HOLY CRAP! @nasaspaceflight.com @wxfront.bsky.social

Any good resource for a better way of doing things? Permitting in general seems bogged down in paper work and uncertainty that isn't achieving the goals of protecting public health etc. and creating a lot of difficulty.

I would hope for "don't bother us about a remodel", but that's me.

Having just entered the "can I have water and power and a sewer line?"...machine? debate?...recently - I'm seeing parallels to the balcony solar hook up. What's the level of change (e.g. 1200 W of power on to the grid from a small solar panel) that you can just blanket accept and respond to?

If all goes according to plan, in a few hours, a crew of astronauts will begin a journey that will take them on a loop around the moon. Here's a video that NASA put together to help people visualize the journey through space, first orbiting the earth before looping around the moon and flying home 🔭

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

My question was meant to be a softball lobbed across the plate—an opportunity for SDOT to express its stated values. So, here’s a thread demonstrating how they could have responded if they wanted to. 🧵

A thing of dreams.

Great time to expand all electric mass transit.

Does the equivalent of a smart electrical panel (digital, managed load control) exist for the water meter? Could we manage the water supply system better with a bit of water capacity (i.e. water batteries) in more dispersed locations? Smaller pipes between demand points? Easier connection?

This is the bar. We are still very far from "could a child and their grandma cycle here, be safe, and have fun" in most places.

As a starting point, lets just narrow it down to super rich Trump cabinet officials or appointees with a record of using their public position for private gain.

*Taps earpiece* Being told that does not help at all.

Suddenly, the US manufactures a ton of grid batteries Energy storage is surging on the U.S. grid — and now the country has more than enough battery-making factories to meet that booming demand.

Making lemonade out of lemons. EV demand growth is far below expectations, but a lot of those facilities are still coming online, repurposed towards the grid. Very important pivot.

www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

Time for the Nisqually Bridge replacement to have heavy rail and a Sounder extension to Olympia on it. Maybe that'll get Sounder to Dupont. #selfserving

Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms

"The deal is an extraordinary transfer of taxpayer dollars to a foreign company for the purposes of boosting the production of fossil fuels, a main driver of climate change, while throttling offshore wind power."

“Not density OR trees, density AND trees.” “Better cities are climate action.” Via the Urban Truth Collective. Background image of very high density street in Yaletown, in downtown Vancouver. Double row of street trees, plus yard trees, plus trees in the bike lane separator, for a total of five rows of trees along the street edge.

Not density OR trees. Density AND trees.

Better cities are climate action. #UrbanTruth

One of several "ramblas" in Barcelona (not the one tourists visit). Photo by me.

We need to stop asking how much street width we can use for cars and start asking how much we can use for playgrounds.

Leaf Shedding During Drought Reduces Hydraulic Stress in Trees A trait-based physiological plant hydraulics model predicts drought response, and annual variation, in leaf area index (LAI) across dry forests This prediction of LAI matches or outperforms droug...

Additionally, model prediction works really well in drier areas, unrepresented processes are stronger in wet areas. The split between 'wet' and 'dry' is stark enough the model itself is a good plant physiologically informed index of climate conditions. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Trees Shed Their Leaves to Adapt to Droughts - Eos The browning or loss of tree leaves that can be observed during droughts may be a coping mechanism to deal with dry circumstances by avoiding additional water stress.

I started working on leaves and climate in 2012...still at it with some new tools (plant hydraulics - the plumping of the terrestrial biosphere) to try and predict interannual variation. Response to drought suggests an adaptive acclimate to leaf shedding. eos.org/editor-highl...

UCAR Sues Federal Agencies - Eos The lawsuit alleges that the federal agencies are “waging a campaign of retaliation” against Colorado and its institutions because the state has not bowed to federal authorities.

Breaking: UCAR filed a lawsuit today against several federal agencies and their directors, alleging that “The Agencies’ ultimate apparent goal is to destroy NCAR entirely.”

eos.org/research-and...

PLONK infrastructure. @gordonofseattle.bsky.social

(acronym to be determined at a future date, negotiations between PLONK infrastructure and PLOP infrastructure on going)

Street with a diagonal diverter in Antwerp. Photo by me.

When you learn how cheap and easy it is to create safer neighborhoods, all the time and effort we spend doing nothing feels like a waste.

Trump Administration Readies Plans to Dismantle Renowned Science Lab

This should be the biggest weather and climate news on your radar today.

You can send an email today to say why dismantling NCAR is a bad idea for everyone: NSF_NCAR@nsf.gov

Map of projected temperature anomalies next Thursday across the western U.S. from the ECMWF ensemble. The entire map is bright red and pink, indicative of extreme to record-breaking March warmth. Some location will be 25-30F degrees above average, with a few locations warming over 35F (!) above average.

All signs continue to point to an exceptional, long-duration, and record-breaking to (in some cases) record-shattering March heatwave initially centered across U.S. Southwest but expanding to much broader region next week. This is effectively a full-on summer heatwave in March.

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.