Monday, September 21, 2020

And it's hard to get more boring than charcoal

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Sometimes it feels like the more practical and promising an approach to addressing global warming is, the less interest it generates. Person...
Friday, September 18, 2020

More important, none of the new tunneling machines are as cool as the Sigafoos.

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Today in Hyperloop non-developments The “incremental changes” currently being made in tunnelling technology will not be enough to generate...
Thursday, September 17, 2020

OK, I'll admit it. The post I was working on is taking a bit longer than expected.

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So here's a video recommendation to fill your time. Trailers from Hell is a mixed bag, sometimes diverting, often disappointing. John La...
Wednesday, September 16, 2020

The wildfire conversation we need to have right now.

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In the longer run the question of global warming is the biggest environmental threat we face, but in the immediate term here in the West, ou...
Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Welcome to the post-Gawker world

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One of the reasons why things got as fucked up as they are today is that the establishment, particularly the parts of the establishment that...
Monday, September 14, 2020

Given that we need to burn off an area of California roughly the size of Maine, this would seem to be an important finding

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The fires are coming . The question at this point is how to burn off these acres while minimizing the impact on public health and the econo...
Friday, September 11, 2020

Weekend Videos -- You need this

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Thursday, September 10, 2020

Labor Day Tweet -- 3 days too late

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The best Labor Day graph - worker productivity & compensation grew together when unions were strong, but when unions declined the rate...
Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Probably a good time to dust off this discussion of self-selection and volatility

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This piece was pure speculation eight years ago. We now have actual data (if you're into that sort of thing.) Tuesday, November 6, 2...
Tuesday, September 8, 2020

"California would need to burn 20 million acres — an area about the size of Maine — to restabilize in terms of fire"

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The sky here in LA has taken on that distinct orange tint. Just as the heat has started to let off, the air is turning bad. Another large fi...
Monday, September 7, 2020

Happy Labor Day Repost

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  Look for the Union Label The ILGWU sponsored a contest among its members in the 1970s for an advertising jingle to advocate buying I...
Friday, September 4, 2020

Is age a cause?

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 This is Joseph. Inspired by this twitter thread .  This question is amazingly complicated when you look at it closely. Age is an odd cause ...
Thursday, September 3, 2020

The truth about Western megafires is the narrative no one wants to hear.

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Every few years, some journalist will do a solid, deeply reported story on Western megafires. (This Propublica piece by Elizabeth Weil is e...
Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Bad predictions

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 This is Joseph. Early on in the pandemic, one of the worst takes is that the "stay at home" orders would result in a baby boom . ...
Tuesday, September 1, 2020

It's a fun show (Tom Ellis is is great) but...

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I know we've been over this before (and I do feel bad about picking on the same company) but if you want to work on your skills seeing t...