Quiet here at Chez Mara. Much quieter than on this blog. Looks like the last one is filling up so here’s a fresh new open thread and some cats.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Archives for May 2021
Open Thread
I need an antidote to what feels like all the negative and infuriating political news I have seen over the past week.
This first picture makes me feel better; every day I am grateful for these two senators, and not just because they got us the majority.
Proud to stand alongside my brother & fellow Senator, @SenOssoff, at the White House yesterday to watch @POTUS sign the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law. pic.twitter.com/WqsKO7eWzc
— Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (@SenatorWarnock) May 22, 2021
Bow Down Before the One You Serve
Kevin Cramer is the junior senator from North Dakota. It’s high irony that a Senator from the state that has the only government-owned general service bank in the nation (The Bank of North Dakota — BND) releases an asslicking statement like that. BND was created in the 1919 to protect farmers from predatory lenders. Family farmers generally hate banks because they are out to fuck farmers at every turn. But, today, there are so few genuine family farmers in a “farm state” that Cramer can give a bank CEO a handjob on Twitter with zero consequences other than a dunk from a parody account.
Pelosi Is the Real Hitler
Kevin McCarthy’s statement about Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s comparison of the requirement for members to wear masks on the House floor, in its entirety:
“Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling.
“At a time when the Jewish people face increased violence and threats, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party and is completely ignored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Americans must stand together to defeat anti-Semitism and any attempt to diminish the history of the Holocaust.
“Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.”
Someday, perhaps, the average asshole in the Republican Party will make a distinction between criticizing Israel and anti-semitism, but today is certainly not that day.
Elon Musk Is Wrecking The Sky
To be fair, it’s not just him. Other countries and gazillionaires are planning to send their space junk into orbit too. But Musk is ahead of the pack, and it would be a good idea to do something about it before things get too crowded up there.
“Constellations” of thousands of satellites promise internet everywhere, with profits for the owners of the constellations. It makes sense for enormous countries like Russia and China to consider this, and they are doing that.
But there are a number of problems. Musk’s Skylink is ruining optical astronomy.
A traffic jam is forming at the altitude these satellites orbit. There has been one near miss already.
Improved communications between satellite operators are also necessary: in 2019, the European Space Agency moved an Earth observation satellite to avoid colliding with a Starlink satellite, after failing to reach SpaceX by e-mail. Internationally adopted ‘right of way’ rules are needed to prevent games of ‘chicken’, as companies seek to preserve thruster fuel and avoid service interruptions.
Then there are the atmospheric effects from carbon black and alumina in the rocket fuels to put the satellites up there and from the destruction of the satellites as they are de-orbited. This may work against global warming, but the experiment is being done without any planning.
Oh, and some chunks of satellite may make it to the ground.
There are reasons for hope. SpaceX is showing some leadership with rapid end-of-life deorbiting, automatic collision avoidance, and visors to reduce light pollution, even if these are not yet sufficient. Spacefaring countries, moreover, recognize that debris threatens all satellites, including military satellites. Some are strengthening their national regulations, including by incorporating non-binding international guidelines into binding national laws. However, there is little recognition that Earth’s orbit is a finite resource, the space and Earth environments are connected, and the actions of one actor can affect everyone. Until that changes, we risk multiple tragedies of the commons in space.
It’s an easy paper to read and has references to others.
Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner
Nudges, incentives and lotteries for vaccinations
We need to get more people vaccinated. The first big wave of folks who were eagerly waiting for vaccines to be released has probably already been vaccinated. Now public health practicioners are seeking to get shots into the arms of folks who are willing to get vaccinated but aren’t knocking down doors to get vaccinated for any number of very valid reasons. So we’re seeing these stories:
“Free vaccinations were offered Friday at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, a strip joint.” @lauriemcginley2’s report from a desperate-to-reopen Las Vegas after Sin City’s lost year. https://t.co/Qozx04FDMh
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) May 24, 2021
And we also see Ohio offering a $1 millions and an OSU full ride per week to get shots in arms:
Effects of the Ohio vaccine lottery (via @ATabarrok @pbump) pic.twitter.com/0k7TAORYSJ
— Charles Fain Lehman (@CharlesFLehman) May 25, 2021
Several other states are trying out different lottery schemes. Maryland is offering daily prizes. Oregon is offering a prize per county. New York will be doing something.
These are all good ideas. We need shots in arms and the social value of marginal shots in arms is large where a $1 million dollar prize easily pays for itself if it induces an extra thousand people to be vaccinated.
The only caveat on all of these lotteries is that some grad students are stuck crossing their fingers that Pennsylvania does nothing regarding lotteries for another couple of weeks so that there it can serve as the control group for a wide variety of difference in difference specifications or state line discontinuity analyses over the next couple of years. We should build up our evidence base as to what works and what does not work but pragmatically, keeping Pennsylvania or other states from adopting outreach methods that seem to be working is a tough ethical question.
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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Living His Best Life
The American Rescue Plan is helping get us out of this crisis and back on track—but we can’t stop now.
We must pass the American Jobs Plan to deliver millions of good-paying jobs.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 24, 2021
WaPo WH bureau chief @AshleyRParker writes: "Depending on the viewpoint, Biden has restored routine and order to the White House—or removed the freewheeling passion."
God help us all.https://t.co/xfwP14rkab
— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) May 24, 2021
And the Media Mudlarks are starving, proles!
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