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Links: The White Wartyback, fighting poverty, healthcare and prices, big soda, college versus learning, and more!

* “Recovery Efforts for the White Wartyback,” a favorite recent grant program from grants.gov.

* Propel, a Start-Up, Says It Wants to Fight Poverty. A Food Stamp Giant Is Blocking It.

* “Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online.” This is really good and important news. See also us, here, on some of healthcare’s shibboleths.

* On Henry Green, who figures prominently in How Fiction Works and Reading Like a Writer.

* “You Can’t Have Denmark Without Danes,” amusing throughout.

* “Police and therapists are joining forces to de-escalate situations involving mentally ill people. Is it working?” Makes sense to me.

* “How the baby boomers — not millennials — screwed America.”

* Non-profit NewStoryCharity built the first 3D home printer for the developing world.

* “The Decline of ‘Big Soda:’ The drop in soda consumption represents the single largest change in the American diet in the last decade.” Great news!

* And Then There Were Nones: How Millennials’ Flight From Religion is Transforming American Politics. Maybe.

* Living in suburbs is very expensive due to the cost of cars.

* Why Social Services Are Virtually Useless Outside of Cities.”

* “Scientists say we’re on the cusp of a carbon dioxide–recycling revolution.” Great news if true.

* “Why Some Americans Are Risking It and Skipping Health Insurance: Prices and deductibles are rising. Networks are shrinking. And even some well-off Americans are questioning what they’re paying for.” Makes sense to me. We have “good” insurance with absurd deductibles. That’s one reason why, per this post, I’ve become a stronger advocate for pricing transparency (hence the link above). Right now, I can call three providers and I’ll be lucky if one can give me a price quote. That’s absurd. If Amazon can offer instant pricing on a billion items, it shouldn’t be hard to have every insurance code with a cash price next to it.

* Doctors hate their EHRs.

* How the humble bicycle can save our cities. Oddly, it never mentions ebikes. Also, “Electric bike purchases pulling people from private cars, finds NITC study.” This should be obvious to anyone who’s ever ridden an electric bike.

* Almost no one knows what education really means.

* “High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University.” See also our post, “Rare good political news: Boosting apprenticeships.” And if you have not read Bryan Caplan’s book The Case Against Education, you need to, now.

* “In grant writing, longer is not necessarily better” (and is often worse).

* Universal basic income is not feasible. I think it’s a cool idea and it could one day be feasible but isn’t now.

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