Category Archives: Web Article Review

cigarettes with 95% less nicotine

According to this (paywalled) Philadelphia Inquirer article, commercially produced cigarettes sold in Pennsylvania may soon be modified to be very low in nicotine. Now, who at this point is going to inhale cancer-causing smoke for no reason? I imagine a lot of people will quit, which is the point, and others will turn to the black market or other substances. There will be some irony if former cannabis dealers turn to black market cigarettes as the more profitable option.

I think cigarettes are dumb and I am against the health impacts, annoyance they cause for everyone around, and especially the disgusting trash they produce. But are we sure it is a good idea to criminalize a drug that has been legal and popular for centuries? What’s the enforcement plan for this?

what epidemiologists, virologists, and immunologists are doing

This STAT article surveys not what they recommend to others, but what they are actually doing. The sample size is 34, so I am not sure this qualifies as a scientific survey. But to summarize, they are ALL getting the bivalent booster. Almost all are wearing masks when they go shopping. Most are eating indoors and attending family gatherings, but they are testing first. Most are letting their children and grandchildren engage in more or less normal activities, but requiring or encouraging them to wear masks.

So, it seems at least this group of people with scientific/medical knowledge about Covid-19 are being more conservative than the public at large.

ESA getting serious about space-based solar

The idea of space-based solar has been around for awhile, but the European Space Agency appears to be getting more serious about it.

The Sun’s energy can be collected much more efficiently in space because there is neither night nor clouds. The idea has been around for more than 50 years, but it has been too difficult and too expensive to implement, until maybe now.

The game-changer has been the plummeting cost of launches, thanks to reusable rockets and other innovations developed by the private sector. But there have also been advances in robotic construction in space and the development of technology to wirelessly beam electricity from space to Earth.

BBC

Different sources say this could be commercially valuable in around a decade to maybe 2040. Even sooner with massive public investment, say companies who are hoping for massive public investment in their companies. Obvious Bond villain Elon Musk could not be reached for comment.

solar sidewalks

At first I thought this article was called Tampa tries sidewalk solar panels as backup power for traffic, but then I noticed it is just for traffic lights. This seems a bit underwhelming, but it’s something. Here in Philadelphia, the instant response to any idea involving sidewalks will be “yeah, but they’re private”. It’s a convenient excuse, just put the legal/financial responsibility for half the transportation system on the backs of private property owners and pretend that’s working. People can’t actually afford to maintain the sidewalks, and the government mostly doesn’t enforce the ordinance because that would be very bad politics. So aside from the occasional successful lawsuit, we get unmaintained sidewalks. So maybe if the sidewalks could generate a bit of revenue to help pay for their own maintenance, this could be a step forward. Just a thought – let the chorus of “yeah but” begin.

U.S. life span inequality

We hear a lot about health and life expectancy differences between ethnic groups and income levels in the U.S. This article shows those same numbers by county. Not too surprisingly, Appalachia and the southeast have some of the lowest average life expectancies. Heart disease and drug overdoses are major reasons why. The most shocking numbers though are from heavily Native American areas.

The article prescribes more exercise, healthier food, blood pressure and cholesterol control, and lower health care costs. Sounds good. In my opinion, high cost is certainly an issue, but it is really a proxy for access. We need a health care system that provides access to everyone, at least starting with basic preventive care. This is not particularly high tech. Let’s do it.

what to do about blocked bike lanes?

Some cities are considering a “bounty”, where a person reporting a blocked bike lane would receive a portion of the ticket proceeds.

I’m not sure the bounty is necessary. Even having the option of submitting a photo of a vehicle blocking a bike lane, including its license plate, and knowing the owner will get a ticket might be enough to get many bicyclists to do this. (and just a reminder that most if not nearly all bicyclists are also drivers at least some of the time.)

Other ideas include providing more temporary loading and delivery zones in residential neighborhoods. To me this is not an alternative, but something that is almost a no-brainer. Poor, unimaginative and ignorant design is what creates a lot of these conflicts in the first place.

