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Skimm for October 30th

Skimm’d over Pillsbury cookie dough

QUOTE OF THE DAY “Can’t read the article because I don’t have a subscription” – Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) responding to yesterday’s New York Times editorial suggesting he drop out of the presidential race. #PaywallBurn Skimm This

THINGS SWITCHING GEARS

CHINA THE STORY China’s Communist Party wants everybody to start making babies. EXPLAIN. Yesterday, China added a plus one to its one-child policy. Meaning, yup, Chinese couples can now have two children. The one-child rule has been around since the late ’70s to keep the country’s massive population in check. Critics point out it’s led to human rights violations like forced sterilizations and abortions. Fast forward to today, and China hasn’t had a change of heart on human rights...but it IS staring at an aging population and a cooling economy.  theSKIMM Some are saying ‘too little too late’ — there aren’t enough people in the workforce to replace China’s retiring grandmas and grandpas. But this could be a big win for the global economy down the road.  Skimm This

CONGRESS THE STORY Yesterday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) got a gavel and dodged an awkward hug from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).  EXPLAIN. Ryan was officially sworn in as the new speaker of the House. The former VP candidate is replacing John Boehner (R-OH), who was ‘strongly encouraged’ by far-right GOPers to retire early. Earlier this week, he gave Ryan a goodbye present when he pushed a two-year budget deal  through the House. Aka no more debt ceiling showdowns or government shutdowns until 2017. Which should help everybody get along. For now. theSKIMM Ryan never wanted this job. Now that he’s got it, he could be a younger, fresher face for a party that’s hoping to hold onto power in Congress – and take the White House – in 2016. But first, he’s focusing on getting the House to do some trust falls and put the past in the past. Skimm This

REPEAT AFTER ME...

WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU CAN TELL YOUR FRIEND HAS SOMETHING ON HIS MIND… Spit it out. Earlier this week, a Pentagon spokesperson said “we’re in combat” in Iraq. Which is interesting, because ever since the US-led coalition against ISIS started last year, President Obama’s insisted...and insisted...that US troops wouldn’t see combat. And that US soldiers are just there to advise and train Iraqi forces. But then last week, a  US soldier was killed in Iraq for the first time since 2011. It happened during a joint raid with Iraqi forces fighting against ISIS. Which had everyone thinking ‘isn’t that called combat?’ Yesterday, the Pentagon said ‘yes, yes it is.’ Glad that’s cleared up.

WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOUR NEW CO-WORKER BRINGS DONUTS TO THE OFFICE… You’re a welcomed addition. Yesterday, the EU’s parliament called on its member states to drop charges against Edward Snowden and be nice if he shows up at their door. Reminder: since revealing that the NSA could be spying on everyone , Snowden found asylum in Moscow where he’s been sampling vodka and building his fur collection. The current status quo is that EU countries will send back anyone facing US charges. Never mind. Yesterday’s move means the EU is starting to warm up to Eddie, but it’s up to member countries to decide how to handle it if he decides to take a Eurotrip. Meanwhile, yesterday the US gov said pinky swears should never be broken and its position on Eddie “has not changed.” Skimm This

WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR FRIEND WHO’S OBSESSED WITH THE ROYALS… You’re gonna have to be more specific. Yes, it’s October and two teams are still playing baseball. The Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets are battling it out in the World Series and so far it’s 2-0 Royals. Neither team has won a championship since the ’80s, so they both have something to prove. The series is best of seven, and game three is tonight in New York. Play ball. Skimm This

WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR FRIEND WHO HATES HALLOWEEN… Need a ride to work?

THING TO KNOW Depreciating Asset: Look at your shoes, now look up. Assets, like shoes and cars, become less valuable over time, which can lead some people to lease vs. buy a car once they run the math. There are benefits to both depending on your personal situation.

SKIMM READS “In a Dark, Dark Wood” by Ruth Ware  Reese Witherspoon’s making it into a movie, so read the book now. Before bed at your own risk. It’s about a writer who goes on a group weekend away in the woods. Fast forward to her waking up in a hospital bed, with no recollection of what’s happened...except that someone’s dead.

SKIMM WINE Skimm’ologist says: this Cab goes well with your dark, dark read.

SKIMM LIFE Skimm HQ is really, really, ridiculously ready for Halloween. Still need ideas? Check out #SkimmorTreat on Insta. Post your costume this weekend, and you might just win some Skimm swag.

SKIMM SHARE Sharing is caring. Thanks to Lise Guerrier and Tiffany Yu for sharing theSkimm. To show you we care, we’re giving you a Lyft. Here’s how you share.

