On Saturdays we catch up with the non-finance related items that we didn’t get to earlier in the week. You can check out last week’s edition here. Have a great weekend!
Quote of the Day
"Over time, the value of a uniform, a brand or a platform is defined by the worst people who wear it or use it."
(Seth Godin)
Chart of the Day
Like it or not, the pumpkin spice window keeps creeping earlier in the year.
Transport
- There are still millions of Takata-manufactured air bags out there. (bloomberg.com)
- Building more highway lanes doesn't reduce congestion. (arstechnica.com)
- One thing we can learn from The Villages: golf carts rule for everyday trips. (curbed.com)
- Check out a fuel cell-powered ferry that is ready to go into service. (axios.com)
- Is the 'flying taxi' sector the next EV-type bubble? (ft.com)
Energy
- Why geothermal energy is underutilized. (bigthink.com)
- Why Germany has some of the highest power prices in the world. (theatlantic.com)
- Wind turbine manufacturers are dealing with a host of issues, including inconsistent policies. (wsj.com)
Air conditioning
- Increased demand for air conditioning in a warming world create a vicious cycle. (vox.com)
- A Q&A with Eric Dean Wilson author of the new book “After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort.” (techcrunch.com)
Water
- It's not just climate change that is drying up the Colorado River. (nytimes.com)
- Desertification is a growing problem in Europe — especially in Spain. (ft.com)
- The American West is getting drier. The East is getting wetter. (nytimes.com)
- Why flooding events are becoming more common. (npr.org)
- Want to clean up the ocean? Clean up the rivers. (reasonstobecheerful.world)
- Bivalve farming is uniquely positive for the local habitat. (nytimes.com)
Environment
- Feedback loops make predicting future conditions all the more difficult. (theatlantic.com)
- A new climate needs new models for insurance purposes. (bloomberg.com)
- Americans continue to migrate to areas most affected by climate change. (cnn.com)
- There is still a long way to go to sustainable consumer electronics. (protocol.com)
- Your cotton tote won't save the environment. (nytimes.com)
Science
- We're flying blind as to the risks of a coronal mass ejection. (wired.com)
- A huge volcanic eruption happened in 1257 A.D. Which just don't know one it was. (syfy.com)
AI
- How AI could get integrated into advertising efforts. (axios.com)
- Want better AI? Build (much) bigger chips. (wired.com)
Technology
- Tim Bradshaw, "This is my real issue with super apps: most solve a problem for the company, not the customer." (ft.com)
- How to be more intentional about your technology use. (artofmanliness.com)
- Tomasz Tunguz, "Wallet-based authentication will dominate in the next decade because it puts the user in control, where we want to be." (tomtunguz.com)
Travel
- Flight attendants are on the front lines of bad consumer behavior. (nytimes.com)
- Venice plans to charge visitors for access and set entrance quotas from the summer of 2022. (bloomberg.com)
Health care
- Nursing homes keep losing workers. (wsj.com)
- Children are missing their routine vaccinations in pandemic. (npr.org)
Behavior
- Why do some social issues take hold while others don't? (scientificamerican.com)
- How our understanding of depression has changed over time. (ourworldindata.org)
- When does perfectionism cross over into personality disorder? (melmagazine.com)
- People ghost because they don't know what to say. (wsj.com)
Food
- Why restaurant price went up so much, so quickly. (grubstreet.com)
- The race to automate the restaurant kitchen is accelerating. (cnbc.com)
- It's been a bad year for Pacific Salmon. (wsj.com)
- The story behind mayo inflation. (bloomberg.com)
- How to eat less meat. (brightonifa.co.uk)
Movie theaters
- It's hard to see how movie theaters come out the other side of the pandemic. (ft.com)
- Why movie theaters should embrace vaccine mandates. (theatlantic.com)
Sports
- On the NFL's head-spinning turn toward sports betting. (washingtonpost.com)
- Fanatics is expanding into everything - now NBA trading cards. (frontofficesports.com)
- What the end of the Big Twelve means for Texas football, writ large. (texasmonthly.com)
College
- More colleges are dropping standardized testing. (axios.com)
- Are college students cheating more or just getting caught more? (npr.org)
- Participation in fraternities and sororities is on the decline. (axios.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Coronavirus links: saving lives. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: waning influence. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)
