Works in Progress

Wild cabbage is the 'root' of many other vegetables – kale is the closest thing we eat to the original. Nearly all the spin-offs, including Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, cauliflower and gai lan, were developed by our prehistoric ancestors. Why are cabbages so good for this kind of selective breeding? The more inbreeding you do to create new varieties, the more harmful mutations you repeat. Whereas some species have only one copy of each gene – making most mutations fatal – and humans have two, some cabbage varieties have three or even four copies, which makes them extremely resistant to harmful mutations. That means you can do intensive inbreeding of them with less of a risk of corrupting the strain with mutations. We don't know exactly where cabbages originated, but language and myths give us a clue. Ancient Greek texts include recipes, myths about cabbages growing from the sweat of Zeus, and sayings such as ‘μὰ τὴν κράμβην’ (roughly translating to ‘by the cabbages!’). They also distinguish between curly leaved cabbages and flat leaved kinds. Ancient Egyptians, Celts and Fertile Crescent cultures don't mention cabbages at all. New at Works in Progress, the bio-history of the world's most versatile vegetable. worksinprogress.co/issue/sculptin…

Some NIMBYs are unreasonable fanatics. But most are not: they just want what's best for their neighbourhood. Separating that majority from the minority might be how we can dismantle the vetocracy that has taken hold across most of the Western world. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-nimb… There are big strides being made towards upzoning in most developed countries. The mood has shifted decisively and nearly all sensible people now agree that we need many more homes in prosperous cities. But even the biggest successes can falter if the NIMBY coalition can regroup and create new barriers to development after pro-housing reforms have happened. • Ambitious upzoning reforms have happened in Oregon, Minneapolis, California and Montana but still haven't delivered significantly higher housebuilding because of other barriers that NIMBYs have resorted to instead. • After passing parliament with bipartisan support, New Zealand’s Medium Density Residential Standards were reversed following public backlash, political infighting, and a change of government. • New South Wales Premier Chris Minns abandoned a sweeping transit-oriented development plan after pushback from local governments and the Greens. • The Tories not only retreated from a major pro-development planning reform – which I predicted would fail in advance – but left land use rules *stricter* than they had been before. Unpicking the NIMBY coalition can help to make sure these efforts succeed and stick. New at Works in Progress, how new developments that enhance the places they happen in can give the reasonable majority safe, liveable and stable neighbourhoods – and 'drain the swamp' around the fanatics who will never be happy.

Marriage customs very different to our own: • Enga boys in Papua New Guinea join bachelor cults. They are only able to marry after they have proven they can live without dependence on women. • Among the Nuer of Sudan, dead men still marry and 'have children'. • The BaYaka marry informally. They simply walk into the forest together and come back married. They can break off their marriages as simply. • When the French state banned primogeniture, they also decreased their birthrates, as families limited their fertility to stop their estates getting chopped up. (They also increased their rates of cousin marriages.) Plus: Menstrual huts, where women seclude themselves during their menses, reduce rates of cuckoldry. Read on to find out why! worksinprogress.co/issue/marriage…

A great way to discover new and emerging ideas to improve the world is @WorksInProgMag. We are humbled they chose to highlight LENS's mission to end traffic accidents in their February issue

Works in Progress issue 22 is live. worksinprogress.co With essays on: • Communism had its optimistic, pro-growth reformers too, but they always failed. Today's would-be reformers can learn from them. • Marriage customs very different to our own, including the "menstrual huts" used by the Dogon people of Mali to reduce the risk of cuckoldry. Apparently, it works! • How one ugly shrub gave us cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kolrahbi and cauliflowers. Gee, thanks. Plus: why labour laws hold back European tech; how Victorian cities could 10x in under a century; the gold plating of American water; and why today is a golden age of vaccine development. Read now! worksinprogress.co

Nuclear power is back. After decades of stagnation, people are starting to wonder how we can build nuclear reactors as quickly and cheaply as we did in the 20th Century I sat down with @chalmermagne and @bswud to talk about why nuclear power can be so good, why it flopped, and how to get it back again. We discuss: • The astonishing energy density of uranium – 100g of it produces the same energy as 1.5 tons of coal – and why it matters • Why nearly every country in the world forgot how to do cheap nuclear at the same time • How the French state built 37 reactors in ten years • Why even solar power optimists should want a nuclear renaissance Plus: Why nuclear meltdowns aren't as scary as people think! Listen now. Links below! Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2ZFBC2… Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wor… Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=xkQ6-k…

Nineteenth-century cities grew fast. Berlin’s population grew twenty times, Manchester’s twenty-five times, and New York’s a hundred times. Sydney’s population grew around 240 times and Toronto’s maybe 1,700 times. Between 1833 and 1900, Chicago’s population grew around five thousand times, meaning that on average it doubled every five years. Homes were larger and far more affordable. Vast networks of trams, buses and suburban railways were built. Running water, gas, drains and electricity was retrofitted into old fabric. Despite having been built at breakneck speed, cities in 1914 were pretty good places. How was this achieved? The short answer: vigorous interventionism about streets and drains, state-mandated monopolies for transport and utilities infrastructure, and lightly regulated permissiveness for everything else. worksinprogress.co/issue/urban-ex…

The United States has spent $5 trillion fighting water pollution since 1970, about 0.8% of GDP over that period. The price of water and sewer for households has more than doubled since the early 1980s, adjusted for inflation. American households in large cities now spend about $1,300 a year on water and sewer charges, even though per-capita use has actually decreased. This has been driven by projects like San Francisco's sewage system overhaul, demanded by the EPA in 2019 at a cost of $13,000 for every person in the city, on top of existing water rates of $3,600/year. Thanks to filtration, chlorination and municipal sewage systems, American water became extremely clean and safe decades ago. Most of the money spent since the 1970s has been delivered infinitesimal benefits, even by the admission of the EPA. New at Works in Progress, @judgeglock on the gold-plating of American water: a near-invisible case of safetyism that has driven enormous increases in the cost of living for Americans. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-gold…

America has too many bus stops. Removing excess bus stops speeds up bus services, makes them more reliable, and reduces transit costs, all of which boosts ridership. For example: San Francisco has an average of eight stops per mile, whereas European cities tend to have only four stops per mile. Moving to a European model only adds 1–3 mins of extra walking to get to a stop. Portland saw a six percent increase in bus speeds from a project which increased average stop spacing by just 90 feet. SF boosted ridership by 14% by removing some stops. Other cities have used limited stop services to boost ridership by 25–33%! New at Works in Progress, @nithin_vejendla on a rare example of a transit reform that is at once fast, cheap, and effective. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-unit…