Amazon just got permission from the FAA to start testing its delivery drones in the US →

After several years with little progress, the FAA has been busy of late. It took a big step last month when it published a proposal for new rules to help legalize commercial drone flight and has been granting a number of exemptions to different companies that want to begin field testing with flying robots.

Unfortunately those new rules, and the exemption granted to Amazon today, insist that the drones remain within line of sight of the pilot at all times. In Amazon's case they must also have "at least a private pilot’s certificate and current medical certification." Those kind of restrictions make sense for initial testing, but would definitely prevent the rollout of any scaleable commercial operation if they remain in place, since they severly limit the use of autonomous drones over a meaningful distance.

Measuring health care →

By using a lottery to assign coverage, Oregon had unintentionally created the perfect conditions for a randomized controlled trial that could reveal the true costs and benefits of health insurance. Since the population that received coverage was statistically equivalent to the group that didn’t, economists could simply compare outcomes between groups to gauge the effects of insurance. “Remarkably, this had never been done before in the United States,” says Finkelstein, who won the 2012 John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association for most significant contribution to economic thought by an economist under 40.

The results were stunning. Researchers found, for example, that Medicaid increased health care use and reduced rates of depression, despite often-heard claims that Medicaid coverage was worthless. Medicaid also increased visits to the emergency room — notwithstanding many policymakers’ predictions to the contrary. “The beauty and power of randomized evaluations is that they really allow you to be surprised,” Finkelstein says.

The study also showed that health insurance successfully provides a financial safety net. “People often think of health insurance as a way of improving health, but to economists, health insurance is a financial instrument. The first idea is not to improve health but to protect you financially against large medical expenses,” Finkelstein says. “We found Medicaid basically eliminates the prospect that a person will have a catastrophic financial issue.”

The results from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment made headlines again and again, underscoring for Finkelstein the power that randomized evaluations have to change both public perception and policy debate. “Nobody is arguing about what the results are,” Finkelstein says. Instead, they’re arguing about what to do with this new information — and that is the way of the future.

'We’re Frighteningly in the Dark About Student Debt' →

We’re Frighteningly in the Dark About Student Debt, NY Times: ...The ... United States government ... has a portfolio of roughly $1 trillion in student loans, many of which appear to be troubled. The Education Department, which oversees the portfolio, is ... neither analyzing the portfolio adequately nor allowing other agencies to do so.

These loans are no trivial matter... Student loans are now the second-largest source of consumer debt in the United States, surpassed only by home mortgages. In a major reversal, they now constitute a larger portion of household debt than credit cards or car loans. ...

Who Owns the Post Office? →

...This article describes how the creation of a misguided corporatized governance structure and undermining of public-interest-related objectives undermined the Post Office. The very fact that offices are being shuttered in rural areas that depend on the Post Office as a local anchor, leading to the death of communities, shows how far the modern Post Office deviates from its founders’ objectives.

Watch Texas Law Enforcement Blow Up 20,000 Pounds Of Illegal Fireworks →

According to the Midland Texas Police Department’s post on Facebook, the department’s bomb squad assisted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in “the disposal” (translation: fiery destruction) of around 20,000 pounds of seized fireworks, over three days.

And yes, if you were wondering, officials only blew up the fireworks during the daytime, as “it was not meant to be a fireworks show.” The lesson being: If you buy illegal fireworks, you don’t deserve a show.

Yet it was recorded. ;)

Serbia Asks People To Please Stop Throwing Their Grenades In The Garbage →

Hundreds of thousands of unregistered arms, many stashed away after the wars in the former-Yugoslavia in the 1990s, are estimated to be at large in the country with a population of 7.3 million. That is in addition to over 1 million registered weapons.

Parliament passed a law last month setting strict conditions for owning firearms, including medical and psychiatric checks, following a surge in gun-related crime.

People can hand weapons into the police under an amnesty that runs until June 4, or face up to five years in jail for illegal possession. But, fearing people will just dump their weapons, the Interior Ministry issued a plea on Tuesday:...

Exclusive: Lost City Discovered in the Honduran Rain Forest →

I find it incredible that we still have so much to discover in previous human spaces, let alone the rest of our world.

An expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with dramatic news of the discovery of a mysterious culture’s lost city, never before explored. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied “White City,” also referred to in legend as the “City of the Monkey God.”  

Archaeologists surveyed and mapped extensive plazas, earthworks, mounds, and an earthen pyramid belonging to a culture that thrived a thousand years ago, and then vanished. The team, which returned from the site last Wednesday, also discovered a remarkable cache of stone sculptures that had lain untouched since the city was abandoned.

Thoughts on the Israeli Election →

For me, the salient—one might say searing—fact about the Israeli election is this: Bibi Netanyahu won, and won decisively, (a) after going to Washington to campaign against the President of the United States, (b) after unpardonably questioning the legitimacy of voting by the one fifth of Israeli citizens who are Palestinian Arabs, and (c) after repudiating the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This fact will, I fear, reverberate loudly and for a long time in the U.S.-Israeli relationship.