legitimately crazymaking (not to mention quite instructive) that the truly revolutionary tech of our time—vaccines above all, but also ventilation gains, solar capture, & battery storage for starters—get none of the breathless PR of overtly harmful tech & often is being actively being fought against
very cool! that's quite close to me. I was disappointed to lose a long term neighborhood family when that property last sold, but am excited to be able to welcome 4x as many households once that construction is done
and... now the prediction for the Lawn is at 85% chance with 0.05 inches predicted ... < deep sigh >
👋🏽 Albemarle County friends, make plans for our **Crozet** meetup on Thursday
National Weather Service forecasts usu do well at near real time predictions—for here in town NWS says 80% chance of about a tenth of an inch btwn 9 AM and 10 AM.
The expensive service UVA subscribes to says 100% chance with quarter inch total, mostly falling 8 to 10 AM
The rights are certainly vested, fingers crossed the technical details will work out for our complex site
Rain clouds above wind swept trees
Rain clouds above UVA hospital buildings
Good morning from Cville, where we eagerly anticipate our first rain in a fortnight
“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back to a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”
IT SAVES PUBLIC MONEY to house people.
The view you espoused is the kind of middle way I try to impart to students in my Managerial View of AI classes: GenAI is an incredible technology, even as it falls far, far short of the hype. Relatedly, apply maximum skepticism to anything a CEO—tech ones, most esp—has to say about their products
Reposting this 👇🏽🧵 as endorsement
Here in Virginia, this is the position of the Piedmont Environmental Council. They’re against utility-scale solar. “Climate change is a civilization-level threat…but—“
At this point I’m basically an advocate for building as many PV arrays as possible as quickly as possible.
Map of streets ridden show 57.99% complete for city of charlottesville
Map of streets not yet ridden for city of charlottesville, with few roads remaining unridden in the southern and western sides of town
In the last seven days I moved from 52.24% to now 57.9% of city streets ridden (63.6% paved; 12% unpaved). Still really enjoying see nooks and crannies of Cville I've never been to before
For now, Please speak up. Tell the Governor to sign the bill as is. It is modeled on legislation that has withstood federal scrutiny, is grounded in our constitutional rights, and gives us all NEEDED due process protections during ICE enforcement activities.
action.aclu.org/send-message...
Resharing this video because the newest update is that this bill has been so heavily amended by the administration that it is nonfunctional. It’s a right without a remedy; a messaging bill that won’t actually help folks who need it. And so I plan on rejecting the amendments. More on that later.
With the budget being actively negotiated, now is a great time to speak up about what you want!
Particularly about tax exemptions for data centers. Those tax breaks have gone up an order of magnitude (million to billion) and were never promised in perpetuity. What’s fair is fair!
Ladies and gentlemen... the weekend. (also: you are important and are not alone 🧡)
Fabulous news!
Friday in the summer is always more traffic. Oh... wait, it just feels like summer...
relevant to charlottesville
Hey, Cville-area peeps who want to chat about more affordable housing, mobility, or climate issues with a Albemarle County focus, join us for a drop-in social at the Bar Botanical rooftop bar in Crozet — Thursday April 23 5-7 PM
My faves are from Sbroccos: their Boston cream donut and the apple fritter
i think any city employee at the director level and up should be required to live in the city, and should not get subsidized parking. i'm tired of people who don't live here telling us that our safety isn't a priority.
Last night was incredibly frustrating for me but the conversation was mostly good and helpful. Frustrating that we have to play a shell game every year in order to find the money to support projects that provide deeply affordable housing and emergency relief.
Experiences like 👇🏼🧵 are so discouraging to hear. The city knows what to do to improve safety for bikers and walkers—there's been years of planning with clearly identified solutions—it's a matter of political will plus holding the city manager accountable for turning council priorities into reality
new piece, Social Media in the Scam Age, for the 10th anniversary of @socialmedia-soc.bsky.social
thank you to @zizip.bsky.social for inviting me
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
While successfully recovering my bike from the Amtrak station bike rack I learned:
-- it's still really hot out,
-- the bike doesn't really fit into my car,
-- even in the shade, it's hot work to wrangle an eBike into a space it doesn't quite want to fit into
Brutal heat & drought here in the Shenandoah Blue Ridge. This is the most extreme spring I have experienced as a gardener. We’ve had to hold off transplanting in fear of plant killing temps. When scientists say the climate crisis is a global food crisis these are the conditions they’re referring to.
Some good news from the city schools: electric buses are in service!
www.charlottesville.gov/m/newsflash/...
The good news is, it’s not too bad of a walk from the Amtrak station to my house. The bad news is I’m walking because my bike has a flat tire
