The pandemic made things worse, but something bigger is going on.

The new data provides the first national comparison of school districts through 2025, and… underscores that many districts have experienced a long-term slump in student achievement, not just a blip during the pandemic.

From 2017 to 2019, students lost as much ground in reading as they did during the pandemic, and reading scores continued to fall at a similar rate through 2024.

Students’ test scores had been increasing since 1990 — then abruptly stopped in the mid-2010s. That coincided with two events: an easing of federal school accountability under No Child Left Behind, which was replaced in 2015, and the rise of smartphones, social media and personalized school laptops.

From the article:

The new report found that science of reading reforms were necessary, but not sufficient, to improve scores. Only states that had embraced science of reading reforms showed improvement from 2022 to 2025 — yet not all of those that did saw gains.

I braved the risky click, and was rewarded with a fun article chronicling the history of a small village.

If standard of living was only about hard assets, sure. But human work is a big part of modern economies, and a free base income lets more people pay others for services. It takes time for entrepreneurial-minded people to spin up businesses and grow the economy to absorb the increased income, but done in a thoughtful ramped manner, cash payments have net positive effects.

It seems to be a common social phenomenon, something about how our human brains are wired. People have expert knowledge - burn the witches! China’s Great Leap Forward, the Cambodian genocide under Khmer Rouge, and on and on. I hate that we as a society haven’t figured out how to avoid this yet.

My medical records are riddled with artisinal fully human-generated hallucinations and missing information. The AI note takers, even with the rate of issues noted in the article, seem to have crossed the threshold to be an improvement on the current system. The records still suck at a similar level, but as you noted it frees up clinicians to add a few more minutes of engagement per patient visit.

I read the anecdote as identifying location of any horseplay-related sound, not just voices.

I think this one is concrete, so at least it’s potentially fixable or replaceable. The “dingy gray” granite building Trump has directed be painted white is, so far, protected by more bureaucracy. If he pushes that through, the damage will be irreversible.

Our comforter is tied to the bed footrest on my husband’s side, because otherwise I steal it in my sleep. It keeps marital harmony!

It’s an unfortunately rare skill set to change documents. If the way it’s being done is better than the document, there is a process to make the document match, but that idea seems to not even occur to most of my coworkers, across multiple industries in my couple of decades working.

I have filled out so many change review forms justification field “updating document to match existing practice. No process change.” Boss always signs.