Favorites May 23rd 2023

David Watson

May 24, 2023

Science Is Strategic @scienceisstrat1 The majority of fish 🐟 eaten in the world are now from fish farms — src

This definitely seems good, it's sort of crazy that we've gone this long with a significant source of the world's animal protein still basically being a form of hunting

See new Tweets Conversation Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler · 13h Confronting the fact that many of the buildings in the most in-demand American cities cannot be brought up to modern safety, efficiency, and accessibility standards without retrofitting that will cost more than replacing the building entirely makes people very uncomfortable. salim @s_damerdji Attaching this map of SF for absolutely no reason at all — src

On the other hand, the California Coastal Commission is forcing San Diego to ban outdoor dining near the coast and bring back surface parking instead. So we're in favor of change, but only when that change is 'more parking', apparently.

Dina D. Pomeranz @DinaPomeranz There is a persistent myth of "the happy poor". It's just that: a myth. While happiness and life satisfaction are of course driven by many other things as well, people in poor countries are on average much more unhappy. Economic growth matters. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-vs-happiness — src

Degrowthers try the platitude that 'money doesn't buy happiness' but in the aggregate, it absolutely does. Macroeconomic decisions should be made in the aggregate.

This recent shift should be pushed back against. The args are very incomplete and seem to misunderstand the nature of the legal problem. https://peoplespolicyproject.org/2023/05/23/the-debt-limit-situation/ — src

He gets into a recommended path forward in a follow-up, each of the three proposed arguments seems plausible.

James Medlock @jdcmedlock The debt ceiling reminds me of the exhaust port on the Death Star that, if hit, destroys the entire thing. I would simply not build that into the system — src

Threads

• Short thread about preparing for another Cold War. One interesting tidbit, China has fewer than 2000 naturalized citizens total!