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The untimely death of Larry Price Jr. [Judd Legum, Popular Information]

By Spencer Chen
In [Popular Information]
January 19, 2023
188 views
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• Larry Eugene Price Jr., a severely mentally ill man living in poverty in Fort Smith, Arkansas, died in jail after spending a year in pretrial solitary confinement.
• Price was arrested after he began yelling and cursing at officers at the police station, and was charged with “terroristic threatening in the first degree.”
• Price was unable to post bail, and was placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, seven days a week.
• His mental health deteriorated, and he refused to take his prescribed medication. He eventually stopped eating and drinking, and was found unresponsive in a pool of standing water and urine.
• Price’s death is a consequence of systemic issues in the American criminal justice system, including criminalizing poverty and the torture of solitary confinement.
• People with mental illnesses are more likely to be incarcerated than given proper treatment, and many police lack the training to respond to mental health crises.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit Popular Information to read Judd Legum’s original post The untimely death of Larry Price Jr.

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America’s Police Exodus [Leighton Woodhouse, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Free Press]
January 19, 2023
255 views
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• Brian Lande, an officer in the Richmond, Calif., police department, had to draw his gun to stop two drunk men from clobbering each other to death with metal rods, and another time to stop a fight between two more drunk men, one of whom was armed with a hatchet.
• The Richmond police department has seen resignations jump by 18 percent and retirements by 45 percent over the previous year, with hiring decreasing by five percent.
• The shift in police officers’ perception of how they’re viewed by the public happened gradually, starting with the first Black Lives Matter protests of 2013, and culminating with the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
• In response to the racial reckoning, some cities set up police review boards with the power to subpoena police records and oversee day-to-day policing, while other states tightened use-of-force standards.
• It became popular for politicians in progressive circles to flaunt their anti-police credentials, and the Richmond City Council cut the police budget, forcing hiring freezes and threatening to slash officers’ salaries by 20 percent.
• Many officers left Richmond for smaller, suburban departments, where they wouldn’t have to fear getting laid off or having their salaries and benefits reduced.
• Brian Lande left Richmond for Kensington, a 15-minute drive away, where he is now Sergeant Lande and his job involves far fewer risks.
• In August 2022, President Biden announced his Safer America Plan in response to rising crime, which includes plans to hire 100,000 more police officers, but this has been met with criticism from the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
• Peter Moskos, the former Baltimore police officer now teaching at John Jay College, has called for legalizing drugs in response to the drug war’s ineffectiveness and its disproportionate impact on young black men, and is mystified by progressives who insist that the single greatest threat faced by black Americans is systemic racism.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Leighton Woodhouse’s original post America’s Police Exodus

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America needs more Class VI wells [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 19, 2023
274 views
A

• Public support for action on climate change is broad, but people are disinclined to be personally inconvenienced for the sake of the issue.
• Even if progressive jurisdictions ban new natural gas hookups, people will still be buying new gas appliances 15-20 years from now and those appliances will still be running 30-40 years from now.
• California is planning to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine cars in 2035, but ICE cars will still be on the road in 2050.
• Carbon capture technology exists at a small scale, but it is too expensive to solve the huge problems.
• The Inflation Reduction Act created financial incentives to deploy carbon capture technology, but the EPA needs to move on licensing Class VI wells or creating more state primacy deals.
• Carbon capture has been controversial for years in the environmental community, but it is important to keep in mind that lower-income Democrats were very upset about rising energy costs last year.
• Carbon capture could be used to make natural gas + carbon capture a cost-effective means of generating zero-carbon electricity.
• There is no perfect way to make electricity, and all energy sources have their own costs and benefits.
• Solar and wind power are not necessarily more virtuous than other sources such as carbon capture, nuclear, and geothermal.
• To make renewables work at a large scale, we need to build lots more transmission lines, batteries, and lithium mines.
• Even if we had an all-renewables grid, we would still need solutions for agriculture, industry, aviation, and maritime shipping.
• Carbon capture may be the solution to these problems, but we need to have the infrastructure in place to take advantage of it.ement on nature.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post America needs more Class VI wells

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Should Adults Nap? [Emily Oster, ParentData]

By Spencer Chen
In Emily Oster [ParentData]
January 19, 2023
215 views
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• 34% of people surveyed in 2009 reported napping in the past 24 hours, with the highest rate (52%) among those over 80 years old.
• Studies suggest that napping can improve cognitive performance and reduce subjective sleepiness, but may also be linked to cardiovascular disease.
• The optimal nap length is 15 minutes, and the ideal time to nap is mid-afternoon.
• The “coffee nap” combines a cup of caffeinated coffee with a 15-minute nap, and has been shown to reduce driving impairments.
• A study of urban poor in India found that napping improved overall feelings of well-being, but decreased earnings due to lost time.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit ParentData to read Emily Oster’s original post Should Adults Nap?

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January 18, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen
In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]
January 19, 2023
191 views
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• The Fair Tax Act, introduced by Representative Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-GA), would replace existing income, payroll, and estate/gift taxes with a flat national sales tax of 30%.
• The bill claims to “promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity” but would disproportionately affect those with less money to spend.
• The original Republican Party invented the U.S. income tax and created the precursor to the IRS to collect it, believing that taxes should be “proportionate to [a person’s] ability to pay.”
• The Fair Tax Act is a rejection of the original Republican Party’s principles and would dismantle the federal system that gives Americans “a sense of personal responsibility in the safety and stability of the nation.”
• The bill also provides an option for “qualified” families to get a rebate, but each member of the household must be registered annually with the state and certify that they are all legal residents of the U.S. and not incarcerated.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 18, 2023

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Twitter Timelines, Azure and OpenAI, Apple and China [Ben Thompson, Stratechery]

