Favorites September 26th 2021

Alec Stapp @AlecStapp

4 misleading/inaccurate narratives that drive me nuts: 1. "100 corporations are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions" 2. "for every homeless person there are six vacant homes" 3. "we only got one $2k check" 4. "blackrock/zillow are buying all the houses"

Check out the thread for individual details, but the one I'd like to highlight is that the vacant homes aren't in the same place as the homeless people. Places with vacant homes generally don't have as significant a homelessness problem.

Smells Like R3 Spirit @VamonosLA

Dingbats put crappy old apartments out of business or forced those landlords to upgrade. In other words few things - in fact maybe nothing - have done more to improve the condition of California renters than the mass construction of dingbats.

I had previously just heard dingbats talked about a bit, so this insight that they're one of the most successful housing advancements ever seen in California was a surprise to me. There's a great blog post on the subject of dingbats, and their future: Dingbat Renaissance.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

As long as I'm tossing out opinions on global tourism, I kind of think that Mexico City would get more international recognition as a top tier tourist destination if it had stuck with the name Tenochtitlan instead of naming itself after the country.

Gotta admit, I'd be more interested in visiting Tenochtitlan.

Donate to Give Smart, voting started in VA @BobbyBigWheel

Framing this as a PR problem rather than a consequence of deeply unpopular opinions, a lack of accountability and ties to a president who attempted a coup kinda misses the point

Robert Barnes @scotusreporter

The Supreme Court’s approval rating is plummeting, its critics are louder and justices feel compelled to plead the case to the public that they are judicial philosophers, not politicians in robes. w/ @seungminkim https://t.co/M6oyGUGajO

The Supreme Court really is a political institution, and at this point their favorite hobby horses are quite unpopular.

Jay Willis @jaywillis

Supreme Court reporters, I beg you, when you’re writing stories about public perceptions of the Court’s legitimacy, consider skipping the quotes from people whose extremely lucrative careers depend on public perceptions of the Court’s legitimacy apnews.com/article/religi…

Many of the favored commentators on the Court are loathe to admit any of this of course.

Alec Stapp @AlecStapp

This is amazing — someone wrote an entire book of French poems that sound like English nursery rhymes when spoken aloud. Click the listen icon on Google Translate to hear a French poem that sounds like Humpty Dumpty in English with a heavy French accent: translate.google.com/?sl=fr&text=Un…

Highly recommend listening to the linked audio, it's much closer than you'd think from the spelling.

David Roberts @drvolts

I hate the myth that parents need easy driving & parking. The biggest danger to US children is cars. Cars kill children. Constantly. The way to make child-friendly neighborhoods is to get rid of cars.

ggwash.orgLet’s bust the myth: a car-friendly neighborhood isn’t a child-friendly neighborhoodDC is in many ways a pro-child city. But one area where the District and many other cities could perform better is designing public spaces that prioritize children over cars.

I'm a parent, and I say: get rid of free parking!

February 2019