Favorites October 19th 2021

Oct 20, 2021

Amid a worsening mental health crisis, psilocybin has shown potential for treating depression more effectively than existing therapies. But its federal status as a Schedule I controlled substance is stifling vital research. (via @sciam)

scientificamerican.comA Strategy for Rescheduling PsilocybinThere are three legal pathways to deregulating the drug under the Controlled Substances Act

I kinda wonder how it compares with Marijuana in terms of both number of viable use cases and difficulty of teasing apart active components.

Ella Nilsen @ella_nilsen

NEW: Manchin opposes a clean electricity program, saying "the transition is already happening." But in Manchin's home state, the transition away from coal is not happening. Coal powers nearly 90% of WV electricity & costs for ratepayers are only going up.

edition.cnn.comWest Virginia’s reliance on coal is getting more expensive, and Joe Manchin’s constituents are footing the billChase outside of her home in Charleston.

Apparently the government is paying for further capacity in West Virginias coal plants, it's absolutely insane.

Market Urbanism @MarketUrbanism

If we’d banned new hotels in the ’20s because we didn’t need hotels, we needed housing, then today we’d have even fewer SROs. There’s no fine line between short- and long-term rentals, even in new construction, as Airbnb in one direction and shelter contracts in the other show

Dan Bertolet @danbertolet

New research shows that it's bad policy to ban short-term rentals from accessory dwellings because it reduces their production: "The effect is especially pronounced for accessory dwelling units, which decline by 16.5% across regulatory boundaries." https://t.co/lhiLNNJ1IL

Wow, that's a much bigger effect than I'd have expected. From the paper, the impact on all residential construction is 13%.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

This is one of those “if you told me twenty years ago this would happen…” kind of things. https://t.co/5G18mo37f3

eve 6ix @Eve6

when people get old they thirst for the familiar like a vampiric priest to a chalice of blood. margaret atwood is just afraid of death

Here's a summary, she's upset about the phrase 'people who menstrate'

Jason Furman @jasonfurman

What remains surprising is the low rate of exit from unemployment into jobs. That remains lower than normal at a time when you expect it to be higher than normal.

This is surprising, most popular reason for a lack of urgency was having an employed spouse in one poll.

Sharky Laguana @Sharkyl

🧵This is a project I've been working on for a while. Here's why I think (and the Mayor, and the DA, and SFPD think) this initiative can help. sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/10/19/san…

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.comSan Francisco, Tourism Industry Offer Cash Rewards To Stop Auto Burglary Fencing OperationsSan Francisco is moving to stem a scourge of auto break-ins by joining with private businesses to offer cash rewards for information on the fencing operations moving the stolen goods.

Interesting idea, $100k reward for convictions, apparently there aren't that many organizations handling fencing the items shutting a few down could make a significant difference.

Hillary Johnson: journalist @oslersweb

And just like that, "centuries of medical dogma" regarding one of the world's great scourges falls.

nytimes.comTuberculosis, Like Covid, Spreads by Breathing, Scientists ReportThe finding upends conventional wisdom regarding coughing, long thought to be the main route of transmission.

Surprisingly, this wasn't conventional wisdom yet, although if you were reading Vox in 2020...

Ethan Mollick @emollick

Bad news: Leaded fuel reduced the IQ of everyone born before 1990 by ~4.25%. Millennials are the first to be born with unleaded gas. Worse news: a new paper shows environmental lead levels from leaded gasoline are still around in cities today, and cause continued neurotoxicity.

Lead is bad! Clean it up anywhere possible!

M.G. Siegler @mgsiegler

Shake Shack it is then… https://t.co/0WZ0DOCB1t

Chronicle Food @SFChronicleFood

In-N-Out blasted San Francisco's vaccine mandate after getting shut down for failing to enforce it. "We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government." https://t.co/Mzuwx7SaJx

Tugboat for Today

Favorites October 19th 2021