@betsythemuffin.bsky.social
Autodidactic to a fault, always. Nolite te bastardes carborundum. Technically not a Hugo Award winner.
Former software developer retraining in green (bio)chemistry. Techno-optimist; hopepunk. Towards partially automated luxury for all.
Former software developer retraining in green (bio)chemistry. Techno-optimist; hopepunk. Towards partially automated luxury for all.
Reposted
Cities are already “mired in congestion” and so congestion pricing should be broadly expanded no matter what happens with self-driving cars.
Also, “Waymos are involved in ten times fewer serious crashes than an average human driver.”
Also, “Waymos are involved in ten times fewer serious crashes than an average human driver.”
Self driving cars will mire cities in congestion.
Congestion pricing is the most efficient and fair solution, esp if revenues go to transit.
www.economist.com/finance-and-...
Congestion pricing is the most efficient and fair solution, esp if revenues go to transit.
www.economist.com/finance-and-...
Self-driving cars will transform urban economies
A robotaxi boom is coming. The impacts might be broader than you expect
www.economist.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Cities are already “mired in congestion” and so congestion pricing should be broadly expanded no matter what happens with self-driving cars.
Also, “Waymos are involved in ten times fewer serious crashes than an average human driver.”
Also, “Waymos are involved in ten times fewer serious crashes than an average human driver.”
Reposted
Long thread to say "shit rolls downhill." But yes, anti-vaxx is a form of child abuse. Sometimes it's men abusing children as a way to abuse their wives. Sometimes is women abusing children because they can't punch upwards.
Patriarchy is an abuse factory. Which is why it must end. Fin.
Patriarchy is an abuse factory. Which is why it must end. Fin.
November 27, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Long thread to say "shit rolls downhill." But yes, anti-vaxx is a form of child abuse. Sometimes it's men abusing children as a way to abuse their wives. Sometimes is women abusing children because they can't punch upwards.
Patriarchy is an abuse factory. Which is why it must end. Fin.
Patriarchy is an abuse factory. Which is why it must end. Fin.
Reposted
One deeply underappreciated aspect of MAHA is how much it's often a fig leaf for domestic abuse. I'm not surprised doctors on the ground belive men are withholding kids' vaccines as a way to control and terrorize their wives. They obviously are!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
November 27, 2025 at 2:14 AM
One deeply underappreciated aspect of MAHA is how much it's often a fig leaf for domestic abuse. I'm not surprised doctors on the ground belive men are withholding kids' vaccines as a way to control and terrorize their wives. They obviously are!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
Reposted
I can't get over how quickly the window shifted at Google over what is acceptable from its image generator.
Photorealistic 'evidence' of sensitive events was once a red line.
No longer. "Show the White House on fire with emergency crews responding" returns the desired image with no jailbreak.
Photorealistic 'evidence' of sensitive events was once a red line.
No longer. "Show the White House on fire with emergency crews responding" returns the desired image with no jailbreak.
Google’s Nano Banana Pro generates excellent conspiracy fuel
What are facts?
www.theverge.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I can't get over how quickly the window shifted at Google over what is acceptable from its image generator.
Photorealistic 'evidence' of sensitive events was once a red line.
No longer. "Show the White House on fire with emergency crews responding" returns the desired image with no jailbreak.
Photorealistic 'evidence' of sensitive events was once a red line.
No longer. "Show the White House on fire with emergency crews responding" returns the desired image with no jailbreak.
Reposted
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
Reposted
Gosh, if only there was a scientific explanation for why so many working age people got terribly sick and developed long term chronic health problems between 2019 and 2024...
Truly a mystery we will never solve
/snark
Truly a mystery we will never solve
/snark
The number of people aged between 16 and 34 who are out of work due to long-term sickness increased by 76% between 2019 and 2024
UK ‘sliding into avoidable crisis’, major review into workplace sickness warns
The number of people aged between 16 and 34 who are out of work due to long-term sickness increased by 76% between 2019 and 2024
www.independent.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Gosh, if only there was a scientific explanation for why so many working age people got terribly sick and developed long term chronic health problems between 2019 and 2024...
Truly a mystery we will never solve
/snark
Truly a mystery we will never solve
/snark
Reposted
A reminder that cars aren’t a technology problem. They’re a geometry problem.
Waymo privatized another public street:
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
November 25, 2025 at 4:16 AM
A reminder that cars aren’t a technology problem. They’re a geometry problem.
Reposted
Biotic marine CO₂ removal relies on export of organic carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea, where CO₂ will be kept out of the atmosphere even if the organic matter is remineralized.
Deep-sea mining will bring this carbon to the ocean surface and release CO₂ to the atmosphere. Not awesome.
Deep-sea mining will bring this carbon to the ocean surface and release CO₂ to the atmosphere. Not awesome.
