Bookmarks (4065)

1. Anecdotal: “But Herring’s refusal to give up his @Tennessee handle, federal prosecutors say, led to a night in which the shocking and confusing sight of police with their guns drawn outside his home caused the computer programmer to suffer a massive heart attack that killed him. His death in Bethpage, Tenn., was triggered by […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

And I actually would go so far as to say that I think that might be one of, if not the biggest technological challenge that our industry will face in the next decade. We tend to really celebrate things that are big, right? But I actually think miniaturizing things and getting a supercomputer to fit […] The post Mark Zuckerberg and the metaverse appeared...

Yes, wrapped in clear shrink wrap.  So you can’t page through them and see what the book might be like.  I can think of a few hypotheses: 1. They don’t want you standing in the bookstore reading the thing, rather than buying it.  A bit like some U.S. comics news stands in days past.  Yet […] The post Why do they keep the books...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: First, if you do it right, most of your best meals will be eaten before 3 p.m., sometimes even before 10 a.m. Most “comida popular,” as it is called, is sold in the earlier parts of the work day, as the evening […] The post How to find the best food...

What do you all recommend I do here? I thank you in advance for the kind assistance. The post Monterrey, Mexico bleg appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsYour a foody. Talk to 'Monterey Jack.' Next time, try ... by IrwinRead the travel advisory for Mexico before you go. There is a ... by joanTacos al Compadre by GregPIn reply to Cellador. Cannery Row...

1. New Kalshi prediction markets in beta form. 2. The Austin Vernon blog.  Or better link here. 3. The game theory of the infrastructure bill. 4. Should doctors be on first name terms?  And U.S. rules that Bezos and Branson are not “astronauts.” 5. Using lottery winner results to predict that effects of UBI. 6. […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

Agnes Callard explains: … at times it is only the angry who are in a position to apprehend the magnitude of some injustice. For they are the ones willing to sacrifice all their other concerns and interests so as to attend, with an almost divine focus, to some tear in the moral fabric. When I […] The post Why I Am Angry appeared first...

There is no better way to show this point than to look at Germany, which has highly reasonable political dialogue and at least in the center German politics is not so ideological.  And there is indeed a center!  Furthermore, politicians address their voters like adults and offer reasonable reasons for the policies they are proposing. […] The post Why current American politics is less...

Dwarkesh writes to me: Why do you think the Indian diaspora has been so successful? Just selection of the best immigrants from a large pool of candidates or something else too? Yes, there are plenty of Indians, and surely that matters, but I see several others factors at work: 1. The Indian diaspora itself is […] The post Why has the Indian diaspora been...

I will be doing a Conversation with him.  So what should I ask? Do note Andrew has a new book coming out, namely Out on a Limb: Selected Writing, 1989-2021. The post What should I ask Andrew Sullivan? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsAn interview of Sullivan belongs in the category of interviews ... by raywardIn reply to Hazel Meade. Like when she...

1. “He has struggled to access inheritance payments that have been withheld for more than 15 years, as trustees claim he’s mentally incompetent to receive the money.” 2. Daniel Drezner on how to address your professor.  And related ideas from Michael Strain.  And here you can find a list of British titles, hilarious. 3. Fire […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

Yes, it is the real Knausgaard again, writing under lockdown and delivering a nearly 700-pp. novel that does indeed sound like Knausgaard but is not (strictly) autobiographical. Here is a Swedish review, excerpt: I read mostly the novel as an entertaining study of non-reflective life, an exploration of how a secularized society chooses to refrain […] The post *The Morning Star*, by Karl Knausgaard...

Unsurprisingly, [Marc] Spiegler rejects the notion that an increased digital presence could undermine the necessity for the art world to fly to [Basel] Switzerland. “Having content available ahead of time builds momentum and increases, rather than diminishes, people’s desire to come.” Comparing the fair to a music concert, Spiegler says: “The more live sets a […] The post Claims about the art world (and...

