Favorites April 5th 2022

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

AI is getting better

These are amazing! Here's the paper it's from.

Caleb Watney @calebwatney

A randomized experiment used YouTube advertising to show clips of Trump encouraging people to get vaccinated across 103 counties from Oct 14 - 31 and estimates it was able to boost uptake at the cost of about $1 per vaccine.

A dollar per vaccination seems like a good. deal.

Franak Viačorka @franakviacorka

86% of Belarusians are against joining a war on Ukraine, 66% criticize the use of Belarus infrastructure by the Russian military — a March survey shows. Only 4.1% will agree that Belarus should become part of Russia. And this was before Bucha happened.

And this is polling of the country that's probably providing the most military aid to Russia.

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

I was astonished to find that these only cost $6000 apiece. $6000! I'm no miltech expert, but it's hard to see how armored vehicles continue to dominate the battlefield going forward.

Woofers @NotWoofers

In addition to Switchbade 300 drones, which are for anti-personnel and lightly-skinned vehicle use, the US is also sending Switchblade 600 drones to Ukraine. These drones are armed with javelin warheads, being able to destroy any Russian armored vehicle. https://t.co/RWVb4o9kvV

The price was news to me, but this finally was the moment I decided to look up what switchblade drones look like. Both the 300 and the 600 just look like tiny planes. News to me though was that they both launch out of cannons.

Rezaul Hasan Laskar @Rezhasan

India condemns killing of civilians at Bucha in Ukraine at UN Security Council & backs call for independent investigation - first time New Delhi has publicly censured actions blamed on Russian forces.

"We unequivocally condemn these killings & support the call for an independent investigation", they could certainly be more forceful, but that's progress in their position.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

Loan deferral is stimulus. If anything high inflation is a reason not to defer loans further.

amp.cnn.comBiden administration will extend pause on federal student loan repayments through AugustThe Biden administration is planning to extend a pause on federal student loan repayments through August 31, according to an administration official familiar with the matter.

It's probably even dumber because inflation will reduce the real value of loans. People who have big loans are actually in luck due to high inflation.

Euromaidan Press @EuromaidanPress

Russian occupiers are deporting residents of occupied Izyum and Kharkiv Oblast to Russia, creating filtration camps. Russian media say Russia has brought 615k Ukrainians to Russia, including 121 children - 🇺🇦 Ombudswoman Denysova buff.ly/3j9h5GY

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"Filtration Camps" is quite the euphemism. By the way, there is a bunch of coverage of atrocities in Ukraine, I don’t recommend checking it out unless you’re trying to lose sleep.

Toronto, March 2022