Monday Links

Please come back, Bird Dog.  Update: Sort of back. 

The Navajo Nation's Spiritual Battle for the Moon.

How "Unready" was Aethelred? This series of podcasts of about 15 min each has been largely about kings, wars, and bishops. I usually prefer cultural history: economics, religious practice, laws, slaves and peasants, technology, and movement of people. However, because we know so little about the period due to the lack of documents, we know less about England in that period than before or after. Also Kearns is now working in more "history from below."

The greatest polo horse was cloned, and now lots of players are trying to get one. The legal issue of patenting genetic material keeps taking odd turns.

Scott Alexander: I am always nervous when a good person who I like starts engaging on Twitter, since it elevates the discourse there but also gradually turns their brain into mush - but Ruxandra has made the leap and is doing a great job not just on bio related topics but also (for example) countering Curtis Yarvin on the history of her native Romania. 

Building In the World of Flesh Needs Transparency.  by Ruxandra Teslo (above). Some details on drug development and trials and why China is now much faster than even our FDA fast-track drugs

A passing reference in discussion of Universal Basic Income that I will try and track down. In an online argument about a different design study that as always showed "disappointing" results, opposing parties nonetheless agreed that this was a First World phenomenon.  Studies in Third World countries consistently show that "just giving people money" works better than targeted giving. This makes sense to me. The poor in the Third World are very poor, and not irresponsible people who have drugged away their opportunities*. They are people whose entire societies are not working well, with less control over their fates. When you are lacking very basic things you know what you need and you buy food, medicine, fuel.

*I am not claiming that all who are poor in America fit that description. It is just even more true in other countries.