- A bunch of university-educated types are worried about “1 million missing students” in the US. I am not so pessimistic (1) because a lot of university education is bullshit, (2) because some young people should wait for university, as they need time to figure out what they might want to study and can use their experience to get a better education, and (3) because there’s good money and good work in some trades — read Shop Class as Soul Craft!
- Listen: Poles Apart: Why We Turn Against Each Other and (related) Liberalism in Dark Times
- Read: Some theatre types in the US announced they would only accept vaccinated guests. They received many angry emails but no cancelled tickets. The angry people weren’t even customers.
- Watch: China’s high speed rail system (like its dams) have go so far as to become a (political) liability.
- Explore: Import Yeti allow (relational-database) lookups for sea-based shipping supply chains. It’s a gold mine for anyone trying to understand/investigate global trade. Here’s a related site with trade data. Bonus: Cost of living comparison between cities
- Read: The challenge of making new friends when you’re middle-aged.
- Read: The long history of pregnant women (mostly) failing to claim their fetus allows them to use the carpool lane.
- Read: Omicron makes “endemic” Covid more likely, which means a return to infecting each other as business-as-usual rather than life-threatening.
- Read: Venice is taking my advice and trying to attract digital nomads. There are a few issues on both sides, in terms of expectations (Wifi or caffé?)
- Read: These “innovation prizes” are so over-the-top that I can’t tell if they are trolling. This is the entry from Global Mayors Challenge Winner Rotterdam:
Unemployment in Rotterdam is double the national average and rising. But public budgets, stressed by the pandemic, have limited funding for employment programs. Rotterdam is creating “Rikx,” a new digital marketplace that connects local social entrepreneurs to investors so that they can deliver innovative projects, while helping the city’s most vulnerable residents find work. Through Rikx, private-sector partners can purchase digital tokens that monetize social impact generated by entrepreneurs, similar to “offsets” in the carbon market.