Not sure how good this news is.
While 2020 has been a terrible year for fossil fuels, itâs been an incredible one for renewables. Despite a record drop in power demand, wind and solarâs share of global electricity has increased from 8.7% to 10% in the first six months of the year. The biggest winner has been offshore wind, with orders up by 319%, making it the fastest-growing industry in the world right now. Science Alert
The Global Vaccine Alliance has just announced that 92 low- and middle-income countries and economies will be able to access COVID-19 vaccines through its channels. âWe now have the framework in place to ensure that no economy, particularly the poorest nations, gets left behind.â (Gavi)
According to a new study, mortality rates from the most common form of lung cancer have fallen sharply in the United States. "For the first time, nationwide mortality rates for non-small cell lung cancer are declining faster than its incidence, an advance that correlates with the FDAâs approval of several targeted therapies for this cancer in recent years.â NIH
Kenyaâs Wildlife Service says its elephant population has more than doubled from 16,000 in 1989 to 34,000 today. The number of elephants poached is also down significantly from previous years; just seven this year, compared to 34 in 2019 and 80 in 2018. Meanwhile, 140 baby elephants have been born in the Amboseli National Park since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. DW
Remember the insect apocalypse? While it was a worrying piece of news, most of the evidence came from Europe. New research has now shown that there has been no equivalent decline in the United States. Populations are down in some areas, but up in others, resulting in net abundance and biodiversity trends that are generally indistinguishable from zero. In other words, American insects are generally doing fine (bet you didnât hear that in the evening news). Nature
At the turn of this century, Staten Islandâs landfill was the largest garbage dump in the world, three times larger than Central Park, with trash mounds 20 stories high oozing noxious methane and leaking bin juice into waterways. Today, itâs a green oasis and one of the most unlikely urban ecological restoration success stories of all time. The radical fix? Bury the rubbish, plant some grass and do nothing for 20 years. NYT
Indistinguishable from magic 
At last, the search is over. Meteorologists have finally confirmed the existence of Planet Earthâs piano strings - a chorus of continent-sized pressure waves that periodically sweep around the globe, covering it in a patchwork quilt of high- and low-pressure zones. First posited by a French scientist in the late 1700s, the waves have resisted detection for centuries until now, thanks to an exquisite new meteorological data set. âThis a really beautiful piece of work.â Quanta
A company in Seattle has just built the worldâs fastest electric speedboat. The Zin Z2R is built around a BMW battery pack, and because the weight sits on the bottom rather than in the stern, when you put the hammer down, instead of tilting up first the boat simply leaps ahead. Another reminder that as electrification picks up speed all forms of transportation are going to evolve. Clean Technica
Neuroscientists have discovered a brain hack that improves the ability to acquire language by up to 13%. The reason learning new languages later in life is difficult is because the adult brain no longer has the same plasticity that it does in childhood. Using a small stimulation earpiece, this device temporarily boosts attention span over large areas of the brain, making it easier for new stimuli to be processed. Inverse
Researchers from Australia and Sweden have developed a 3D-microprinted camera on the end of a wire thatâs small enough to scan images from inside the blood vessels of mice. The lens sits on the end of an optical fiber no thicker than a human hair, allowing doctors to monitor the development and formation of arterial plaques. The device may help us better understand the thing that kills more people than anything else: heart disease. Photonics
A machine-learning geek has used a variety of publicly available algorithms to colorize, sharpen up and smooth out old movies. All of the films are touched up to 4K resolution, creating a more easily accessible glimpse of what life was like more than a century ago. So many hats! (and a striking reminder of how far weâve come - in a 1901 film, child laborers peer curiously into the cameraâs lenses in a town in North England). Also, MOON BUGGIES. Wired
Off the beaten track in the Dark Forest 
Hannah Lendeckerâs incredible essay about our relationship with food contains one of the best new ideas weâve come across in a long time - that we need to ditch the old metaphor of food as fuel, or building blocks for the machinery of the body, and think about it instead as a conversation between us and other living organisms. Food is a âmetabolic partner rather than a dumb substrateâ. Neoma
Software might be eating the world, but every now and again the world bites back. This is the story of how the most ambitious smart city project in North America, backed by one of the most powerful corporations on the planet, was defeated by a small group of Toronto activists, and one disaffected tech billionaire. A harbinger of the much bigger privacy wars still to come. One Zero
A love letter from Clair Wills to amateur dancing. " The memory into which you step as you begin to dance includes all the dances youâve ever danced before, all the partners youâve ever had, all the practice youâve put in, all the music youâve listened to, all the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Nicholas Brothers youâve ever watched. But the dance itself has no memory ." NY Books
Weâve recommended the Long Now Foundation before. If youâre looking for mind-expanding talks to watch while youâre in lockdown, put down that Youtube algorithm and step right this way please. Start with Nicky Caseâs brilliant explanation of systems thinking, or if thatâs not your cup of tea, perhaps Neil Gaimanâs tour de force on how stories stay alive. Interwebz at its best.
