Favorites November 1st 2022

Google Bayview, April 2022

Everyone was talking about Elon Musk and Twitter, but there was enough of that over the past few days, it all ended up in the rejects today.

Swapna Krishna @skrishna

Let’s talk about that spooky JWST image of the Pillars of Creation. ⭐️ Where are all the stars? Why aren't they visible?

I just thought that mid-infrared photo looked really cool.

Radley Balko @radleybalko

TIL that as the CO river dries up, AZ is leasing its largest underground aquifer to the Saudis, who are growing water-intensive alfalfa, which is then shipped back to S.A. to feed cattle. Market rate for the lease is $5 million/yr. Saudis pay $86K.

azcentral.comSaudi firm has pumped Arizona groundwater for years without paying. Time to pony upArizona’s State Land Department unlawfully allowed Fondomonte to pump unlimited amounts of groundwater at no cost. That must stop.

We really need to figure out ways to charge something like market rates for water.

Jason Furman @jasonfurman

Based on today's release there are now 1.9 job openings for every unemployed worker. This is slightly less tight than the 2.0 ratio earlier this year but just barely. This level of labor market tightness is consistent with continued fast nominal wage growth and high inflation.

Next in the same thread Fruman notes that no one knows why the relationship between vacancies and unemployment rates has changed over time.

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

Visegrád 24 @visegrad24

Bulk carriers under the flag of Turkey will continue to export food from Ukraine, despite the "suspension" of Russia's participation in the grain deal. - Turkey’s Ministry of Defense 🇹🇷🇺🇦 https://t.co/MaWXBq11te

Threads

• Really cool thread with some practical advice on using current AI tools to aid writing.

• Thread announcing Rewind, a MacOS app that acts as a local search engine for everything that happens on your computer, including audio from meetings and any text on the screen. David Lieb is a fan, and Greg Manly notes the similarity to ideas from the RecDiffs podcast.

• Interesting thread about how Vietnam's surge of new Universities between 2006 and 2013 changed their economy. TL;DR: it appears to have helped the structural transformation of Vietnam's economy.

• Short thread about HUD making changes to help allow manufactured (factory built) multi-family homes. This is one of the best opportunities for driving down the cost of home construction.