Power generation and distribution is used in economics textbooks as the classic example of a natural monopoly. Lebanon proves this doesn’t have to be the case, with a mostly functional (and mostly illegal) parallel power distribution system that many people rely on to supplement the official system. I don’t think this should be used more generally – having a bunch of small generators is definitely more polluting – but it’s interesting to see that markets can work even in cases where people normally expect them to fail.
On the advice of a high school teacher, I once read most of the epic fantasy series “The Malazan Book of the Fallen”. One thing it made clear to me was just how dangerous and difficult it is to be an absolute ruler. Anyone who controls the information flow to you can essentially control you. By this token, it should be worrying that Xi Jinping is centralizing China around himself – leaving the government vulnerable to serious missteps if he’s given inaccurate information.
Speaking of China, here’s a story about two journalists accidentally winning a car chase in Xinjiang. Xinjiang is one of the most surveilled places in the world and up to one million Uighurs are currently held in concentration camps, which explains why the Chinese government is so on edge when journalists poke around.
Jackie Cochran had a life that reads like a novel; she founded the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots in World War II (which handled routine flying tasks, like airplane delivery, so more men could be fighter pilots), was instrumental in convincing Eisenhower to run for president, and served as a test pilot after the war. She was the first woman to break the sound barrier and holds more aviation height and distance records than anyone else who has ever lived. She also ran her own cosmetics company, charmed one of the ten richest men in the world, and helped kill the female astronaut program in the ’60s, probably “out of concern that she would no longer be the most prominent female aviator”. Fittingly, there’s a play about her unbelievable life.
Strangely touching recollections of working on Black Friday.
Tighter pollution laws can make cities much more livable – and be a boon to anyone with respiratory disease. But maybe they’re going too far when they threaten to destroy Montreal’s legendary bagel bakeries.
It’s almost a cliché to talk about how divided America is. This NYMag article takes the cliché to its (il-)logical conclusion and imagines an America divided between two interstate compacts (and a handful of neutrals). I don’t think it’s quite plausible, but there are many ways it seems better than the status quo?
I was surprised to find out that chicken pox is now considered a vaccine preventable disease and outbreaks of it are notable. I vaguely knew there was a vaccine now, but I didn’t realize that there’s now a whole generation of kids who never got chicken pox. Unfortunately, some parents dislike vaccines, so their kids are at risk of outbreaks (as well as shingles later in life).