Chris Miller
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thatmushroom.bsky.social
Chris Miller
@thatmushroom.bsky.social
620 followers 510 following 680 posts
YIMBY, 🔌💡 data scientist, filled with love for The Queen City of the Plains. In the words of Frightened Rabbit, making tiny changes to Earth.
I don't post all that I do here because I'm bad at posting.
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thatmushroom.bsky.social
This is the second time I've had occasion to pull this Venn diagram out today.
Venn diagram with Leftists (Don't bother telling conservatives and liberals apart), Liberals (think leftists and conservatives are equally bad), and Conservatives (Can't tell leftists and liberals apart). Leftists and liberals hate Trump, Liberals and Conservatives like capitalism, and Conservatives and Leftists like guns. Leftists, Liberals, and and Conservatives all hate Leftists.
November 19, 2025 at 8:55 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Lucy pulling the football is the easy comparison for the current moment, but the proper comparison is Ignatz Mouse (Republicans) braining Krazy Kat (Democrats) with a brick over and over again, which Krazy Kat mistakenly believes to be a sign of affection and attention.

In this essay I will...
Panel from the comic strip Krazy Kat, in which Ignatz Mouse throws a brick at Krazy Kat. Ignatz says "Every day my mind growes keener. My good amr stronger... my silly enemies more futile..." as a heart comes from Krazy Kat while Kat is hit in the head with a brick.
November 11, 2025 at 2:19 AM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Taking a break from politics-posting: Skylark Lounge is a great venue, @danmanganmusic.com is truly phenomenal live (way better than I expected, and I had very high hopes), and I did not expect just how delightfully weird Stelth Ulvang would be on stage.
Photo from a small bar/concert venue. Almost all lights are off, a man playing guitar lit by a small blue light is playing guitar around a crowd on the left side of the photo, pink lights behind the bar make the right side of the photo contrast with the blue on the left side.
November 10, 2025 at 3:19 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Slightly better view
Close-up image of a rosemary and hazelnut-topped financier, a small rectangular baked good coated in chocolate on the top. Close-up image of a rosemary and hazelnut-topped financier, a small rectangular baked good coated in chocolate on the top. Close-up image of a rosemary and hazelnut-topped financier, a small rectangular baked good coated in chocolate on the top. Close-up image of a rosemary and hazelnut-topped financier, a small rectangular baked good coated in chocolate on the top.
November 8, 2025 at 8:49 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
And chocolate hazelnut rosemary financiers.
A rosemary and hazelnut-topped financier, a small rectangular baked good coated in chocolate on the top.
November 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
So many Vibes
Pre-dawn photo of a dusty pink sunrise in northern Nevada. A white RV in the foreground is blurred from the motion, the butte in the back is sharp. Concrete tunnel coming out of a large rock wall in Glenwood Canyon. The concrete tunnel, road walls, and some trees between two roadways are lighted, the rock wall is in the shade, creating a high-contrast photo. Black and white photo of a canyon wall with an elevated road at the bottom of the photo. The road is entirely in shadow making it a silhouette, and the center-right portion of the canyon wall is in shadow, while the main canyon wall is contrast-y and highly defined.
November 5, 2025 at 3:37 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Vibes
Photo of a grain silo from a train window. It's morning with the sun behind the silo. The silo is partially obscured and silhouetted by the train window frame. Photo of a grain silo from a train window. It's morning with the sun in the frame, so the sun partially washes out the sky and silo. The silo is partially obscured and silhouetted by the train window frame. Black and white photo of two people fishing in a river next to a rocky and scrub-brush butte. The photo is taken from above and at a distance on the far side of the river from the fishers. The front of an Amtrak train in a rocky canyon next to a river, as taken from the rear of the train. It's late afternoon with a warm cast on the rocks.
November 5, 2025 at 3:37 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Update: I must now ask the Denver Museum of Nature and Science if they have 3D scans of their marmots.
A diagram and display of how marmots are sculpted and assembled for a museum diorama display, using the intermediate assembly steps
October 14, 2025 at 7:19 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Get yourself a dinosaur museum that's full of cartoon gore.
A full-sized museum exhibit of a Utahraptor eating another dinosaur, with gratuitous blood and guts compared to most museum exhibits. A full-sized museum exhibit of a Utahraptor eating another dinosaur, with gratuitous blood and guts compared to most museum exhibits.
October 9, 2025 at 9:53 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
I honestly can't tell if this makes Perplexity or Venmo come across as more desperate.

