I don't even *like* bananas and yet I understand how they work.

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · yesterday

Spoken like a man who has never had to shop for himself.

It was such a shame to find out (years ago) that this guy was a complete fraud, because I'm pretty sure this book is part of what inspired my brother's entire career. My brother *actually* builds and supports schools in places like afghanistan for the International Rescue Committee.

Joshua Foust 🪖🎮@joshuafoust.com · 20h ago

Oh hell yes @ifbookspod.bsky.social did Three Cups of Tea, where we learned that “don’t be an asshole” was so much better tactical advice than the entire counterinsurgency manual that a conman figured it out before David Petraeus did.

In places like nyc where most of us don’t have balconies but almost all of us have window A/Cs, I would really love to see the development of combo solar A/C units that defray the cost of cooling when running.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · yesterday

Not sure if everyone appreciates the difference. Rooftop solar hardwires into your main panel via a dedicated breaker, so it requires a permit, an installer, an electrician, and a utility agreement. Balcony solar just plugs into a wall outlet, sharing an existing circuit with no permits or rewiring.

went to a nice dinner last night and actually quizzed the waiter on their lettuce source before I ordered a salad. The fact that he had an answer at the ready (local farm in upstate NY, not a giant commercial outfit) means I was not the first.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · yesterday

Breaking news: The CDC is expanding the cyclosporiasis outbreak to 15 states, adding six states where illnesses have been traced to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, according to individuals familiar with the investigation.

Would be really cool if the organizations that could call out actual antisemitism centered around the state of Israel - migrants as pawns of an Israeli-led Great Replacement conspiracy - had not burned all their credibility defending Netanyahu and the IDF from highly credible war crimes charges.

Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · 3d ago

A shocking number of people believe, with zero evidence, that Israel is behind Moroccan migrants into Spain, which is just the Great Replacement conspiracy. Meanwhile, US Jewish orgs have declared war on Mamdani for accurately describing Netanyahu as a war criminal. www.haaretz.com/world-news/e...

Not to defend buses too much, but having lived in Philly which had at least one trolley still running when I lived there, trolleys can’t make detours. Buses can. I like what we’re doing in NYC with dedicated bus lanes, camera enforcement, and electrified buses.

Jake Berman@lostsubways.com · 3d ago

this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

My sister in law had a relatively 'easy' path as the spouse of a US citizen and they applied from overseas, and it still took two years and literally having to travel to several foreign countries to find paperwork from where they previously lived. (they are international NGO workers)

Jonathon M. Floyd@jfloyd314.bsky.social · 3d ago

Genuinely, the vast majority of American voters believe that only laziness or criminal intent could be stopping the average immigrant from obtaining US citizenship. The truth is that becoming a US citizen takes years upon years of work and requires navigating a baroque bureaucratic nightmare.

NOPE NOPE NOPE. NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IN BLEXAS UNTIL BLEXAS ACTUALLY HAPPENS.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

Enten: "This is the best looking polling for Texas Democrats in a Senate race since really the 20th century ... Talarico is doing 9 points better than O'Rourke [in 2018] ... this could be very, very real. Democrats have a real shot in Texas."

Not loving the fact that it’s pouring out and I’m getting flash flooding alerts and in an hour I have to leave my apartment to go to physical therapy.

Ah yes, Sony. A company famous for just letting IP infringement slide.

Mediagazer@mediagazer.com · 3d ago

A bootleg of Sony's Spider-Man: Brand New Day remained on X for over seven hours, reaching 5.9M+ accounts and receiving 143K+ Likes before being removed (Terrence O'Brien/The Verge) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

I know dairy/cream cheese isn’t great for cats but a tiny little dollop is the difference between me having to drag my cat out from under the furniture and her literally running to me in order to HOUSE her steroid pill.

This is horrible. I’m trying to piece this map together with where I used to visit (which I think is a different area near mission park) but the whole city is just not that big. Hoping everyone stays safe.

Nathan Santo Domingo@nsdwx.bsky.social · 4d ago

This is about a worst case scenario that you can imagine for Spokane. Level 3 GO NOW evacs extend all the way to Division. Absolutely heartbreaking. #wawx #wawildfire #OldTrailsFire

I was a pretty big volunteer for Amnesty when I was younger (president of my college chapter!) and I can’t recall another time when they caved like this, and that was including reports criticizing literal dictators around the world, not some rich TERF bitch.

Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 6d ago

Amnesty have issued an apology to JK Rowling and the rest. Adjust your expectations, and donations, accordingly www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-ap...

I have definitely reached my mental ‘need a vacation’ threshold. Yesterday I lost it at a dumb tourist on the bus who did not secure her MASSIVE suitcase which proceeded to roll directly into my (recently broken) ankle when the bus stopped.

I know it's frivolous, but I am scheduled to get my first pedicure tomorrow since breaking my ankle in May, and the level of "I am so ready to have someone strip all the dead skin off my feet" is not measurable by human charts. (and yes, I go to the fancy place that pays well and I tip a lot)

The DSA has a lot of outsized (and often off-putting) rhetoric, but it’s important to remember that what they actually do is stuff like this. Sewer socialism. Pothole progressivism. Now Bus Stop Bench Bolshevism.

wishda@wishda.bsky.social · 6d ago

The DSA in Wilmingotn, N.C. has created a "crisis" by putting benches at city bus stops, after literal decades of the city promising and failing to do so.

