reading through the darkness
@ardentreader.bsky.social
Dog lover, amateur chef, bento enthusiast, science fiction nerd. I work in tech and use words for a living.
A central part of why it seems like powerful, rich people live in a consequence-free world is that the social incentives to hold them to account have withered. www.ctinsider.com/columnist/ar... 𝟏𝟐-𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞-𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬
Something so weirdly offensive about crashing your trash into the moon. Like, that's our moon. If it belongs to anyone, it belongs to all of us.
There's a reason we call it the Golden State www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...
California was mostly solar-powered in May — a global first
No major economy had previously received over half its electricity from solar across an entire month. Thank the mild, sunny spring weather, and batteries.
canarymedia.com
the whole 'nothing has gotten better' discourse is of course fucking stupid in a million ways, but I just wanted to note that average dog lifespan in the United States has increased by two years since 2000.
My taxes paid for our military and Claude to bomb a school in Iran, to arm Israel for their genocide in Gaza, and also paid Trump and Friends to build a bunch of concentration camps and paid the Gestapo to shoot innocent people in the street. I'm fine with folks getting cheaper food on my dime
USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 3d agoOpinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.
This is legit insane. It requires girls from K-12 to go through genetic testing, testosterone screening, or a physical exam to participate in sports. For feminists worked up about trans athletes, this is the through line. This is where we were going to end up. It’s about control and dominance.
Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 2d agoGood framing.
If you know anything about Atherton, this is like the angel sounding its trumpet down there.
Jordan Grimes@cafedujord.bsky.social · 5d agoYIMBYs, a new moment of triumph is upon us! Atherton, the Silicon Valley enclave that prohibits all but single-family homes, one of the most exclusionary towns in the country, has just received its first multifamily housing project (ever!) under @scottwiener.bsky.social’s SB79!
I enjoy Newsom's Trump takedowns as much as the next sane person, but at the end of the day he's a garbage person and garbage politician with an empty, wind-swept void where his soul should be, and his national 2028 ambitions should be DOA.
Gil Durán@gilduran.com · 7d agoLooks like Gavin Newsom is going to bat for California Forever, the Network State "tech utopia" project backed by Marc Andreessen and other tech billionaires. 70% of local residents oppose it. But the billionaires hired Newsom's favorite lobbyist. Welcome to Sacramento. nypost.com/2026/07/29/u...
NEW | California just reached a world-first solar milestone Over HALF (51%) of electricity generation across the whole month of May came from solar power. Battery storage is the big difference maker, enabling California to push the share of solar generation to this level.
The legacy media sat there while Trump lied about the past elections and "joked" about running again in 2028. They did not boo. They did not walk out. They just sat there and ate their dinner. The journalists in that room will be remembered as the journalists in that room.
Kids playing road hockey on the brand-new Gordie Howe International Bridge 🏒🇨🇦 Canada celebrated the opening the only way we know how with hockey on the deck of the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America. Built by Canadians, paid for by Canadians.🤝🇨🇦 🎥 Gray_Mackenzie on 𝕏 🇨🇦TEAM CANADA FOREVER🇨🇦
This simply MUST be illegal. It just cannot be the case in our system that a President can operate on the basis of "If I go conquer a foreign country I can keep the loot, spend it as I wish, and not even *inform* Congress (or keep public records)".
Gluten-free Seitan@davidjorgonson.bsky.social · 2w ago"The US has collected about $13bn of Venezuela’s oil money. Where is it?" Financial Times - archive link The White House refuses to disclose any info! It could mostly be stolen, we don't know. Venezuela's exporting more & their economy's growing less. archive.is/202607221904...
The U.S. Secretary of Defense just stated that—so far—the war with Iran has cost $37.5 billion dollars. That's since February. That same amount is how much the United States spent on planetary science from FY2013 through FY2026 inclusive. Thirteen years of planetary science or five months of war.
Have kept thinking all day about this story, full of starving moms and grandmothers trying to feed 3-6 kids each on virtually nothing and Republican men cheering and patting themselves on the back for kicking them off food stamps. Congrats, boys, you really did it
Andrew Russeth@russeth.bsky.social · 2w ago"Four months into an appeal, Ms. McDonald, a cancer survivor who weighs 69 pounds, bustles to food banks, stretches ground turkey with oatmeal, and skips meals to feed three teenage boys." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
It’s extremely important to note that after Biden did the draw down in 2022, the caverns required extensive remediation to ensure they held up and they were nowhere near operational bottoms.
Sky Marchini@sky.skymarchini.net · 2w ago“Energy Department says operational minimum for the storage caverns is about 70 million barrels, a level far lower than oil industry estimates.” Yeah no fucking way, it’s closer to 150 (putting aside any legal questions); they’re gonna collapse the goddamn salt domes
It would be nice if, at the very least, the people reporting on this stuff properly contextualized it by explicitly stating that if the president can do this the union has ceased to exist. It's not hyperbole or figurative language. There is no union. "Unconstitutional" doesn't cover it.
Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 2w agoTrump administration pauses $1 bln in Medicaid payments to California, Minnesota www.reuters.com/world/us-hea...
I just had to replace the Pyrex 1-cup measuring cup I inherited from my grandparents with a new one because of breakage and the new one is craaaaaaaaap.
@laperry2.bsky.social · 2w ago
Nation Wakes Up From Strange Dream Where They Were Watching Soccer https://theonion.com/nation-wakes-up-from-strange-dream-where-they-were-watching-soccer/
The reason to not defund all the pillars of a functioning society to save money is that society collapses and no money is saved. The reason to not spend all the money on police and tax breaks for wealthy pricks is then the wealthy pricks have everything in a police state designed to protect them.
The world waits with bated breath to see if it's "0-0 decided on penalties" or "1-0 VAR Messi Bullshit at 90+3"
Before the president gets on television tonight to peddle lies and conspiracy theories, here is what you need to know: The 2020 election was not stolen. We won, and he lost.
This too, will be Trump's legacy, killing America's auto industry in order to guarantee American consumers as the customer of last resort for the oil industry and the Saudis (whose oil reserves will otherwise go stranded in the next decades)
The Upshot@upshot.nytimes.com · 3w ago
The falling away of the feigning of decency is one of the most dramatic changes in American elite culture in the last decade. It's ubiquitous, and explains so much of our collapse, but happily it's not universal.
Gwen Snyder is uncivil@gwensnyder.bsky.social · 4w agoI don't think these times have been a solvent for decency at all. This has been a precipitation process. It has made decent people coalesce & show themselves. We're also seeing how many people had just been superficially feigning decency, because that used to be a social/professional expectation.
Oh my god, they're going to go into overtime with Argentina essentially on a 30-minute power play, aren't they? This is so rough for Switzerland.
It's beer o'clock, where the hell is my riot?
Sophia_Nyx 🏳️⚧️@sophianyx.bsky.social · 4w agoName a quote from a tv show.
five living writers that you've read five books by each (More than 5 in some cases) Adrian Tchaikovsky Kazuo Ishiguro Neal Stephenson William T. Vollmann Colson Whitehead
Noah Berlatsky@nberlat.bsky.social · 4w agofive living writers that you've read five books by each Rita Dove Tasha Suri Courtney Milan Grant Morrison Tom Perrotta
