008: Diminishing scientific returns, the dark store theory, and publications vs libraries
Plus, the French government's crack down on tax fraud via Instagram
Hey! This is a newsletter about what I currently find interesting in the world.
One question for you this week: how do you discover content (blogs, articles, etc) that’s over a year old?
Interesting Reads - links from around the web
How This All Happened - Morgan Housel perfectly summarizes everything that happened post-WWII to lead America where it is today.
Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck - Patrick Collison and Michael Nielsen argue that science has had diminishing returns over the past century, despite more money than ever going into research.
After the Retail Apocalypse, Prepare for the Property Tax Meltdown - Big chains like Walmart, Target, Lowe’s and others are exploiting a legal loophole, dubbed the “dark store theory,” to lower their property taxes. It seems like this is one of the few things keeping them from tipping over the edge with the slow death of big chains.
Ideology and the sources of policy error - There’s been a bit of a buzz where Westerners are saying that China’s financial system is too big to fail (2007/08 financial crisis, anyone?) because the government has their backs. In reality, that’s not true, and this little post perfectly explains why.
French Financial Authorities Will Now Use Social Media to Identify Tax Evasion - I laughed when I read the title.
New School Study Uncovers Another $1 Billion In Hudson Yards Subsidies - New Yorkers are subsidizing Hudson Yards more than they will Amazon. But nobody cares because it’s not a tech company, right?
The Coming Controversy in Academia - “‘Controversial for me but not for thee’ hardly seems like a winning slogan for such a revisionist enterprise.”
North Ronaldsay sheep - There is a breed of sheep that has survived off of seaweed for so long that eating grass makes them sick!
Your Blog Is Not a Publication - “The publication approach is a ‘one degree’ problem. If a plane flying from New York to Los Angeles is one degree off course, it ends up 50 miles away from its destination.”
Shutter - photo (screenshot) of the week
Tracks - song recommendations
Beny More - Yiriyiribon
Van Morrison - Madame George
Artic Monkeys - Piledriver Waltz
Thank you for your time. I’d appreciate it if you would forward it to a friend :)
Lama (tweet tweet)