Owen Biesel
@owenbiesel.bsky.social
Math prof, dad, gardener, knitter, bike rider, community member, friendly introvert. he/him 🏳️🌈 Also on mastodon as @owenbiesel@mathstodon.xyz
I for one would love to be lead by someone who isn't able to sneeze $6 million into a tissue without a second thought
Kate Rozen@katerozen.bsky.social · 2d agoThings that feel yucky. "The most recent public filings show the governor making a $6 million donation to his own campaign in mid-July, adding to more than $3 million already deposited by Lamont into his campaign’s account." www.ctcapitolreport.com/mondays/5dfc...
This is a good and accurate mini-thread that also reminds me of an experience I had in my 20s that has stuck with me ever since. I was part of a three-person panel interviewing web programmers for a gig. All three of us were white and very genuinely progressive and anti-Republican. 1/
Big Ol’ Mush@chadstanton.blacksky.app · 3h agoI think a good way to think about the current moment is understanding white supremacy as a spectrum with passive acceptance as the status quo out to actively arguing for global genocide.
Appealing to our better angels just isn't enough, apparently.
kanchan@kayehm.bsky.social · 2h agoA UK study found that telling potential SUV buyers that those vehicles directly result in higher fatalities for pedestrians, cyclists and children had zero effect on their decision to buy them. What does work? Financial penalties: Increased fees, taxes, parking. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
But more than any of this, I just want every person to be able to get food that they need. I want hunger to not exist. I want pantries to be stigma free and everywhere.
#SolarpunkArtAugust Today's prompt is little free pantries. My only real contact with one was our church in MN-- it always had granola bars, a few cans of soup, and some tampons and pads in their little free library. But it's made me think about the ways people work to share food freely.
August 5 is "little free pantries": think of a food bank with more flexibility, but also the potential for spoilage, vandalism, and pests. These challenges are not insurmountable: there are flourishing free pantries maintained by volunteers who curate the contents (and help themselves too!).
Owen Biesel@owenbiesel.bsky.social · 5d agoThis August I'm participating in the #SolarpunkArtAugust art-along! Here's the lineup of prompts for the month. I'll probably do watercolors or markers with pen details afterward (I'm no artist but I can still have fun and learn). I can't wait to see what you all make!
Today everyone — EVERYONE — should take a moment and read Ray Bradbury's four-page short story from 1950.
Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 24h agoToday is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:
Today's #SolarpunkArtAugust prompt is Little Free Libraries, so I both made a new instruction sign for our LFL, and I'm including an etching I drew of our house, including the library we made out front. :)
The prompt for today's #SolarpunkArtAugust is "little free libraries." In a post-scarcity world, everyone should have access to information and entertainment, and this little free library in our front yard feels like a little piece of that future reality.
Owen Biesel@owenbiesel.bsky.social · 5d agoThis August I'm participating in the #SolarpunkArtAugust art-along! Here's the lineup of prompts for the month. I'll probably do watercolors or markers with pen details afterward (I'm no artist but I can still have fun and learn). I can't wait to see what you all make!
Did you know one of the most recognisable Dutch cycling innovations is now helping people on bikes in Portland? Via a collaboration between the Bureau of Transportation, Dutch-style countdown timers were introduced to give cyclists greater certainty while waiting at traffic lights: buff.ly/auceHEP
The conversation about AI in health stuff is always about the risks of patients using AI. I'm more worried about possibilities like every appointment gets inspected by an insurance company in detail so that if a patient uses the slightly wrong words about something their care is denied.
This is one of the reasons I'm super suspicious about academic publishers feeding manuscripts to unspecified "AI". Anthropic and friends have run out of training data; model collapse is an obvious problem. There'll be jobs coming up soon for people to write any old shit just to feed the machines.
Snopes@snopes.com · 2d ago🧵 Snopes pored over hundreds of pages of documents to confirm that Anthropic bought millions of books in bulk and destructively scanned them to train its AI model.
The August 3rd #SolarpunkArtAugust prompt is "voting" and, without art of my own to share today, here's some of @clarabiesel.bsky.social 's voting postcard art. Do read the speech bubbles on the fish one. :)
@clarabiesel.bsky.social · 2d agoToday's #solarpunkArtAugust prompt is "vote" and so I'm sharing some postcards we've made as a household to encourage people to vote! Remember there are many primaries happening this month, be sure to check and see if you have one soon: in CT it's August 11, and early voting has already begun!
Another variation of multi family housing density.
Luca@lucagalletti.bsky.social · 2d agoFrog hotels IG: @_pollinatorsreserve Snohomish, WA
Day 2 of Solarpunk Art August : “Water is sacred” Watercolor Art Card The prompt was “protest”. #solarpunk #climatechange #watercolorartwork #solarpunkart #SolarpunkArtAugust
My Day 1 entry for #SolarpunkArtAugust For the prompt "plants", is a scene from my 3 sisters guild in my garden. Planting based on indigenous wisdom is part of #solarpunk for me. See all the prompts: bsky.app/profile/susa... #climatechange #art
Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱@susankayequinn.bsky.social · 6d agoMy solarpunk Discord is doing solarpunk art for August! Join the server, check out the art, bring your own to share, see prompts below! Solarpunk Future Discord: discord.gg/kWvDThz4k Art channel: discord.com/channels/130... #SolarpunkArtAugust #solarpunk #climatechange #art
Today's #solarpunkArtAugust prompt is "vote" and so I'm sharing some postcards we've made as a household to encourage people to vote! Remember there are many primaries happening this month, be sure to check and see if you have one soon: in CT it's August 11, and early voting has already begun!
It's absolutely insane we've somehow let the Covid recriminations debate become like "why didn't we reopen in person schools before there was a vaccine" and not "why did none of the trump guys go to jail for stealing PPE from New York hospitals in March 2020"
Naysayers re: biking for transportation in Minneapolis: “This isn’t Amsterdam.” Minneapolis parents: “So what? We’ll make our own version.”
Please stop saying “lockdowns.” There were never true lockdowns in the US, and it fuels far right narratives to repeat this inaccurate statement. You can say closures, you can say restrictions, or better, you can say public health measures which saved many lives.
Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · 6d agoPeople still complain about “lockdowns” but we had none in the US. We had stay-at-home orders, where although businesses were closed, you could still go outside whenever you wanted. Other countries had far stricter rules, and yet have been much more accepting of them as they saved many more lives.
How should we think about undergraduate math theses - expository or otherwise - in the age of AI? (This is on my mind as the Fall semester approaches)
America Walks is urging Congress to block federal transportation funding reauthorization until the White House can prove that it is following the law and disbursing funding Congress has allocated to transit, bike, and pedestrian projects. Op-ed by Mike McGinn: www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-federa...
Op-Ed: Federal Transportation Policy Is Growing Unhinged Under Trump
America Walks is urging Congress to block federal transportation funding reauthorization until the Whitehouse can prove that it is following the law and disbursing funding Congress has allocated to tr...
theurbanist.org
