Six Ideas That Made Us Think

1. UFOs in Harvard Yard

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb invited UFO true-believers into his research project searching for extraterrestrials. Science reports on the academic dispute that ensued. “He’s intermingled legitimate scientists with these fringe people,” says one critic. Concerns appear warranted:

Another research affiliate is Luis Elizondo, a career military intelligence officer and self-proclaimed UFO whistleblower. In recent years, Elizondo has appeared widely in the media claiming to be the former director of a secretive Pentagon UFO research unit. Although Elizondo is confirmed to have worked in the Department of Defense until retiring in 2017, Pentagon spokespeople have repeatedly denied that he ever played a role in a UFO research program, much less led one.

2. Money Pits

M. Nolan Gray takes a critical look the overheated U.S. housing market and the “fetish” of preserving any house that is old. He contends that a “stagnant supply of junkers is being forced into service long after its intended life span.” For example:

A stately Victorian manor in the Berkshires is one thing. But if you live in a Boston triple-decker, a kit-built San Jose bungalow, or a Chicago greystone, your home is the cheap housing of generations past. These structures were built to last a half century—at most, with diligent maintenance—at which point the developers understood they would require substantial rehabilitation. Generally speaking, however, the maintenance hasn’t been diligent, the rehabilitation isn’t forthcoming, and any form of redevelopment is illegal thanks to overzealous zoning.

3. Stairway Down

New Yorker critic James Woods reviews books about the rise and fall of Led Zeppelin. The song did not remain the same:

It all went properly rancid during the tours of 1975 and 1977. Page was lost to drugs; Bonham was uncontrollable. The shows were hazardous, gigantic, brilliant, careless. Page seemed not to notice or care that his guitar was out of tune. In 1975, Bonham played the drums with a bag of coke between his legs; in 1977, he fell asleep over his kit. Crowds became riotous. The Detroit Free Press called the fans “the most violent, unruly crowds ever to inflict themselves upon a concert hall.” In Oakland, in July, 1977, Bonham, Cole, and Grant seriously assaulted a colleague of the promoter Bill Graham, and were arrested. Led Zeppelin never played in America again.

For more on music nostalgia: Rolling Stone offers a wistful tribute to the least-loved of all music formats – the CD. “It’s an inarguable fact that music sales reached their all-time peak when the CD was king. No audio device did a sharper job of separating fans from their 20-dollar bills.”

4. Qoph: The Inner Game of Scrabble

One first learns the “twos,” or two-letter words, the shortest playable words in the game. There are 107 of them these days. Many of them are already familiar: AN, IT, OF, WE. But many are not: AA, AI, XI, XU. Then one moves on to the threes, of which there are 1,082. Many of these are also initially familiar: AND, CAT, THE, WHY. But many are also not: AVO, CWM, LAR, ZAX. Then the fours, of which there are 4,218—AGLU, CORF, HOWK, QOPH. And so on. While the long words are beautiful and often high-scoring, the short words are the nucleotides that hold together Scrabble’s DNA. These short words are so important and familiar and commonly played by good players that they are like monkish prayers, repeated, internalized, and subconsciously incanted.

5. Men Not at Work

The labor shortage isn’t ending. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, demographer Nicholas Eberstadt contends there is little sign that the number of men in the workforce, which has been declining for more than 20 years, will reverse:

In 1961, labor-force participation for prime-age men was at 96.9%,” Mr. Eberstadt says. Since then, “the chart looks more or less like a straight line down.” By November 2021, “the seasonally adjusted rate was 88.2%.” Almost 1 in 8 men is sitting out during his best years. That may not sound huge, but the drop is unprecedented. “Would we think it was a crisis if the work rate fell below the Great Depression level?” Mr. Eberstadt asks. “Well you can check that box. We’re already there.”

What are men doing who are not working? “They report being in front of screens 2,000 hours a year, like that’s their job."

6. Why American Infrastructure Is Over Budge

Last fall, The New York Times published a lengthy piece about why most of the country’s mega-infrastructure projects have “cost overruns.” Connor Harris, writing in City Journal, argues that the Times missed the main point:

New rail projects in the United States must run through endless community meetings where residents—often rich retirees who do not commute by public transit and have no work or childcare obligations that would keep them away from hours-long meetings—can demand additional spending to address local aesthetic concerns.

Websites Worth Reading

Works in Progress: Digest of articles on social/business progress

Summers vs. Krugman on Inflation: Debate on inflation between two esteemed professors

Demetri Sevastopulo: FT correspondent’s stories and photos on China

Feeds We Follow

@noahbarkin: European perspective on China

@RiddleRussia: Go-to feed on Russian affairs

@MacroFulcrum: Economics and geopolitics