Week Links #3 #
First, I’ve got a confession to make. I actually missed not one but two days of daily blogging this week. Although I back-filled yesterday, I didn’t write on either Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I’ve got plenty of excuses lined up, but mainly I just let work / life get in the way. Luckily, I made some progress on some academic writing projects in the spare writing time that I did have, so that also feels like appropriate prioritization. *pats self on back*
In this week’s episode of “if you build it, they will come” applied to urban design: after Iowa City made its buses free, traffic cleared and air quality improved. You love to see it.
Closer to home, KirklandYes, of Costco’s Kirkland Signature fame. voters elected a city council set on continuing plans for growth and building more housing against a NIMBY opposition group.
In the latest round of codified thought policing from the Republican party, “Texas A&M systematizes massive violation of core academic freedom rights of faculty”.
I’m officially old. Dictionary.com’s word of the year was “6-7”. Having no idea what that was or meant, I had to rely on this post from Language Log to point me to this explainer from WHYY, Philadelphia’s local NPR station. I guess it’s just the cycle of life.
I’m looking forward to watching this feature length documentary on the history of rail trails for bicycling soon. Of course, while I love these rail trails—and commute on one of the earliest in the country every day—I also wish we could have rails and trails.
Here’s an interview with the author of a new book on effective altruism.Provocatively titled Death in a Shallow Pond Not the most illuminating thing I’ve ever read, but a useful overview of some of the history.
My colleague Noah Smith will become a Vice Provost for Artificial Intelligence after a $10M donation.