Deep-sea mining risks harming one of the last pristine ecosystems--but if it goes ahead under Trump, it could at least be done more sustainably by smelting the metal nodules with hydrogen plasma www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
Have we found a greener way to do deep-sea mining?
There are widespread concerns that deep-sea mining for metals will damage fragile ecosystems. But if mining ever goes ahead, hydrogen plasma could shrink the carbon footprint of smelting the metal ore...
www.newscientist.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Biotic marine CO₂ removal relies on export of organic carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea, where CO₂ will be kept out of the atmosphere even if the organic matter is remineralized.
Deep-sea mining will bring this carbon to the ocean surface and release CO₂ to the atmosphere. Not awesome.
Deep-sea mining will bring this carbon to the ocean surface and release CO₂ to the atmosphere. Not awesome.
We gotta spend a lot more time harping on how Laken Riley is just a sore loser. Why should someone who whines about fifth place get an opinion on how your daughter’s soccer team is coached?
it’s also a thing where people can be convinced. the right got some people worked up about trans women in sports but possible to get people a lot more worked up about individual/parental rights, genital inspectors, etc
I think Democrats should double down on trans rights now. It's obvious that most voters don't care about it so you might as well stick with your principles and goad Republicans into focusing on it at the expense of everything else so they're the ones who look like freaks.
November 24, 2025 at 11:51 PM
We gotta spend a lot more time harping on how Laken Riley is just a sore loser. Why should someone who whines about fifth place get an opinion on how your daughter’s soccer team is coached?
Reposted
I think Democrats should double down on trans rights now. It's obvious that most voters don't care about it so you might as well stick with your principles and goad Republicans into focusing on it at the expense of everything else so they're the ones who look like freaks.
November 24, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I think Democrats should double down on trans rights now. It's obvious that most voters don't care about it so you might as well stick with your principles and goad Republicans into focusing on it at the expense of everything else so they're the ones who look like freaks.
Reposted
it’s also a thing where people can be convinced. the right got some people worked up about trans women in sports but possible to get people a lot more worked up about individual/parental rights, genital inspectors, etc
I think Democrats should double down on trans rights now. It's obvious that most voters don't care about it so you might as well stick with your principles and goad Republicans into focusing on it at the expense of everything else so they're the ones who look like freaks.
November 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
it’s also a thing where people can be convinced. the right got some people worked up about trans women in sports but possible to get people a lot more worked up about individual/parental rights, genital inspectors, etc
Reposted
If you have a GOP rep and you’ve been holding off on contacting them because what difference will it make, you could be the reason the funniest thing happens
PUNCHBOWL: “.. GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term. Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican:
@punchbowlnews.bsky.social
@punchbowlnews.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 3:59 PM
If you have a GOP rep and you’ve been holding off on contacting them because what difference will it make, you could be the reason the funniest thing happens
Reposted
There are whole campaigns designed to get people to hold onto their phones for just one year longer because it's so bad for the environment to toss them every two years, and now people are doing that and CNBC Is like "we were kidding"
November 24, 2025 at 1:20 AM
There are whole campaigns designed to get people to hold onto their phones for just one year longer because it's so bad for the environment to toss them every two years, and now people are doing that and CNBC Is like "we were kidding"
Reposted
It's not just "consumer smart" it reduces environmental waste, key materials are often mined in slave conditions. The whole tenor of the article is wrong - why is the economy so dependent on us engaging in mass waste?
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/h... "please, buy new phone. the economy is dying" is an incredible gaslight
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing economy
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever before, and while it may be consumer smart, it comes at a cost to work productivity and the U.S. economy.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:17 AM
It's not just "consumer smart" it reduces environmental waste, key materials are often mined in slave conditions. The whole tenor of the article is wrong - why is the economy so dependent on us engaging in mass waste?
Reposted
You can also hook a TV tuner card to your computer and watch stuff that way, including over a home network. If you have a setup based on Jellyfin or Plex, there are ways to get those video feeds in there.
I’m just thinking of this because I’m watching football while not paying anybody a penny: Do Americans know that you can (still!) watch HD digital broadcasts of all the major networks over the air, for free, complete with programming guide data, just by hooking up an antenna to your TV?
November 23, 2025 at 11:42 PM
You can also hook a TV tuner card to your computer and watch stuff that way, including over a home network. If you have a setup based on Jellyfin or Plex, there are ways to get those video feeds in there.
Reposted
Cities moving away from streeteries is one of the stupidest policy trends of late. Harms qualify of life, the feasibility of restaurants, and reduces city revenue. All to make a very small handful of drivers happier (a group that will never be happy).
DC is enforcing a “crackdown” on streeteries—outdoor seating for cafes—charging the cafes huge amounts of money to keep the facilities in place, and forcing them to use seating that doesn’t work in the winter. It’s a huge self-own, likely to end up hurting businesses, reducing street vibrancy.
