A certain @cindymclaughlin.bsky.social has a terrific piece in @nyc.streetsblog.org today: Boston's Big Dig buried a horrible highway but widened it, making congestion worse. NYC faces the same choice on the BQE. The answer is to tear the whole thing down.
nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/03/27/n...
Me: I wonder when my new iPhone case is getting delivered.
Apple: Shut up and correct your values.
The attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney today was a vile act of antisemitic terror. I mourn those who were murdered and will be keeping their families, the Jewish community, and the Chabad movement in my prayers. May the memories of all those killed be a blessing. While we are still waiting for all the facts to emerge, what we already know is devastating. At least 11 dead, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who held deep ties to Crown Heights. At least 29 injured. Another Jewish community plunged into mourning and loss, a holiday of light so painfully reduced to a day of darkness. This attack is merely the latest, most horrifying iteration in a growing pattern of violence targeted at Jewish people across the world. Too many no longer feel safe to be themselves, to express their faith publicly, to worship in their synagogues without armed security stationed outside. What happened at Bondi is what many Jewish people fear will happen in their communities too. On Bondi Beach today, as men with long guns targeted innocents, another man ran towards the gunfire and disarmed a shooter. Tonight, as Jewish New Yorkers light menorahs and usher in a first night of Hanukkah clouded by grief, let us look to his example and confront hatred with the urgency and action it demands. When I am Mayor, I will work every day to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe—on our streets, our subways, at shul, in every moment of every day. Let this be a purpose shared by every New Yorker, and let us banish this horrific violence to the past.
Fantastic, this is such a great book, Joseph! I’m thrilled to have an excuse to reread, with all the new material.
WOW! Incredible! It takes me at least 14 days to recover from a hangnail.
Manhattan anti-congestion tolling is a massive success.
Time to get super pumped.
You can tell the AI hype cycle is over, because now we're seeing the truly transformative applications of AI to solve otherwise intractable problems. spicerr.com
Hafez al-Assad statue toppled in #Qamishli
Celebrations in the Syrian city of Hama
Syrians destroy statue of Hafez al-Assad in the Syrian city of Tartous
However fraught the aftermath, the fall of a brutal, corrupt, hereditary dictator is a moment of joy. The 54yr Assad regime was horrific: torture & detention of 10,000s of opponents; targeting of civilians w/ sarin & chlorine gas, barrel bombs, starvation sieges. Here's hoping Bashar faces justice!
Is @sarahjeong.bsky.social 's on-the-ground thread from Seoul highly informative? Of course. Insightful? Definitely. Hilarious? Also yes.
Chart compiling statistics on the number of Americans killed annually various causes. Includes source notes.
Americans killed annually by
All Islamic jihadist terrorists 9
Armed toddlers 21
Lightning 31
Lawnmowers 69
Busses 264
Falling out of bed 737
Being shot by another American 11,737
2017 estimates. The Royal Statistical Society gave this compilation its International Statistic of the Year award.
Well, ok, sure, John Selolwane was Botswanan, but spent most of his career playing with South Africans like Masekela and Makeba.
A concert I wish I could've seen live: 1987 Graceland show in Harare. Paul Simon + an insane lineup of South African musicians, including Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ray Phiri, John Selolwane, Bakithi Kumalo, many others. Against moral atrocity, music you gotta groove to.
I've been failing to capture for my skeptical kids how supremely fantastic the 1970s were. A thing that comes close is Stevie Wonder's "1-2-3 Sesame Street". I've been humming, singing, dreaming this since I first saw it age ~6. Voice box, earth tones, hairdos, funky singers, square horns. So great!
Love this! Huge thanks, Dan - what an amazing gift to your readers, now including me.
Pro-business. Pro-entrepreneurship. Pro-technological progress. Pro-American Dream.
Pro-Kamala.
www.vcsforkamala.org
First #kamalaharris ad of the new campaign - it's a banger:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHky...
If 2024 turns out to be joy/future/freedom vs anger/grievance/cruelty, we might still lose, but at least I'll want to wake up every day to fight that fight.
A mugshot registration photograph from Auschwitz. A woman wearing a striped uniform photographed in three positions (profile and front with a bare head and a photo with a slightly turned head with a headscarf on). The prisoner number is visible on a marking board on the left.
23 June 1918 | A Polish woman, Jadwiga Cudzich, was born in Kuty. A university student.
In Auschwitz od 27 July 1942.
No. 11978
She was evacuated to the Ravensbrück camp and liberated there.
A young boy stands dressed in a double-breasted coat and shoes, expressing a serious demeanor, in a black and white historical photograph.
9 June 1937 | A Hungarian Jewish boy, Gyuri Köppich, was born.
In June 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber.
Let's go!
Call the governor and your state reps right at 9 AM and tell them to start congestion pricing as originally planned.
Find your Assembly member: nyassembly.gov/mem/search/
Find your senator:
www.nysenate.gov/find-my-sena...
Call Governor Hochul: 1-518-474-8390
An incredible team of 130+ experts, technologists, advocates around the world, Access Now fights to defend and extend the digital rights of people and communities at risk across the globe.
For ~12 years, I've worked alongside Brett Solomon, the immensely talented, intrepid, dedicated ED of Access Now. After 15 years of leadership, Brett is stepping down, and the board has launched the search for the organization's next ED. All the details here:
It's such a great piece! Every time I re-read it, I pick up something new & entirely current.
1898 photo of corner of Canal St and Laight St in Manhattan, black and white, group of children in foreground, shops in the background.
Bleak car-centric hellscape photo of Canal and Laight today. From Google Street View. Harsh concrete, overly wide streets. Row of shops replaced by emptiness.
Candidly, this corner of Tribeca, at Canal & Laight, looked slightly more interesting in 1898.
Iconic image of Mickey Mouse standing at the wheel of a steamboat.
Welcome to the public domain, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928)! archive.org/details/Stea...
The Biden Administration's AI Executive Order, but written by a VC-backed startup founder. (Credit: an AI). www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...
For fantastic, engrossing, utterly distinctive party music, check out Jantra, who just released "Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground". However wild the music, the story behind artist & album is crazier: www.theguardian.com/music/2023/s...
