Saturdays we catch up with the non-finance related items that we didn’t get to earlier in the week. You can check out last week’s edition. Have a great weekend!
Quote of the Day
"There is a good case for protecting expensive ideas — such as the design of a plane or the formula of a pharmaceutical compound — for a limited period. But that should not be allowed to be an excuse for effectively shackling employees."
(Tim Harford)
AVs
- When it comes to AVs, humans are still going to human. (financialpost.com)
- Why trial lawyers are lobbying against AVs. (marginalrevolution.com)
Transport
- Abandoning EVs could mean the end of the American auto industry. (nytimes.com)
- How the Texas Department of Public Safety spent more than $4 million on 4 Chevy Tahoes. (thedrive.com)
- It's not inevitable that people will drive more over time. (frontiergroup.org)
- EV chargers are popping up in some unlikely places. (nytimes.com)
- Want to save gas? Drive slower. (phys.org)
Solar
- How distributed solar is changing Pakistan’s energy system. (ember-energy.org)
- The Swiss have proved you can put solar panels between railroad tracks. (goodgoodgood.co)
- Solar is booming in the Philippines. (bloomberg.com)
Energy
- Why the additive model continues to explain global energy use. (coldeye.earth)
- Old batteries are finding new life on the grid. (begiant.ca)
- Wind power projects are being held up by the Pentagon. (grist.org)
- General Fusion is set to become the first publicly listed fusion company. (ft.com)
- America is seeing a jump in heat pump installations. (grist.org)
Wildfires
- Why it's so hard to suppress Canada's wildfires. (wsj.com)
- Wildfire smoke doesn't recognize national borders. (buttondown.com)
National parks
- The National Park Service is sanitizing American history. (msn.com)
- The administration is reducing protections for both the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments in Southern Utah. (axios.com)
- National parks are being starved of funds. (bloomberg.com)
Animals
- Do birds actually enjoy flying? (phys.org)
- Toronto is the home to a lot of raccoons. (lithub.com)
- Do animals experience joy? (psychologytoday.com)
Behavior
- Five insights from Cate Hall's new book, "You Can Just Do Things: How High-Agency People Get What They Want Out of Life." (nextbigideaclub.com)
- A little introspection goes a long way. (auren.substack.com)
- When meditation backfires. (theconversation.com)
- Want to feel better about your life? Clean your car out every week. (artofmanliness.com)
Dementia
- The incidence of dementia seems to be in decline. (marginalrevolution.com)
- How cannabanoids can help treat agitation in dementia patients. (nytimes.com)
Health
- At last measure, 2.6 million people dropped off ACA rolls. (theconversation.com)
- Some evidence that ADHD is related to other health conditions. (wapo.st)
- Atul Gawande on how many lives the cuts in USAID have cost. (newyorker.com)
- Six insights from Dr. Zeke Emanuel's new book,"Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules For A Long And Healthy Life (npr.org)
- A smart ring that accurately takes blood pressure readings? Big, if true. (bloomberg.com)
Drugs
- The DEA is cracking down on online ketamine providers. (wsj.com)
- Cigarettes are seeing a bounceback in interest. (washingtonpost.com)
- Why kratom needs regulating. (refractor.io)
Drink
- Do you recognize what qualifies as a single serving of alcohol? (insidehook.com)
- Wildfire smoke isn't great for wine makers. (bnnbloomberg.ca)
- Jeppson’s Malört is going wide. (wsj.com)
Food
- How Jollibee expanded beyond its core chicken business. (thefinancialpen.substack.com)
- Mexican ranchers are feeling the pain of the screwworm. (finance.yahoo.com)
- Coca-Cola's ($KO) Fairlife is offline after a ransomware attack. (engadget.com)
- Widespread food delivery has taken a bite out of the business of pizza. (giftarticle.ft.com)
Sports
- Why pro athletes are coming back from injuries faster than ever. (nytimes.com)
- Kalshi is raking in revenue on the World Cup. (npr.org)
- The fragmentation of sports viewing is frustrating to fans. (wsj.com)
- Poolhouse is TopGolf for billiards. (businesswire.com)
- Chess is having a moment. (axios.com)
Children
- What gym class is for. (fatherly.com)
- Why so few people want to referee youth sports these days. (wsj.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- What you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Don't miss a thing! Sign up for our daily e-mail newsletter. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Are you a financial advisor? Sign up for our exclusive Talking Wealth newsletter. (talkingwealthpod.com)
Facts Only
Tim Harford provided a quote regarding the protection of expensive ideas and employee shackles.
The Texas Department of Public Safety spent over $4 million on four Chevy Tahoes.
General Fusion is preparing to become the first publicly listed fusion company.
2.6 million people were removed from Affordable Care Act rolls.
The DEA is conducting a crackdown on online ketamine providers.
Coca-Cola's Fairlife experienced a ransomware attack that took systems offline.
National Park Service protections are being reduced for Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears monuments in Southern Utah.
Solar panel installations are increasing in Pakistan and the Philippines.
Swiss railroad tracks are being used for solar panel placement.
The National Park Service is facing a lack of funding.
Pro athletes are returning from injuries at faster rates than previously observed.
Chess is experiencing a period of increased popularity.
Executive Summary
Current global trends show a complex intersection of technological transition, public policy shifts, and health developments. In energy, there is a diversified push toward solar integration in Pakistan, the Philippines, and Switzerland, alongside a nascent move toward public fusion markets. However, the transition to electric vehicles remains contested, with some arguments suggesting that abandoning EVs could jeopardize the American auto industry.
Public infrastructure and governance face simultaneous challenges, ranging from funding shortages in National Parks to specific budgetary controversies in Texas law enforcement. In health and medicine, developments include a decline in dementia incidence and new pharmacological approaches to patient agitation, contrasted by significant losses in ACA enrollment and USAID funding cuts.
The commercial landscape is marked by the disruption of traditional business models, such as the impact of food delivery services on the pizza industry and the fragmentation of sports media consumption. These disparate events reflect a broader period of institutional volatility and technological adaptation across multiple sectors.
Full Take
This content represents a curated "linkfest," a high-density information diet designed to provide a breadth of intellectual stimulation across diverse domains. The strongest version of this narrative is that of an "intellectual variety show," offering a cross-section of contemporary curiosity to prevent cognitive silos.
The root cause of this framing is the "curator paradigm," where value is derived not from deep analysis of a single topic, but from the ability to connect disparate dots—from fusion energy to the psychology of raccoons. The unstated assumption is that a high-agency individual benefits from a wide, shallow exposure to multiple fields to spark synthesis.
The implications for human agency are positive, as this format encourages a "generalist" mindset, resisting the hyper-specialization that often leads to intellectual blindness. However, the cost is the risk of "context collapse," where a headline about the DEA and a headline about chess are given equal cognitive weight, potentially obscuring the systemic gravity of the former.
If this were a coordinated influence campaign, the playbook would be "Information Flooding"—burying a specific, uncomfortable narrative under a mountain of trivial or distracting "interesting" facts to induce decision fatigue or a sense of overwhelming complexity. The actual content does not match this pattern; it is a transparently eclectic collection of external links.
Patterns detected: none
Bridge Questions:
1. Does the breadth of this information provide genuine insight, or does it create an illusion of knowledge without depth?
2. Which of these diverse topics share a hidden systemic link that a thematic curation misses?
3. How does the consumption of "snackable" intellectual content affect the ability to engage with long-form, complex arguments?
Sentinel — Human
This text appears to be an aggregated digest of external news links rather than original analytical writing, exhibiting characteristics typical of content curation.