Favorites May 13th 2022: Budgets, Watches, and Artillery

Los Altos, September 2020

Donald Shoup @DonaldShoup

NYC wants to take 25% of its street space away from cars in favor of a walkable/bikeable city electrek.co/2022/05/12/nyc… via @MicahToll

electrek.coNYC wants to take 25% of its street space away from cars in favor of a walkable/bikeable cityBack when COVID-19 ravaged New York City and turned the city’s transportation needs upside down, significant portions of the road space were repurposed for non-car use. From bike lanes to public seating and urban parks, roads that previously saw gridlocked traffic were nearly instantly transformed i…

Wow, "The proposal calls for 25% of NYC’s street space to be converted into walkable pedestrian plazas, bike lanes, green space, and bus lanes by 2025." It’s nice to have a passable public transit system.

Adam Cancryn @adamcancryn

What does it mean to run a pandemic response on a shoestring budget? We’re about to find out. With Congress reluctant to keep funding the Covid fight, Biden officials are weighing a series of tough tradeoffs on vaccines, treatments and preparedness:

politico.comWhite House prepares to ration vaccines as Covid funding impasse loomsThe government’s funds are running out. Tough decisions may soon present themselves.

I feel like rationing vaccines is not gonna get more people to take them, but who knows.

Lara Korte @lara_korte

BREAKING: @GavinNewsom announces an estimated $97.5 billion surplus for this year's budget, the largest any state has ever experienced.

They plan to use the money for one-time stuff, because it's likely a very short spike in revenue, hopefully they save some too. I'd love to see it go to transit infra, but our costs to build are so ridiculously high that it would feel like lighting the money on fire. But there are other options.

Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking

Yeah I'm getting wary of closing the achievement gap which amounts to postponing mathematics in the name of making everyone equally bad at math. Californians whine that their top universities enroll foreigners for STEM majors yet their 12th grade kids can't even do algebra.

Berkeley Engineering @Cal_Engineer

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu and Associate Provost Jennifer Chayes, wrote in an @latimes op-ed that a proposal to change California’s K-12 math framework will leave students unprepared for STEM in college, https://t.co/CcaSnwfHwj. @SBECalifornia #MathFramework

This is also the same proposed math framework that's based on some pretty suspect research. On a related note, NYC is moving in the right direction on early reading education. So that's good.

Rebecca Struthers @DrStruthers

Thanks to the folks who’ve tagged me into this today! This is a fantastic page for understanding how various components of a mechanical watch work. I love that the winding rotor in the first automatic watch swings correctly as you move the drawing!

ciechanow.skiMechanical Watch – Bartosz CiechanowskiInteractive article explaining how a mechanical watch works.

The linked series of interactive animations is absolutely incredible. This is the second of these articles I've seen from the same guy, the previous one was on car engines.

MacroPolo @MacroPoloChina

Hyundai is expected to announce a monstrous $7 billion investment to build #EVs in Georgia. We knew #Hyundai was all-in on EVs and had ambitions to compete with Tesla on its home turf. Here’s the case study you need to read on Hyundai’s pivot into EVs:

macropolo.orgSouth Korea Jumps into EV Race: The Case of Hyundai’s Quiet Success - MacroPoloThe electrification of transport invariably focuses on the China market for good reason. It is by far the largest electric vehicle (EV) market, with nearly 3 million units sold in 2021. The Chinese government is clearly committed to promoting EVs, while its industry has spawned a roster of EV player…

Competition in electric cars! South Korea! Manufacturing in America! What's not to love?

Bloomberg CityLab @CityLab

China says Beijing isn't locked down. These pictures suggest a different story (via @business)

trib.alBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Dang, these photos look like the lockdowns from April 2020.

Threads

• Short thread about Warren's new anti price gouging bill, which seems to attempt to make price increases illegal. This seems... let's say "not workable"

• Thread covering a study of what legislative staff do with input based on who gives it to them. Source of the info doesn't change their likelihood of taking a meeting, but it has a significant impact on whether they'll recommend it to their boss.

• Long thread covering how Ukraine's Artillery system works using SpaceX Starlink. Their current system appears to be faster and more effective than even what the US has right now.