Following on my discussion from the other day, it is worth thinking about whether new institutions or sectors work very hard to set up a lot of honorific titles.  So many of our standard honorifics come from quite old sectors, such as the military or religion or the nobility.  Are the new sectors seeking to […] The post Do honorifics pass a market test?...

A Massachusetts school can continue to use electric shock devices to modify behavior by students with intellectual disabilities, a federal court said this month, overturning an attempt by the government to end the controversial practice, which has been described as “torture” by critics but defended by family members. In a 2-to-1 decision, the judges ruled […] The post Electric shock devices on humans now...

1. The Great Apes also have time inconsistent preferences.  And NBC Sports to cover world chess championship. 2. The Norwegian century we were never woke. 3. A case for gdp-linked bonds. 4. Taco-eating job pays surprisingly well. 5. Retroactive public goods funding, partly by Sage Vitalik. 6. Izabella Kaminska on the paradox of DeFi, original […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

Abhishek Anand, Justin Sandefur, and Arvind Subramanian calculate excess mortality in India since April 2020 based on three different datasets (each with their own challenges.) Each estimate indicates that excess mortality is more likely around 4 million than the official figure of 400,000. These figures accord with what everyone on the ground has been telling […] The post Excess Deaths in India appeared first...

It turns out that Homo Sapiens is not all that different from other, early proto-human species, such as Neanderthals.  They are the “closest things to us.”  Denisovans, etc.  We killed them off.  (We also are likely to mostly kill off chimpanzees, zoos and research labs excluded.)  Therefore the best prediction is that we kill us […] The post Why humans will perish rather than...

Pew did a poll on general technological optimism and there’s a huge gender gap, much bigger than what you see on abortion or paid leave etc pic.twitter.com/GBBfk99YWy — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 21, 2021 The post Data on the great stagnation appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to JWatts. “”Put another way…” Has to be ... by EdwardVIn reply to bielersee. Funny,...

Malaysia’s Ministry of Health said yesterday that the country will stop administering the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech once its current supplies run out, amid mounting evidence that the vaccines have limited efficacy against the Delta variant that is currently ravaging Southeast Asia. They will switch mainly to Pfizer.  Thailand also will not be relying […] The post Malaysia is phasing out Sinovac appeared...

1. “…the evolution of peer review is best understood as the product of continuous efforts to steward editors’ scarce attention while preserving an open submission policy that favors authors’ interests.” 2. “An estimated 1.2 million people died from snakebites in India between 2000 and 2019, the equivalent of more than 58,000 a year, according to a […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

A very good graph from the New Statesman. The vaccines give the body a huge advantage in fighting the virus so even when there are infections the number of deaths is dramatically reduced. This is UK data but the same type of relationship should hold everywhere. The post Vaccines Dramatically Reduce Deaths appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsMajor misinformation in these threads: 1....

I’ve long wondered about this, and explore that question in my latest Bloomberg column.  I’ve discouraged this for a long time: …I have insisted that my graduate students call me “Tyler.” My goal has been to encourage them to think of themselves as peer researchers who might someday prove me wrong, rather than viewing me […] The post Why should they call us “professors”?...

Civil-Rights Law as Lawyer Full-Employment Act The data that Eric Kaufmann presents and explains about ideological prejudice, social intolerance, and “affective polarization” (“Political Discrimination as Civil-Rights Struggle,” July 12) are as disturbing as they are depressing. Progressive authoritarianism is a growing problem, particularly among young elites and thus at the commanding heights of business, culture, and […] The post The wisdom of Ilya Shapiro appeared...

Here is a very good post from Noah Smith on that topic, opening excerpt: As recently as 1960, the two countries had similar standards of living. Today, the D.R., by some measures, is eight times as rich as Haiti, while Haiti’s standard of living hasn’t advanced at all since 1950. The D.R. has already surpassed […] The post Why the post-1960 divergence for Haiti...

