Favorites September 5th 2024

Punta Cana, December 2023

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This is a slightly less out-there take on the future of solar power than the last one I shared, but it still gets the general point across. Electricity during the day is about to get very very cheap.

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I previously discussed that car weight doesn't end up mattering that much for pedestrian/cyclist safety, but for safety of other drivers it matters a lot. For that reason, and increased road wear, we should be trying to impose limits or costs. Maxwell Tabarrok points out that this is a great example of the difference between an econ textbook, which will say this is a negative externality (cached) that should be taxed, and the real world, where governments subsidize larger vehicles over smaller ones (cached).

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Eventually progress on installing new solar may slow, but every time someone predicts it they've been wrong.

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Any Canadians out there laughing at the US for having dumb laws should know that restrictions on trade within Canada cost Canadians an average of $2500 per year (cached).

Longer Reads

• A thread arguing that the recent discussion of 'cancer vaccines' is mostly hype. The good news is that Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines really do prevent cancers. (src)(cached)
• Thread from the menswear guy arguing against wearing a Windsor knot tie. TL;DR: he thinks there's less history to it, and likes that the four-in-hand is asymmetric. Personally I really don't like the asymmetry. (src)

Flotsam and Jetsam

– Polling on permitting reform to allow easier construction of all types of energy projects is +27 above water, with 52% in support. Seems like a good idea. (src)(cached)
– Lots of discussion of taxing unrealized gains, but why not just end stepped-up basis? (src)(cached)
– Batteries have made irrelevant many use-cases for hydrogen power, few are left. (src)(cached)
– Joss Fong recommended this very very long article about a controversy in paleontology about a site that may determine the season in which the astroid that killed the dinosaurs struck. (src)
– In 10 years the UK has gone from 40% coal power to shutting down their last coal plant. (src)()
– Swing voters exist, the suburbs of Atlanta swung 20 points between elections. (src)(cached)
– Americans under 35 are 3x richer than they were in 2016. See the bottom line in the linked chart. (src)(cached)
– Research on Taiwan's land reform based on newly digitized information indicates that breaking up large farms wasn't directly responsible for higher yields, although it seems likely that higher yields combined with smaller farms is what lead to more people working in manufacturing. (src)(cached)
– Yet another thread about how great the Impulse stove is, feel free to ignore. (src)(cached)
– If you think landlords colluding to raise prices via RealPage is bad, you should hear about the other stuff they're doing. (src)(cached)
– Dean Preston is claiming credit for getting an affordable housing apartment built after working tirelessly to oppose the laws that allowed it to be built. (src)(cached)
– a16z is closing their Miami office, SF may be poorly governed, but agglomeration effects are too powerful to overcome. (src)(cached)