Weekly Report: January 8, 2023
Observations
- One thing I miss from Sydney are thunderstorms. It may be a strange thing to miss, but one fond childhood memory I have was of the “southerly buster”. It’s a weather phenomenon that typically happens after a series of hot summer days — the temperature suddenly plummets, huge grey clouds roll in, the rain pelts down, and the sky puts on a dramatic show. I remember gazing out into our backyard as lightning danced in the sky and thunder literally shook the windows. (My father had also drilled it into me that if there was lightning around, I needed to immediately turn off the computer, lest a surge of electricity fry it.)
- Thunderstorms don’t really exist in the Bay Area. I’ve been here for almost 15 years and I can count on one hand the number of times I remember hearing thunder. So when the Bay Area experienced a “storm” earlier this week — one that made the national news and saw weather warnings blanket the airwaves — there’s a reason I put storm in quotation marks. To be sure, there was rain and it got quite windy. But, objectively speaking, it was not that wild. I’ve been in rain so heavy that it hurts the skin, and experienced gale force winds that dim the lights. None of those things happened this week in our city. Yet, there was flooding, genuine danger to life, closed schools, and a weather-induced 3-hour blackout in our neighborhood. The Bay Area is just really fragile when it comes to inclement weather.
- This week’s 🍿 news story was the vote for the Speakership of the House of Representatives. Kevin McCarthy finally got his gavel, at the cost of selling the last remnants of his soul. Seems like a pyrrhic victory to me, and it’s hard to see it inflicting anything but pain on the country when a small group of Republicans ends up holding everyone else hostage to their demands. And will their brinksmanship turn the prospect a federal debt default from the unthinkable into the possible?
- Taking a break, so no newsletter for the next couple of weekends. Will resume in a couple of weeks!
Articles
- GPT Takes the Bar Exam (Bommarito & Katz)
- The Supreme Court is set to kill affirmative action. Just not for rich white kids. (Mother Jones)
- Xi’s dream of world order ruined by COVID disaster (Sydney Morning Herald)
- The Reason There’s Been No Cure for Alzheimer’s (The Free Press)
- The Greatest Tax System in the World (The Atlantic)
A look at how tax works in the Faroe Islands. - A string of unfortunate events (Letters of Note)
A story about pepperoni and a hotel ban.
Movies & TV
- Jack Ryan (Season 3)
Another entertaining season, this time with a Russia theme. The last season aired all the way back in 2019!
Charts, Images & Videos
On Twitter
73 (with airport transits), 65 (excluding airport transits)
9:00pm 
