![Andrew Damitio 🏗️ (🏬🚝☢️🔆🔋♨️) @AndrewDamitio The environmentalism of Burning Man is just optics. Burning Man's organizers sued in Federal court to stop clean geothermal energy development. The festival itself has a footprint of 100,000 tons of CO2, as everyone drives there with large SUVs. apnews.com Burning Man cheers county's overturning geothermal permit RENO, Nev. (AP) — County commissioners have rescinded an energy company's permit to drill exploratory wells for a geothermal project in the Nevada desert near the site of the annual Burning Man... Andrew Damitio 🏗️ (🏬🚝☢️🔆🔋♨️) @AndrewDamitio The environmentalism of Burning Man is just optics. Burning Man's organizers sued in Federal court to stop clean geothermal energy development. The festival itself has a footprint of 100,000 tons of CO2, as everyone drives there with large SUVs. apnews.com Burning Man cheers county's overturning geothermal permit RENO, Nev. (AP) — County commissioners have rescinded an energy company's permit to drill exploratory wells for a geothermal project in the Nevada desert near the site of the annual Burning Man...](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd0cfe7f2-bec5-4800-b56c-b4f7d1c4f7f7_1162x1324.png)
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.
![See new posts Conversation John Arnold @JohnArnoldFndtn Can't decide whether these price drops are a very bullish (falling costs) or very bearish (lagging demand) indicator for the EV market in general. See new posts Conversation John Arnold @JohnArnoldFndtn Can't decide whether these price drops are a very bullish (falling costs) or very bearish (lagging demand) indicator for the EV market in general.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fba25ee82-a7fb-4d9e-8d65-454e35697b5d_1152x1072.png)
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.
![John Lloyd @boyonabike62 In order to keep auto insurance costs artificially low for drivers, states allow drivers to be underinsured for bodily injury costs, meaning that victims and their families are often on the hook for astronomical medical costs. One of the many hidden subsidies for drivers. Quote Bella Chu @bellachu10 · Sep 1 A really understudied aspect of road violence is financial toxicity. Drivers are not required to carry insurance that covers anything like the true medical costs of a crash. Twelve states have no fault insurance and many have bodily harm coverage from $15K to none at all (Shill). twitter.com/dubarrypie/sta… John Lloyd @boyonabike62 In order to keep auto insurance costs artificially low for drivers, states allow drivers to be underinsured for bodily injury costs, meaning that victims and their families are often on the hook for astronomical medical costs. One of the many hidden subsidies for drivers. Quote Bella Chu @bellachu10 · Sep 1 A really understudied aspect of road violence is financial toxicity. Drivers are not required to carry insurance that covers anything like the true medical costs of a crash. Twelve states have no fault insurance and many have bodily harm coverage from $15K to none at all (Shill). twitter.com/dubarrypie/sta…](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F08775794-42b3-4787-aab9-617fbc754c3a_1158x620.png)
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.
![See new posts Conversation Ethan Mollick @emollick We think we are not as good at smelling as animals, but that may be behavioral: humans can accurately track scents. This experiment blocked every other sense & had humans crawl on the ground following a scent. It worked! And we actually smell in stereo👃 https://nature.com/articles/nn1819 See new posts Conversation Ethan Mollick @emollick We think we are not as good at smelling as animals, but that may be behavioral: humans can accurately track scents. This experiment blocked every other sense & had humans crawl on the ground following a scent. It worked! And we actually smell in stereo👃 https://nature.com/articles/nn1819](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F063846eb-12b5-4ff4-ada1-cdcdc0d7acda_936x1394.png)
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.
![Jason Furman @jasonfurman The shift from FY 2022 to FY 2023 is so large that you have to think at least some of it was transitory & related to timing, especially around capital gains taxes. But there are also other bad shoes to drop as more of the debt has to be refinanced last higher interest rates. Jason Furman @jasonfurman The shift from FY 2022 to FY 2023 is so large that you have to think at least some of it was transitory & related to timing, especially around capital gains taxes. But there are also other bad shoes to drop as more of the debt has to be refinanced last higher interest rates.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa207dfab-4ab1-40ba-8841-137b1c270664_924x1138.png)
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)