Favorites February 1st 2023

December 2022, Woodside California

Andrew Prokop @awprokop

Everyone likes to dunk on the early media Covid coverage that got it wrong, so occasionally it's worth remembering some that held up (Feb 2020) theatlantic.com/health/archive…

I remember reading this article, it may have been on the last day I was at the office.

Louis Mirante @louismirante

California’s Air Resources Board plans to offer $1000 point-of-sale discounts on e-bikes to anyone making 300% of federal poverty line, or about $85,000 for a family of 4

Seems like a very good idea, an electric bike isn't just better than an electric car in terms of CO2 emissions, they're also much less likely to hit and kill pedestrians and other bicyclists.

Tom Cui (Perpetual Amazement) @ttfcui

This took me an embarrassingly long time, but.... A map of which Bay Area municipalities are subject to the Builder's Remedy – losing their zoning powers – per @Yimby_Law .

Here's the full list of cities by name if you prefer. If you're thinking about a builder's remedy project in the bay area, here's a short thread of what these colors on the map mean legally. What a great opportunity for Apple to build some skyscraper apartments next to their campus.

Alex Lee 李天明 @alex_lee

Land Value Tax would fix this I introduced AB 362 to officially study the benefits/impacts of a statewide land value tax which would provide fairer assessments, boost housing supply, and give more freedom to landowners to build on properties without the fear of increasing taxes

At this point, I think my most central political philosophy is Georgism, so needless to say, I'm absolutely thrilled to see this. (Even if Prop 13 is going to make it hard to accomlish that much). I'm also excited that there is something on the way regarding single staircase reform, as State Assemblymember Lee implies with this wordless Spongebob gif.

This was interesting info about Formula E racing, I thought it was interesting how much they're able to experiment with the format since it's new, although on the other hand, I don't recall ever watching any kind of televized car race, and I don't think I'm going to start any time soon.

Simon Clark @simonoxfphys

This might be the most hilariously bad graph I've ever seen

Threads

• A short thread describing the EU's Green New Deal response to the recent US Inflation Reduction Act. TL;DR: there is going to be a mountain of funding for more green tech in the coming years. Also the EU is doing a better job of 'friendshoring' than the US did, a mistake that we will hopefully fix soon.