Traffic in the city

I've posted many times about ride-sharing, but another under-appreciated factor that is contributing more and more to gridlock is package delivery. It's still more efficient than driving your car however far to pick up one (or a few) items, but the logistical difficulties are starting to pile up. Food for thought....

11/4: Lil more food for thought on traffic:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1191295205187686400

Health and taxes

No one is excited about taxes and fees, but the good news is that they can do a lot of good. For example in London, where kids breathe in high levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, new traffic taxes (AKA congestion pricing) are making a difference, reducing pollution by as much as a third. New York City is poised to join the ranks of cities participating by 2021, when a new fee will hopefully curb pollution as well as raising over a billion dollars for transportation infrastructure.

Another positive tax is a tax on soda. In Mexico, an approximately 10% tax on soda decreased soda consumption by about 6%, an impact that is estimated to potentially prevent almost 200,000 cases of diabetes. Wow.

Three of these four were from the Global Health Now newsletter; you can subscribe at https://www.globalhealthnow.org/subscribe

Chicken economics

You've probably had or at least seen Costco's famous $5 rotisserie chicken, but you probably haven't thought about it in this much depth before. From the importance of the size of the chicken through the vital role that Nebraska corn is playing in taking on basically a new agro-industrial undertaking, there's a lot here. Take a look!