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
"Placebos that give us solace and patience with no side effects are magical."
(Seth Godin)
Autos
- Eastern Germany is becoming the hub for EV manufacturing. (ft.com)
- Los Angeles could ban the building of new gasoline stations. (protocol.com)
- China is rapidly electrifying its fleet. (wired.com)
Transport
- This town made its buses free and plans to keep it that way. (reasonstobecheerful.world)
- Airlines are still struggling to keep up with customer service requests. (wsj.com)
Energy
- How long can Europe depend on LNG? (nytimes.com)
- The UAE is a big funder of alternative energy projects around the world. (wsj.com)
- How 'agrivoltaics' can produce power and allow for crops simultaneously. (nytimes.com)
- Startups like Sealed want to be a path forward for home decarbonization. (protocol.com)
Environment
- A new service looks to attribute temperature differentials to climate change. (axios.com)
- Melting ice and permafrost is going to unearth all sorts of (nasty) stuff. (phys.org)
- Why not turn landfills into 'brightfields'? (insidehook.com)
Animals
- Birds change their songs due to noise in cities. (daily.jstor.org)
- Check out the largest freshwater fish ever measured. (npr.org)
- How facial recognition for seals works. (hakaimagazine.com)
- Maryland has a blue crab problem. (baltimoresun.com)
Technology
- How to hard lock your iPhone, i.e. require a passcode to get back in. (daringfireball.net)
- How to pass on your passwords. (wsj.com)
Behavior
- Success does not necessarily make you miserable. (wsj.com)
- A behavior science book reading list including "Hidden Games: The Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior" by Erez Yoeli and Moshe Hoffman. (behavioralscientist.org)
Health
- The prospect for an effective malaria vaccine is getting closer. (theguardian.com)
- Evidence that fecal transplants can help ease IBS symptoms over time. (newscientist.com)
- How getting the flu vaccine reduces the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. (newatlas.com)
- Why can't the U.S. have better sunscreens? (theatlantic.com)
- How bias affects the placebo response. (statnews.com)
Covid
- The Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants make up more than 50% of cases in the U.S. (nytimes.com)
- Pfizer's ($PFE) new boosters showed effectiveness against Omicron. (npr.org)
- There is a debate about how to roll out vaccine boosters for new variants. (statnews.com)
- Why patients on immunosuppresants should take a short break to get vaccinated. (ft.com)
- Funding for Eli Lilly's ($LLY) antibody drug bebtelovimab is running low. (marketplace.org)
- Why Norway was a Covid-19 success story. (wsj.com)
- It's easy to miss long Covid in seniors. (washingtonpost.com)
- How AI could be used to predict future variants. (scientificamerican.com)
Cannabis
- Teens are getting sick from vaping high THC oils. (nytimes.com)
- Funding for cannabis-related startups has fallen off a cliff. (news.crunchbase.com)
Food
- Grain prices are easing. (qz.com)
- Rice prices are going down not up. (wsj.com)
- Farms are sprouting in an Alaska with longer growing seasons. (reasonstobecheerful.world)
- Why we shouldn't let orphan crops die off. (modernfarmer.com)
- The history of the fried chicken bucket. (eater.com)
- Give people money, not food. (vox.com)
Sports
- This is a big problem with LIV Golf. (pragcap.com)
- Could live sports disappear from traditional television? (latimes.com)
Media
- With the release of "Minions: The Rise of Gru" the pandemic film backlog is now spent. (variety.com)
- A24 wants to turn its film success into a full-blown brand. (fastcompany.com)
Education
- College completion rates are on the rise, you can thank grade inflation. (aeaweb.org)
- California is going to require later school start times for teens. (theatlantic.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: the business of Berkshire. (abnormalreturns.com)
- The Covid-19 vaccines saved a nearly unfathomable number of people. (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)