Favorites September 3rd 2023
With Burning Man in the news over the rain, it's worth remembering their opposition to geothermal power! To the extent Burning Man has a positive environmental angle, it's that they demonstrate good mixed use walkable neighborhood principles.
This is wild, apparently Tesla's margins are just so much better that they can squeeze the other carmakers who barely break even on EVs. On the other hand, the first few production Cybertrucks are being seen in the wild, and they're pretty ugly.
One commenter points out that because car insurance doesn't cover this, it means that it's effectively handled by normal health insurance. Half of SF ER visits are traffic related?. Serious misalignment of costs.
Apparently Feynman tried an even harder version of this and was unable to do as well as his dog. I think blocking out all other senses probably helps a lot too.
We're definitely going to need to raise taxes in the future, and probably reduce spending somehow.
Longer Reads
• The T-1000 was great CGI, but the actor also worked really hard on his mannerisms to sell the character. For one thing, he learned to fire a gun without blinking:
• Short thread: requiring an extra year of school in the UK (for 15 year olds) didn't change outcomes (in 1947)
Flotsam and Jetsam
– "Opposing EVs because tire particulate means they don’t entirely eliminate air pollution is like opposing an assault weapons ban because it allows handguns to still exist." But this is still unfair to EVs (src)
– software vs government projects: iOS = Manhattan Project ($20B) Google search = ISS ($100B) (src)
– Recent Jacobin article criticizing YIMBY is interesting, but the idea that YIMBYs are unaware of land values is silly. Secretly this is a pitch for Georgism (src)
– Community notes has a field day (src)
– boomers don't know about Uber connect, but till seeing this I didn't either! (src)
– Seems like there's less evidence of the Canadian residential school genocide (src)
– bad retail service indicates a strong labor market. (src)
– China's new map helped drive Vietnam to a new stronger alliance with the US (src)
– worryingly, Google maps doesn't show borders for China at all. (src)
– AOC is solarpunk (src)
– Nearly half of Taiwanese prefer full independence, vs 26 preferring the status quo (src)
– Jimmy Buffett had a quarter second in Jurassic World, he spent it well. (src)
– Good thread of types of Twitter jokes (src)
– Argument that YouTube chasing TikTok is damaging their core offering. (src)
– Ads can't really be blamed for the worst of social media, the worst stuff has no ads (4chan, gab, truth social) (src)
– if you're trying to use police less for 911, the replacement better be other government workers rather than non profits. Nonprofits shouldn't do government functions. (src)
– So now Russia complains about China's new map. (src)
– post Christian right is worse than the Christian right. (src)
– Perhaps the best available policing reform is state level centralization. (src)
– what if USB-C Macs could test USB-C cables? (src)