Thank you for leading the way, hoping we (City of Olympia) can follow Seattle's lead asap.
10.03.2026 19:07
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Thank you for leading the way, hoping we (City of Olympia) can follow Seattle's lead asap.
We're very excited to be launching the new and improved @theurbanist.org website tonight.
The new site comes with the ability to become a subscriber and turn off ads, one of our most-requested features.
www.theurbanist.org
The difference between a slowly cooling cloud of gas and a fusion powered star.
Probably not of the "lets make sure we avoid lock-in/enshitification and take privacy concerns seriously" type either, but more of the "if you don't require parking and an extra lane for cars then society will collapse" type. Joy for us.
I've probably just been listening to too much @volts.wtf, but I can't read this article without thinking "why not just add a small battery?", win for the grid, win for housing. Also cringing at the level of concern trolling around a smart panel curtailing a few percent of people's load.
Feels like we could make progress with a general commitment to a good "Plonk" infrastructure approach.
A US submarine sinking a lonely, dinky Iranian surface ship an ocean away from the theater of the main conflict—and 9000
miles from North America—makes it pretty clear the US is fighting a general war, without the declaration required by the Constitution. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...
The concerning background:
-CEO of the Thiel Foundation
-Managing Director at Thiel Capital
-Managing Director of Clarium Capital (hedge fund led by Peter Thiel)
-Managing Director of Mithril Capital Management (VC fund founded by Peter Thiel that funds Palantir)
-Co-founder of the Thiel Fellowship
Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.
The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇
the epidemic of men launching podcasts about nothing has gotten out of control
to combat this I am launching a podcast WITH A WOMAN (veteran climate journalist Tracy Wholf) to talk about stuff that actually matters (the planet being destroyed by the worst people alive)
Find subscribe links here:
Delighted to announce that following the consultation, I'm giving the green light to make Oxford Street traffic-free.
This conversation is bubbling in Olympia, lots of time being spend on outreach that 1) doesn't have any path to impact, 2) frustrates everyone. How do we bring the community in in a constructive way at the right time? (and not private project by private project).
You know things are off the rails when a flat income tax at (adjusted) 1995 levels of spending looks good.
The vision is out there, time to 10x the investment and realize it is the affordable, local, environmental, and awesome ladder out of the WA State Ferry budget hole.
We could build dozens of foot ferries by delaying one of the big car ferries. Trade fast frequent passenger travel to everywhere for less frequency (and less cost) of the car ferries as boats age out (this will be happening anyway). Build foot ferries as fast as our local boat yards can build them.
"It’s estimated that a new 150-passenger ferry would cost about $13 million, and the 250-passenger boats about $32 million. By contrast, the state said the first of its 1,500-passenger, 164-vehicle hybrid-electric ferries will cost approximately $405 million." www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...
This would be great, AND what could a few hundred million from the Climate Commitment Act do for foot ferries and getting around the Puget Sound? #SeaBus 🦟
New: Trump admin moves to pull supercomputing center out of top weather and climate research center (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Part of its effort to "break up" the lab. www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/w...
Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science in the most me way possible: I let myself make a video about the textbooks I would take with me if I was stuck on a desert island 🥹 🔭⚛️🧪
It's too long for Bluesky (yes I exceeded 3 minutes) but it's over on instagram with captions!
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
ICE agents just seem to consider pepper spraying people in the face to be an appropriate casual greeting. www.noozhawk.com/federal-ice-...
This horror is happening right here at home.
Truly the stuff of nightmares for the fossil fuel lobby. Check out this renewable energy park in India that's SEVEN TIMES BIGGER than Paris! 🤯 www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...
One of the reasons I am so insistent that everyone remember that only 22% of the US population voted for Trump is that the Christian Nationalists want the myth of a mandate in circulation.
We need to reject it. They never had a mandate, and their coalition is shrinking.
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Each summer the JPL Center for Climate Sciences brings in ~25 grad students & postdocs to engage with premier climate scientists, focusing on "Using Satellite Observations to Advance Climate Models." Applications for July 2026 now being accepted.
climatesciences.jpl.nasa.gov/events/summe...
We have avoided FAR in our ordinances (Olympia WA) but I think including a building thickness limit would be good for livability and climate resilience. Always nice to have already implemented examples. The Rental Housing Blueprint project looks like a great resource.
Are there good resources to share with planners about how to implement a rule around this concept and its benefits?
