Viewing profile — halhod

HN may enjoy this old Christmas special I wrote on Ethan, a teenager born without a cerebellum https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2018/12/18/the-...

This headline appears to be bullshit. The report does not recommend banning smartphones. This is what it actually says: "Banning technology from schools can be legitimate if techno…

lol, hilarious question that betrays utter lack of understanding of how the economist or any serious news org works. of course i own no shares in TMC or any other DSM related compa…

I agree with you, and I hope we will go that way; free range organic high quality etc etc. but the lure of metrics affects our thinking too, in ways one cannot avoid wrestling with…

1) this underestimates the scale of increase in nickel supply we're gonna see in the next five years. last year 3.3m tonnes. by 2025 it's gonna be 5m tonnes, by 2030 11m. on curren…

it has one page of indicators in the back, yes. it would defo be too many sources to fit in print, but clearly digital makes this possible as a little clickable footnote at the bot…

3/3 -- deep breath -- My central concern is that the article you've written is by itself relatively benign. It uses an interesting ratio (biomass disturbed) and a bit of fluff from…

"will be released back into the sea at a depth of around 1,500 metres, far below most ocean life" -- that we know of, and, of course, that pesky life on the bottom is way below 1,5…

so, taking your points in turn (1/?) Thanks for getting in touch! While (of course) you're not being directly paid by the company, it remains puzzling how the article comes off so …

and having read through your comment in more detail, I will defo reply later. lots of interesting points. my email is halhodson at economist dot come if you'd like to ping me there…

Hi there, my blood is fine! appreciate the cut and thrust, even if no one is watching. I would have preferred if you had started in good faith and critiqued the facts etc rather th…

yes, good point. I am sure this has been discussed internally and not adopted to date for a good reason, but I will think on it more

That’s kind of you to say, thanks. I get the cynicism, and I worry about it. Humans aren’t getting out of climate change without all the tools we have in the box, including “big in…

no worries at all, did not take it as such. and yeah, i guess i think just cos something has worked well for us for a long time, doesn’t mean it’s not worth thinking about how well…

I think about this a lot, and I think you may be right, but I am also not sure anyone ever had their mind changed by having sources cited. My main thought is that in an age of chea…

No problem, happy to help

yeah you’ve got it. i’m based in London. i am fairly confident that our style can come across as arrogant. i don’t always ageee with it, though i can see its advantages. you’ll see…

I said it once, and waited for them to express interest. Now you have. Here are some of the papers from which the reporting is drawn: starting point for abyssal biomass calcs - htt…

I don’t mind at all. The honest answer is I don’t really know. Broadly speaking it helps our voice sound authoritative and readable to not be breaking the flow of a piece up with l…

there’s enough nickel in the CCZ to get the world to 2040 on a path to net zero. not “1000s of years” worth

We do in fact have an idea, and it’s improving all the time. See this paper by MIT team on the plumes from the collector https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn1219

hi, i’m the writer. this article, like all my articles, originated from my own curiosity. at no point was i pitched on this. the only PR pitches i’ve received about the subject ove…

Hi, I’m the writer. I was, obviously, paid nothing by TMC or any other company. If you’re interested I can link all the peer reviewed publications on which I based the calculations…

HN may be interested in the rest of the special report, which is here https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2023-04-08

I am curious that you read this piece as arguing for any particular position. I did not write it with a particular argument in mind. My personal bias is the same as yours