Favorite Rejects 2023-01-25

Kathryn Watson @kathrynw5

Someone should name a bar/speakeasy in D.C. "That's Classified" so that when someone asks where you're going, you can say, "That's Classified"

Todd N. Tucker @toddntucker

“When people talk of friend-shoring, I get a little nervous because I don't know who is a friend,” WTO DG Okongo-Iweala said during a panel discussion. “A friend today maybe tomorrow will not be a friend. When you say that, I never hear any countries in Africa mentioned.”

Bryce Baschuk @bbaschuk

President ⁦⁦⁦@JoeBiden⁩’s renewed bid to improve ties wi#/ Africa still lags China’s Belt & Road projects (💰 💰 💰 ) and Russia’s political efforts to sustain its historic and ideological relations. 🤝 https://t.co/lv4luz8LU8

Science Is Strategic @scienceisstrat1

Annual US government spending on climate is skyrocketing 🚀🚀

Avner Strulov-Shlain @AvnerShlain

ChatGPT is like economists: Always confident, Sometimes correct.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Real wages back to growing — to the extent inflation is now driven by prices in labor-intensive services, I think that’s probably less of a big deal politically than inflation in commodities or manufactured goods.

politico.comBiden finally gets a win against inflationIf the trend continues, it could be a boost for President Joe Biden as he gears up for a tough reelection campaign.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I wish we could get stories like this headlined “Washington State might allow four-unit buildings” — I think a lot of people read this as a proposal to prohibit single-family homes or something.

axios.comWashington state might nix-single family zoningA bill at the state Capitol would require cities to allow at least quadplex housing on all residential blocks.

rohit @krishnanrohit

🚨New Essay🚨 It's 2023. Where are all the robots we were promised !? Here's why we desperately need a Henry Ford of domestic bots. strangeloopcanon.com/p/where-are-al…

strangeloopcanon.comWhere are all the robots?Why we need a Henry Ford of collaborative robots

Linette Lopez @lopezlinette

"Twitter’s annual interest burden has increased by over $100 million since he announced the takeover deal last April, as the overnight rate has increased. At the time of the announcement, the overnight rate was 0.3%." Now it's 4.3%ish — wow.

David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells

The U.K.'s struggles are bigger than the crisis of the N.H.S., but the struggles of the N.H.S. are truly staggering at the moment. (1/x)

nytimes.comOpinion | Britain’s Cautionary Tale of Self-DestructionIt’s in a state of serious decline, and not just because of Brexit

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

@awprokop Liquidating Jose’s college fund to go short-Newsom, long-Biden

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Hideous nytimes.com/2023/01/25/us/…

David Broockman @dbroockman

1978: SF NIMBYs downzone SF, banning 180,000 potential homes Less than a decade ago: the YIMBY movement is born in SF This week: the SF BOS voted to make over *HALF A MILLION* new homes legal, counteracting the '78 downzoning by >3x Thank you @Scott_Wiener @SFyimby @cayimby!

Senator Scott Wiener @Scott_Wiener

🧵 SF Board of Supervisors is poised today to approve a strong housing plan (housing element) that plans for 82k new homes in next 8 years: 3x the # of homes planned for in the last plan. This transformative moment didn’t happen randomly. We changed state law to MAKE it happen:

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

This is one of my recent experiments with ChatGPT. If you ask it questions like this, the "person" sounds like a 9th grader in a creative writing seminar and the "AI" sounds almost stereotypically spectrum-y.