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Google Operating System: Google to Merge Android With Chrome OS

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Google to Merge Android With Chrome OS Posted: 29 Oct 2015 04:59 PM PDT Wall Street Journal reports that Google works on integrating Chrome OS into Android and will release a unified OS that runs on phones, tablets, laptops and more. "The company plans to unveil its new, single operating system in 2017, but expects to show off an early version next year." So why kill Chrome OS and switch to Android? Chrome OS has a small desktop market share, while Android is the dominant mobile OS. There are a lot more apps in the Google Play Store than in the Chrome Web Store and Google had a hard time convincing developers to build Chrome apps. Google even ported the Android runtime to Chrome, so that you can run Android apps in Chrome OS. Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, has recently said that "mobile as a computing paradigm is eventually going to blend with what we think of as desktop today". Most likely, Google wants to bring Android to the desktop and provide a coherent experience. This solves some of the issues with Chrome OS (the lack of apps, low market share), but brings more challenges (Android is less secure than Chrome OS, it's updated less often, has a more complicated interface, it doesn't have a windowing system, apps aren't optimized for desktop). I like Chromebooks because they're simple devices that require no maintenance. There are few things you can change, few things that can go wrong. It's easy to share them with other people, you don't have to worry about backups or saving your data. Pixel C's announcement makes more sense now. It's an Android tablet developed by the Chromebook Pixel team. "We think the Pixel C's tablet and keyboard experience really unlocks new ways to both play and be productive on one device," mentioned Google. Google has a lot of work to do. Android's tablet interface is pretty poor, there's no native multi-window support, Chrome for Android doesn't support extensions, apps and themes. Chromebooks were all about the web, but native apps turned out to be more important for users. Better performance, better integration with the operating system, better interface - native apps trumped web apps and Chrome OS couldn't find a way to turn the tide.

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[New post] IPA’s weekly links

Jeff Mosenkis (IPA) posted: "Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action. Press Enterprise/Jimmy May   The $2.7 billion Army lost blimp floating over an Amish buggy in Pennsylvania just 19 hours after Rathyon posted an ad for a temp blimp watcher, was only " New post on Chris Blattman IPA’s weekly links by Jeff Mosenkis (IPA) Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action. Press Enterprise/Jimmy May   The $2.7 billion Army lost blimp floating over an Amish buggy in Pennsylvania just 19 hours after Rathyon posted an ad for a temp blimp watcher, was only the runner-up craziest military story of the week. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reports on an episode in 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, when two U.S. Air Force officers refused orders to launch 32 nuclear missiles. (Summary here). Tanzania election results are in, primer here. An account of some disturbing responses to the observations of all male panels at international development conferences. (h/t Lee Crawfurd) The University of California system and White House are boosting support for open access publication of research. Duncan Green finds low take up of blogging & tweeting by academics despite demonstrated evidence of the benefits. More research is needed to understand this failure. Rasul & Rogger in American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings (PDF here) find a correlation between ethnic diversity in Nigeria's civil service and quality of service (measured in project completion rates).   And, if you were following the craziness that broke out when the WHO classified processed meats as a carcinogen, there was at least one piece of good news. A stubborn love of bacon just taught more Americans the difference between p values and effect size than 100 stats courses could. — Ted Underworld (@Ted_Underwood) October 27, 2015 Jeff Mosenkis (IPA) | October 29, 2015 at 2:43 pm | Categories: miscellany | URL: http://chrisblattman.com/?p=12892 Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Chris Blattman. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://chrisblattman.com/2015/10/29/ipas-weekly-links-33/

[New post] What I’ve been reading

Chris Blattman posted: "I meant to blog about many of these individually, but after two months it has not happened, so here is a list of impressions. Not all the books are excellent. They run from the best to the least worth reading, but all are worth reading (I don't blog about" New post on Chris Blattman What I’ve been reading by Chris Blattman I meant to blog about many of these individually, but after two months it has not happened, so here is a list of impressions. Not all the books are excellent. They run from the best to the least worth reading, but all are worth reading (I don't blog about the duds). The Party by Richard McGregor. Best book I read this year. A former FT journalist in China gives you the fascinating inner workings of the Communist party. I am not a China expert, so I can't say if any of this is accurate, but it was the most thought-provoking book on the politics of development I can recall in a while. How corruption and cronyism produce growth when the political system is durable yet flexible. Best paired with this article by Chang Tai Hsieh: "Crony Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics" Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I did not find the whole "letter to my son" device as skillful or convincing as others, and the writing is not his best, but more important than any of that: the book is full of powerful ideas and insights. Also, this is the only book about black people that every white liberal intellectual in the country has read, and they're going to talk about it all the time as if they are experts on oppression. So you might as well know what they are bullshitting about. Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. A Chinese science fiction novel translated into English. The writing is a bit awkward at times, which might be the writer or the translator. But worth it in the end. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. A much better science fiction novel, even if it sometimes feels like a worse Cloud Atlas. The Black Count by Tom Reiss. Alexandre Dumas (author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, had a father who was Haiti-born, black, and one of the greatest generals of revolutionary France. A history of the slave trade and the revolution, but written well enough you actually want to read it. Minute Zero by Todd Moss. Book two about an Ivy league political science professor who runs conflict regressions and then unwittingly saves the world with the help of the CIA. I mean, what's not to love (from a purely self-interested perspective)? The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma. Nigeria is probably one of the countries with the most interesting and innovative 21st century fiction. This book is a novel about a Nigerian boy, beautifully written. It cannot be accused of sounding like Adichie or Achebe, which I mention only because there's a rule that every review of a Nigerian author has to mention those two people. The UnAmericans by Molly Antopol. Short stories on American immigrants, with a common Eastern European thread running through many. A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky. An irritating neuroscientist/primatologist recounts his experiences and exploits among baboons. His insights into primates and his academic field are good enough that they are worth listening to his self-congratulatory stories. Also, throughout the book I kept thinking, "Maybe when I am 70 I too will write a memoir, and no doubt I too will sound like a complete ass to someone 30 years my junior." So all is forgiven. And in 30 years please forgive me. Chris Blattman | October 29, 2015 at 9:58 am | Tags: book reviews | Categories: books | URL: http://chrisblattman.com/?p=12871 Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Chris Blattman. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://chrisblattman.com/2015/10/29/what-ive-been-reading-12/

