City Atlas

Oops, this. Though it's hard to focus given the bounce back and forth in this thread
bsky.app/profile/mayo...

But on the bright side, there's this:
bsky.app/profile/timo...

Dystopia news Tuesday

Also, NYC and Hudson Valley will go from 70s today, to freezing a few days later 🤪
Almost like something is askew

The worst cabinet in American history And it's not even close.

"In his second term, Trump knew exactly what he wanted and who could give it to him. In many cases, that meant not just a weak choice but literally the worst possible choice, the person guaranteed to do maximal harm. In short, we have never seen quite this collection of clowns, cranks, and crooks."

Iranian drones are shooting down interceptors Not the other way around. YouTube video by Inside China Business

youtu.be/pVyAiZnvQhE

Iranian drones are shooting down interceptors Not the other way around. YouTube video by Inside China Business

youtu.be/pVyAiZnvQhE

[Could be b/c the NYT editorial Neuralink chip instruction 'must must must must must protect our billionaires' fires at unpredictable moments]

"What about her emails?" rises from the dead, a ghoul from the NYT's institutional graveyard of journalism

My Dinner with Jeffrey What the Epstein Files Reveal About Us All

this rundown of the banality of Epstein from @rushkoff.com is such a great encapsulation of Everything Wrong in techno-supremacist mindset.

highly recommended viewing/listening/reading.

rushkoff.substack.com/p/my-dinner-...

"An Insult to Life Itself": Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki Hates AI Passionately, And He's Told Us Why Hayao Miyazaki rips into AI.

However, most people who are AI-positive or even more deeply persuaded probably aren't leading with the 'rocks are conscious' argument.

** And for some of us, aesthetically, Miyazaki's take is a good one.

screenrant.com/studio-ghibl...

Can the Rocks Cry Out?

This is true of all the artists mentioned in an art history book, along with all the other artists who never got into a book.

* however, rocks may be conscious if you spend enough time thinking about it or watch a Miyazaki** film

www.templeton.org/news/can-the...

A machine doesn't feel anything while encoding data, anymore than a photocopier or a rock* feels something. Cormac McCarthy, along with every other human who has written creatively, has read and felt, which changes his words. He's a person with experiences, hopes, grudges & a memory of life.

‘A sobering preview’: extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds Rising temperatures making it hard even for young, healthy people to safely do normal physical tasks in many regions

"Hundreds of millions of people can no longer safely go about their daily lives outside during the hottest parts of the year."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The US bombing of schoolchildren in Iran is the biggest single US massacre of civilians since My Lai. The Israeli bombing of Tehran’s oil storage constitutes the biggest single act of chemical warfare against a civilian population in history. Grotesque new depths of barbarism.

Frykter teknologien i milliardprosjekt vil slutte å fungere ­

Today's #HydrogenSoufflé comes to you from Norway. In 2022 the Public Roads Administration awarded a 4.9bn NOK ($520 million) contract for 2 #hydrogen ferries. Internal documents found by NRK show the fuel cell lifetime may be less than 10% of the 7.5 years promised.
www.nrk.no/trondelag/xl...

No Kings 3 Kickoff Call · No Kings On March 28, millions of us are rising again to show the world: the power belongs to the people. We don't do kings in America. Our nonviolent movement is only growing. Join our March 19 Kickoff Call...

Sign up for the Community Kickoff Call on March 19!

With no effort at making sense, it's the most efficient form of leadership

In retrospect, a really big mistake was not explaining to economists that in reality, we live on a farm.
youtu.be/SIAH8HO-Zyc

I went on NPR this weekend to talk about Trump's suggestion that tech companies build their own power plants to power AI data centers. I had just published a 12,000 word report on the topic, so it was hard to distill everything into a 4 minute segment. The "bring your own capacity" (BYOC) idea that Trump mentioned in his State of the Union speech isn't a new one. It's been discussed at virtually every utility commission over the last year. In the broadest terms, BYOC is good policy. The US hasn't been expanding its power grid for the last 10-20 years because electricity demand has been flat. Now data centers are changing the equation triggering huge demand increases. The question is who should pay for the new transmission lines and power generation capacity. Virtually everyone—including many tech companies—agree data centers should foot the bill, not everyday utility bill payers. But electricity policy is complex. There's a federal regulator (FERC), 50 different state regulators, and grid operators that span multiple states. One version of this policy that's become popular is to force data centers off the grid entirely. The idea is tempting, if anything for its simplicity. But it would have some negative consequences. Consider OpenAI's Stargate project in New Mexico. The 2 GW data center will run on its own "microgrid" powered by inefficient gas turbines. That means it will be powered by 100% fossil fuels, which results in far more pollution than a power grid, which can make use of nuclear, hydro, solar, wind, etc. This Stargate project will emit 14 million tons of CO2 per year, according to permit documents we found at Cleanview for our latest report. To put that number in perspective: New Mexico has spent 20 years decarbonizing its economy and in that time has cut emissions by 14 million tons. So in this case "build your own power plant" means wiping out 20 years of climate progress—in a location with more land and solar potential than nearly anywh…

Hhhoollly moly. 14 MTCO2-e for OpenAI's fossil-fuelled Stargate data centre

As @michael-thomas.bsky.social says: "wiping out 20 years of climate progress—in a location with more land and solar potential than nearly anywhere on Earth"

!!!!

www.linkedin.com/posts/michae...

And weight.

Why do EVs destroy tires? YouTube video by VINwiki

It's also regenerative braking. "On an EV, a tire is either always under torque, or always under regen."
youtu.be/6G_jgek5mmc?...

Yes, this is unsettling. A neighbor with a Chevy Bolt loves it but mentioned going through tires faster than her previous car. Everyone with the option should prioritize mass transit and two wheelers with four wheels as a last resort.

Car tires are the leading source of microplastics in coastal CA waters. We're also breathing it. Electrifying cars won't help particulate air pollution (strokes, heart attacks, asthma, dementia) at all because they trade fewer tailpipe particles for more tire particles.

Billionaires Are Swaying Elections in All Corners of America

“The Times analysis found 300 billionaires and their families donated more than $3 billion—19% of all contributions—in federal elections in 2024. The billionaire families gave an average total of $10 million each in 2024, roughly equal to what 100,000 typical political donors gave, combined.“ Gift:

A bar chart in here (with my added notes that not all of these are necessarily billionaires — the article is great, it doesn't describe them as such, just passing along what exists on megawealthy donors. E.g., Mellon and Simon are from billionaire families, etc.)

www.opensecrets.org/news/2025/03...

Who are America’s billionaires backing this election? More billionaires are backing Harris than Trump, but Trump’s billionaires are giving him larger amounts, Graig Graziosi reports

A breakdown from 2024:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

In retrospect, a really big mistake was not explaining to economists that in reality, we live on a farm.
youtu.be/SIAH8HO-Zyc

Or 1969, to pick two earlier dates
bsky.app/profile/city...

The Fallacy of Endless Economic Growth What economists around the world get wrong about the future.

I start counting in 1972
psmag.com/features/fal...