Favorite Rejects 2021-11-28

Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec

THREAD: Yesterday, the New York Times published a headline it knew was false. The implications of this are dangerous for everyone who cares about an informed public. Here’s what happened:

Eric Topol @EricTopol

This could be the best Omicron news of the day if further confirmed tracking all confirmed cases telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… Not many have been thinking that the mutation laden variant could decrease virulence

telegraph.co.ukSouth African doctor who raised alarm about omicron variant says symptoms are ‘unusual but mild’Dr Angelique Coetzee noticed otherwise healthy patients showing unusual symptoms and worries how the new variant might hurt the elderly

Reza Zadeh @Reza_Zadeh

This thread makes me feel so much better about the endless hours I’ve spent optimizing .bashrc

Hillel @hillelogram

A surprising and undervalued aspect of mastery comes from narrow-scope "microskills". In software, these would be things like - Python list comprehensions - Grep flags - Debugging specific error messages - Using a window manager We can, and should, do targeted training.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

More than every other country combined 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

Zachary Keck @ZacharyKeck

“The United States has already donated more vaccines to other countries than every other country combined. It is time for other countries to match America’s speed and generosity.” Also reiterates call for Trips waiver. https://t.co/TWUQ5udq29

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Yes, no matter what we do, to the people who hold this view America will ontologically be evil -- and not just evil, but the evil magnetic pole toward which all evil field lines point. But it's still important for America to do good stuff, despite these people's opinions.

Chris Conlon @chrisc334

@Noahpinion It’s not enough, we are still the evil white western capitalist patriarchy.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

We need to not only make whatever changes are necessary to parents but be prepared to spend tons and tons and tons of money creating a vast, redundant vaccine manufacturing infrastructure that can churn out a billion or two doses per month.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

People shouldn’t give people who don’t want kids a hard time, and people who don’t want kids should just say that instead of concocting implausible high-level political reasons. I have just one kid so I can be an objective mediator and everyone’s lifestyle preferences ;)

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

The contemporary right coalition contains both people who cast themselves as defenders and people who cast themselves as opponents of “Enlightenment liberalism” but they seem relatively uninterested in squabbling with each other. Personally I love factional infighting.

Ezra Klein @ezraklein

Our inability to complete big projects on anything like the promised cost and timelines needs to be seen as more of a crisis. Think of what we need to build to meet our climate goals, and imagine if those projects fall into these traps:

nytimes.comYears of Delays, Billions in Overruns: The Dismal History of Big InfrastructureThe nation’s most ambitious engineering projects are mired in postponements and skyrocketing costs. Delivering $1.2 trillion in new infrastructure will be tough.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

YES THIS MANUFACTURING CAPACITY IS EVERYTHING

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

The people annoyed by the very slow regulatory process here are right that it’s annoying, but the big picture is we need to find ways to increase total output — same as the problem we’ve been not solving on the vaccine front for the past year.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

One person angrily unsubscribed from my Substack because of my claim that millions of Indian people have died from Covid. I really wish "millions" were an exaggeration, but it's not. I do my homework, folks.

npr.orgIndia’s Pandemic Death Toll Estimated At About 4 Million: 10 Times The Official CountThat’s the number of “excess deaths” from January 2020 to June 2021, reflecting the true toll of COVID-19, say researchers in a new study. Why the big disparity?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Most politicians are lawyers and it’s refreshing to see people with other backgrounds — like a medical doctor in this case — head to congress so they can share their expertise with colleagues.

W. Gyude Moore @gyude_moore

“China warned Germany’s incoming coalition against meddling in its internal affairs, hinting at potential damage to relations unless Berlin acknowledges its claim on Taiwan under the so-called one China policy.”

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

People ask me this but I swear to God that I run a popular Twitter feed and have a successful career as a journalist (multiple books, published in top newspapers, Bloomberg column, etc) so I think I’m actually pretty well liked. https://t.co/5cadnt7sLC

Matt Cowgill @MattCowgill

Why do people get so mad at @mattyglesias

Scott McNulty @blankbaby

I know people love the Beatles, but I’ve been watching this documentary and they don’t even know how to play their own songs! These are famous songs! Very disappointing.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

You just need an ad where you say “the only thing I love more than my gun is Medicaid expansion.” That’s the campaign.