Google Operating System: YouTube Red Launched

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• YouTube Red Launched
• New Google Calendar URL
• Android Auto Backup

YouTube Red Launched Posted: 28 Oct 2015 02:49 PM PDT As promised, YouTube Red was launched today in the US. If you use the mobile apps for Android and iOS, you probably noticed that the title changed to "YouTube Red" and there's a new "YouTube Red" section in the settings. YouTube didn't even update the apps: the changes were probably triggered automatically. There are 3 different ways to sign up for YouTube Red: from YouTube.com or the Android app, from Google Play Music and from YouTube's iOS app. If you use in-app purchases on iOS, you'll spend 30% more every month ($12.99 vs $9.99 regular pricing), so it's not a good idea to do that. The desktop site has a new logo: Here are some screenshots from the iPad app: "With a YouTube Red membership, you'll experience YouTube without video ads, be able to save videos to watch offline, and play videos in the background on your mobile device, all for $9.99 a month. And just like with our advertising revenue, the majority of revenue we get from YouTube Red memberships will go to our creator community," mentions YouTube's blog. YouTube Red is free for Google Play Music subscribers and there's a free 30-day trial for US users. For now, YouTube Red is limited to the US and there are some additional restrictions: "if you leave the U.S., you won't be able to save videos offline, videos won't play in the background, and you will see ads. Any videos that you've saved offline before leaving the U.S., will continue to be available offline for 30 days."

New Google Calendar URL Posted: 28 Oct 2015 01:51 PM PDT Daniel Fletcher, a reader of this blog, noticed that Google Calendar's URL changed from www.google.com/calendar to calendar.google.com. This seems to be a recent change, even though the Google Apps Blog announced it back in September. "In an effort to further increase security, in the coming weeks we'll be changing the main Google Calendar URL from 'www.google.com/calendar' to 'calendar.google.com.' Following the launch, the old Calendar url will simply redirect to the new one, so the overall impact of this change on Google Apps customers should be minimal," informed Google. Browsers like Chrome and Safari will ask you for permission again to show notifications. Greasemonkey scripts and extensions that use the old URLs will probably stop working, so developers will need to update them. Daniel Fletcher wonders why "Maps is now google.com/maps, when it used to be maps.google.com and Calendar seems to have gone the other way". Maybe Google Maps will go back to the old URL.

Android Auto Backup Posted: 28 Oct 2015 10:52 AM PDT One of the best features from Android Marshmallow is auto backup for apps. Android used to have a backup feature that only worked for system settings and a few apps that enabled it. Now Google saves the settings and data for all the apps and backs it up to Google Drive, so you can quickly restore it when needed. I've checked the Android section from Google Dashboard and noticed the difference between Nexus 7 running Android 4.3 and Nexus 5 running Android 6.0. While Nexus 7 only backed up system settings, the wallpaper and some data for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Keyboard, Nexus 5 backed up the data for almost all the apps: from QuickPic Gallery to MyFitnessPal, from Firefox to Opera Mini and Angry Birds 2. There are still some apps that don't support auto backup, but at least the feature is now opt-out instead of opt-in. The Android section from Google Dashboard shows a lot of useful information about your Android devices (IMEI number, registered date, last activity date, carrier) and it also lets you delete backup data. "Please note that new backup data will be created if backup is enabled on any of your Android devices," informs Google. The list of apps backed up to Google Drive is also available in the Settings section of the Google Drive app for Android. You can enable or disable the backup feature, automatic restore, reset network settings, add backup accounts. The nice thing is that all this data doesn't use your Google Drive storage quota, but each app is limited to 25MB. "Apps running on the new backup system aim to save their data every 24 hours, but there are a few requirements for the backup system to trigger automatically. The new backup system uses the JobScheduler API introduced in Lollipop and only triggers a backup if the device is connected to power, on Wi-Fi, and has been idle for at least an hour. The data then gets encrypted and uploaded to Google Drive," reports Ars Technica. It's worth pointing out that reinstalling an app from the Play Store restores its settings and data. This way, you won't lose your data when you uninstall an app and you don't have to reconfigure an app you've previously used. In my opinion, this is a game-changing feature. The new backup service is powered by Google Play Services, so it can be improved without updating the operating system. Hopefully, Google will allow users to disable backup for certain apps, remove the 25MB limitation and backup even more data.

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