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
"Happiness doesn’t scale perfectly with wealth because people’s expectations rise with their income. Something similar happens with age."
(Morgan Housel)
Autos
- Can you put a value on GM's ($GM) EV business as a standalone entity? (axios.com)
- Cavnue to develop roadways for connected and autonomous vehicles, starting in Michigan. (techcrunch.com)
- Another issue for automakers - a fall in sales to police departments. (bloomberg.com)
- Roundabouts are safer and more efficient if drivers know how to use them. (nytimes.com)
California
- California shows the challenges of matching supply and demand with a high use of renewables. (wsj.com)
- Some power plants were down when California needed them. (nytimes.com)
- The problem with renewable energy is scalability. (ft.com)
Energy
- The US grid need modernization and that has been on hold the past three plus years. (theatlantic.com)
- European oil produces are trying to shift to other sources of energy production. (nytimes.com)
- Utilities in the US are rushing to retrofit older wind farms to take advantage of expiring tax credits. (wsj.com)
- The decline in coal use in the US is accelerating. (msn.com)
- Solar farms need not be barren wastelands underneath the panels. (reasonstobecheerful.world)
Environment
- Dorchester County in Maryland is struggling to deal with rapidly rising sea levels. (baltimoresun.com)
- The pandemic has re-accelerated the consumption of single-use plastics. (fortune.com)
Travel
- Having a second passport is looking better for more Americans these days. (nytimes.com)
- Tourists destinations are happy to not have crowds this summer. (wsj.com)
- It's difficult to keep up the cozy vibe of a B&B in pandemic. (washingtonpost.com)
- Will air passengers be willing to pay more for greener fuel? (ft.com)
Archaelogy
- The lost colony of Roanoke wasn't lost. (pilotonline.com)
- Camels may have originated in what was North America a long time ago. (interestingengineering.com)
Technology
- You can now use Google ($GOOGL) Maps to track wildfires. (engadget.com)
- The new Microsoft ($MSFT) Flight Simulator sounds awesome. (venturebeat.com)
- Look for a new Blackberry-backed phone in 2021. (cnn.com)
Behavior
- It's time to ditch toxic positivity. (washingtonpost.com)
- What we do shapes how we feel and think. (traderfeed.blogspot.com)
- An update of the marshmallow test shows that context matters. (behavioralscientist.org)
- On the therapeutic power of gardening. (newyorker.com)
Health
- Childhood adversity increases the risk of death in early adulthood. (sciencedaily.com)
- Why the notion of a 'fertility cliff' is misguided, at best. (slate.com)
- There is a good chance you are taking your medicine at the wrong time of day. (theatlantic.com)
- Americans are taking their vitamins in pandemic. (ft.com)
- How being in nature (or not) affect the gut microbiome. (mentalfloss.com)
Seafood
- There is a path forward for us all to eat more seafood if done sustainably. (axios.com)
- Top-grade meat and seafood are available to consumers with restaurants largely closed. (huffpost.com)
- How America lost its canned tuna industry. (slate.com)
Food
- Baby chicks are dying in the US mail. (modernfarmer.com)
- Pepperoni prices are on the rise. (eater.com)
- In praise of Walmart's ($WMT) grocery service. (fastcompany.com)
- Highly automated vertical farming looks more attractive in pandemic. (ft.com)
- Sit-down casual restaurants, like Chili's, are stuck between a rock and a hard place in pandemic. (businessinsider.com)
Drink
- Once a fad, now it looks like hard seltzer is here to stay. (axios.com)
- Unless something is done, small brewers are facing a big jump in taxes in 2021. (pastemagazine.com)
- Ryan Reynolds just flipped Aviation Gin to Diageo ($DEO). (variety.com)
- Craft distillers have seen a 40% drop in sales in pandemic. (apnews.com)
- Will discouraging moderate drinking reduce binge drinking? (winespectator.com)
- Finnish researchers have apparently found a 'cure' for hangovers. (msn.com)
Sports
- Could a college athlete sue the university if they get Covid-19? (washingtonpost.com)
- The Philppines are set to be the next, global basketball hot spot. (ozy.com)
Relationships
- Americans are unhappy with their dating lives. (pewsocialtrends.org)
- Sleeping in separate bedrooms is getting normalized. (insidehook.com)
- Don't discount the pain that 'gray divorce' can have on adult children. (nextavenue.org)
School
- Schools really have no good options. (scientificamerican.com)
- The pandemic will accelerate teacher retirements and deter new entrants into the profession. (nytimes.com)
- School is a lot more than just a place to get an education. (theatlantic.com)
- Don't forget when schools close not just teachers are affected. (axios.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Coronavirus links: accessible and inexpensive. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: designing conversations. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Big market moves demand an explanation: the case of gold (abnormalreturns.com)
- Every Friday I send out five links for advisers to help them think a little differently about the world. Sign up now! (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)