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
"Even if algorithms are efficient at providing basic “if you like this, then you might like this” music recommendations, they deprive us of the joy of discovery."
(Om Malik)
Chart of the Day
The market has embraced electric truck maker Nikola ($NKLA), post-reverse merger.
Autos
- Cheap, ubiquitous chargers are the final piece of an electric car future for the US. (msn.com)
- In Europe, commuters are choosing bicycles over mass transit. (nytimes.com)
- Auto shows were stopped in their tracks. What comes next? (nytimes.com)
Energy
- Britain how now gone two months without burning coal to generate electricity. (bbc.com)
- The pandemic is putting a crimp in US solar installations. (ft.com)
Environment
- Carbon emission are already back on the rise again around the globe. (theguardian.com)
- The pandemic is slowing the installation of scrubbers on commercial cargo ships. (reuters.com)
- California was working to prevent wildfire damage, then the pandemic hit. (npr.org)
- Microplastic rain is the new acid rain. (wired.com)
- Visualizing human impact on the oceans. (visualcapitalist.com)
Air travel
- What you need to know before getting on an airplane. (elemental.medium.com)
- American Airlines ($AAL) is not down with social distancing. (axios.com)
- European governments are loath to let flagship carriers fail. (ft.com)
- How is the air cleaned on commercial airplanes? (cntraveler.com)
Science
- Science is learning more about the complex structure between the Earth's mantle and core. (vice.com)
- Half of the ocean's creatures may not yet have been discovered. (nytimes.com)
- Why are men taller than women, on average? Think estrogen. (quantamagazine.org)
- Great white sharks do a surprising amount of bottom feeding. (phys.org)
Psychology
- What social isolation is doing to our brains. (washingtonpost.com)
- Resilience to stress is important in pandemic or not. (theconversation.com)
- Why we work harder closer to the finish line. (scientificamerican.com)
- Why we are so easily distracted. (youtube.com)
Psychedelics
- Some additional evidence if favor using MDMA to treat PTSD. (newatlas.com)
- Research indicates that ketamine treatment increases the number of serotonin 1B receptors. (newatlas.com)
- The future of psychedelics is lab created, synthetic substances. (vice.com)
Medicine
- The US has a shortage of doctors trained to provide opioid addiction treatment. (wsj.com)
- Small differences in language can affect willingness to receive HPV vaccinations. (sciencedaily.com)
- Telemedicine is here to stay but is going to require some regulatory changes to work. (statnews.com)
- How human eggs differentially attract sperm. (newscientist.com)
Fitness
- Exercise causes all manner of molecular changes in our blood. (nytimes.com)
- CrossFit has a history of controversy. (vox.com)
- Inside the big American kettlebell shortage. (nytimes.com)
- In praise of 'Yoga with Adrienne' in pandemic. (theatlantic.com)
- Has the coronavirus killed group exercise classes, like Zumba, for good? (nytimes.com)
Drink
- How much should you pay for a bottle of bourbon? (pastemagazine.com)
- A discussion about the future of bars in America, post-pandemic. (bnnbloomberg.ca)
- What's the difference between 'London Dry' and 'New Western' gins? (pastemagazine.com)
Ghost kitchens
Food
- The situation in meat packing plants is not getting much better. (washingtonpost.com)
- The USDA is writing checks to farmers like crazy. (nytimes.com)
- Robotized food companies see a wider opening in the pandemic. (msn.com)
- A Zagat survey of how attitudes toward restaurants have changed in the pandemic. (stories.zagat.com)
- Like restaurants, culinary schools are in limbo. (eater.com)
Sports
- The pandemic has pushed up interest in betting on e-sports. (nytimes.com)
- The hard part about banning the Confederate flag at Nascar events is still to come. (washingtonpost.com)
Entertainment
- The 25 best albums of 2020, so far. (pastemagazine.com)
- The 25 best songs of 2020, so far. (pastemagazine.com)
- The 15 best TV shows of 2020, so far. (pastemagazine.com)
Children
- The forced remote learning experiment was mostly a bust for American children. (wsj.com)
- Summer camps are a trial run for further reopenings like school in the Fall. (nytimes.com)
- Why we should aim for a full reopening of schools in the Fall. (msn.com)
- On the rising importance of the neighborhood friend in lockdown. (theconversation.com)
- Doctors are now trying to treat myopia in children instead of just correcting. (wsj.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Coronavirus links: just wear a mask. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Longform links: an editorial act (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: passive distortions. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Red light, yellow light, green: three take on the retail stock trading boom. (abnormalreturns.com)