1. What FARC ate for fifty years. 2. Post 9-11, subsidizing higher education didn’t do much for veterans. 3. Nuclear gender gap uh-oh?  And the French are wavering on nuclear (FT). 4. Notes on persistence and economic development. 5. Dating without looksism? (NYT) 6. Very good Interfluidity post on how crypto might work (but not […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

Nightmare Scenario opens with Anthony Fauci stripped to his skivvies and wondering whether the white powder he has just been exposed to in his NIH office is anthrax, ricin, or a hoax. The first and last he can survive, ricin is a death sentence. A security team douses him with chemicals and moves him to […] The post Review of Nightmare Scenario by Abutaleb...

This paper uses an econometric approach to examine the inflation consequences of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Price equations are estimated and used to forecast future inflation. The main results are: (1) The data suggest that price equations should be specified in level form rather than in first or second difference form. (2) […] The post Ray C. Fair on price inflation...

Using US Census Household Pulse Survey data for the period April 2020 to June 2021 we track the evolution of the mental health of nearly 2.3 million Americans during the COVID pandemic. We find anxiety, depression and worry peaked in November 2020, coinciding with the Presidential election. The taking of prescription drugs for mental health […] The post Biden, COVID and Mental Health in...

In Britain people are now being warned *not* to get their second dose at 3 or 4 weeks because this offers less protection than waiting 8 weeks or longer. Warnings over the lack of long-term protection offered by jab intervals shorter than eight weeks come as scores of under 40s continue to receive second doses […] The post Second Doses Are Better at 8...

1. Nouriel Roubini is worried. 2. The decline of the Right, in one Regnery obituary (NYT).  And Michael Wolff speaks. 3. Novavax update. 4. What kind of talk persuades investors? 5. Do Urgent Care centers simply boost overall health care spending? 6. “…secular improvements in job utility can be substantial relative to welfare gains from […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

On the flight from Houston to Oaxaca, not everyone took off their masks to eat and drink, as they would on most internal U.S. flights, even if only for “faux mask removal-motivated drinking” [FMRMD]. You have to fill out some forms, through an app, on your smart phone in advance.  When you arrive they ask: […] The post Covid protection in Oaxaca appeared first...

From the new memoir of Kaushik Basu: The use of the word, sir, is very common in Indian officialdom. During a government meeting, Prof Basu recounts, he decided to keep a tab on how many times the word was said. A senior official, he counted, was saying sir, “on average 16 times every minute (there […] The post When a bathroom towel restored an...

Here is a very good thread from William Hoenig, recommended. The post What is going on with Covid right now? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Boonton. “The virus could have been eliminated ... by Mark ZIn reply to asdf. Spurious appeal to inevitability. The ... by Mark ZIn reply to sfw. Not true . UK and US may be more...

1. “Why did you build such a long piano?” 2. “We estimate the introduction of a new airline route increases the number of shared kidneys by 7.3%.” 3. Why do the wealthy buy so much insurance rather than self-insuring through saving? 4. Stablecoins and the history of American free banking.  And improving bitcoin as a […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

Here’s a regression puzzle courtesy of Advanced NFL Stats from a few years ago and pointed to recently by Holden Karnofsky from his interesting new blog, ColdTakes. The nominal issue is how to figure our whether Aaron Rodgers is underpaid or overpaid given data on salaries and expected points added per game. Assume that these […] The post A Regression Puzzle appeared first on...

In the last decade, and especially after the 2013 Virginia court case of Ross and Ross v. Hatch, there has been a dramatic increase in knowledge, use, and legal recognition of supported decision-making (SDM) in the United States. SDM is a methodology in which people work with trusted friends, family members, and professionals who help them […] The post Supported decision-making vs. guardianship appeared first...

Davis Kedrosky and Nuno Palma blame Brazil: As late as 1750, Portugal had an output per head considerably higher than those of France or Spain. Yet just a century later, Portugal was Western Europe’s poorest country. In this paper we show that the discovery of massive quantities of gold in Brazil over the eighteenth century […] The post Why did Portugal decline? appeared first...

