February, 2018 | Chris Aldrich

👓 Studies are increasingly clear: Uber, Lyft congest cities | AP News

Read Studies are increasingly clear: Uber, Lyft congest cities by Steve LeBlanc (AP News)

One promise of ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft was fewer cars clogging city streets. But studies suggest the opposite: that ride-hailing companies are pulling riders off buses, subways, bicycles and their own feet and putting them in cars instead. And in what could be a new wrinkle, a service by Uber called Express Pool now is seen as directly competing with mass transit. Uber and Lyft argue that in Boston, for instance, they complement public transit by connecting riders to hubs like Logan Airport and South Station. But they have not released their own specific data about rides, leaving studies up to outside researchers. And the impact of all those cars is becoming clear, said Christo Wilson, a professor of computer science at Boston’s Northeastern University, who has looked at Uber’s practice of surge pricing during heavy volume. “The emerging consensus is that ride-sharing (is) increasing congestion,” Wilson said.

It’s interesting that the “simple” story peddled by ridesharing companies is the one that’s most believed. Outside studies like this are certainly both wanted and needed.

It’s always seemed to me that these companies weren’t quite doing what they said they were from a simple economics standpoint. Particularly with these companies losing money to build market share, they’re essentially subsidizing a portion of their user’s cost. The fact that they’re siphoning off people from public transportation isn’t widely reported. I suspect that outside of major metropolitan areas they’re not doing as much as they are in them. They’re building market share, but primarily by breaking regulations in places with taxi or other related services. I’d certainly love to see more broad based statistics of their ridership compared with statistics from taxi companies and municipal transportation services. I have a feeling the economic piper will eventually come for them when the playing field is leveled.

👓 Sliced And Diced: The Inside Story Of How An Ivy League Food Scientist Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies | Buzzfeed

Read Sliced And Diced: The Inside Story Of How An Ivy League Food Scientist Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies by Stephanie M. Lee (BuzzFeed)

Brian Wansink won fame, funding, and influence for his science-backed advice on healthy eating. Now, emails show how the Cornell professor and his colleagues have hacked and massaged low-quality data into headline-friendly studies to “go virally big time.”

This article is painful to read and has some serious implications for both science in general and the issue of repeat-ability. I suspect that this is an easily caught flagrant case and that it probably only scratches the surface. The increased competition in research and the academy is sure to create more cases of this in the future.

We really need people to begin publishing their negative results and doing a better job on understanding and practicing statistics. Science is already not “believed” by far too many in the United States, we really don’t need bad actors like this eroding the solid foundations we’ve otherwise built.

🎧 The Daily: Mental Health and Mass Shootings | The New York Times

Listened to Listen to ‘The Daily’: Mental Health and Mass Shootings by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

President Trump has focused on mental health, rather than weapons, after the mass shooting in Florida. But mental illness is rarely the cause of gun violence.

What a fantastic look at guns and the “mental health” issue.

🎧 The Daily: Russian Trolls’ Favorite Weapon | The New York Times

Listened to Listen to ‘The Daily’: Russian Trolls’ Favorite Weapon by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

The indictment secured by the special counsel makes it clear that Facebook was used extensively in the campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. How did Russia do it?

👓 Book clinic: why do publishers still issue hardbacks? | The Guardian

Read Book clinic: why do publishers still issue hardbacks? by Philip Jones (the Guardian)

The editor of the Bookseller explains why the hardback format will be with us for a while yet

An interesting example of “signaling” value in the publishing industry. Curious how this might play out in a longer study of the evolution of books and written material?