Thanks!
I try to be helpful. Bike-riding dog butler and mold connoisseur. Now all about the chicks (chicken.pics) But please use your employer's money to buy Just Enough Research (https://www.mulebooks.com/just-enough-research) San Francisco. She/They/Friend/Sir
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Thanks!
We have nine public pools and a bison paddock. Those are endeavors of some complexity.
Based on my superficial observations of what actually seems to get done well in San Francisco, we just need to call every public good project a park. Public restrooms? Park. Affordable art studios? Park. That empty condo building? Boom it's social housing run by the parks department.
the beginning of my strategy recommendations went something like "the audience for the website comprises adult US residents who believe that personal car ownership is necessary and worthwhile…" and one of the client team members raised their hand and said "…wait…does this mean you don't?"
Oh yeah, a long time ago we did a project for Yahoo! Autos. (I looked in my heart and said "since car ownership is necessary in 90% of the US, providing trustworthy information about purchasing doesn't violate my prime directive") …
Maybe it exists, but a comprehensive sociological study of the uses and meanings of cars in the US, written for a general audience with an agenda of facilitating deeper understanding would be real good. Not car culture, but car society/economy.
Oof. Of course.
This is why transit advocates need to engage with cars as so much more than a mode of personal transportation. In many cases it's tantamount to asking someone to give up their personal private recording studio when you suggest they take transit instead of driving.
Has anyone written a good critical analysis of the difference between slop and collage?
yeah, sure…and a lot of kids I went to middle school with were writing "Mrs. Simon LeBon" on their Trapper Keepers
gaslighting, at an all time high however
I keep saying. Walled. Garden. Meanwhile, I can leave @buttondown.com any time I want to, because they're a proper newsletter platform. I just don't leave, because it's awesome and I love it.
it's exhausting. I should make an effort to use duck duck go as the default.
yeah I just have that habit. -ai stopped working for a minute.
thanks for the "updated plan", assholes.
Wow such an improvement over when, given an obvious typo in a query, Google would return Did you mean "…"? with results for the corrected query.
everyone who is treating unblur like science really needs to look at "white unblurred obama" again
Look, letting measles run rampant through populations of children is a small sacrifice necessary to generate the next batch of surrealist artists. hyperallergic.com/424432/max-e...
Oh how I wish I could teleport from San Francisco! (I have also been in the same room screaming at the Pet Shop Boys, but probably at somewhat more of a distance)
absolutely terrible news
Happy birthday! I believe all members of our generation have a shirtless blowing out candles in front of wood paneling photo somewhere. Or maybe just the summer birthdays.
Aristotle was not Belgian.
Everyone is probably telling you to read this book, but read this book. It's so well-reported and well-written.
the fact that "lead" isn't parallel with "read" is truly stupid
My fantasy is that Disney's narrative revision project will ultimately reach The Enchanted Tiki Room, and the parrot hosts will be reprogrammed to tell the true story of the US annexation of Hawaii in the voices of the Golden Girls.
Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
"chatGPT 5 is like having a bunch of phds in your pocket" here's ten trillion dollars "bluesky is having an *actual* bunch of phds in your pocket" dying platform. it disgusts me
Another story of AI slop found on Instagram. As the artist (Benn Jordan) targeted in this slop attack says: “Gemini confidently confused me with a Newsmax commentator who uploads military videos.” “We're trading a world of information at our fingertips for a random gossip generator.”
Bunch of people who never had to uproot their entire lives and move thousands of miles away ought to stop pontificating on asylum and immigration
"Smoking tables next to non-smoking tables used to be normal too." Seeing this billboard up has been incredible and this shot from @visionzerovancouver.ca of the team of volunteers is pretty moving TBH.
COLORADO is now worse than fucking Nevada for protecting trans kids. I moved here in '23 to escape Montana, and now it's going the same direction as Montana. I will *never* forgive the Democrats for abandoning us.
There are links in the article, but for anyone who hits a paywall or just likes to click less, my suggestions for people who want to stand up (in/near/about academia/higher ed) are: 1) go to WeAreHigherEd.org and find a LOT of links & connections & resources & news & people fighting back.
