link roundup

Short link roundup this week, because I’m finishing four (4) different pieces.

• This is an absolutely heartbreaking NYT story about people who have already died from the USAID cuts, and where there will be many more deaths. (Empirics by Charles Kenny and Justin Sandefur; more on their calculations here.)

• You really can build out nuclear quickly.

• Scientists are less effective when they leave the field they’re trained in. The “impact of new research steeply declines the further a researcher moves from their prior work”. As someone who has pivoted fields multiple times… 🙃🙃🙃

• British cities are less well-served by trains, trams and light rail than American ones. This analysis does exclude buses (which are wildly unreliable in most American cities), but it’s still striking.

• This is an interesting essay by Max Tabbarok arguing that externalities are more often solved with technology than with coordination.

• This is a cool new project compling errors in meta-analyses.

• Only 3% of Americans had a passport in 1989.

• Everyone thinks Darth Vader would vote for the party that they oppose.