Russian urban explorer Lana Sator read about a last-of-its-kind, Cold War era, top-secret Soviet naval vessel called the ekranoplan that could skim above the waves, evading radar and anti-ship mines. At 1am on the morning of August 7th her and a friend stuffed cameras into watertight bags and snuck past the lone guard to take photographs and well⌠check this thing out. Radio Free Europe
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I appreciate these posts, especially the way you list the categories. Indistinguishable from Magic is my favorite.
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ty RF - I know it doesnât bring the dopamine hit the other active threads here do, but I am determined to add some balance.
About the posts themselves I canât take too much credit. Iâm just copy/pasting the contents of an email newsletter I get. But I really look forward to receiving that newsletter each time and glad you and some others take some value from the content as well.
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Not necessarily good news, but Iâm really enjoying watching this as a fun distraction. Lol the first director didnât know the difference between a shark and a whale. And super lol the producers thought they could train a shark.
There was a hell of a run there with Jaws, then Star Wars/Empire/Jedi - of movies that it seemed like everyone had to see and stayed in the theaters for a year.
It makes me sad to see the summer blockbuster die out. I guess we still had that recently with the Avengers movies. Even though I wasnât into them, I think itâs good for the national psyche to have big shared events like that. Movies and sports are the only things I can think of that we can still bond over across the political spectrum.
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Thatâs a really interesting point re the value of sports. Lately I have been feeling some internal conflict about the time I spend following sports. The value we place on them vs the value we place on other less glamorous pursuits. They probably still are overvalued (but thats a separate thread), but in terms of the net benefit to society I was not considering the value of helping people find common ground around something in this increasingly polarized society. Thanks for the thought :-)
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Chiefs and Royals are literally the only thing I can talk about with my religious aunts for more than a few sentences (weather leads to climate change, health leads to USA#1 healthcare).
Iâve been reading a ton about Mesoamerica for my book. The ball game was played across every Mesoamerican culture. Every ruins has a prominent ball court. The ball game is featured heavily in their myths and carved monunments. It was as integral to their identity as religion. People seem to need sports.
Interestingly, the Mesoamerican ball game, which is sort of like a cross between soccer, volleyball and basketball - was the first time the Spanish had ever seen a rubber ball or a team sport. Itâs very likely that it led to the inception of soccer. It also helps explain why these regions are so soccer crazy - itâs in their blood.
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Yeah after my last post I was reflecting further on what you said and I realised discussing UFC events is one of the most common reasons my brother and I start messaging each other. It has also led to us discussing some political views (in a respectful way) where we are quite far apart. I think my conversations with him helped him see things in a different way to some of the garbage he was taking in via facebook. But it wouldnât have happened without our UFC discussions I donât think.
Paid off the XT Forester today. Only has 26k miles and a 100,000 10 year warranty. Woot.
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A few weeks ago, I got a random email from the state of Illinois encouraging me to check the stateâs unclaimed property website. It turns out that I had some weird-ass benefits program attached to one of my credit cards, and the accrued balance was listed as unclaimed property.
Skeptically, I submitted a claim. But I am pleased to announce that I just deposited a check from the state of Illinois for $52. So, basically all of my financial insecurity is in the rearview mirror.
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I used to have a Forester XT. That was a super fun car to drive.
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Documents on file. Tittays thoroughly rubbed?
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Steven Miller has COVID-19.
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