Kevin Drum 🕸

Now this is what I'm talking about: Washington DCs DCA airport boarding areas are outfitted with numerous 254 nm UV disinfection systems. pic.twitter.com/fnBC0gPZce — Dustin Poppendieck (@Poppendieck) February 23, 2023 I've written about this before: it's called Far UV, and it's ultraviolet light in a range that's deadly to COVID-19 but harmless to human beings. ...continue reading "Far UV is a promising technology to kill COVID viruses"

There's no good news on inflation this month: As usual, don't pay too much attention to noisy monthly changes. That said, this was a mighty big monthly change, just like the one we saw a few days ago in the CPI numbers. It's so big, in fact, that it makes the trendline for core PCE ...continue reading "Inflation surged back to life in January"

Why is it that we've seen no productivity gains in the construction field? For example, here's the cost per square foot of building a skyscraper in Los Angeles over the past century:¹ Construction costs vary depending on both the type of building and what's being counted. The cost of the Wilshire Grand, for example, includes ...continue reading "Why does it cost so much to erect a skyscraper?"

It's not wildflower season yet, but all the rain around here has expedited things a little bit. Patches of California poppies are starting to show up on the hillsides and the desert is beginning to bloom. This flower is a yellow . . . poppy? Something else? I'm not sure. But great gobs of them ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Over at New York, Eric Levitz takes on a popular explanation for rising teen suicides: the world is objectively more horrible than it used to be and teens are depressed about it. Levitz presents a blizzard of statistics to show that life today isn't objectively worse than life a few decades ago, and everything he ...continue reading "Raw data: The life of modern teens"

Things are heating up in Taiwan: The U.S. is markedly increasing the number of troops deployed to Taiwan, more than quadrupling the current number to bolster a training program for the island’s military amid a rising threat from China. The U.S. plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the island in the coming ...continue reading "US ramps up troop presence in Taiwan"

Joe Biden announced strict new rules today for asylum seekers who enter the country illegally: Under the new rules, the US would generally deny asylum to migrants who show up at the US southern border without first seeking protection in a country they passed through....Exceptions will be made for people with an “acute medical emergency”, ...continue reading "Raw data: Asylum seeking in the United States"

This is sunset a couple of days ago near Palm Springs. I suppose those are the San Jacinto Mountains at the bottom, though I can't say for sure.

Bret Stephens today: The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous. “There is just no evidence that ...continue reading "Are masks useless?"

Clarkesworld is a well-regarded publisher of science fiction short stories. They accept submissions from anyone, and like every such publisher they occasionally receive plagiarized stories. The authors of these stories are banned from further submissions. This usually amounts to just a handful of bans each month. Lately, though, that number has skyrocketed: Starting in November, ...continue reading "Chatbots are taking over (a part of) the world"

I was thinking about choke points the other day. This is a term used by military strategists which refers to a narrow passage that hinders troop movements. The Strait of Hormuz is a choke point. The Fulda Gap is a choke point. But I was thinking more about commodities that are choke points because only ...continue reading "What are the choke points of the modern economy?"

Oh ffs. Marjorie Taylor Greene wants a "national divorce"? I thought these guys were supposed to be the patriots? And if they can't have their divorce, there's this: In case you were wondering if the devastating messages, revealed in the Dominion suit, had any impact… Hannity said tonight that he supports MTG’s batshit idea of ...continue reading "Hannity breaks new ground in voter suppression: Now it’s for white people too"

At lunch today I was talking with a friend about Nikki Haley. I suggested she needed something to differentiate herself, something that would grab people's attention and make her more than just another minor league candidate taking on Donald Trump. Little did I know that apparently she's already decided that slagging old people will be ...continue reading "Nikki Haley: I’m the candidate who wants old people to go away"

Kevin McCarthy has decided to entrust the investigation into the events of January 6 to everyone's favorite TV lunatic: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has provided exclusive access to a trove of U.S. Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has played down the deadly violence ...continue reading "McKevin turns over congressional video trove to . . . Tucker Carlson. That is not a typo."

I was out in the desert last night trying to squeeze in an astrophotography session while the moon was still down but before the weather turned bad. The moon played its role nicely, but the weather didn't. The weather report had said the sky would be clear except for a couple of hours around 6 ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Today the Supreme Court heard arguments in Gonzales vs. Google. It's really Gonzales vs. YouTube, but since Google owns YouTube it gets pride of place in the lawsuit. Long story short, the question is whether YouTube should be held liable for hosting content from Islamic State—i.e., ISIS. The Gonzales family says that YouTube's algorithms promoted ...continue reading "Leave Section 230 alone"

Perhaps eventually John Maynard Keynes will finally be right about the four-day workweek. A pilot program in Britain among 61 companies turned out to be popular with workers—hardly a surprise—but was also popular with management: Companies that participated could adopt different methods to “meaningfully” shorten their employees’ workweeks — from giving them one day a ...continue reading "Hooray for the four-day workweek"

The latest cause célèbre among the political chattering class is the bowdlerization of Roald Dahl's books to remove a few words here and there that are no longer considered suitable for polite company: The thrilling nastiness that children love about Dahl isn’t completely expunged, but the range of things he can be nasty about is ...continue reading "Oh, go ahead and revise Roald Dahl’s books for modern children"

This is "The Three Shades," in the Rodin Museum in Paris. My question is why it was installed so that the Eiffel Tower is sticking up through the middle shade. The placement is obviously deliberate, but why? Is it meant to convey something? Did it just seem funny to someone? Or what?

According to Trans Legislation Tracker, there are currently more than 300 bills pending in state legislatures that attack transgender health and well-being in one way or another. Some are directed at trans girls in high school sports. Some are directed at K-12 curricula. Some are directed at banning or regulating gender-affirming care among trans children ...continue reading "The progressive trans war is reaching a fever pitch"