Evan Roberts | Lightnews

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 14h

Solid advice for many situations.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 16h

In Victoria and NSW 15-2Omph over is an automatic suspension ... road death rates are about 1/3 of the US average

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 23h

Seems like getting your drivers license revoked after going 100 mph+ should be the norm, rather than one possible outcome of an experimental pilot program.

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 17h

My guess would be that it's a different situation than Golden Gate, which just very obviously is much more iconic and alternative spots are not nearly as common. Which is to say, I very much see the logic for doing more of these around the Mississippi River gorge.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 17h

yes, and the temporary ones have not been totally effective

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

Golden Gate bridge is the much cited example of this phenomena.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

My sense of the literature on suicide hotspots is that sometimes one particular spot emerges as a focal location, and attempts do not quickly switch to nearby alternatives. But every place is different.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

Yes, it’s just been a lot of inaction about Washington which is a known hotspot. Would be fascinated to know if Bridge 9 or 10th Ave have seen increased issues since temporary barriers went up on Washington. I have no insights into the local specifics.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

10th Ave is getting them? Interesting in many, many ways (in the genuine way, not the arched eyebrow disapproval meaning)

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

I know this has changed, and will change, but was really referring to long delay in doing anything about Washington Ave

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

mndaily.com/city/stbridg...

UMN taskforce considers safety changes for Washington Avenue Bridge

Renderings of a tall railing for the bridge drew opposition and concerns from some U faculty.

mndaily.com

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

My perspective is shaped by my personal love of good vistas and photographs from them, tempered with my ongoing research about suicide [in a totally different time and place].

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

The St. Paul High Bridge which was a well-known suicide hot spot with good views had an extensive community consultation and design process for new railings that are of a similar geometry to this. As noted Washington Ave bridge does not have these railings as U committee said “views important!”

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18h

Highlighting this post from @vincempls.bsky.social that says not mentioned to a committee that you might have expected to be informed. On the one hand, it’s just some extra height on railings for a good cause … on the other, different standard than has been applied to other bridges in Twin Cities

Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 18h

I'm on the Capital Long Range Planning Committee and Bridge 9 team gave an extensive presentation, and this fence was not anywhere in the discussion.

Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 18h

I'm on the Capital Long Range Planning Committee and Bridge 9 team gave an extensive presentation, and this fence was not anywhere in the discussion.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 19h

Project page says nothing about this, which is interesting. Railings like this were proposed for Washington Ave bridge, and a UMN committee turned them down on account of the view impacts. Can you poke a camera lens but not a head though the gap is a good qn?
www.minneapolismn.gov/government/p...

Bridge 9 improvements

The City of Minneapolis is completing repairs on Bridge 9 in downtown Minneapolis.

www.minneapolismn.gov

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 19h

Bridge 9 is still not open, and I wonder if these new railings, which appear to suicide prevention design, are the reason. I don't recall this from the public info about this bridge rehab, but I could be wrong. Do others know if this war planned all along? It's a big change in design.

Bridge railings being erected on Bridge 9 with downtown Minneapolis in the background

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 21h

The Gage still holds up well (it's a block out of the actual loop TBF)

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 23h

Seems like getting your drivers license revoked after going 100 mph+ should be the norm, rather than one possible outcome of an experimental pilot program.

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 23h

I have not found a good single article or book about how maths and statistics folks navigated this. My colleagues who are truly working in the intellectual history of science could possibly enlighten me here, if this 30 years ancient era is indeed history.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

I used the free time productively, and I have a course prepped and ready to go for our program which I'm excited to teach when the moment arises. At the point in my career where the course was easy enough to construct, synthesizing prior courses, so it wasn't a huge deal.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Unfortunately ... owing to banal administrative stuff, my course got held over a crucial committee cycle in liberal education review, went live for spring registration on the 23rd of December ... and enrolled no students.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

The records I was planning to use were nearly ideal for LLMs to work well on, so plan was to introduce students to LLMs for this very useful task. Failure points of LLMs with handwriting are well known, and would have introduced good discussion of students' own challenges with reading it.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Back in 2023/4 I was prepping to teach an upper-level class based around historical medical records, and it was clear even then that the handwriting recognition aspects of LLMs were very useful. I was going to repeat a tried and true class formula of collaborative data entry forking into projects

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

I went and read some old issues of the Journal of Statistics Education. Group work with the productivity/cheating tool can be useful. Assignments or in-class work that pair "how does this tool work" with students' own explanation of substantive issues also good.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

LLMs are a giant word calculator, and reading about how maths and stats instructors navigated the 1980s-90s transition in calculating technology is a good guide for what those of us in the word teaching business can do (some of us teach both, and love the functionality of number calculators!)

Jim Clifford @jimclifford.bsky.social · 1d

I think a fundamental problem in 2026 is the good solutions require smaller first year classes where we can create new assessment methods (oral presentations, digital research projects, etc). LLMs break the assignments that worked OK with big groups. But no one is investing in hiring professors.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Amy Klobuchar has been 53 for her entire Senatorial career (read into this your own weighting of complimentary/derogatory, I just state the demographic facts)

Jim Clifford @jimclifford.bsky.social · 1d

I think a fundamental problem in 2026 is the good solutions require smaller first year classes where we can create new assessment methods (oral presentations, digital research projects, etc). LLMs break the assignments that worked OK with big groups. But no one is investing in hiring professors.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

ah, see there's my problem. Only been seeing 3 car sets!

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Guessing it was world junior hockey champs as an event that prompted more. Could be wrong.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

My only regret with induction is I used to get a lot done in the ~8 minutes gas took to do a full sized mocha pot of coffee. The 2 minutes induction takes leaves me barely time to clean my teeth. Used to be do that, plus empty dishwasher, get my wife's tea to her ... morning routine all shook up 😉

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