Notices by Al Pastor (morgan@sfba.social)

I have a #GIS question, or maybe it's a #dataScience question: I want to represent geographical information to non-technical people, ideally via the web, showing how data about people, organizations, places relate to each other, on a map. The data is both private data sets - starting with CSV - and also publicly available. I have some familiarity with #QGIS, but not the data side of it. I could build something there, and then export to KML, and I know there are also javascript-based web export methods. Or I could build it in Google Maps, or some other online platform. I'd like for the people I share this with to be able to interact with the data and the map. In a perfect world, I'd make what I did for my location (USA state, or region) available to others in my organization, people who are likely not GIS savvy, so they could replicate it for their region. What would you do?

@reverend @jae my friend is gonna put on a 'Cults on San Francisco' culture tour bicycle ride. Anton LaVey and his satanists will definitely be part of it.

@MissConstrue I was 8. I remember it. My friend's dad designed the Spirit of '76 logo.

#AlamedaCounty's most successful #ebike incentive program is slated to do its last drawing in September. Ava Bike Electric has put affordable e-bikes in the hands of thousands of residents, and we’ve been proud to partner with them.

On July 15, Ava staff are asking their Board of Directors to extend the program through December 2027. We’re rallying folks to support this recommendation. Learn more, sign the petition, and make a public comment supporting the program and sharing your experience.

Sign the Petition

https://bikeeastbay.org/extend-avas-bike-electric-program/

#BikeEastBay
#BikeTooter
#EastBay

"One of the strongest predictors of wildfire fatalities may be the number of roads out of a community, according to a new study from scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara and UC Cooperative Extension. Their research reveals that a surprisingly specific number of roads separates high-risk communities from safer ones during a wildfire – six."

https://ucanr.edu/blog/green-blog/article/wildfire6exits

#fire
#wildfire

These headlines. All of them. It's relentless.
#grift
#billionaires
#trillionaires
#greed
#ClassWar
#AngelsWithFlamingSwords
#SmitingEvilDoers
#nytimes

RE: https://me.ns.ci/@hnbot/116602701708932629

Time for a new search engine.

@th @platypus my old boss set his required security question and answer at Rackspace to be:

Q: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A: Yes

Every call he had with them began with that interchange.

#CDC study shows #COVID shot benefits; #Trump official blocks release

Study found shots cut urgent care and hospitalization by about 50% in healthy adults.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/cdc-study-shows-covid-shot-benefits-trump-official-blocks-release/

#MAHA

@evan have you listened to this Grady Booch interview? I thought it was worthwhile.

https://youtu.be/OfMAtaocvJw

If you do listen to it, I'd be curious to hear what you think about Grady's opinions. I am generally anti LLM, but it's more about the economics and cultural impact than it is the utility.

'#FCC calls for more 'patriotic, pro-America' programming in run-up to 250th anniversary'

I encourage you all to watch #KenBurns' The American Revolution. It's about as #patriotic and pro-#American as you can get. It's about #resistance and #revolution against a #king using military force and economic coercion against his country's own citizens, and the birth of a republic based on representative #democracy

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-revolution

I'm somewhat biased, my 5th great-grandfather fought in that war.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ytryhWw7_7z2eFa-N8uR3GzZ2p9bAdNel_ldkC2IpAs/edit?usp=sharing

#AmericanRevolution
#america250

@me @pmonks @ai6yr I have the same story. I was visiting my kids in Portland, Oregon. My wife and I drove to one of our favorite local restaurants in our rental Subaru to pick up dinner. She dropped me off to go in while she looked for parking. When I came out, my wife was not in the car. Weird. I got in, wondering where she went, pizza boxes on my lap. The car was messy, too. What had she done? Then I looked up, across the street, and she was sitting in our rental Subaru, laughing so hard that she was crying. I don't know whose Subaru that was.

I've heard stories that in previous decades, when Subarus used less key variations, people would get in, and start, and drive off in other people's Subarus, in Portland, Oregon.

@suzannealdrich @Infoseepage @cstross I was coming here to say exactly that. Just five generations ago, in Germany, my ancestors lost six of eight children before the age of three. Two survived to adulthood.

@steter

This rely on bluesy is worth sharing, here:

https://bsky.app/profile/kittyvoltaire.bsky.social/post/3mbmqmirzyc2v

The Top #Human #Evolution Discoveries of 2025, From the Intriguing #Neanderthal Diet to the Oldest Western European Face #Fossil
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/the-top-human-evolution-discoveries-of-2025-from-the-intriguing-neanderthal-diet-to-the-oldest-western-european-face-fossil-180987936/

#Smithsonian
#paleoanthropology
#science
#humans

@Vivaldi "We're not AI."

That's all I need to hear.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/12/mozilla-new-ceo-firefox-ai-browser-strategy

#AI
#Firefox
#Mozilla
#Vivaldi

"Reuters reported on Wednesday that the origins of the U.S.-sanctioned 28-point plan, which was made public last week, came directly from #Russia.

How did it get handed off to the Americans? By way of Steve #Witkoff, a #billionaire New York real estate developer whose son is a co-founder of Trump’s #cryptocurrency company, and the president’s son-in-law Jared #Kushner, who was supposed to be out of government affairs. In October, they met with Kirill #Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. Over several days in Miami, they crafted the Russia-Ukraine plan and discussed future business deals, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Let that sink in. This enormously important deal, to end a horrific war that has vast implications for the security of #Ukraine, Europe, and the rest of the world, was written by a #Putin stooge and two pro-Russia American #billionaires whose goal in life is to enrich themselves, not by the Secretary of State."

https://open.substack.com/pub/steady/p/clown-car-diplomacy

#DanRather

@MorpheusB a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I did tech support for a software company that sold products on "floppy" discs. Those disc drives had little latches you would flip down to secure the disc, and begin reading/writing. We called them "doors."

I was on a call with a customer who was having a problem with their software. I asked them to put the floppy disc in the drive and close the door.

I heard the phone placed on the desk, then footsteps, then the sound of a door closing, then footsteps, then the phone picked back up, and then, "OK, I've closed the door. Now what?"

@MLE_online we have them here in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. They are bold and in your face. They aren't hunted here, by humans. Coyotes do.

There used to be one that would block the little road to my kids' school, and peck at car bumpers, blocking them from proceeding. We called him Tom. The parents would refrain from vehicular violence, and try to creep past him. I would stick my head out the driver window and try to encourage him to move. It embarrassed my kids so much.

Here are some:

@evan on the flip side:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Redivivus