No.55 Asides

Leonardo da Vinci’s eye disorder let him flip between dimensions. If Da Vinci did have a mild form of the condition, which would allow him to focus with both eyes when concentrating and with one when relaxed, Tyler asserts that the famed artist could have viewed the world in two or three dimensions at will, showing him the world exactly as he would need to recreate it on a flat surface. Quite the superpower for an artist.
🇬🇧 Budget 2018: Tech giants face digital services tax. “The chancellor is proposing a 2% tax rate against the sales that large digital companies make in the UK.”
🚙 Waymo gets the green light to test fully driverless cars in California.
🎉 Facebook exodus: 44 percent of American users ages 18-29 have deleted app.
3. The administration, RW elected officials, RW media, even just RW voters — I don’t think they CARE if it’s a “real” threat, as an elitist empiricist like me might define “real.” It is a symbol that defines their identity against their opponents, a weapon in the culture war. (David Roberts on “The Caravan” and on how issues are battlegrounds, independent of their connection to reality or value.)
Human Terrain. Absolutely fascinating visualization of word population represented as vertical bars on a map of the globe. Zoom in to any spot, see population “peaks” and, the bit I found most interesting, show change from 1990 to 2015.
😱 Startling new research finds large buildup of heat in the oceans, suggesting a faster rate of global warming. “But we were wrong. The planet warmed more than we thought. It was hidden from us just because we didn’t sample it right. But it was there. It was in the ocean already.”
🍆 To cut emissions, eating vegetables—not eating local—is the key.
🇪🇸 Spain to close most coalmines in €250m transition deal. “Unions hailed the mining deal – which covers Spain’s privately owned pits – as a model agreement. It mixes early retirement schemes for miners over 48, with environmental restoration work in pit communities and re-skilling schemes for cutting-edge green industries.”
Why walkable cities are good for the economy, according to a city planner. Nothing super new but some useful numbers.
The Milky Way’s Monster, Unveiled. “Astronomers have come closer than ever before to seeing our galaxy’s mysterious supermassive black hole”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on MYCROFT AND SHERLOCK. The basketball legend was U.S. cultural ambassador, has written a number of books, and is a massive Sherlock fan, to the point of (co)writing a novel about Homes’ brother, Mycroft.