That's Interesting
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PBS: Why it will take more than basic recycling to cut back on plastic
26th March, 2019“In the 70 years that plastic has been around, humans have created 9 billion tons of it — most of which still exists. Are the existing strategies for tackling plastic pollution — namely reusing and recycling — really making any difference?”
External Link: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-it-will-take-more-than-basic-recycling-to-cut-back-on-plastic -
RBA: A Model of the Australian Housing Market
26th March, 2019“We build an empirical model of the Australian housing market that quantifies interrelationships between construction, vacancies, rents and prices. We find that low interest rates (partly reflecting lower world long-term rates) explain much of the rapid growth in housing prices and construction over the past few years. Another demand factor, high immigration, also helps explain the tight housing market and rapid growth in rents in the late 2000s. A large part of the effect of interest rates on dwelling investment, and hence GDP, works through housing prices.”
External Link: https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/rdp/2019/2019-01.html -
Recreating ancient artifacts may be the future of archaeology
26th March, 2019“Have you ever heard of an archaeologist who burns, hammers or smashes artifacts? That’s what Metin Eren does, except it’s with replicas. Eren is a rising star in the field of experimental archaeology. In his lab at Kent State University, he tests recreations of early stone tools, trying to understand their purpose and design–and what those meant for human development.”
External Link: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-recreating-ancient-artifacts-may-be-the-future-of-archaeology -
A Brief History of Vox: The Sound of the British Invasion
09th January, 2019‘In the mid-1960s, young groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Yardbirds led the British Invasion, in which blues-rich rock ’n’ roll became the dominant mode of expression. While each group had its own idiosyncratic slant on the music, they all shared a powerful weapon: amplification courtesy of Vox.’
External Link: https://reverb.com/news/a-brief-history-of-vox-how-the-british-instrument-company-helped-define-the-sound-of-the-british-invasion-and-beyond -
A visual journey through communist-era interiors
09th January, 2019Edifice by Polish photographer Karol Palka is a visual journey through the interiors of communist-era buildings in Poland, Slovakia and East Germany.
External Link: http://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/10822/new-east-photo-prize-finalist-karol-palka -
St Louis Fed: How Has Trade Affected U.S. Manufacturing Jobs?
09th January, 2019‘Recent U.S. manufacturing job losses attributed to Chinese imports seem small compared with monthly turnover of the entire U.S. labor market, and the share of recent losses also seems small when looking at long-term declines in manufacturing employment.’
External Link: https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2018/december/trade-affected-us-manufacturing-jobs?utm_source=BlogList&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=BlogAlert -
US population growth hits 80-year low
09th January, 2019‘While 2018 was a year of economic revival with historically low unemployment and rising wage growth, demographic indicators stand in contrast, seemingly ushering in an era of population growth stagnation.’
External Link: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/12/21/us-population-growth-hits-80-year-low-capping-off-a-year-of-demographic-stagnation/ -
Biologist Rates The Pain Of 83 Different Insects Stings
09th January, 2019“King of Sting” Justin O. Schmidt is a biologist at the Southwestern Biological Institute. A “connoisseur of pain,” he has ranked 83 different insect stings on a pain index based on his own experience.
External Link: https://www.npr.org/2016/05/15/477852486/stung-by-83-different-insects-biologist-rates-his-pain-on-a-scale-of-1-to-ow -
What’s In My Bag: Interpol
09th January, 2019Paul Banks, Sam Fogarino, and Daniel Kessler of Interpol go shopping at Amoeba Music in Los Angeles.
Fantastic band.
External Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeHhgcYhe7c -
What we’re reading: The Idea Factory
05th December, 2018Interesting read about one of the most prolific innovation hubs of the past century and background behind the invention and development of the point-contact transistor which forms the building blocks for pretty much every electronics device we use today and the formation of silicon valley. The inventors, who worked at Bell Labs, won the 1956 Nobel Prize for physics.
External Link: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/193465/the-idea-factory/9780143122791.html