Favorites June 20 2021

Michael Hobbes @RottenInDenmark

The primary evidence that gangs are still a Thing is that a large percentage of urban murders are "gang-related." But this term is meaningless. In many cities it just means that police *think* either the victim or perpetrator is in a gang.

homicide.latimes.com‘Gang-related’: a controversial term with varying definitions - The Homicide ReportIn a recent training session for gang officers, LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese told a class from across the county that more than half of all killings in the city are gang-related. …

Michael Hobbes @RottenInDenmark

These aren't Godfather-style gangland hits. Most of them are spontaneous altercations that escalate because one or both people are carrying a gun. Cops link them to gangs because it reinforces the myth and reduces pressure to solve them.

The extent to which 'gang violence' is basically a myth is really wild. Michael Hobbs talked about this on You're Wrong About

Simon Waldman @simon_on_energy

Chinese regional government bans bitcoin mining, electrical demand reduces by 8 GW. That's 2-4 modern nuclear plants, or a couple of large hydro dams. It's enough to run many whole countries, or a bit more than London.

Molly @bigmagicdao

We gonna witness a history in bitcoin mining tonight, all mining farms (about 8m kw electricity load) will shutdown at 12pm Beijing time tonight, Harare rate already dropped significantly after sichuan gov announce shut down bitcoins mining farms in Sichuan. https://t.co/xRfqMCgWY1

I wonder if they'll just move to some other jurisdiction

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

New study — wearing masks has clear benefits as a Covid-mitigation strategy, but mask mandates do not.

marginalrevolution.comThe best mask-wearing study so far? - Marginal REVOLUTIONMask-wearing has been a controversial measure to control the COVID-19 pandemic. While masks are known to substantially reduce disease transmission in healthcare settings (Howard et al 2021), studies in community settings report inconsistent results (Brainard et al 2020). Investigating the inconsiste…

It's the *wearing* of the masks that matters. There's tons of detail in this thread, or you could read the preprint. Not certain why mandates didn't work, one possible reason is they may simply have been too slow, everyone was already masked by the time there was a mandate. There are other policy interventions towards masking that may be more effective.

Samuel Hammond 🌐🏛 @hamandcheese

New from @alon_levy Buy America is bad law and should be repealed. The multi-decade effort to create a domestic industry in rolling stock is an abject failure. Our transit infrastructure is more expensive and technologically outdated as a consequence.

niskanencenter.orgWhy Buy America Is Bad Law - Niskanen CenterBuy America was intended to support American industry, but has had the opposite effect.

I had not realized the extent to which Buy America hits public transit infrastructure specifically

YIMBY Action @yimbyaction

"Nothing in the BlackRock saga is central to America’s larger housing problem, which is, simply stated: Where the hell are all the houses?"

theatlantic.comBlackRock Is Not Ruining the U.S. Housing MarketThe real villain isn’t a faceless Wall Street Goliath; it’s your neighbors and local governments stopping the construction of new units.

The whole BlackRock thing really just highlights what a mess it is for so many Americans to be so heavily invested in real estate. The people who can’t afford to buy because of investment companies are not the ones most negatively impacted by the situation.

Steve Martin @SteveMartinToGo

Whenever I leave a restaurant, I always stop by a random table and say, “Thank you for taking care of our check.”

I think this may be more malicious than Bill Murray stealing your french fry on the way out the door.

Howth, Ireland, 2017