This whole thing is great but the highlighted bit made me laugh out loud. 😂 Marlon on Snoop:
Wow would I love it for The New Yorker to pay me or literally any other disability scholar to write about the connection between eugenics and fascism! You know, the connection that disabled folks have been talking about for decades? That one
here’s a version where the POV is blacked out whenever the driver takes their eyes off the road
They’re doing all this to prevent people from MEMORIALIZING A MASS SHOOTING
Just saw someone refer to Cheryl Hines as The Marvelous Mrs. Measles and 💀💀💀💀💀💀
Take cop stem cells and grow cop minibrains to find out why cops are like that, can cops learn to love and be civilized people, what can pregnant people do to avoid having a cop child, do vaccines cause cop? MANY SUCH QUESTIONS
I don't know too much other than the general shape of the new LACMA. I remain very salty about how they did the old building, over time really. All the remodels were garbage and leveling it was the final insult.
Very different take. Complementary.
OK I was previously unaware of the Brad Pitt "Make It Right" homes. Oof. lailluminator.com/2022/01/31/h....
Only watch the Katrina doc if you are insufficiently consumed by rage.
Hah, that’s awesome
Labor Day Weekend!
This firefighter arrived in the US at age 4, has been here for 19 years, was on track to legal status, and was on a crew trying to contain a major blaze (in Washington state, vs Oregon, fwiw.) h/t @joshuajfriedman.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I can
whoa that's a good one!
I will once again recommend The Lathe of Heaven as a novel extremely in tune with these times.
this would absolutely work
"Newsom is following a pipeline transgender people have seen time and again… Transphobia rarely stays confined to one small corner… Those who embrace it… almost always end up sliding further into opposition to nearly every facet of transgender existence…" www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/08/acti...
tiktok bless www.tiktok.com/@zeo_choons/...
fr and that is definitely a remote controlled drone
I’ve heard from a couple of messaging strategists now that people shouldn’t post so much about COVID19 vaccines because it’s “divisive”. I am here to say that I do not give a damn what is popular. I will never ignore scientific evidence for the sake of expediency, and neither should anyone else.
This is appalling, criminal, and the GOP plan for everywhere: block cheap renewables in favor of expensive gas turbines. It won't even provide enough power, there's a 3-5 year backlog for turbines. We'll all pay far higher electricity bills to be sicker and to do more environmental damage.
sure. if you see any person doing a useful thing, it's fine to say "I like how that person is doing that thing" even if they totally suck in other ways. and I will also grant that even trolling is so much more than most prominent elected dems are doing. but, lord, the bar is in hell.
In cities, it's known as "trainsubstantiation".
This is so stupid it has cheered me up immensely.
We are well past the time when the question of whether AI as currently trained encodes biases could be treated as open. We need very rapidly to enter the what are we going to do about it phase.
Being forced to tolerate The Torment Mehxus for a hope at a paycheck.
I've been reading my way through The Big Book of Cyberpunk, which is super fun and also food for rumination way out here in 2025. We have all the Corporation Owns Everything and very little of the cool future tech. Maybe someone noticed sci-fi changing because the Torment Nexus is mid.
my father-in-law is a “I know a guy” Guy. sadly all the old Guys are aging out of the Guy Economy. Guys are fundamentally incompatible with Hustle Culture because it’s not about “winning” a deal, it’s about collecting favors and goodwill in a mutually-beneficial cycle. protect your local Guy Economy
There are four main arguments for AI in education: 1. Efficiency, saving teachers time 2. Equity, making education inclusive 3. Improving outcomes by personalizing learning 4. It's inevitable Is it true? Nope. Micro 🧵
This is one of the stranger points I’ve had to argue with AI boosters—they must be getting it from somewhere, I don’t know where—and what I always say in response is that The X-Files has a Wikipedia article for nearly every episode but the article on human hairstyles was a stub for a very long time
The answers are as feeble as you expect!
So happy to be riding home on his proper bike.
Oh yes totally. It was a demonstration not a scolding.
Well, at least I got my bike back from the shop. Got a little cautionary demo of how far gone my brake pads were too.
