Yeah, likewise. I can see that cycling here is taken super seriously, which I appreciate.
I saw someone at the bike market with the exact same Cannondale rig I left behind (with much better parts and accessories); I stared without shame lol
Day 23 in Berlin.
Finally caved, bought a city-suitable bike, a KTM Veneto. It's uncomfortably different from what I'm used to, but the practicalities of city usage. It's OK, I'll adjust (and probably keep some knobbier tires on hand for trail outings).
This place is beautiful.
Day 21 in Berlin.
Pieces of life are starting to fit back together, even though there's so very much left still on the floor. Nothing glamorous. Very grateful to be here, and grateful for the people that have helped (and keep helping) to make it possible.
"European integration, German unification, and, not least, the ongoing debate about a reform of federalism in Germany are presenting new challenges to the state parliaments in the Federal Republic of Germany. While the number of studies dealing with state governments or state politics in general has certainly increased in recent years, a comprehensive inventory of the functions, tasks, and status of the state parliaments in the individual federal states is still lacking. This anthology fills this gap. It provides information on the historical development and constitutional requirements of the sixteen state parliaments, presents the respective party landscapes, electoral law, and election results, analyzes the political and social composition as well as the structure and organization of the state parliaments, and finally examines the functional changes of these institutions."
Take-a-book, leave-a-book just hits different in Berlin ('Länder-parlamentarismus in Deutschland, Geschichte - Struktur -Funktionen', or 'State Parliamentarism in Germany, History - Structure - Functions')
(Back cover in alt text)
Yeah, I did that rabbit hole a while back; the apex predator are forest rangers, which got the thin green line
(there's an MTBA joke here somewhere)
Lady behind me at the end of the TSA gauntlet: "No, thank YOU for everything you do to make us safe! 🫡🫡🫡"
Do TSA agents have a thin $COLOR flag yet?
Last goodbyes have been said, the luggage is packed, see y'all on the other side 🤘🛫🇩🇪🇪🇺
Imagine my reaction upon learning about ISPM-15 heat treatment requirements for wood packing materials ***AFTER*** finishing building 2 custom shipping crates. Fun, fun times! 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃
I've been mourning my French for a while, but "ich belschuldige dich" buries "j'accuse" so thoroughly, I might be ready to let go 😅
get me on the signal anytime 😁
setting the default language on das Handy to Deutsch
aktueller Status, jetzt wird's ernst
aaahhh, a man of good taste 😁
19 Aug 2025 🛫🇩🇪🙌
this country is totally, thoroughly fucked, Part 836
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
apnews.com/article/army...
Man, in 25 years, china will be outsourcing low-skill labor to the US www.nature.com/articles/d41...
shopify adding *tipping* to bog-standard merch shops is hilarious
"Red-blooded American"s are broadcasting their fantasies about bombing the Three Gorges Dam. (Where else have we recently seen people cheering on the destruction of a notable dam? 🤔🤔🤔)
A sick people, a sick society.
That they folded so eagerly (along with basically all other nongovernmental institutions, e.g. universities, law firms, big employers, etcetc) is easily a worse signal re: the health and prospects of American culture and society than any election result
The only side benefit to all of this will be watching Tim Apple and Bezos and Satya (and hopefully Zuck, tho he's probably safer) get skewered, absolutely eviscerated on all sides, after groveling as they have for Dear Leader. Great legacy guys 👍
It's been a long time already tbh; everything happening is in a lot of ways the truest manifestation of american political culture in a long time. No one serious thinks that there is a policy switch somewhere that flips perception and reputation back to "normal"
we're at the "POVERTY IS WEALTH, SLAVERY IS FREEDOM" part of the movie
having a very hard time with this speedrun, would like to get off the ride now thx
There are psychopaths agitating for Vietnam to pay reparations *to the US*. I can't, just can't.
a parallella board
Nostalgia and failed alternative histories
What's new is the US no longer guarantees due process to white, white-passing, and "valuable" (doctors, engineers, etc) non-white people. You don't get to wax lyrical about the "failure of the constitutional order" or without actively acknowledging how it already has, repeatedly
"The US doesn't offer due process to its citizens anymore 😢"
Every single one of the *thousands* of black americans lynched after the Civil War were citizens. About ⅔ of the 125K Japanese forcibly interred during WWII were citizens.
image of watchmen's doctor manhattan, a superhero who is entirely blue and nude, sitting on a rock, small in frame, on what is depicted to be a very pink version of the surface of the planet mars. he looks pensive.
It is 2002. I am 18 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.
It is 2008. I am 24 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.
It is 2020. I am 36 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.
It is 2025. I am 41 years old. We are in a—
Now 98% of Twitter (effectively the primary state media organ) is packed stem to stern with 15 million bot accounts called dirtydickron483727 to help manufacture consent for each day's minute of hate.
I know it probably feels like small ball, but remember when twitter verification was pitched as an anti-spam measure, and the tech media world spun itself in circles for 6 months about its relative merits?
you're not wrong, but local support networks mean very little if you're unsafe and unhealthy by dint of active national policy