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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 11h

I meant more folks may find it violent - even if you have the best intentions - like they might be concerned you would report them to ICE. In my experience, taking photos and contacting authorities is more likely to make folks' lives harder vs increase safety near the school. I wish it weren't so.

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 12h

Yeah this is unfortunately not surprising to me. It's super common for parents and school affiliated folks to not care if their car behavior endangers people outside of cars, or is technically legal. Just offering some ideas based on my experience trying to improve similar issues at my kids' school

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 12h

It's fine to loop in the principal etc with your concerns, but unless you're also asking how to volunteer as a crossing guard (for example), it'll probably be yet another random neighbor complaining about something they don't have time or money to address. (And I SUPER share your concerns re cars!!)

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 12h

Ooof this is tough. In my traffic safety work at my kid's school, we avoid taking photos even if cars are behaving illegally bc some find it v escalatory. Are there committees you could join to help the school? I'd find a way to listen to needs & contribute to the community 1st, raise concerns 2nd.

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 1d

I was going to say, you could try painting it blue, that might have the same effect bsky.app/profile/merr...

Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

We left curriculum night at 6:30pm on a Tuesday. By 8:45am the next day, guess what the curb looked like???

The moral of the story is, if you want the city DOT to come out and paint something instantaneously overnight, just paint it blue first

The end (for reals, for now)

The ADA curb is now white, and the two squares with wheelchair symbols on the roadway near the curb are now covered up with gray paint

Same curb viewed from opposite direction, everyone really did an outstanding quality paint job, next time could we do it once and save everyone some time and money please?

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 2d

Here is a helpful resource for anyone involved or considering being involved in astronomy graduate admissions in the US or Canada for the next academic year docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

US Astronomy Graduate Admissions, AY 2025-2026

docs.google.com

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

We left curriculum night at 6:30pm on a Tuesday. By 8:45am the next day, guess what the curb looked like???

The moral of the story is, if you want the city DOT to come out and paint something instantaneously overnight, just paint it blue first

The end (for reals, for now)

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

Meanwhile in my inbox

No fewer than 3 city people and 3 school district people were now on the thread

The district people could find no record of their staff panting curbs, but were apologetic

The city people were upset schools were doing work in DOT right of way, and said they'd try to fix it

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

That nite, school had their annual curriculum night, and I got a close look at how cars respected the 2 new ♿️ stamps on the roadway, 2 cars with ADA tags were parked right where they belong, and all the curbs looked very professional with snazzier paint than we had bought

All's well that ends well?

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

IT WAS BLUE AGAIN

And these were pretty clearly school district folks, not city DOT folks

So I did what I do best — I sent an email

I sent it to our PTO's traffic safety committee, and I cc'd a couple folks, like the principal and our DOT liaison

The subject may have been, "It's blue again?!"

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

I did notice, however, several district work vans were present an awful lot, usually respecting the loading zone timings, but clearly doing various maintenance projects at the school. One day, my husband went to pick our kid up early for an appointment, and he saw this

Part of the same stretch of street that has been painted yellow is coned off with little orange cones and there are two workers doing some kind of professional curb painting. The closer one has a little paint cart on wheels in the yellow area, and the further one is harder to see, but they are applying blue and white accessible parking stickers to the street and have painted the ADA portion blue. Also the work vans are parked on the grass?! Come on

Zoomed version of the first photo showing a stretch of blue curb

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

We hosted a lovely Play Street on the block that's technically closed to thru traffic (dubbed a "School Street") one block over, we handed out flyers, we enjoyed the start of the school year, people mostly didn't double park and do horrible dangerous things with their cars, life was good.

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

I dutifully did so, and miraculously — within a DAY — the city not only repainted our errant blue curb white, but also installed long-promised new loading zone signs along the whole block! I was amazed, as I thought this might not happen for months, like the all way stops we are still waiting for!

New 5 min school load only sign, with yellow and red curbs in the distance. You can't see the white ADA curb portion, but trust me it's further down along the same block.

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

The school year started, and a liaison from the local DOT mentioned her crew had stopped by and noticed the nice curbs, but that we had made a small mistake - the ADA curb was blue, and it was supposed to be white, per city policy. However, if I filed a ticket with the city, they could fix it for us

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

When it became clear nobody else was going to paint any curbs, we looked under the PTO garden committee couch cushions and scrounged up paint in various appropriate colors, like red for intersection/no parking, and yellow for loading/also no parking. A few awesome volunteers helped paint in August

Myself and my elementary schooler with paint rollers and red paint, painting a curb bulb in a roundabout intersection red

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

Alrighty I'm on a train so gather round for a tale as old as time

♿️ADA curb paint wars: school edition💅

You may recall I formed a committee last year to improve traffic safety near my kid's school. We learned a lot, including that panting curbs can be done by volunteers, like for loading zones 🧵

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

Only cute when cat 😾

If you want sidewalk parking privileges, ride a bike 😜

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

"So, are mirrored satellites a practical means to produce affordable solar power at night? Probably not. Could they produce devastating light pollution? Absolutely."

10/10 no notes

theconversation.com/a-us-startup...

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Meredith Rawls

Sarah Tuttle @niais.bsky.social · 4d

Our plan is to reopen admissions next year. It was just very important to us that we be upfront and ethical with applicants about the current situation. And that meant a break this year.
We're committed to supporting the 32 students in our program, and prioritizing them made the decision easier.

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

Apparently the situation is that nearly twice as many astro grads are joining my department this year as usual. So even before [choose your own 😵‍💫], at most we could support 2 students next year, and we usually get ~400 applicants (who each have to pay some $80 in fees).

This sucks and I hate it!

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 6d

Sad to see the University of Washington Astronomy Department has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

Graduate Admissions | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington

The Department of Astronomy has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. General Information for applying to UW Astronomy Graduate Program. Applications must be submitted using ...

astro.washington.edu

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 4d

Seems fine www.theregister.com/2025/10/06/s...

(That art looks like unrealistic AI slop, but the article is good...)

Starlink burns up one to two satellites a day

: Kessler syndrome is bad; atmospheric incineration may be worse, says astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell

www.theregister.com

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 5d

For one thing, someone needs to scoot the barriers into a less ignorable location. I adjust Salmon Bay's School Street barriers every week or two, because some folks love to nudge them more out of the way, and sometimes cars just mow them down.

Type 3 barrier for a school street that is placed so more than 1/3 of the width of the street is effectively not drive down able

School street type 3 barrier that has been hit by a car and is upside down, half in the sidewalk and half in the road

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 5d

Sounds about right 😭

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 5d

Some days just start with a curb being painted for the 4th time in 2 months and end with poop in somebody's pants

(A Wednesday story)

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · 11d

In this truly terrible time, I would like to acknowledge the terribleness, and also share one important not-terrible thing that drops Friday

It is not a TS album

It is a Tacolate

A dream collab between my favorite ice cream shop and my childhood nostalgia fast food

www.axios.com/local/portla...

Salt & Straw brings back iconic Tacolate

www.axios.com

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