I think the answer is "Yes"
Venmo notification: 1 Year of Perplexity Pro, just for you
October 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
This comes to mind.
Mathematicians explain baseball: M1: "Then you spend a year taking samples until n=162" M2: "I see. Because the underlying distributions are so similar that you need a large n?" M1: "Yeah. Plus you're mostly just standing around anyway."
October 3, 2025 at 3:21 AM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
The spice must flow
Picture of a bag of coffee from "DUNE Coffee Roasters"
September 27, 2025 at 12:43 AM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
I've never seen a billboard more perfectly engineered to drive me to madness than this one.
Picture of a billboard sponsored by Chevron with the text "bringing power to America's AI future"
September 23, 2025 at 10:01 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Update: I bought a watch
Picture of a watch on a wrist. The 3 and 9 are reversed from the typical positions so it spells out "39" as a nod to the 39% tariffs on Swiss goods.
September 21, 2025 at 10:11 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Once more, with some sunlight.

The wineries are the Lavaux region.
September 17, 2025 at 7:51 AM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Best work commute ever
September 16, 2025 at 10:46 AM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
This website is free, Abundance edition.
Back-to-back posts about how the Abundance movement is either fantastic for increasing housing supply or composed of only fossil fuel + big tech interests
September 4, 2025 at 2:44 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
2-panel comic: left panel shows jesus speaking to a crowd saying "blocked. blocked. blocked." right panel has a close-up of jesus' face saying "youre all blocked. none of you are free of sin" Bottom text in the right panel says "The people were ASTONISHED at his doctrine, Matthew 5:27-28"
August 11, 2025 at 9:45 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Researching food waste seems valuable!

And, as a double-dipping Purdue grad, I appreciate the appropriate amount of respect for "Ohio State University" without the "The".
Flyer about a survey, with the text: "Would you consider helping fill a gap in our knowledge? The Denver Department of Public Health & Environment is working with researchers at Ohio State University to reduce household food waste. More knowledge is critical about how residents purchase, store, and consume food, and discard food waste."
August 5, 2025 at 10:56 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
One of the best cups of coffee in my life came from my 3rd or 4th roast.

I've never been able to replicate it, despite taking very detailed notes. It's my white whale, and haunts me to this day.

(I also read Moby Dick this year, which, definitely a middle-aged guy move.)
Photo of roasted coffee beans in a large light-brown handmade ceramic bowl.
July 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
I'm fascinated by and love this graph in particular. Do you have any intuition or have seen any other research about how similar the curve would be in other cities?
Scatter plot showing change in rent vs initial rent level if a city's floorspace increases by 10%, with each point representing a neighborhood. There is roughly a steep trend line (not pictured) from $12/sq ft/year to $25, climbing from a -10% change in rent to a -4% change in rent. There is another from $25/sq ft/year and higher, going from a -4% change in rent to a -2% change in rent at $100/sq ft/year.
July 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Would recommend ChipDrop for massive quantities of organic material
A front yard fully covered in mulch. A photo showing a yard partially covered in mulch to a depth of approx 6"
July 15, 2025 at 3:38 AM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Found a better use for street parking space.
A pile of mulch larger than a truck is in a street parking space. It has a temporary parking permit on top. A pile of mulch larger than a truck is in a street parking space, as seen from across the street. A large shovel and wheelbarrow are next to the pile for scale.
July 14, 2025 at 3:31 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
My hot take: I think this advertising money could be better spent by keeping RTD afloat rather than advertising for EV's on a bus stop. Or on making Denver more transit-obtainable.
A bus stop featuring an ad from the city of Denver stating "an apocalypse wiped out the dinosaurs. And when you think about it, they're kind of responsible for this one. EV, anyone?"
July 9, 2025 at 11:20 PM
thatmushroom.bsky.social
Paonia at night.
Milky Way photo over the silhouette of mountains
June 28, 2025 at 5:15 PM