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
"We might want to believe that culture simply happens, that it’s organic, distributed and based on millions of independent decisions. And sometimes it is. But more often, there’s an instigator and a benefit for someone along the way."
(Seth Godin)
EVs
- Global EV sales grew 40% in 2020. (axios.com)
- GM ($GM) is going to phase out the sale of ICE-powered vehicles by 2035. (nytimes.com)
- Europe is the epicenter of the EV revolution. (ft.com)
- Britain's auto industry is lacking battery infrastructure. (nytimes.com)
- How EVs are going to serve to unbundle the car. (asymco.com)
Environment
- Global ice mass is in retreat. (washingtonpost.com)
- Old, leaky gas lines are contributing to global warming. (bloomberg.com)
- How Covid is a preview of the world we have made. (nytimes.com)
- The technology is there to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, but it would take a global effort. (wired.com)
- People love to recycle but it likely has only a marginal effect on the environment. (theatlantic.com)
- Restore sea grass, heal the ecosystem. (hakaimagazine.com)
Air travel
- Flight attendants always had to deal with unruly passengers, then the pandemic hit. (nytimes.com)
- There was always a moral component to travel and tourism, that is now in stark relief during pandemic. (vox.com)
Animals
- North America's bear populations are on the move due to climate change. (hakaimagazine.com)
- The International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space project aims to help us learn about animal mobility. (nytimes.com)
- Shark and moray populations are down some 70% in the past half century. (newatlas.com)
- Orca behavior is changing based on food availability. (theatlantic.com)
- How the Florida grasshopper sparrow was saved from extinction. (nationalgeographic.com)
- Electric eels sometimes hunt in packs. (arstechnica.com)
- Another Darwin thesis gets borne out in the data. (bigthink.com)
Technology
- Apple ($AAPL) has built UWB technologies into its new phones but hasn't done much with it. (macworld.com)
- Why third-party cookies may be on the way out. (wsj.com)
- We need a backup for GPS. (nytimes.com)
Behavior
- Researchers still don't know how the pandemic is affecting rates of suicide. (nytimes.com)
- Five insights on dreaming from "When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep" by Antonio Zadra. (nextbigideaclub.com)
- We still don't know how ketamine works in the brain. (elemental.medium.com)
- For older people an afternoon nap can be good for the brain. (newatlas.com)
Fitness
- Apple ($AAPL) is launching a 'Time to Walk' feature to Fitness+. (sixcolors.com)
- A standing version of the 7 minute workout. (nytimes.com)
- How exercise can help control inflammation. (newatlas.com)
- Why rowing is the best whole body workout. (fatherly.com)
- Some evidence on the best time of day to workout. (nytimes.com)
Dogs
- How Joe Biden's dogs could make for better executive decision making. (theconversation.com)
- A look at the dogs being trained to sniff out the novel coronavirus. (theatlantic.com)
- Some people are regretting their 'pandemic puppies.' (unherd.com)
Food
- Beyond Meat ($BYND) and Pepsi ($PEP) are teaming up to create plant-based snacks. (vox.com)
- Americans are eating more seafood at home but it doesn't make up for lost restaurant sales. (bloomberg.com)
- The appeal of Appeal: people buy more if they know it won't go bad. (modernfarmer.com)
- Americans don't know what Detroit-style pizza is. (wsj.com)
- Algae is the next new sustainable food. (fooddive.com)
Golf
- Covid has been a boon to golf courses. (wsj.com)
- In pandemic, appearance fees play a bigger role for golfers. (nytimes.com)
Children
- The CDC notes that schools are not big transmitters when precautions are followed. (wsj.com)
- It's long past time for younger school children to return to in-person learning. (theatlantic.com)
- A lot of children are going unvaccinated during pandemic. (statnews.com)
- Another casualty of the pandemic - standardized exams. (ft.com)
MBA
- Financial risk is a big factor for female MBA applicants. (ft.com)
- Does B-school research have real world impacts? (ft.com)
College
- FAFSA changes likely mean less aid for families with multiple children in college at the same time. (nytimes.com)
- How 'merit aid' upends the college equation. (nytimes.com)
- A review of Ron Lieber's new book "The Price You Pay for College." (financial-planning.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Coronavirus links: resistant variants. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: the business of gaming. (abnormalreturns.com)
- This is NOT a post about GameStop. (abnormalreturns.com)
- When the hype fades: the case of thematic ETFs. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Tired of reading? Listen to your favorite bloggers read some their recent posts on 'The Goldmine.' (abnormalreturns.com)
- Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter just for advisers. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)