patrick.net

There could be a land boom in the Ice Belt.

Let's sell some ice condos. :)

yeah, collectively insects are the most successful family or phylum or whatever, i guess. or maybe bacteria by sheer number ;) neither walk on hind legs... theory probably applies to megafauna... who cares...

did you know man has lost the ability to make the 4th enzyme in the chain required to manufacture vitamin C within the human body from food? probably due to a negative random genetic mutation... seems to be an early primate mutation, requiring them to live on fruit sources...

maybe not fully corrected for asians and latin americans ;) i feel like a giant when i go to the spanish club...

however, robert ardrey also argues for the power of 'sexual selection' in nature, where being tall may not be so attractive to the opposite sex -- perhaps in society which values slim women of average height will tend towards a shorter population also... and perhaps tall men are not so desirable...

further, some research on medieval skeletons suggests they were only 1-2 inches shorter at most, most likely due to lower nutrition, so medieval shortness is apparently something of an urban myth. it would normally take thousands of years to see some sort of effect, barring a sudden cataclysmic event...

in fact, reduced environmental pressure leads to less genetic change -- so if life is easy, as it is for h. sapiens, you are less likely to experience natural selection effects...

Are we trying to solve the "problem" of bubbles in housing, bubbles in general, or the real problem of a lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area?

They are tangential problems, I think. The bubble, if there is one (and I am one of those who really thinks that there is not) will go away on its own.

The lack of affordable housing points to something much more profound happening in our society and I think DS is right.