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
"Social pressure is something we make up to simplify our decisions."
(Seth Godin)
Autos
- The Transportation Department approved electric vehicle charging station plans for all 50 states. (cnbc.com)
- SUVs are coming under attack outside the U.S. (daily.jstor.org)
- Do you really want to associate yourself with the Tesla ($TSLA) brand? (ritholtz.com)
Air transport
- All those flying taxis are going to need a place to land and take-off. (axios.com)
- Why the U.S. market is closed to the best airlines in the world. (marginalrevolution.com)
- Should airline dispatchers be allowed to work from home? (nytimes.com)
Energy
- "Not only is offshore wind power better for the planet compared to oil and gas, it’s also better for taxpayers." (gizmodo.com)
- How bad is gas flaring for the environment? Pretty bad... (arstechnica.com)
- How much is that smart thermostat really helping? (theatlantic.com)
Environment
- Americans keep moving to cities most at-risk from the effects of climate change. (axios.com)
- Farmers in the US West are increasingly coming to terms with drought. (wsj.com)
- River deltas are degrading in the face of higher sea levels. (hakaimagazine.com)
- Chinese fishing boats are gobbling up catches in international waters. (nytimes.com)
- Robots are going to help clean up beaches. (axios.com)
Animals
- Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe. (ourworldindata.org)
- Stink bugs are making their way North due to climate change. (phys.org)
- Five insights from "Methuselah’s Zoo: What Nature Can Teach Us about Living Longer, Healthier Lives" by Steven Austad. (nextbigideaclub.com)
- Armadillos are moving out of Texas. (wsj.com)
Science
- The number of ants on the planet is unfathomable. (npr.org)
- Genes, environment AND luck influence brain development. (newscientist.com)
- Scientific papers have an author inflation problem. (science.org)
Space
- NASA has proven it can crash a probe into an asteroid. (nbcnews.com)
- Why DART is such a big deal. (washingtonpost.com)
- Other stuff might wipe out humans, but the chances of it being an asteroid are reduced. (theatlantic.com)
Technology
- Amazon's ($AMZN) package handling robots are only getting better. (vox.com)
- Advertisers are paying for fraudulent inventory and clicks. (wired.com)
- Lookism is alive and well on TikTok. (medium.com)
- Not all bots are bad. (wired.com)
Behavior
- Nudges were oversold as a cure-all, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful. (behavioralscientist.org)
- Five insights from Chantel Prat's new book, "The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain Is Different and How to Understand Yours." (nextbigideaclub.com)
- When looking for a job, weak ties trump strong ties. (axios.com)
- Technology is making your relationships shallower. (msn.com)
- Three things to know about 988. (slate.com)
Health
- A new Alzheimer's treatment has shown effectiveness in late-stage trials. (statnews.com)
- The FDA has approved a new treatment for ALS but not everyone is convinced of its efficacy. (washingtonpost.com)
- HPV vaccination rates have flatlined. (bloomberg.com)
- There's no perfect time to get a flu shot. (theatlantic.com)
- What we know about monkeypox. (quantamagazine.org)
- Physician burnout is on the rise. (nytimes.com)
Covid
- The word is not out on the new bivalent Covid boosters. (nytimes.com)
- Why pregnant women should get vaccinated against Covid. (sciencedaily.com)
- Five things we still don't understand about Covid including 'Why do some people develop long covid?' (washingtonpost.com)
Sleep
- How insufficient sleep can damage immune stem cells. (newatlas.com)
- The evidence is clear that pushing back school starting times is helpful. (wsj.com)
Fitness
- Why American kids grow up hating exercise. (slate.com)
- Getting older means being at-risk of falls. What you can do to prevent them. (insidehook.com)
Food
- The USDA is stepping up its funding of projects to reduce methane emissions, measure soil quality and sequester carbon. (marketwatch.com)
- How new apple varieties are developed. (nytimes.com)
- Hydroponic crops can be classified as organic. (fooddive.com)
- In praise of tavern-style pizza, Chicago's forgotten pizza. (salon.com)
- Is plant-based meat actually any better for you? (gq.com)
Sports
- Why the NFL needs to ditch turf in favor of grass. (huddleup.substack.com)
- Los Angeles FC is the most valuable MLS franchise checking in at $900 million. (sportico.com)
- Major League Pickleball is attracting some high profile athlete investors. (frontofficesports.com)
College
- Colleges don't want you to know how much other people are paying. (nytimes.com)
- The shift to higher paying, out-of-state students is bigger than you think. (slate.com)
- Why good grades don't necessarily ensure a job in your major. (tonyisola.com)
- US universities hire most of their tenure-track faculty members from the same handful of elite institutions. (nature.com)
- Debt forgiveness doesn't solve the underlying problems with our system. (slate.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: boosting downloads. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)
Mixed media
- Eric Barker, "Self-renewal is an ongoing balance. Now and then we jump. Other times we settle in." (bakadesuyo.com)
- The best non-fiction books of 2022 including "The Nineties" by Chuck Klosterman." (esquire.com)
- What brands Gen Z loves including Instagram and Spotify ($SPOT). (axios.com)
- Don't shoot a gun into air. (flowingdata.com)