Newmark's Door

Yet another "fact" with an apparently sketchy origin story.

It would be nice, but "[o]nly 3% of Americans have this genetic superpower".

A bunch of surprises--at least to me (Chinese in Missouri? French in North Carolina? Nepali in Nebraska?)--but I assume the absolute numbers in some instances are really small.

A little less than 24 hours writing and editing, 10 rejections, 2.5 years to to publication, $1422.80 gross.

Another one of the market's super powers.

"Slippery-slope arguments thus deserve some respect. The mere fact that an argument follows that form is largely irrelevant to determining its veracity."

It'll be interesting to see in a couple of years if this change holds up.

Give the points and bet on the Israelis. (20-minute video.)

The Babylon Bee updates the Beach Boys classic.

And there's a lot more like this that could be done.

For those who like good mysteries.

In-depth look at a problem with public defenders that seems unique to San Francisco.

In the midst of a colossal addiction crisis, with hundreds of cartel-backed drug dealers openly selling meth, fentanyl, heroin and cocaine on downtown San Francisco streets 24 hours a day, the city’s Public Defender is trying to make it impossible for San Francisco police officers to arrest people for drug sales. Last March, in a motion to the San Francisco Superior Court, on behalf of one of their alleged drug dealing clients, the Public Defender accused SFPD Sergeant Daniel Solorzano, who is himself of Mexican and Nicaraguan heritage and whose first language is Spanish, of racism against Latinos. Their evidence: he arrested 53 suspects over a two-year period for drug dealing, all of whom were Latino, while declining to arrest 43 other people who were otherwise implicated in drug transactions, all but two of whom were non-Latino.

Abstract:

Soda taxes are implemented in several cities across the United States (US) with the aim of reducing sugar intake from sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). Sugar is linked to obesity and to higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. Sodas are targeted with these taxes since they are the main source of sugar for consumers in the US. In presence of potential substitutes, the policy can be undermined by consumers changing their sources of sugar. We examine the heterogeneous effects of the 2017 Philadelphia soda tax on purchases of other items containing sugar. We present an empirical evaluation focusing on the potential substitution toward additional sugary foods in Philadelphia and counties bordering Philadelphia. We find an increase in sugar from purchases of sweetened foods of about 4.3% following the introduction of the tax in Philadelphia and of 3.7% in the neighboring localities. The substitution to sugary foods in Philadelphia offsets 19% of the decrease of sugar from SSBs. Additionally, we find that the substitution offsets 37% of the decrease of sugar from SSBs when including counties bordering Philadelphia. These results suggest that while SSB taxes might be effective at lowering consumption of SSBs, substitution patterns may limit the effectiveness of the tax to reduce overall sugar intake.

Bjorn Lomborg: "The fact is that while problems remain, the world is in fact getting better. We just rarely hear it."

Related: "What Climate Crisis?"

"Among voters who believe the federal government is untrustworthy, 35% cite corrupt and power-hungry individuals running government as the reason. That response is nearly three times higher than the next most popular reason – that government has proven itself to be incapable, yielding 12% of respondents. 

"Among voters who believe the federal government is untrustworthy, 35% cite corrupt and power-hungry individuals running government as the reason. That response is nearly three times higher than the next most popular reason – that government has proven itself to be incapable, yielding 12% of respondents."

I seem to remember a discussion from my youth about whether curveballs in baseball actually curved or were just an optical illusion. There isn't any doubt about these.

With a vote for Popeyes. (What, no Bojangles??)

From the clips I've seen, he was pretty darn good. 

Here's one of his most famous goals.

"Still the greatest, no matter what my teenager says".

INXS.

After a quick look I make it 28 states favor Bud or Bud Light.

It ain't easy.

Another Major Question of Life answered.

A response to a claim that was hot for an Internet minute.

Bryan Caplan doing what he does.

School closures were a disaster for convenience. And while you’ll never hear a “convenience above all” political speech, actions speak louder than words.

You gotta burn more calories than you take in. But the devil is in the details.