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
"The future is a construct of our imaginations, and nothing more than that."
(Lawrence Yeo)
Transport
- Electric school buses have a number of advantages. (grist.org)
- Waymo is beginning to test self-driving taxis on the highway. (forbes.com)
- Comparing the cost of charging an EV vs. gasoline. (grist.org)
Energy
- Despite growth in renewables, fossil fuel consumption is not going down. (coldeye.earth)
- Students don't want to major in oil and gas engineering. (ft.com)
- Why does New England pay more for natural gas? (wsj.com)
- Why small-scale nuclear projects have struggled to get off the ground in the U.S. (city-journal.org)
- How to use 'water batteries' to store energy. (ft.com)
- Where 'floatovoltaics' are appropriate. (thecooldown.com)
Environment
- 2023 was wicked hot. (arstechnica.com)
- Plastic water bottles are filled with nanoplastics. (axios.com)
- Decreased snowpack has all sorts of negative knock-on effects. (bloomberg.com)
- Thousands of American homes have been flooded repeatedly. (washingtonpost.com)
- The state of Minnesota uses a lot of road salt, with some unwanted side effects. (minnesotareformer.com)
Travel
- Commercial air travel has become so safe that incidents are now shocking. (nytimes.com)
- Why does CLEAR even exist? (slate.com)
Animals
- Humpback whales are making a comeback. (hakaimagazine.com)
- Have humans made bears more carnivorous over time? (theatlantic.com)
- Inside the effort to clone the world's best polo ponies. (washingtonpost.com)
Science
- Laser-technology has found another lost city, this time in Ecuador. (theguardian.com)
- Why flowers are getting bigger. (nytimes.com)
Behavior
- Is seasonal affective disorder really a thing? (raptitude.com)
- Happiness research has a reproducibility problem. (knowablemagazine.org)
Smoke
- More evidence that wildfire smoke isn't good for you. (grist.org)
- Wildfire smoke isn't great for your skin, either. (wired.com)
Covid
- We are in the midst of a Covid wave. (news.yahoo.com)
- There's a big Covid surge, but few are freaking out. (wired.com)
- The SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.86 seems to do a good job of getting in the lungs. (newatlas.com)
- The people most at-risk of Covid, seniors, are not getting their shots. (msn.com)
- Why an intranasal COVID-19 vaccine could be more effective. (newatlas.com)
- What it would cost to prepare for the next pandemic. (papers.ssrn.com)
Health
- Why RSV is more dangerous than previously thought. (newatlas.com)
- Some hope for a new antibiotic to combat resistance. (freethink.com)
- How humans adapt to the cold. (wired.com)
Dogs
- There is no 'CDC for dogs.' (theatlantic.com)
- Are fresh foods better for your dog? (washingtonpost.com)
Weed
- On the state of the U.S. cannabis business. (blogs.cfainstitute.org)
- College kids like to go to school in states with legal marijuana. (theconversation.com)
- More young Americans are experiencing psychotic breaks due to marijuana use. (wsj.com)
Food
- The ideal dinnertime is 3-4 hours before bedtime. (wsj.com)
- 'Plant-based' has lost all its meaning. (msn.com)
- Samyang Roundsquare's 'Buldak' ramen noodles are taking the grocery store by storm. (wsj.com)
Drink
- People who are using GLP-1 drugs report less drinking. (sciencedaily.com)
- Why non-alcoholic drinks generally disappoint. (seattle.eater.com)
- Drinkers can be fooled in experimental settings by NA drinks. (slate.com)
- How to ship a brewery around the world. (punchdrink.com)
- The best NA beers for Dry January. (axios.com)
Movies
- 'Mean Girls' is another in the line of the movie-musical-movie. (flowingdata.com)
- The 12 best science documentaries of 2023 including 'Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.' (newscientist.com)
Sports
- Has U.S. interest in Formula One peaked? (theathletic.com)
- Padel is growing in popularity among the upper crust. (washingtonpost.com)
- How football mouthguards became fashion statements. (theathletic.com)
College
- The case for the SAT. (nytimes.com)
- The problem with 'pre-gaming.' (newatlas.com)
- Are we overselling the benefit of being a STEM major? (latimes.com)
- On the advantages of a 529 account when paying for college. (thecollegefinanciallady.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Podcast links: academic fraud. (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)