This week, I bring you a special edition of links with zero development or immigration content, and instead only the strange things I find on the internet. But first, a requisite plug:
In Development Magazine has reopened pitches! Pitch us all your development hot takes.
And now:
Samuel Hughes argues in Works in Progress that you can use zoning to lock down your enemies and prevent war (and indeed, Tokugawa Japan did).
There’s a paper suggesting you should cool your data centers with living spiders.
The UK has a tax on a financial instrument that no longer exists.
19% of mortgages in Poland are denominated in… Swiss francs? (ht Karol Karpinski)
OK, I lied, this is a development story. A booming drug market in Mexico led more people to study chemistry in university. Breaking Bad is causal.
Until WWII, the majority of renters in NYC all moved at 9 AM on May 1.
Dan Sullivan has filed to run against Dan Sullivan in the Alaska Senate race. Note that neither of these Dans Sullivan is the Dan Sullivan who is the mayor of Anchorage.