Beds to be installed in Tokyo Olympic Village will be made of cardboard, this is aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes Beds will be able to withstand the weight of a single person to avoid situations beyond sports. I see no problem for distance runners,even 4 of us can do😂 pic.twitter.com/J45wlxgtSo — Paul Chelimo🇺🇸🥈🥉 (@Paulchelimo) […] The post The Covid culture that is Japan...

1. Report on the fighting state of the U.S. Navy. 2. The culture that is Dutch: “Dutch Queen, robot involved in opening of 3D-printed bridge in red-light district.” 3. “Drunk Indian buffaloes blow cover on contraband booze.” 4. How Giannis could shoot free throws better (of broader performance relevance too, NYT). 5. How do you […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

The sale of passports is the largest source of revenue for the Vanuatu government, with analysis by Investment Migration Insider finding it accounted for 42% of all government revenue in 2020. In June 2021, the government reported a budget surplus despite the Covid-19 pandemic, largely thanks to the continued demand for citizenship, and the government has used […] The post The pandemic countercyclical asset the Vanuatu...

In part: Born at Easton Piers, march twelfth, 1621, about sun-rising: very weak and like to die, and therefore christened that morning before prayer.  I think I have heard my mother say I had an ague [fever] shortly after I was born. 1629: about three or four years old, I had a grievous ague.  I […] The post John Aubrey’s account of his own...

By 1978, Han constituted 42 percent of Xinjiang’s population, up from a mere 6 percent in 1949.  The flow was reversed in the reform era, as many Han who had been forcibly relocated to the province returned to China proper.  In 1990, the Han share of the population was down to 37.5 percent, and official […] The post China fact of the day appeared...

“Take it from one of the best living novelists that people’s personalities are not interesting,” she said in a dry voice unlike the voice she uses with me as a rule.  “Except,” she added, when you are in love with them.” And more from the diary of Charles, the lover: Would I ever have fallen […] The post Elizabeth Bowen speaks to her lover...

1. Early Multidisciplinary Practice, Not Early Specialization, Predicts World-Class Performance. 2. Push to free Britney gains traction on Capitol Hill (NYT): ““We don’t even know how many people are in conservatorships and guardianships,” said Zoe Brennan-Krohn, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s disability rights program. “We don’t know how long they’ve been there […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

Narrative accounts of classroom instruction suggest that external interruptions, such as intercom announcements and visits from staff, are a regular occurrence in U.S. public schools. We study the frequency, nature, duration, and consequences of external interruptions in the Providence Public School District (PPSD) using original data from a district-wide survey and classroom observations. We estimate […] The post The cost of school interruptions appeared...

Las Gemelas, 1280 4th st. NE, 202-866-0550. There are two places here, a restaurant and on the other side of the (small) mall is a tacqueria. The tacqueria is the best Mexican food this region has seen. Real blue corn tortillas, everything else authentic, could be mistaken for excellent real Mexican food in Mexico.  The […] The post Las Gemelas, now the best Mexican...

Here is an appreciation.  Via Mike T. The post Hugo Sonnenschein, RIP appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsPersonally I am more impressed by Hugo's work in economic ... by Barkley RosserRelated StoriesSelf Recommending Links“The Crypto Revolution Will Not be Public”My Conversation with Alexander the Grate 

The future of crypto, cities, and inflation: "I don't think of crypto as a currency. I think of it as a new set of institutions." – @tylercowen.Listen to the full episode here: https://t.co/0DyOOSHCaB.#cryptocurrencies #Crypto #Ethereum #bitcoin #btc #NYC pic.twitter.com/ytBDfY59LX — James Altucher (@jaltucher) July 9, 2021 The post My podcast with James Altucher appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Hadur. Crypto...

With average daily consumption of 2.2 liters of Coca-Cola, Chiapas leads the world…It’s more than five times higher than the national average… According to a 2019 study by the Chiapas and Southern Border Multidisciplinary Research Center (Cimsur), residents of the southern state drink an average of 821.25 liters of soda per person per year. Broken […] The post Chiapas fact of the day appeared...