And then I found that paper "Bad Management Theories Are Destroying Good Management Practices," and I have dodecatupled down.
regardless of what happens to the tariffs, they're doomed from the start because the average conservative holds all three of these positions at once: — virtue signals about supporting US manufacturing — against increasing the minimum wage — buys foreign imports because they're cheap
in the first edition of Just Enough Research, my editor tried to talk me out of a subhead that said something like "put an MBA out of work" and I was like, I said what I said.
yupp
I really don't have to be a fan of any elected official who sets up little media moments to scapegoat trans people or throw out the personal property of the poor and unhoused. I get to not like the guy and also criticize him.
🧵🪡
It finally happened.
so, CA already did something like EO-14321 at newsom’s direction, but now we also have a federal order to institutionalize “undesirable” people these “clearings” find. gavin newsom is an amoral opportunist only interested in his own advancement. this is who he is behind his little tweets.
Presented without comment:
There almost wasn't any because I'm still waiting for my bike to come back from the shop and share ebikes have been scarce by my house. (my other bikes don't have racks so I can't carry a chug and a laptop) Fortunately, a fresh one showed up at the corral right before I got on the bus.
Once I figured out how to fit them correctly it was all good. Keeps the sun and wind out of his eyes, so he's happy. He loves his rides.
Anyway here’s my stupid dog. I hope my bike is out of the shop today. The bike share bikes have been dicey due to undersupply.
As a Californian, it is so embarrassing that Pritzker and Walz are leading with strong, substantive statements based on their actual principles, and we have governor hairgel meme coin.
The reason we think mentally ill people are much more likely to commit violent crimes is because we retroactively label anyone who commits ‘senseless’ violence mentally ill.
@nature.com I love this article - but WHY are the only share options to X and Facebook when the whole point of the article is that science-based posts get more shares here? www.nature.com/articles/d41...
It's the sort of letter you find in an abandoned bunker in an apocalypse survivial video game.
In response to my rant yesterday, I was asked how we can make better parks and other public places for teenage girls? What do they want? I have answers to this, so now a positive 🧵. Starting in Sweden, where this was co-designed by teenage girls.
Banger Show-and-Tell being the way most of the early influx waves of users (before the great influx of Nov '24) were introduced to this site really helped this. just all the established users saying hello and peddling their finest wares to waves of doe eyed newskies
Wild how every single day under Trump 2 is a confirmation of the worst fears of what his return to power would mean & yet everyone in a position of power to stop it from 2021 on, or leading nominal formal democratic opposition now, seems to mostly not act like this is a singular unmaking of America
For 12 months, America had a limited proof of concept for universal healthcare, and it was so uniformly successful we had no choice but to obliterate our society
Obviously it’s best to have the AI philosophers think about harm reductions like making sure the chatbot doesn’t contact an alien civilization and arrange for us to be wiped out, instead of boring shit like this. Especially when you have VC midwits convinced they’re doing vibe particle theory etc.
The first Nazi book burnings were the biggest archive of trans research that existed at the time.
Your periodic reminder that "Heat of the Moment" is in iambic pentameter. Try it with any Shakespeare sonnet. It works.
I am Tom Clancy’s trans daughter(yes, actually) and I whole-fucking-heartedly endorse this!!
“…the belief that, faced with a rising threat to democracy, surrender is strategy, cooperating with an autocrat is survival, and sparing oneself or one’s party from immediate punishment is worth opening the door to long-term authoritarian rule.”
Please please help me spread the word! I've been to Atlanta a few times, but I don't know as many folks there as I do in Seattle or LA. So I would really *massively* appreciate any and all help letting ATL folks know about this event. 🍑💖📚
the harsh realization that every single administration hire is one of the shittiest unqualified mediocre people in the world
please contact me if you control "dark money" and want to pay me to promote high rise trousers, walkable neighborhoods, and adopting shelter animals
Yup!
Speaking as a living kidney donor who considers it to have been a completely positive experience with little effect on my life: *no one* should be coerced by circumstance into giving away an organ just to try and pay their bills. No one.
I just got a burst of Dem fundraising texts. Other than that nice man in Maine, the rest of them can fuck all the way off.
beautiful
Zen Faulkes 