Favorite Rejects 2022-12-08

Robin Wigglesworth @RobinWigg

Whoa, the Washington Post has lost 500k subscribers since the start of 2021. wsj.com/articles/washi…

Francis Fukuyama @FukuyamaFrancis

This article is absolutely right: "The demise of permitting reform reveals that many people within the environmentalist movement are undermining the nation’s emissions goals in the name of localism and community input," @JerusalemDemsas writes:

theatlantic.comNot Everyone Should Have a SayTo speed up permitting for energy projects, we’ll need to rethink community input.

Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking

Its pretty rich in a city endlessly complaining about how dead it is and that its many empty offices should be converted into residential that DBI focuses on this. The only real investigation should be into labor conditions, not impromptu sleeping areas.

Ted Goldberg @TedrickG

BREAKING: San Francisco building inspectors are launching an investigation into reports Twitter has converted several office rooms at its headquarters into sleeping quarters for employees. 'We need to make sure the building is being used as intended' @sfdbi rep tells @KQEDnews

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

An cutting-edge large language model breakthrough called "human beings born and trained in foreign countries" could make medical care cheaper and more abundant in the United States. slowboring.com/p/how-to-promo…

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Fascinating piece from @nataliesurely. I'm struck once again by how the shadow of mind-body dualism hangs heavily over the idea that a problem whose roots are in the brain is somehow "less real" than one emanating from elsewhere.

newrepublic.comWe Might Have Long Covid All WrongSome post-Covid symptoms may be produced by the brain. Does that make them any less real?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

“There is a tradeoff between ridership and coverage goals” is a nice polite way to put it. To get the benefits of investment in passenger rail we should try to build things that will be used by riders.

Jarrett Walker @humantransit@mastodon.online @humantransit

.@Amtrak needs to invite us into a conversation about the ridership-coverage tradeoff. Good overview by @mattyglesias https://t.co/KLvuLcbGas 1/

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

@originalspin Like the War on Drugs, Xi's War on Covid was unwinnable war. The mistake was in calling it a war in the first place, because it raised expectations for the omnipotence of Xi's government to the point where it was impossible not to undershoot those expectations.

BioBootloader @bio_bootloader

Overheard in a Berkeley bathroom: "Yeah I have a 300-gallon saltwater aquarium in my apartment keeping thousands of shrimp living in exquisite bliss for just $200 a month. At average lifespan of 6 months it completely offsets the suffering from my diet."

Brian Gawalt @bgawalt

Whoa -- the council is rightfully worried about downtown losing its vibrancy, and then unanimously agreed to make it harder for new businesses (i.e., office workers) to move in. That seems counterproductive. Wouldn't you want more and more dependable foot traffic downtown?

Mountain View Voice @mvvoice

"The downtown is on life support right now." Find out how #MountainView's City Council plans to revitalize Castro Street amid concerns over eyesores and vacant storefronts. https://t.co/SS4oa7aLpu