Notices by Burrito Justice (burritojustice@mastodon.social)

“Demagogues have found that it doesn’t matter how much their followers suffer, as long as their designated enemies are suffering more. If you can keep ramping up the pain for scapegoats (primarily immigrants), voters will thank you for it, regardless of their own pain”
https://bsky.app/profile/georgemonbiot.bsky.social/post/3lg5rkzrxr22i

“A Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm is LIKELY - possibly as early as later today and continuing through the weekend; exact timing remains somewhat uncertain. At least seven
earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are in transit

Only three Severe (G4) geomagnetic storms have occurred so far this solar cycle (since 2019); the last was a brief occurrence on March 23. This is SWPC's first G4 Watch since 2005”

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/severe-geomagnetic-storming-likely-continue

“There is a compelling case to be made that we are watching the slow, painful collapse of Google — a company best known for a transformational and beloved product it chose to ruin, helmed by a management consultant that has, for the most part, overseen the decay of its brand” https://www.wheresyoured.at/requiem-for-raghavan/

this even explains why car brains look upon bike lanes as such a threat — loss of status of their beloved auto superiority

this paper is really interesting (and explains a lot)

“we hypothesize that status threat—in which dominant cultural groups are threatened by social progress and seek a return to the hierarchy of the status quo ante—serves to motivate contemporary reactionary American politics”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.12983

@rollovereasy

hot take: sweaters are fine but I’d argue that SF is more a hoodie town than a sweater town for proper thermal regulation across microclimates

see also

https://www.gq.com/story/hoodie-and-shorts-hell-yeah

“I am going to give the last word to Timothy Snyder, the Yale historian:”

‘Trump is in the classic dictatorial position: He needs to die in bed holding all executive power to stay out of prison. This means that he will do whatever he can to gain power, and once in power will do all that he can to never let it go. This is a basic incentive structure which underlies everything else. It is entirely inconsistent with democracy.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/opinion/trump-second-term-2025.html

can SF break 100% humidity? let’s find out

“[JD Vance] was deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006 with the aircraft wing but did not see combat as a frontline combatant.

His official military occupation, known as a combat correspondent, meant he was tasked with basic communication roles such as writing articles about the happenings in his unit.” https://press.coop/@nytimes/112923025383122239

Olympic BMX but with cargo bikes

bravo, anonymous cubist contractor, this is the best temporary bike stencil I’ve ever seen

@kingrat today a guy on Valencia stopped me to ask if I knew anything about the person who was talking to Bill Murray in Groundhog Day before he stepped into the puddle of water (Ned Ryerson)

ok this seems bad https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-record-breaking-heat-in-the-atlantic/

you can tell it’s a tight race when Mayor Breed told SFMTA Director Tumlin to make a protected bike lane in front of city hall by removing supervisors’ parking spots, in front of multiple supervisors during the Bike to Wherever Day

Texas: America’s Alberta

“In Texas, many batteries today are actually increasing carbon-dioxide emissions, according to one analysis. That’s because operators focus on maximizing revenue and sometimes charge with coal or gas power”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/07/climate/battery-electricity-solar-california-texas.html

nike Boston from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure
https://mastodon.social/@shoq/112321269699298425

“Note even utility boxes and machinery get yellow steel poles for protection. Cyclists get plastic”

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2024/04/09/eyes-on-the-street-san-francisco-joins-the-sidewalk-level-bike-lane-club

“No other branch of civil engineering tolerates this level of system failure. In any other field, if engineers knew that systems would fail catastrophically about 30 times this year and knew when, where, and why that was most likely to happen, they would be required to intervene or shut everything down. And if they didn't, there would be serious professional consequences: firing, fines, loss of license, and, depending on how egregious the infraction, criminal penalties” https://sf.streetsblog.org/2024/03/27/guest-commentary-traffic-engineers-must-put-safety-over-driver-throughput

“I'd suggest, yet again, that we start designing streets to force drivers to go slow and to make it so reckless drivers crash into things before people... Instead, any effort to narrow lanes and do things that would actually force safe behavior is immediately vetoed by SFMTA and the city” https://sf.streetsblog.org/2024/03/19/commentary-the-west-portal-tragedy-and-the-unfathomable-cost-of-motordom

fucking balloons https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/25/1088930/global-helium-market-semiconductors/