* Is email making professors stupid?
* The trouble in getting to Denmark.
* Why the United States will never have high-speed rail, or, the downsides of federalism and our legal culture.
* Conversation with Tyler, “Jordan Peterson on Mythology, Fame, and Reading People.” Lord of the Rings is mentioned. This one is a favorite and also a rebuttal to the occasional “intellectual lightweight” comments one sees online.
* “The Nuclear Option: As atomic power fades, a new band of supporters argues that it is still our best source of clean, reliable, and—yes—safe electricity.”
* “How Student Debt Dragged A Generation Down — And What We Can Do About It.” The supposed “solutions” are pretty lame and don’t solve moral hazard problems. We have a huge problem in that there is a tension between access and cost control. For example, right now many universities have zero incentive to offer programs that will pay back loans and admit students likely to be able to pay back loans. If you make colleges and universities have some skin in the game, though, they will immediately change access rules. “There is no such thing as a free lunch” is a useful rule here. We also need cultural changes: the idea that a degree guarantees a good job and high income is ridiculous, but we don’t want to confront that reality, either. In short, this writer is like 85% correct, but the other 15% really matters.
* “Postmodern Philosophy is a Debating Strategy,” and not an accurate description of much of anything.
* “Climeworks: The Tiny Swiss Company That Thinks It Can Help Stop Climate Change.” Not just the usual.
* From Literature to Web Development: My first 6 weeks at Lambda School.
* “What Happens When Techno-Utopians Actually Run a Country” is not a good title, as the article concerns Italy’s political scene and what happens when the revolutionaries win the power, but the article itself is interesting and makes me wish Umberto Eco were still alive and writing.
* Betty Ballantine, Who Helped Introduce Paperbacks, Dies at 99.
* “Accused College Students Deserve the Presumption of Innocence: Nineteen attorneys general are lobbying against extending that right in Title IX cases on campus.” The current situation is bizarre—and does not reflect well on universities.
* China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market—and the US Has No Plan.
* The evolution of America’s apartment buildings.” Most of these look good to me; I’d move in.
* The state of culture on the Internet, albeit disguised as a different topic.
* “A tale of two 20003s: high rises or high rents.” Fairly obvious and yet strangely opaque to many people.
The Story's Story 