Favorites September 12th 2021

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

It's not officially called a Green New Deal, but Biden's plan is looking pretty great. Check out this thread.

JesseJenkins @JesseJenkins

Good morning. This bill is pretty epic! Here is a section by section summary of what's in draft tax package from the House Ways & Means Cmte: https://t.co/0gmdbBSrE2 (Part of it anyway, related to Infrastructure Financing, Green Energy, Social Safety Net, and Prescription Drugs) https://t.co/N9HBeBZZCv

Tons of stuff in here, one interesting highlight is a bunch of incentives for improvements on technologies that scale with the amount of improvement, for instance: "Aviation fuel that reduces greenhouse gas emissions at least 50%.
Worth $1.25/gallon plus $0.01/gallon for every percentage point that the fuel reduces lifecycle emissions (vs jet fuel) in excess of 50%"

Bloomberg Next China @next_china

A startup in Australia has produced one of the most efficient solar cells ever, beating China's industrial giants as a result of a materials breakthrough

trib.alBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Keep it coming, this is great.

Charlie Stross @cstross

If you could find a way to bottle his tackiness you'd have an effective replacement for superglue (cyanoacrylate adhesive).

Parker Molloy @ParkerMolloy

He gave a paid speech to a cult. On 9/11. Before announcing a pay-per-view boxing match. Once again, on 9/11. https://t.co/j3vJev9nwM

Moonies! (It’s not mentioned here, but the term was used a bunch in today’s coverage)

Tokyo Fashion @TokyoFashion

Japanese Yankii Fashion Today - The Bad Boy Embroidery Fixating Japan's Rural Youth (via @SSENSE) ssense.com/en-us/editoria…

Noah smith quipped that it's amusing how "Japan adopted 'Yankee' (yankii) as its word for 'young tough guy delinquents', which was pretty much exactly the way the British intended the slur when they invented it."

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Natural disasters have become more costly but less deadly over time. ft.com/content/541702…

It seems like a big part of this has got to be that we've just got more stuff that can be destroyed now than we used to.

Eric Topol @EricTopol

People are still writing that Israel (as a first mover) has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. No, it ranks 24th. It is behind the leaders by 20 per cent points. And it's one of the reasons its Delta wave has been so troubling.

I had no idea how far Israel had fallen on this measure. Before looking I'd have guessed they're in the top 5.

David Schleicher @ProfSchleich

There is a running conflict among self-avowed environmentalists between those (rightly) focused on nat'l and global concerns and those who focus on local harms. As this excellent @Noahpinion piece notes, this plays a huge role in housing politics too

washingtonpost.comAnalysis | The Left’s NIMBY War Against Renewable EnergyState and national leaders need to move more forcefully to override local protestors who are blocking new solar and wind developments under the guise of land conservation.

How can I not link to this, NIMBYs against solar panels in the middle of nowhere!

Andy Kroll @AndyKroll

SCOOP: Biden has told Schumer & Pelosi that he's prepared to pressure moderate Dems to change the filibuster in order to pass a new voting-rights law. “Chuck, you tell me when you need me to start making phone calls,” Biden said, per a source. Read:

rollingstone.comBiden Tells Top Democrats He’s Preparing Lobbying Blitz on Filibuster Reform, Voting RightsThe president, sources say, has promised to lean on centrists to change the filibuster rules and save Democrats’ imperiled effort to pass a new voting rights bill

Get rid of the Filibuster! There's no reason to keep around a tradition that dates back in its current form to 2006 at the earliest. Our system has plenty of Veto Points, no reason to have yet another one.

Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco, September 2021

Photo credit: Pantea