Something for the weekend #259
Welcome to my ‘round-up’ newsletter, in which I survey recent causes for optimism as found in the media. I also find it among the think-tanks and sometimes on podcasts. There are also occasional links here to a debunking of alarmism, or to opinion articles on related topics.
* In Birmingham, England, “Laser technology offers breakthrough in detecting illegal ivory”. Apparently many ivory sellers now claim it comes from ancient mammoths dug from Arctic permafrost, which is exempt from bans. But now the UK has developed the technology to tell the difference between mammoth ivory and elephant ivory.
* In Reason magazine, “Don’t Buy the Panic Over Microplastics in Bottled Water”. There’s also the Reason Podcast: A Big Panic Over Tiny Plastics… “Science can detect increasingly small particles of plastic in our air and water. That doesn’t mean it’s bad for you.”
* In The Daily Sceptic the new article “Profits of Doom”, which lays out the… “four key ways in which the unimpeachable cause of saving the planet is in fact driven by the same old lust for money, power and influence”.
* U.S. violent crime spiked horribly during the lockdown years, but dropped back somewhat in 2022. The good news is that we now know it fell further in 2023. It’s now back to the level it was in 2008. My guess is that much of the high stats were down to drug murders, as the lockdowns severely disrupted gangs and drug supply-lines. It probably helped that the U.S. bounced quickly back into economic growth and that jobs are booming. Which means people can get their families out of drug-ridden areas more easily, by moving across country. Then their kids can also get jobs and start to build up wealth.
* Forthcoming in the June issue of Reason magazine: “Will Artificial Intelligence Increase Unemployment? No.” Indeed it could “lead to unprecedented economic growth”… if not smothered at birth by government red-tape and corporate lawsuits. And so long as we get proper open/fast AI desktop PCs, rather than airy marketing spin.
* Le Monde explains “How China’s economists are censored and forced to remain optimistic”, due to personal… “calls from the security services, lists of forbidden subjects and Internet blackouts during online conferences”.
* A debunking of Low-Birthrate Alarmism among some hidebound conservatives…
“Implicit in the right’s deep fear about low birthrates is that humans are static creatures [as is the nation-state… but with the] brilliant mechanization of so much, including AI advances that will either erase old forms of work or greatly erase the worst aspects of work, those being born today in the developed world will achieve productivity per man that will make that of their parents and grandparents seem tiny by comparison. [We will also be] more and more be working alongside and with the world’s humans and machines [rather than within just one nation].”
* Some conservatives in Canada should “Stop the fearmongering”, as a key conservative leader proclaims “Everything is broken” in the nation. It isn’t. But the danger in such claims is that…
“… some people hear that and start to believe it’s true. And then they start to believe that since the country’s broken, the rules shouldn’t apply anymore. Or they make up their own rules.”
* And finally, as the grass-mowing season gets underway in the UK, the charity Butterfly Conservation digs some new research out of their long-running Garden Butterfly Survey data. Gardens large enough to set aside a section of long unkempt grass “saw up to 93% more butterflies”. However, that’s only “up to” and only in the countryside. Gardens in “urban areas” showed an increase of around 18%. Still, 18% is worth having. Planting easy-grow buddleia bushes (aka ‘butterfly bushes’) would also help greatly.
Enjoyed this post? There’s more over at the ‘Something for the Weekend’ newsletter archive.