Favorites August 3 2021

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Everyone: Truck driving is an obsolete job. Self-driving trucks are going to take over any day now. Reality:

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Ironically, Bloomberg thinks that Twitter embeds are robots. Robot Trucks? Dunno, anyway, here’s the actual headline he’s referring to:

Presumably higher demand for truck drivers will speed development, but this is very much not what I'd expected a few years ago.

sam deutsch @samdman95

affluent maryland suburbs keep churning out 10+ story apartment buildings near transit. and it's fantastic. why is do we have apartment/density bans making this illegal in almost every other part of the country?

Absolutely Gorgeous.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

But Amtrak isn't planning to spend their $30 billion on game-changing investments that deliver true high-speed rail throughout the most promising corridor — they are claiming this is just barely enough money to build one tunnel.

slowboring.comAmtrak should bring in foreign experts to make trains great againWe’re on the verge of a transformative investment — or $30 billion in waste

Amtrak’s still not sure why they make passengers board the train like an airplane. (Just kidding, we know it's because they're run by airline executives).

Samuel Hammond 🌐🏛 @hamandcheese

Don't Defund the (Tax) Police New post from @AudreyXu14 explains why properly funding the IRS is a no-brainer for any future reconciliation bill.

niskanencenter.orgDon’t Defund the (Tax) Police - Niskanen CenterMore funding for the IRS should be included in the reconciliation bill.

Reverse the restriction on providing automated tax filing!

Jim Swift @JimSwiftDC

Cuomo needs to resign.

Harry Siegel @harrysiegel

NEW: Cuomo harassing a female state trooper https://t.co/YtvWB5ixjV

Big yikes RE: Cuomo today. His response was apparently not pursuasive.

Robotbeat🗽🖖🏾 @Robotbeat

Tesla are the only ones who really know how to make a charging experience as good as (& in some ways better than) gas stations. On my recent road trip, I saw several non-Tesla charging stations just sitting there unused, rotting.

Electrek.Co @ElectrekCo

Tesla opening Supercharger network will enable access to new $7.5 billion EV funding in US https://t.co/k1uoVU1FLD by @fredericlambert

Hopefully the other automakers will actually make their new cars compatible.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

They intend to catch this thing by those little fins at the top. Wild. Also, they installed 29 engines on it over one night, “typically in the rocket business, it takes a few days to install a single engine”

Paul Novosad @paulnovosad

55% of FastGrants applicants (top research scientists with 25+ years of education) spend more than 25% of their time writing grant applications instead of doing science. What a damning indictment of the federal science agencies. nature.com/articles/d4158…

We really need to improve how science is funded.

M.G. Siegler @mgsiegler

Tom Warren @tomwarren

Amazon has created a $55 soap dispenser that has WiFi to pair to an Alexa speaker. Why? To “automatically play songs, jokes, and more when you wash” 😂 https://t.co/TFoSrqE90M https://t.co/EKpjOhp0Bs

Alexa... finds a way.

Santa Cruz, March 2021