The Texas anti-abortion law allowing any private citizen to sue a doctor who provides an abortion made me think – now that we have opened this door a crack, what is to stop any state applying this approach to any law. For example, pass a law allowing any citizen to sue a driver for parking illegally or running a red light. This seems like less of a stretch than the abortion thing, because if you are in a position to take the photo, you are being put at risk by the activity and you should have a case.

more on Philadelphia crime

The Philadelphia District Attorney has come under pressure for a drop in violent crime convictions. I generally support efforts to reduce arrests and trials for non-violent crimes, although a lot more tickets need to be written for speeding and reckless driving in the city – not doing this is killing people, both drivers and pedestrians, at alarming rates, and I don’t know how you can call this “non-violent”.

Nonetheless, the statistics on violent crime convictions do look somewhat bad, and the downward trend started before the 2020 pandemic so you can’t blame it on that alone. I like the data transparency that the District Attorney’s office provides. This, along with police data, could allow journalists to provide a lot more context on individual cases and short-term statistics than they do. I think they could do this without giving up the blood-soaked entertainment value that seems to be necessary to pay the bills in our messed up society.

a ship being built

It’s fun to watch construction cameras in fast forward. This is a ship being built at Philly Shipyard Inc. (and by way, you can argue whether it is lazy to use the abbreviation for Philadelphia and whether “ship yard” should be one word or two, but this is the actual name of the company.

Youtube

I learned from this (paywalled) Philadelphia Inquirer article that U.S. shipyards are not competitive in the market for international oceangoing cargo vessels. However, there is something called the Jones Act that requires domestic trade to be done on U.S.-built and U.S.-crewed ships. So this includes trade between the U.S. mainland, Hawaii, and Guam for example. This seems a bit inefficient to me, but I can also see an argument to maintain the ability to build technology domestically with obvious military use. The shipyard also has military and government contracts which, and so sorry I just can’t resist the terrible pun, keep it afloat. I am a dad after all, and I have to keep my dad jokes at the ready.

Roubini on debt and inequality

Nouriel Roubini says the world is headed for a debt crisis. This kind of makes sense. Countries that have to repay their debts in U.S. dollars are in trouble as more of their currencies are required to buy a U.S. dollar. And everybody including the U.S. will be paying more in interest on their debts and this will cut into our budgets for other things.

Income and wealth inequality have been rising within countries for many reasons. Notable factors include trade and globalization, technological innovation (which is capital-intensive, skill-biased, and labor-saving), the self-reinforcing political power of economic and financial elites, the concentration of oligopolistic power in the corporate sector, and the declining power of labor and unions. Together, these factors have triggered a backlash against liberal democracy.

Project Syndicate

I’m with his logic up to that last sentence. Logically, the solution to these problems would seem to be more democracy rather than less. But we seem to be caught in a situation where the rich and powerful are able to influence the masses through propaganda to oppose policies that would help to address these very problems. Solutions would include (1) limits on the ability of wealthy people, institutions and corporations to pay for political campaigns that elect politicians who are then beholden to their interests, (2) value added taxes designed to raise revenue from the fruits of labor-saving technological innovation, which can then be spent on services to benefit the displaced laborers, and (3) anti-monopoly action, and (4) pro-union policies. I’m always a bit shaky on #4, because unions can serve as a break on innovation and efficiency, and they often benefit some workers at the expense of others, and they have a history of corruption. But they are undeniably a political counterweight to corporate power.

solar panels over parking lots in France

France is requiring solar panels over surface parking lots with 80 or more spaces. This makes sense for a lot of reasons. But not mentioned in the article is acting as a sort of tax on surface parking lots. I don’t know if it happens in France, but in the U.S. a land speculator can buy a property in the middle of a neighborhood, sit on it for years or decades waiting for a chance to flip it for a profit, and pave it over and make a few bucks on parking in the meantime. This makes neighborhood less walkable, hotter, and contributes to flooding and pollution. So I say make them give something back. Or they can use that land for something better (even a multi-story car garage if this is really needed). And in the meantime, you are producing energy from a renewable source that can even be used to charge the vehicles parked there.