I can say this without spoilers: every single solitary frame in which Boba Fett appeared this season delighted me down to my toes. Just intensely satisfying.
I mean.
All right, I'm gonna ask a Mandalorian question that involves ***SPOILERS***. You've been warned. (scroll down)
If Baby Yoda becomes one of Luke's new students ... does he not get subsequently slaughtered by Ben Solo?
Hm, it appears my spacing didn't work, so, uh, sorry about the spoiler! 😳
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This week I posted a 3-part interview w/ @dcullenward & David Victor, authors of the new book Making Climate Policy Work. It's about CO2 pricing -- mainly cap&trade systems, which comprise most real-world CO2 pricing -- & why it doesn't live up to its aspirations. A thread.
Part 1 is about the allure of the theory behind economy-wide CO2 pricing (it really would be nice if it worked!) & why, in the real world, the "economy-wide" part never actually happens. volts.wtf/p/why-carbon-p…
Part 2 is about carbon offsets, which are also alluring in theory & also fall short in practice. In reality, there's enormous incentive to hold prices down & very little incentive to ensure quality CO2 reductions. volts.wtf/p/carbon-offse…
Got my new Mac laptop in the mail today. Good lord it's a dream.
I love setting up a new computer. But there's one thing that really ought to be easier: making it so that the desktops on two computers mirror one another. It's wild what I have to do to make that happen.
When I took this thing out of the box & fired it up, it was fully charged. I've had it on ever since (~6 hrs), I've installed two OS updates, a dozen programs, synced w/ Dropbox, etc. etc. -- it's now at 50% battery. Still haven't plugged it in the wall. Amazeballs.
My take on Pete as Transportation Secretary is that it probably won't matter much one way or the other.
I'll say one other thing about Pete, which is sure to bring me grief: the left's cool kids are way, way too eager to shit all over the hyper-conscientious, ambitious, striving, Tracy Flick-type personality that Pete so perfectly exemplifies.
Yeah, Pete's a classic A student with his hand always up. But that means, if you give him homework -- like "make the Dept. of Transportation work better" -- & tell him it's the route to advancement, he'll definitely do it! He'll think hard & work hard on it. Could be worse.
I've got other things I ought to be doing ... so how about a thread?
When I talk about what contemporary US conservatives are doing (to wit: being f'ing horrible), I'm frequently told, "don't call them conservatives. They are fascists/thugs/racists/etc." Let's talk about that.
The impulse behind the response is to separate what people think of as philosophical conservatism -- small gov't, strong defense, traditional values -- from the kind of incoherent morass of resentments & cruelties we see on the right today.
But that's the wrong way to think about it. The nationalism, anti-intellectualism, xenophobia, resentment, cruelty, & lust for authoritarianism did not, at some point, displace conservatism. They are simply what conservatism becomes in the face of demographic change.
This is a great episode of @yourewrongabout, about misinformation, why it ends up affecting older people the most/worst, and why the bulk of it comes from the right. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/los…
One of the grimmest conclusions of the research (which I'm glad Michael highlighted) is that once people are convinced of loopy conspiracy theories, it is almost impossible to talk them out of it. The only way to prevent misinfo from spreading is to prevent exposure.
But how do you prevent exposure? The only way is to have trusted institutions that you can rely on to vet information ("gatekeepers," as I said the other day to much outrage) before it's "out there." Michael gestures at putting more responsibility on the social media cos ...
Some personal news! Friday was my last day at Vox. Today I'm launching a newsletter called Volts, devoted to my twin passions: clean energy and politics. (And I am now, yes, drvolts.)
No, I was not canceled! I do not view editing as tyranny. I'm not fleeing groupthink. I had nothing but positive experiences at @Vox, remain an avid reader, & will be contributing to it regularly going forward. It is growing & expanding & has an *incredible* bench of talent.
It's time for me to be my own boss, pursue my own weird obsessions, and best of all, build a community of people who share those obsessions. I am so excited to get back to the freewheeling spirit of blogging, with more room for experiments, speculation, & conversation.