Exclusive: Le Dip streetery to come down as D.C. crackdown reshapes outdoor dining
It's over for many D.C. streeteries, as the city starts to charge what you might call "road rent" and other fees.
www.axios.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Cities moving away from streeteries is one of the stupidest policy trends of late. Harms qualify of life, the feasibility of restaurants, and reduces city revenue. All to make a very small handful of drivers happier (a group that will never be happy).
Reposted
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
Reposted
And the reality is just so, so much more complicated than that, and the simplistic framing misleads people into thinking they'll notice it happening to the people around them because the groups who do it are very obvious. They aren't, and it only takes the right cause/framing to hook almost anyone.
November 23, 2025 at 4:34 PM
And the reality is just so, so much more complicated than that, and the simplistic framing misleads people into thinking they'll notice it happening to the people around them because the groups who do it are very obvious. They aren't, and it only takes the right cause/framing to hook almost anyone.
Reposted
It's not a framing exclusive to Wired, a lot of reporting in the area has the implicit assumption that only certain people are susceptible/only certain groups do the indoctrination, and a site removing those people/groups will make it Safe Forever because they got rid of the people who are Wrong
November 23, 2025 at 4:31 PM
It's not a framing exclusive to Wired, a lot of reporting in the area has the implicit assumption that only certain people are susceptible/only certain groups do the indoctrination, and a site removing those people/groups will make it Safe Forever because they got rid of the people who are Wrong
Reposted
Systemically speaking, with the very occasional rare exception, I don't think Wired wants to confront the fact that almost anyone can be radicalized into becoming that kind of online abuser/holding those beliefs/engaging in that awful, if exposed to the radicalization method they're susceptible to!
November 23, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Systemically speaking, with the very occasional rare exception, I don't think Wired wants to confront the fact that almost anyone can be radicalized into becoming that kind of online abuser/holding those beliefs/engaging in that awful, if exposed to the radicalization method they're susceptible to!
Reposted
Look, it’s unlike me to say something like this — and, frankly, a bit embarrassing — but I want to hear less about these people’s terrible decisions, loose morals, and weird sex stuff and more about this.
November 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Look, it’s unlike me to say something like this — and, frankly, a bit embarrassing — but I want to hear less about these people’s terrible decisions, loose morals, and weird sex stuff and more about this.
Reposted
people are reading "catch-and-kill" in the journalistic sense but she was probably just finding raccoons for him to eat
November 22, 2025 at 3:04 PM
people are reading "catch-and-kill" in the journalistic sense but she was probably just finding raccoons for him to eat
Reposted
okay so here’s the actual bad part of the article
“oh it never affected my coverage” horse and also shit
and what the fuck is Lizza doing sitting on this while RFK takes a buzz saw to American health so he can sell substack subscriptions
ghouls, the lot of them
“oh it never affected my coverage” horse and also shit
and what the fuck is Lizza doing sitting on this while RFK takes a buzz saw to American health so he can sell substack subscriptions
ghouls, the lot of them
November 22, 2025 at 7:45 AM
okay so here’s the actual bad part of the article
“oh it never affected my coverage” horse and also shit
and what the fuck is Lizza doing sitting on this while RFK takes a buzz saw to American health so he can sell substack subscriptions
ghouls, the lot of them
“oh it never affected my coverage” horse and also shit
and what the fuck is Lizza doing sitting on this while RFK takes a buzz saw to American health so he can sell substack subscriptions
ghouls, the lot of them
Reposted
real ones know there is only one correct way to travel from NYC to DC (Amtrak northeast regional cafe car)
Q: Why did you fly here? Aren't trains greener?
MAMDANI: I will use every form of transit and I want to make sure they are all affordable in NYC
TRUMP: That's a lot quicker too, in all fairness. I'll stick up for you.
MAMDANI: I will use every form of transit and I want to make sure they are all affordable in NYC
TRUMP: That's a lot quicker too, in all fairness. I'll stick up for you.
November 22, 2025 at 2:55 AM
real ones know there is only one correct way to travel from NYC to DC (Amtrak northeast regional cafe car)
Reposted
Wheeeeeewwww yep that's an official line from part of Mamdani's WH delegation, not just some rando ex-staff.
Straight out of the WelcomePAC playbook.
Absolutely wild shit, y'all.
Straight out of the WelcomePAC playbook.
Absolutely wild shit, y'all.
I assumed he was just trying to his Mamdani connection to burnish his own project, but he was actually part of the White House delegation today.
That's, that's bad.
nystateofpolitics.com/state-of-pol...
That's, that's bad.
nystateofpolitics.com/state-of-pol...
November 22, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Wheeeeeewwww yep that's an official line from part of Mamdani's WH delegation, not just some rando ex-staff.
Straight out of the WelcomePAC playbook.
Absolutely wild shit, y'all.
Straight out of the WelcomePAC playbook.
Absolutely wild shit, y'all.