Favorites May 10th 2023

Toronto, March 2022

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1 and 2 aren't that surprising, but I would have expected red light runners to be more common. Maybe I notice those more because they’re so surprising? Also, these stats are probably entirely different for a bicyclist.

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Seems like remote work is restructuring cities quite quickly. "26 Empire State Buildings Could Fit Into New York’s Empty Office Space"

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We should probably find a way for states to override local opposition to wind/solar projects, this is ridiculous.

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Just in case someone tries to tell you that the US recognized Taiwan as part of China, here's a detailed explainer TL;DR: the US "acknowledges" that China claims Taiwan, but does not "recognize" the claim. If you're interested in the NATO expansion question, here's an NPR interview with a historian who wrote a book on the subject. TL;DR: A US diplomat floated this idea with Russian leadership, but when word got back to the President he said "the US is not going to make to any such guarantee", and so it was dropped and never included in any treaty or agreement.

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Inflation numbers came in looking quite promising. Also good news: despite higher interest rates, housing construction seems to remain strong.

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This supports Noah Smith's argument that a single huge social network where everyone argues with everyone is actually very bad for society. (As in: Twitter is bad and should die). Here’s the underlying article

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The CNN Trump Town Hall apparently went very very badly, but it probably still got great ratings, which would make CNN leadership very happy.