Saturdays are the day we catch up with all the non-finance related stuff we didn’t get to during the week. You can check out last week’s edition here.
Quote of the Day
"Information wants to be free or it wants to be expensive."
(Seth Godin)
Autos
- How to reduce your risk of death behind the wheel. (peterattiamd.com)
- Lyft ($LYFT) and Aptiv announced that they’ve passed 100,000 driverless rides in the Las Vegas area. (venturebeat.com)
- Why rats love to gnaw on car wiring. (washingtonpost.com)
Energy
- Engineers are increasingly looking at gravity to store excess renewable energy. (wsj.com)
- There is no sign that plastics production will slow any time soon. (ft.com)
- On the promise of an energy-neutral greenhouse. (modernfarmer.com)
- How rain could be used to generate electricity. (engadget.com)
Water
- How rising sea levels are affecting two places on different sides of the Pacific Ocean. (nytimes.com)
- Who owns land after it washes away? (nola.com)
- The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster was far more impactful than commonly thought. (washingtonpost.com)
Environment
- Evidence that Norway is getting warmer and wetter, quickly. (nrk.no)
- Planting a trillion trees is all well and good but it won't solve climate change. (nytimes.com)
- Dean Takahashi, formerly the second in command at the Yale endowment fund, is now working on carbon containment schemes. (finance.yahoo.com)
- It is possible to 'grow' concrete thereby avoiding significant carbon emissions? (wsj.com)
- Foam cups have become a target for environmental activists. (nytimes.com)
- The online mattress boom is an environmental disaster. (theguardian.com)
- Did you know: Liquid soaps require five times more energy for raw material production and nearly 20 times more energy for packaging production? (ft.com)
Agriculture
- An autonomous weeding robot is coming to a farm near you. (modernfarmer.com)
- Now robots are being used to collect and capture agricultural data. (nytimes.com)
Air travel
- A British Air flight just set a record for the fastest subsonic flight from New York City to London in history. (axios.com)
- What's it going to take to get the Boeing ($BA) 737 Max back in the air? (nytimes.com)
- Delta Airlines ($DAL) is going to invest heavily in carbon offsets. (axios.com)
- Spirit Airlines is universally disliked. So how does it make money? (marker.medium.com)
- Everything you need to know about airplane food (and more). (vox.com)
- How to survive 12 hours on a plane. (washingtonpost.com)
Science
- Artificial light is messing with firefly mating rituals. (reuters.com)
- Rising temperatures are in part to blame on the decline of honeybees. (scientificamerican.com)
- Lidar is revolutionizing the practice of archaeology. (nautil.us)
- Non-natural deaths of grizzly bears are on the rise. (nytimes.com)
Technology
- Clearview AI is yet another step towards continuous, ubiquitous surveillance. (engadget.com)
- Why consumers need assistance against cybercrime and phishing attacks. (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
- Secure messaging app Signal "has increasingly become a fully featured, mainstream communications platform." (wired.com)
Medicine
- Men seems to be more vulnerable to the coronavirus. (ft.com)
- 'Thermometer guns' are notoriously inaccurate. (nytimes.com)
- A single HPV vaccine may be sufficient to prevent cancer. (sciencedaily.com)
- The case for fewer heart procedures. (scientificamerican.com)
Behavior
- Dr. Barry Michaels, "Confidence can't exist in the absence of insecurity. Every human being is insecure. Every human being is afraid." (gq.com)
- There are no reported cases of anyone born blind having schizophrenia. (vice.com)
- Brain waves could help predict which patients would benefit from anti-depressants like Zoloft. (npr.org)
- There is good evidence that birth control pills affect how women think about and choose partners. (behavioralscientist.org)
- A short primer on ACT or acceptance and commitment therapy. (bigthink.com)
Fitness
- Half of all adults could be obese by 2030. (nytimes.com)
- Aerobic exercise is related to lower Alzheimer's risk. (newatlas.com)
- To maintain use a mix of aerobic and weight training. (nytimes.com)
Food policy
- Consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks dropped nearly 25% in the 18 months after Chile adopted a raft of sugar-related regulations. (nytimes.com)
- Are ultra-processed foods to blame for the global obesity epidemic? (theguardian.com)
- A look at the carbon footprint of what you are eating. (visualcapitalist.com)
Food waste
- The food waste problem may be worse than we think. (newscientist.com)
- How eliminating food deserts could cut down on food waste. (modernfarmer.com)
Food
- Dan Barber's Row 7 is moving into grocery stores. (eater.com)
- Why you should eat more canned fish. (heated.medium.com)
- American eaters want no part of animal blood. (eater.com)
- How Americans came to love the taco. (bonappetit.com)
Weed
- Los Angeles County will vacate nearly 66,000 marijuana convictions dating back to the 1960s. (wsj.com)
- Colorado State University is set to launch a cannabis-related college degree program. (washingtonpost.com)
- Just because weed is legal in your state doesn't mean you can go to work high. (fastcompany.com)
Streaming video
- A plethora of streaming video options are serving to make us more anxious. (axios.com)
- Netflix ($NFLX) is ramping up its animation offerings to take on Disney+. (cnbc.com)
- It's not all in your head, Netflix ($NFLX) content has shifted from movies to original content. (fastcompany.com)
Sports
- Apparently the Houston Astros' cheating was an open secret in baseball. (washingtonpost.com)
- Can America's best ultra-marathoner make the Olympics marathon? (nytimes.com)
- Why college basketball this season has been such a crap shoot. (theringer.com)
Relationships
- Why Iceland has so many single parents. (fatherly.com)
- Despite all the talk, men still don't do more housework than previous generations. (nytimes.com)
- The six most common reasons why hetero couples argue. (newscientist.com)
- Why you have a tendency to tune out those closest to you. (nytimes.com)
- Nine magic phrases for any relationship. (gardenandgun.com)
Kids
- Parents value equality of input over equality of outcome. (nber.org)
- Four things you can do to help you children find their calling in life. (bakadesuyo.com)
- The many downsides of leaning on your children for emotional support. (fatherly.com)
- Trump is one reason why bullying is back in schools. (washingtonpost.com)
- Are lockdown drills hurting more than they are helping? (npr.org)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Longform links: unstable families. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: interviewing tips. (abnormalreturns.com)