Random links

I Documented “Book Bans.” I Thought They Were All Hysteria. Then I Opened One of the Most Controversial Books.
Kind of interesting how this author goes from their reactions like "flipping through the book’s pages finally, I was a little shocked. I had an involuntary reaction to seeing the nude cartoons, like I needed to make sure I was alone and hide the book. ... I was sure I wouldn’t hand this book to my kids when they are 10. And I began to wonder if in my own allergy to the book-burning fervor, I had been a little too dismissive of the parents at the root of this fight." to by the end of the article seeming to approve of its inclusion.
Realistic Prepper Advice
"Preppers are fundamentally right about the problems, unsustainability, and fragility of the current system… but are utterly delusional about what’s likely to succeed it. Simply put the wish that in a suitably apocalyptic disaster, the state will recoil away into non-existence and leave people to fend for themselves (at which point the prepper will presumably thrive) has basically never happened." (Goes too far down the rabbit hole IMO, but this point and the discussion around it I'd agree with)
Sam Dumitriu on Twitter
"Incredibly, £267m has been spent on the Lower Thames Crossing’s 63,000 page planning application. Norway built the world’s longest road tunnel and the world’s deepest subsea tunnel for less."
Is Making Divorce Easier Bad for Children? The Long‐Run Implications of Unilateral Divorce
"Using 40 years of census data to exploit the variation across states and over time in changes in divorce regulation, I confirm that unilateral divorce regulations do significantly increase the incidence of divorce. Adults who were exposed to unilateral divorce regulations as children are less well educated, have lower family incomes, marry earlier but separate more often, and have higher odds of adult suicide."

The Iron Law of Bureaucracy

I keep thinking about this:

Looking at public health bureaucracies and how they've performed over the last few years it seems like there's a significant element of that at play. I don't think that it gives enough credence though to the long march through the institutions and ideological capture also at play though. (I suppose that you could argue that the ideologues might be dedicated to their vision of what those goals are though).

Could you make reality TV less exploitative?

It's kind of interesting to see this effort:

Except for situations involving following an already-known celebrity it seems tough to arrange shows in the reality TV genre what aren't exploitative as that seems to be how those shows derive the drama they depend on. You might be able to end production of that particular style of TV, but other than perhaps providing a therapist later on I doubt that much will be done.

Random links

Influences on individuals adopting vegetarian and vegan diets
Via Lewis Bollard who notes: "Striking that some key veg advocacy tactics for decades - leaflets, events, & pledges - rank low, while animal interactions & conversations rank top."
Hank Green on Twitter
Start of a thread on how accidental geoengineering until recently-implemented restrictions on sulfur in ship fuels may explain some weird weather patterns in recent years.
Kyle Cheney on Twitter
"Federal appeals court says DC appears to have "selectively" enforced defacement statutes against anti-abortion protesters using chalk on sidewalks while declining to enforce it against much larger and more widespread Black Lives Matter protests." The ruling is here. I'd consider this differential treatment to be pretty obviously, but I'm just surprised the court concluded similarly.
Even When Ideologies Align, People Distrust Politicized Institutions
"perceived politicization also predicted lower support and willingness to defer to institutions’ expertise. Across studies, these negative relationships were observed among both participants who shared and opposed the institution’s ideological slant. In other words, even left-leaning participants were less trusting and less willing to support and defer to left-leaning institutions that appeared more politicized, and even right-leaning participants were less trusting and less willing to support and defer to right-leaning institutions that appeared more politicized."

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