Favorites August 8th 2024
I believe they've previously been authorized to operate on freeways, they're just not doing it yet. A lot of bay area use cases for taxis require the freeway though. Oh, and someone got a video of the Waymo vehicle honking, which I had not seen before.
What a great opportunity to read up on mixed strategies in game theory in order to understand this joke. It's not even very complicated! Also, I read recently that one of the upsides of the couch joke is that while it's very online, Walz making the joke very subtly in a way that a normal person might interpret as just calling JD Vance lazy. And the to explain why it's mean and untrue, you have to explain a bunch of stuff that seems crazy.
The comparison with Europe was surprising to me, one commenter argued that the way they're counting may actually undercount the amount of total redistribution in the US compared to Europe. Here's a link to the paper, which is from 2022.
He links to a relatively long article that I have not read about why this decline might be happening, but it seems like good news at first glance. Also, what a strange graph format, I don't think I've seen it before.
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Farmers always seem to be on the wrong side of modern political disputes. A short thread of examples. (src)(cached)
– Yglesias argues that climate change is a huge problem, but that you shouldn't campaign on it, because no one, even young people, actually think it's a high priority. If you want progress to be made, you're going to need to be subtle, because voters think a lot of the solutions on the table are 'weird' in the way democrats are currently trying to avoid. Relately, Build Back Better (which eventually became the Inflation Reduction Act) is a great example, now that it's been passed, Republican politicians will fight for it to stay, (cached) because it's brought so many factory jobs to their constituents. (src)(cached)
– The value of a single smuggled shipment of GPUs to China ($103M) is worth more than the entire budget allocated towards catching this type of illegal export ($57M). (src)(cached)
– Samsung appears to be beginning producitionization of car-sized solid state batteries. They're saying 600 miles on a charge, and the change takes 9 minutes. (src)(cached)
– A disappointing UBI study I mentioned previously, "1k/month transfers had no effect on net worth or credit access...recipients actually went more into debt" (src)(cached)
– Andrew Prokop mentioned a negative story about Shapiro that may be part of the decision to go with Walz instead. (src)(cached)
– The US Navy is now preparing to buy logistic ships from allied countries, Japan and South Korea. (src)(cached)
– The Vietnamese absolutely love America, 76% favorable, and 95% say people are better off in a market economy. (src)(cached)
– Chinese state TV cut the feed of the Olympics when Taiwan beat them in men's doubles badminton. (src)(cached)
– "Ziff Davis buying CNET which once bought Ziff Davis" (src)(cached)
– JD Vance called Walz a 'San Francisco Liberal' which is weird because Vance lived for four years in SF, and Walz just visited there for the first time last month. (src)(cached)
– Condos selling a parking spot along with the unit are charging $150k more, which translates to like $1000 a month. (src)(cached)
– Stanford would have the 8th most olympic medals if it were a country, Texas would be 6th (src)(cached)
– Shapiro's speech in support of Harris/Walz showed that he's a very good public speaker. (src)(cached)
– Musk told advertisers to go fuck themselves and stop advertising on Twitter if they don't like what's happening on Twitter. Now they're suing advertisers for stopping advertising on Twitter. Great use of the Sowing/Reaping meme. (src)(cached)
– NY Governor Kathy Hochul's justifications for blocking Congestion pricing are very dumb. She recently argued that it's bad for pizza delivery drivers, but that's insane, they use bikes, not cars. (src)(cached)
– Sorta seems like the Trump campaign holds the position that Trump shouldn't be allowed to vote. (src)
– "Trump's cuts to humanitarian aid for Gaza were so cruel that the Israeli military privately urged the US not to do it" (src)(cached)
– Nancy Pelosi is publishing a Memoir, the Art of Power, and it includes this quote: "You take a punch, but you have to be willing to throw a punch. For the children" (src)(cached)