By Spencer Chen
In Ben Thompson [Stratechery]
January 18, 2023
294 views
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• Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules, resulting in the shutdown of 3rd-party apps.
• Twitter revenue is reportedly down 40% year-over-year, and the company’s first interest payment is due at the end of the month.
• Microsoft is adding OpenAI’s viral AI bot ChatGPT to its Azure service, as part of its existing agreement with OpenAI.
• The Financial Times has a two-part series about Apple and China, discussing how Apple has been sending its top product designers and manufacturing design engineers to China, and how Apple is attempting to diversify its supply chain internationally while forging closer ties with mainland Chinese companies.
• India is not yet a viable alternative to China for Apple’s supply chain, as most operations are Final Assembly, Test and Pack (FATP) with components largely flown in from China.
• Taiwanese companies such as Pegatron and Foxconn are moving to India to assemble Apple products, but their suppliers are not.
• There is no existing supply chain in India, so they must import components from China.
• Some Chinese companies have been cleared to operate in India for Apple’s sake, potentially playing the same role as Taiwanese suppliers in China.

Published January 18, 2023
Visit Stratechery to read Ben Thompson’s original post Twitter Timelines, Azure and OpenAI, Apple and China

 

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The true priorities of the global elite [Judd Legum, Popular Information]

By Spencer Chen
In [Popular Information]
January 18, 2023
192 views
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• The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an annual event in Davos, Switzerland, founded by German economist Klaus Schwab, which brings together the global elite to discuss global issues and solutions.
• Critics of the WEF argue that it is a networking opportunity used by the powerful to maintain and expand their wealth and influence, and that documents like the “Davos Manifesto” are meant to mask the true nature of the event.
• The last two years have been an economic windfall for the ultra-wealthy, with the richest 1% capturing almost two-thirds of all new wealth.
• Extreme wealth inequality is a policy choice, with taxes for the highest incomes, capital gains, and inheritance having all plummeted in wealthy countries since 1980.
• Billionaires often use the “buy, borrow, die” strategy to avoid taxation, and Senator Ron Wyden proposed a 23.8% tax on the unrealized capital gains of billionaires, which would have raised $507 billion over 10 years.
• The proposal was abandoned due to opposition from Senators Manchin and Sinema, as well as every Republican Senator, and global corporate taxes have fallen from an average of 47.5% in 1980 to 24.9% today.
• President Biden proposed a modest increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 25%, which would have helped fund climate investments and benefits for working families, but Sinema opposed the increase.

Published January 18, 2023
Visit Popular Information to read Judd Legum’s original post The true priorities of the global elite

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Who is included by “inclusive” language? [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 18, 2023
228 views
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• The article discusses the use of etiquette in elite educational institutions, such as Carne and Harvard, and how it has changed over time.
• It compares the traditionalist religious schools to the Fancy-Pants Prep Schools, which primarily serve an elite demographic.
• It notes that many of these institutions have gone all-in on DEI rhetoric, despite their exclusive nature.
• It uses the example of eating an apple to illustrate the arbitrary folkways of the British elite.
• It references philosopher Liam Kofi Bright’s essay on culture wars as white psychodrama and how etiquette work is not enough to achieve real change in material conditions.
• It mentions a recent memo from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work about replacing the term “field” with “practicum” as part of an effort to be more inclusive.
• USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work recently announced they would replace the term “field” with “practicum” in order to be more inclusive and anti-racist.
• This change was met with criticism from right-wing circles and USC administrators.
• The author argues that language is always changing and that it is important to consider who is included and excluded by the language we use.
• They also point out that elite educational institutions often have their own codes of manners and language that are used to maintain an elite class and exclude those who are not up to date.

Published January 18, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Who is included by “inclusive” language?

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SSC Survey Results On Schooling Types [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

By Spencer Chen
In Scott Alexander [Astral Codex Ten]
January 18, 2023
253 views
S

• 70.8% of SSC/ACX readers went to free government schools, 12.1% went to secular private-sector schools, 11.3% went to religious private-sector schools, 3.1% were home schooled, and 0.4% were unschooled.
• Home schoolers had the highest satisfaction with their schooling (7.04) and SAT scores (verbal: 756, math: 722).
• Life satisfaction was highest among home schoolers (6.72) and religious schoolers (6.65). Social satisfaction was highest among private schoolers (6.00).
• Home schoolers were more likely to be single (44%) than public schoolers (39%).
• Controlling for religion, home schoolers had lower life satisfaction (6.33) and were more likely to be single (48.6%) than public schoolers (40.4%).
• Home schoolers were not more likely to have changed their gender (3.2%) or have used psychedelics 5+ times (7.6%) than public schoolers (2.4% and 12.4%, respectively).
• Unschooling had the lowest life, social, and romantic satisfaction, and were most likely to be single.

Published January 18, 2023

Visit Astral Codex Ten to read Scott Alexander’s original post SSC Survey Results On Schooling Types

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January 17, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen
In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]
January 18, 2023
319 views
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• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised far-right members of his conference committee seats and more power in Congress to persuade them to vote for him, and now they are collecting.
• Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) have been given committee assignments despite their past controversial behavior.
• Vern Buchanan (R-FL) confronted McCarthy for putting McCarthy ally Jason Smith (R-MO) in the spot of chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
• George Santos (R-NY) was appointed to two committees despite facing pressure to resign due to his campaign lies.
• Republicans are preparing to move forward with an impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
• Greene called for the impeachment of President Biden.
• McCarthy has called for Democrats to talk with him about a plan that will permit an increase in the debt limit while cutting Medicare, Social Security, and federal agencies.
• Biden and administration officials say they will not negotiate with the right-wing Republicans who are trying to get their way by holding the government and the global economy hostage.

Published January 18, 2023

Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 17, 2023

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