Fair Warning: The solution was here all along
Dog names, NY pizza slices, inevitable billionaires
It’s fair to say this year has not started in the greatest of ways. Among other things less-than-ideal, our beloved Henry Oscar passed away yesterday. We had him for 9 years 8 months and he brought so much joy to all of us. Chihuahuas have a reputation for being yappy and he was the total opposite: Quietly running around underfoot or seeking a warm lap to sit on, patiently putting up with being poked by the kids. He was pretty chilled out, and happiest when running in the forest or surrounded by the people he loved. Preferably both! H.O became sick pretty recently and I had hoped that he would be able to hang on until I could cuddle him again but his heart disease had progressed too far. I’ll miss him a lot.
Bet you didn’t expect a tribute to a dog in this newsletter eh?
It’s been a long week and so this FW is pretty short and sweet…
On the home front
Widening Highways Doesn’t Fix Traffic. So Why Do We Keep Doing It?
An interesting look at the unintended consequences of widening highways. “When a congested road is widened, travel times go down — at first. But then people change their behaviors.” Maybe, just maybe, investing in public transport is a good thing? Maybe the solution has been here all along!
Bills targeting trans youth are growing more common — and radically reshaping lives
Horrifying stat from this: “Over the past two years, state lawmakers introduced at least 306 bills targeting trans people, more than in any previous period. A majority of this legislation, 86%, focuses on trans youth.”
Donald Trump is losing ground to Ron DeSantis ahead of 2024
"But polls this far ahead of the election should not be trusted."
Over the pond
How austerity devastated UK home insulation
I was thinking about this over the winter — thank goodness, it was not as bad as it could have been. But lots of people are living in homes that are not equipped to deal with colder weather since they lack insulation… Ridiculous.
Odds and ends
All you need to know about the Year of the Rabbit
I enjoyed this explanation of the Year of the Rabbit and other tenets of Chinese philosophy like the Five Elements Theory.
How the MCU is addressing its messy history with diversity
Ooooh a piece about a comic franchise written in comic book style! Really lovely illustrations and it definitely hits home about how male and pale the first phases were.
The most popular people name for dogs
I don’t like my name at the best of times and I know a lot of people call their dog Sophie (why?) so I was not surprised to see that my name is “mostly a dog name”. Thanks y’all.
Just a little database of the pizza slices someone has eaten in NYC since 2014. That’s a lot of pizza slices! (Don’t kill me but I don’t understand why people rave about pizza here because it’s literally the same as pizza anywhere else IMO).
Why the super rich are inevitable
This is a great statistics/data-led explanation of why we have billionaires living in the same society/cities/neighbourhoods as extremely poor people. It’s inevitable. (:
That’s everything I have for you this week!
Soph