Favorites May 7 2021

Short email today.

Kevin Beaumont @GossiTheDog

The “Catch Me If You Can” guy verifiably made up his entire story, he actually just stalked a woman and got sent to prison.. and now he’s in cybersecurity (of course).

whyy.orgCould this famous con man be lying about his story? A new book suggests he isFrank W. Abagnale Jr. is famous for cons documented in the blockbuster “Catch Me If You Can.” But science writer Alan Logan says the real grift is Abagnale’s entire story.

The film accurately depicts the events of the book, which is a complete fabrication.

Huh

Joseph Brusuelas @joebrusuelas

Big disappointment on the jobs report as only 266K added and the March survey was revised down to 770K. The unemployment rate increased to 6.1% and average hourly earnings on a year ago basis advanced 0.3%. This should allay concerns on the economy overheating and inflation.

Well this is too bad, at least we're not worried about inflation yet... Also stocks went up

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I will be interested to see what others say but I think the picture of slowish jobs growth, solid wage growth, and booming teen employment should shift us to more credence in the view that the UI bottleneck is a big deal.

slowboring.comThe coming Unemployment Insurance bottleneckWe should let people collect their extra UI as a “hiring bonus” if they get a job early

Yglesias argues for paying the rest of the unemployment insurance benefits to people who get a job as a lump sum. Others argue for a set $1000 payout for getting a job, resulting in saving a bit of money at the same time.

site specific carnivorous occurrence @atomicthumbs

when the fuck did carbon nanotube gecko tape get commercialized??? this is cyberpunk shit. this is popular science magazine shit. and it's $10 a roll

It's really cool stuff, you can even clean it and re-stick it if needed.

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

It would the the Congress elected in 2024 (not 2022) that decides this. Nonetheless, it's sort of shocking that Democrats don't seem to have much of a plan to make this harder (e.g. through new legislation) while they have their majorities. (H.R. 1 doesn't really address it.)

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Decent odds House GOP wins a majority in November 2022 and then refuses to certify a Democratic presidential win in 2024. https://t.co/nypj7Ts4dO

Voting Rights should probably be a higher priority than infrastructure, although maybe the Democrats think it won't pass, despite broad public support.

Patrick Traughber @ptraughber

California could continue to remain influential, protect the environment, and help the world on climate change if we would allow cities to build apartments. Instead, residents are leaving because housing is too expensive and homelessness is growing due to new housing suppression.

Conor Dougherty @ConorDougherty

California lost population for the first time in a century. A lot of one-time factors with the pandemic, but make no mistake: This is no longer a growth state, and while it's influence will remain large, it is starting to wane. https://t.co/auZBlACSVc

Not only did California lose population in relation to other states, we actually lost population in absolute terms, and it’s because of housing policy.

zeynep tufekci @zeynep

Aerosol scientists kept telling me that plexiglass barriers might be making things *worse* by blocking ventilation. Just out in Science. Desk shields associated with *increased* illness risk in schools. Closing playground? Also uptick. So many upshots. science.sciencemag.org/content/early/…

Suddenly all the plexiglass barriers I see seem just a little bit dumber.

Stanford August 2020