My grandmother was 3 years old in 1926, but as an adult she was a legal secretary for (I think) the City of New York, which pretty much explains how I ended up as a lawyer. Everyone else was some form of garment worker, and I’ll take ‘paper pushing office job’ over that any day of the week.

Revan@revan.eurosky.social · last wk.

Enough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?

"you must prove this thing is economically viable before you even try it" is only a recipe for never ever trying to do anything. I, for one, appreciate that we finally have a leader (local edition) that is willing to risk failure in the service of trying new things.

Sam@very-simple.com · 7d ago

yes. people keep ignoring the fact that it is a PILOT program. literally an experiment to see if it works. Demanding proof that it's economically feasible before the first one even opens is flipping the entire experiment on its head.

Hard agree. And if headphone jacks still existed, you could buy some super cheap wired earbuds in bulk to always have a few pairs to give to people who forgot theirs.

Snitty@clofsnitville.bsky.social · 7d ago

My RETVRN take for the day is that if phones had headphone jacks fewer people would be walking around with them at full volume for the world to hear.

Weird how much discourse around the Mamdani grocery stores ignores the existence of the Green Cart intiative (launched under Bloomberg) that provides subsidized fruit and vegetable stands across the city under the exact same logic as the grocery stores

tiny bit of personal lore, my cats growing up were named Bert and Harry, after the fictional Piels brothers, which themselves were character creations of Bob and Ray. I did not understand this until I was much older.

Jesse Thorn@jessethorn.bsky.social · last wk.

What a joy to watch Letterman talk to Bob & Ray. So obviously his heroes. youtu.be/MN7fZME4JG0?...

New York City already runs massive subsidized food markets. both greenmarkets (which take SNAP and WIC) and Hunts' Point. This is an expansion of existing programs, not some greenfield experiment. huntspointproducemkt.com

Home - Hunts Point Produce Market

Hunts Point Produce Market is New York City’s hub for the freshest, most vibrant selection of produce, with a history going back more than 200 years.

huntspointproducemkt.com

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · last wk.

Right, this worries me. A lot of people have said "Publicly-run grocers will demonstrate that government can work," but if you sell below cost, you're going to end up with barren-looking stores. Building the DMV of grocery stores would have the opposite of the intended reputational effect!

stephen miller killed this couple, as surely as if he'd pulled the trigger himself

Matt Ortega@mattortega.com · last wk.

Stephen Miller said just the other day that all asylum claims are "fake." A couple deported from the U.S. to Guatemala were gagged, bound, and shot dead. Their 14-month old found crying next to their mother's body. People like Miller don't care though because this is the point: ethnic cleansing.

What’s the saying? “Every regulation is written in blood”?

Jon of The North@krauza.bsky.social · last wk.

Turns out that food companies were only checking their food because the government told them to, which is exactly why we need government regulations.

thing that is annoying me today - I generally like apple maps, but i'm trying to get directions for an appointment on Friday, and even though I only have "bus" selected for my transit options, 3/4 options it gives me are still the subway.

tell me again, when are all the wealthy people going to leave? (this is a joke. they were never going to leave)

The City Reporter@thecityreporter.nyc · last wk.

New York City added 40,000 jobs in the first half of the year, far more than expected, as a boom on Wall Street continues to support the economy.

I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do if she’s the nominee next time she’s up. Not only the gross racism against Mamdani, but the fact that the woman who built her career on supporting sex assault survivors backing sex pest Andrew fucking cuomo because she was just that racist against Mamdani.

Widow's Bay DSA@gonebabygone.bsky.social · last wk.

Gillibrand legitimately sounds like an insane person in that clip of her calling Mamdani a “jihadist,” I don’t think discussions of which bigotries are still “allowed” are productive but if she had been talking about any other demographic in that context there would have been consequences

Not too bad (I only did the short version)

Elon Green@elongreen.bsky.social · 2w ago

could be worse

I’ve noted that both times I injured myself in the subway, there was a random lady who gathered up all the spilled contents of my purse and made sure it all got back to me. I aspire to be at least the purse lady in any similar situation.

Monteiro@monteiro.bsky.social · 2w ago

Here’s your Saturday morning read: “We’re all familiar with the Mister Rogers ‘look for the helpers’ talk. But it’s worth remembering that Mister Rogers was talking to children when he said that. And we’re no longer children.” buttondown.com/monteiro/arc...

The reason Zohran scares the shit out of them so much is that they think this sort of technocrat FDR liberalism/market socialism will *work* and be popular, not that it will fail and be unpopular. They're afraid that he will be a good mayor not a bad mayor.

lowtax speedrun enjoyer@rickywlmsbong.bsky.social · 2w ago

zohran is a completely normal (mixed-market socialist/new-deal liberal/whatever) and it’s completely frying the brains of people with too much money or whose livelihoods are built on catering to the opinions of people with too much money