Favorite Rejects 2021-11-29

Merlin Mann @hotdogsladies

🦉 Wisdom Project updates. gist.github.com/merlinmann/09a…

Robinson Meyer @yayitsrob

There’s a gap between the way that experts talk about mild infection when arguing against boosting (“vaccines aren’t perfect—and, look, you weren’t hospitalized!”) and the huge social burdens that we impose on people who get a mild Covid infection.

washingtonpost.comPerspective | We don’t need universal booster shots. We need to reach the unvaccinated.The case for booster shots for healthy younger adults is not strong — and those shots would do more good elsewhere.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

It's kind of upsetting when you realize that basically all of human history was nightmarishly awful. I guess the upside is it puts a more positive spin on today's problems.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Everyone knows that farming was bad, but hunter-gathering was also bad.

cold-takes.comPre-agriculture gender relations seem badClick lower right to download or find on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc. As part of exploring trends in quality of life over the very long run [https://www.cold-takes.com/has-life-gotten-better/], I’ve been trying to understand how good life was during the “pre-agriculture” (or “hunter-gath…

Jay Willis @jaywillis

Genuinely incredible that The Washington Post ran a 10,000-word essay persuasively arguing that a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court dooms us all, and then with no further support dismisses Court expansion as "worse than the disease" in the very last paragraph washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler

Immigrants! 💪💪🏿💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏻

Patrick Collison @patrickc

Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants. 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (Congrats, @paraga!)

Jake Anbinder @JakeAnbinder

I don't think the WH is totally in the clear here—there was clearly some hesitance around October to make too big a deal about universal boosting. But yes this phase of the pandemic response should be understood as the public health establishment kneecapping the political side.

Josh Marshall @joshtpm

Worth noting that Biden White House has been full booster for months and got lots of criticism from clinicians saying the science wasn’t in yet or that vaccines aren’t for infections but to keep you out of the hospital. https://t.co/x1I4N9WF0c

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla

(Reuters) - Walmart has seen a 26% increase in shipping containers going thru clogged United States ports over the past four weeks, chief executive Doug McMillon said at the White House Monday, ahead of a meeting with President Joe Biden on supply chain

reuters.comContainers going thru U.S. ports up 26%, Walmart CEO McMillon saysWalmart has seen a 26% increase in shipping containers going thru clogged United States ports over the past four weeks, chief executive Doug McMillon said at the White House Monday, ahead of a meeting with President Joe Biden on supply chain issues.

Barry Ritholtz @ritholtz

WTF: 20% of patients who were presumed to be vegetative were actually awake

newyorker.comThe Science of Mind ReadingJames Somers writes about researchers in the fields of neuroscience and A.I. pursuing age-old questions about the nature of thoughts—and learning how to read them.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Me, @delong, and @Noahpinion podcasted about patriotism and the history of capitalism and decided we basically agreed with the 1619 Project treatment of this despite some quibbles.

braddelong.substack.comPODCAST: “Hexapodia” Is þe Key Insight XXXI: History, Slavery, & National NarrativesListen now | Noah Smith & Brad DeLong’s Weekly Podcast, with Special Guest Matt Yglesias: Nearly all successful political movements over the past 150 years have been strongly nationalisticA successful cosmopolitanism must therefore be a nationalistic cosmopolitanism—one that says your country is gre…

Aaron 🥑🚈🚰🏀 @aceckhouse

this is standard practice in California as well (and refusal to adopt it is what made SB 827/SB 50 so controversial) if you allow redevelopment of existing apartments but not owner-occupied houses, you are planning for displacement

Gray Kimbrough @graykimbrough

People often ask how zoning can be discriminatory. Here's a great example. Prince George's County upzoned properties near a purple line station that currently have apartment buildings, but refused to remove exclusionary zoning restrictions on nearby lots zoned for detached SFHs. https://t.co/hQ4ldu9bTc https://t.co/8ST9JiiEFv

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I see @pareene built a column around 1. saying he wasn’t sure why I tweeted something 2. deciding to make up an erroneous idea and attribute that idea to me as his motive 3. criticize me for believing the thing he made up Interesting method theap.substack.com/p/the-mess-age

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I think the Canadian system (mandatory retirement at age 75, parliamentary override power via Section 33 of the Charter, few legislative veto points so it’s easy to react to controversial statutory interpretation issues) is about right.

Demon Possessed Crack Smoker @neoglobalist

@mattyglesias How do you think the Supreme Court should operate in an ideal society?

Ezra Klein @ezraklein

Early exits look good for Omicron, but that’s not counting those who got sick by mail.

Andrew Prokop @awprokop

Current "Omicron: deadlier or less deadly?" speculation reminds me of election day tea leaf reading about who will win before polls close. So little to go on, and what there is is so thin, but can't look away...