWHO calls for 30 kilometer per hour speed limit in cities | DW | 17.05.2021The global Streets for Life campaign calls for imposing strict speed limits in urban areas. Senior officials at the World Health Organization, including chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, joined the appeal.

I didn't expect the WHO to focus on traffic deaths, but from the graphs I've seen, lowering speed saves pedestrian lives. Not that I expect this is going to get far in the US, I’m just hoping we get around to enforcing the speed limits that we already have.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Homelessness is about housing, and homelessness rates are highest where housing is most expensive and less use regs the most binding. slowboring.com/p/homelessness…

Long story short: making it harder to build housing leads to more homelessness

Yea, I know it’s an office building, they tend to be easier to photograph than residential.

1. It’s because to get into the NBA, you already are pretty tall, and to get into college, you probably had relatively good SAT scores. Once you cross a certain threshold, it matters a lot less.