Favorite Rejects 2022-01-03

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

An article about how Taiwan could defend itself against a Chinese invasion:

tnsr.orgA Large Number of Small Things: A Porcupine Strategy for Taiwan - Texas National Security ReviewAs China’s rhetoric about “reunification” with Taiwan and the military’s gray-zone activities intensify, Taiwan should adopt a strategy that includes a large number of small things in order to leverage Taiwan’s geographic and technological advantages, exploit the People’s Liberation Army’s vulnerabi…

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

This new kind of irrigation system is just an absolutely amazing piece of technology. So simple, and yet it could save much of our world from water shortages.

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Very cool story, but note this works because Iceland has extremely plentiful zero-carbon geothermal power so it’s a great place to do things that are too energy intensive to work elsewhere.

Policy Tensor @policytensor

Is the future being created in Iceland? https://t.co/qGFfDP48HM

Randall Munroe @xkcd

Throat and Nasal Passages xkcd.com/2563

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Smart points from @danpfeiffer — I’d just emphasize that media negativity is an audience-driven phenomenon. If you click on and share positive stories, more of them will be produced. If you dwell on negativity, more of that will be produced.

messagebox.substack.comHow the Media’s Addiction to Bad News Hurts DemsEarlier this fall, cable news, Twitter, and much of the media were engulfed in a moral panic about the supply chain. The pandemic-related delays in the manufacture and delivery of certain products morphed, as it often does, into something dire enough to get eyeballs and clicks.

Kate Starbird @katestarbird

13 of 15 died of Covid. My colleague @holden explains that media literacy isn’t about vetting “facts” but about comparing the initial impression a piece of content gives you to the whole story. Deception lies within the gap. https://t.co/xGkYscdYpn

Breitbart News @BreitbartNews

More Border Patrol Agents died in the line of duty during 2021 than in any other time since the agency’s inception. The line-of-duty deaths of 15 Border Patrol agents mark a grim milestone in the agency’s history. https://t.co/ZOHWeT9Jtp

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

This is tomorrow's Slow Boring post, but (fully aware that this is not the filmmakers' stated intention) I think it works great if you read it as an allegory about the US government's refusal to do anything about the threat of a comet colliding with the planet earth.

Ross Douthat @DouthatNYT

There's a lot to say about Don't Look Up but its signal failure is that it aspires to be a movie about *systemic* cultural-political failure but ultimately tells a story where if a dumb right-wing president had chosen policy A instead of policy B everything would've been fine.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

In Dr Strangelove, the nuclear weapons are an allegory about nuclear weapons.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

The anti-booster movement among certain "public health" people is still lowkey going strong

Marty Makary MD, MPH @MartyMakary

Dear President Biden, FDA is bypassing it's scientific advisors to authorize boosters for all kids 12-15 next week. This is unconscionable--undermines the integrity of the FDA's standard process! Please require FDA to put this authoriz before the VRBPAC advisory comm for a vote!

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I think the most underrated possible future for American politics is one where Republicans win big majorities without a coup then use their big majorities (which Trump never had) to pass some very conservative bills and then there’s an electoral backlash — i.e. normal politics.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

This was a good interview but I didn’t understand this part. Don’t traditional retailers edge cache inventory to be near customers at warehouses called “stores” that are all over the us? noahpinion.substack.com/p/interview-ry…

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

One cool thing about proportional representation + parliamentary government is it lets citizens vote expressively and professional politicians act strategically which seems like a more plausible division of labor than the American setup.

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

It's probably foolish to think a NYC mayor will successfully translate into being a national political figure, but I still think Eric Adams would be in my top 5 for "who will be the next Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden?".

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Why don't they fix poverty in their own countries before colonizing space? /s

9DASHLINE @9DashLine

China and Russia team up to establish joint moon base https://t.co/CvewlkQKfB

Aaron 🥑🚈🚰🏀 @aceckhouse

call it SuperB realtor 9 cause it's gonna create plenty of housing in Palo Alto, baby

Louis Mirante @louismirante

Just in!!!!! In what I’m calling the first SB 9 project, an architect just told me he filed today to use SB 9 to split a lot and have two homes on each lot - in Palo Alto! 4 homes where once will have been 1, all with a promise of great opportunity. A YIMBY/fair housing victory!! https://t.co/s0UhaZsRyH