A friend told me this week that he thinks my weekly links would still go out if the apocalypse were happening… and yes, maybe.
In Development Magazine is back! This week, we have Oliver Kim on the two Robert McNamaras - escalator of the Vietnam War and general of the war on extreme poverty.
Coefficient Giving is increasing their allocation to GiveWell this year by ~6x ($175M → $1B). They are doing this in anticipation of significantly more philanthropic resources coming online in the next few years.
25% of the global burden of disease caused by lead exposure is in India.
What is a standard deviation of learning? Well… it’s unclear. We often compare SDs of learning across studies, but this may not be particularly meaningful.
Abi Olvera argues that we shouldn’t be worried about AI-enabled bioweapons.
I think I am more worried than Abi here because frequently groups do want to kill indiscriminately and have significant human capital. Consider India as an example: there are many terrorist groups in India that wish to kill indiscriminately, and there is ample human capital available; the country produces >1,000 biology PhDs per year.1 There are also state actors who have incentives to produce biological weapons.2
Jordan Dworkin has put together a website of ordinary abundance - the kinds of abundance that advancing technology has bought us.
For instance, he quotes an Iowan on gaining an indoor bathroom: “It just felt like I was the wealthiest person in the world. It felt great not to have to go outside to go to the restroom.”
Additional investment in technology has wide spillovers; a new working paper claims that “a U.S. R&D appropriations shock equal to 1 percent of the federal R&D capital stock raises foreign TFP by approximately 1 percent after 12 years.”
But technological diffusion is slow. The fact that a new technology hasn’t made a difference yet does not mean it will not ever change the world.
Andy Burnham has promised to reduce rough sleeping. Aveek Bhattacharya outlines in Arguably. how to do this.
The Africa Jobs Fund is looking for an M&E consultant.
There are billboards in SF asking if you are feeling AI dread.
The Republic of China’s3 Song of National Revolution is sung to the tune of Frère Jacques???
North Korea does not care how many Westerners they kill.
Now Taiwan, but this song predates the KMT’s move to Taiwan.