Favorites August 25th 2021
Feòrag@Feorag
This is interesting. A German company has developed a low-speed maglev system for moving freight containers. It can dispatch a container every 20 seconds, and travel up to 150 km/h. https://t.co/NvUpSvOsFu
Tim Dunn @MrTimDunn
Almost *exactly* 100yrs since the 1921 birthday of pioneering British engineer Eric Laithwaite (“Father of Maglev”), an autonomous freight container maglev testtrack has opened. Is it useful? Will it be useful? Who knows! Still, happy centenary, Professor. https://t.co/qmLwgyuTxq https://t.co/GHzlwusbKW
11:09 AM · Aug 25, 2021
63 Reposts · 168 Likes
150 kph is considered slow?
Darrell Owens@IDoTheThinking
I just honestly dont understand why old people (who are usually Cal alumni back when it was easy to get it) who hate college students choose to live in Berkeley. There's a million towns you can go live in that doesnt have the #1 public university in America.
7:02 PM · Aug 25, 2021
47 Reposts · 796 Likes
Remember that there have to be people bringing the ceqa suit, local residents bear responsibility there. But also we should get rid of CEQA.
Lee Sharpe@LeeSharpeNFL
It is hilarious to me that Delta's statement here calls it the "B.1.617.2 variant" because they don't want to call it the "delta variant".
Sam Sweeney @SweeneyABC
BREAKING: Delta Air Lines says unvaccinated employees must pay $200 per month surcharge for health insurance. https://t.co/Lye141Oed9
2:36 PM · Aug 25, 2021
1.36K Reposts · 8.51K Likes
Funny, but also this is a good policy.
Alex Tabarrok@ATabarrok
In Germany you can get rapid COVID tests for less than a dollar each at the supermarket. Britain hands out 14-packs for free. Canada is giving them to small employers.
In the US we have approved only a handful of rapid tests and they are expensive.
marginalrevolution.com
Why Doesn’t the United States Have Test Abundance?! - Marginal REVOLUTION
5:50 PM · Aug 25, 2021
478 Reposts · 1.57K Likes
They're are some really slick tests with app integration, bit they're wildly expensive.
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias
Short term pain but long term gain for cities whose most unreasonable and insubordinate officers self-purge, you just need to actually go fill the vacancies.
Craig McCarthy @createcraig
NEW: NYC's largest police union plans to sue if COVID vaccine is mandated for NYPD.
"If the City attempts to impose a vaccine mandate on PBA members, we will take legal action to defend our members' right to make such personal medical decisions." https://t.co/r6SKTDPazc
7:25 PM · Aug 25, 2021
155 Reposts · 1.25K Likes
Sorta like the Fire department thing from yesterday, this can be a useful opportunity.
Noah Smith 🐇@Noahpinion
No one wants to hear this but the Afghanistan War was a legitimating event for the Taliban that forced their regime to learn how to have enduring popular appeal even to groups who don't buy into their ideology
Harper's Magazine @Harpers
In Kandahar province, governor Haji Wafa said that the Taliban will not enforce the wearing of beards or the suppression of music, but that Islamic scholars will make residents aware of their sins.
https://t.co/lXMtSzecqg
8:14 PM · Aug 25, 2021
9 Reposts · 129 Likes
A government as horrible as Iran or Saudi Arabia is not good, but it's probably better than a constant state of war.
AFP News Agency@AFP
US Vice President Kamala Harris and Vietnam's Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan meet in the Gold Room of the Presidential Palace in Hanoi.
The visit is the first to Vietnam by a sitting US vice president
4:25 AM · Aug 25, 2021
181 Reposts · 669 Likes
Vietnam as an ally is a good thing. There are many parallels with today's other news.
German Lopez@germanrlopez
The defund people widely mocked 8 Can't Wait when it came out, but its recommendations still look pretty sensible — and they're actually happening in a bunch of states.
8cantwait.org
8 Can’t Wait
8:18 PM · Aug 25, 2021
22 Reposts · 191 Likes
Oh right! I had forgotten about this whole thing.
