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Rachel Mann

@biofillea.bsky.social
486 followers 491 following 459 posts

EN/FR/RU Science mechanic. Lutherpalian. #YIMBY. Attached homes are good, actually. yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt) Northern Chumash land (Grover Beach, CA, USA)

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Reposted by Rachel Mann
Brandon - "Fietser" @americanfietser.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I want to take a moment to let people know that this is not super new tech. It has existed for years, but more notably in countries that design urban infrastructure to enable people of all ages and abilities, not just the car drivers.
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Brandon - "Fietser" @americanfietser.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"But the handicapped need cars!" No, what they need are options in mobility. The tech exists to enable their freedom of independent mobility, but almost always what is lacking is the enabling infrastructure. Bike lanes and quality sidewalks serve everyone.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Today's schadenfreude!
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
In terms of political activism, I've reached the 'oh, so that's why my public highschool English teacher was hammering on about the ethos/pathos/logos rhetoric of persuasion' era.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Kākāpō numbers pass 300 for the first time in 75 years. New Zealand’s flightless, nocturnal parrot now totals 325 birds, after a record 90 chicks fledged this season, built on the Department of Conservation’s recovery programme, which started with just 51 birds in 1995. DOC buff.ly/7YIOBd9
doc.govt.nz
Kākāpō population reaches new milestone
The official population of the critically endangered kākāpō has reached a recovery-era high of 325 birds.
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Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 10/09/2026
Pew Charitable Trusts found that since 2017, housing in Austin has become MORE affordable for the average worker, thanks to the construction of more than 120,000 new homes.
A bar chart titled, "Figure 2 With More Housing Supply, Austin’s Median Rent Became Affordable to Those Earning Lower Incomes Share of Austin’s median income needed to afford Austin’s median rent, 2017 and 2024." The chart shows that in 2017, the share of Austin's median income needed to afford Austin's median rent was 95%. By 2024, that figure had fallen to 84%.

The chart footnote reads:
"Notes: The above figures assume affordability based on a household spending 30% of its income on rent. Rental unit affordability is calculated as follows: Numerator is monthly rent for a one-bedroom unit (from Apartment List) x 12 months / 0.3 (the 30% of income going toward rent); denominator is Austin city area median income for a one-person household.

Sources: Rent data from Apartment List downloaded Dec. 23, 2025; AMI for a one-person household from U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates"

© 2026 The Pew Charitable Trusts

https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2026/03/18/austins-surge-of-new-housing-construction-drove-down-rents
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I’m starting to confuse GLP and GPT
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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 02/09/2026
"Bottom 60% of households" is a wild phrase
CBS NEWS
The findings? For the bottom 60% of U.S. households, a
"minimal quality of life" is out of reach, according to the group, a research organization focused on improving lower earners' economic well-being.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Caught the Thursday lunar eclipse near the Saint Paul Cathedral, MN. Not bad for a phone pic, methinks.
Night view of the lighted northwest side of the St Paul cathedral dome in Minnesota. The August 27 partial lunar eclipse is visible in the night sky.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Proud to have voted yes for another 39 new homes at last night's Grover Beach Planning Commission meeting. #YIMBY
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
That halftime performance warmed my jaded heat. I laughed out loud when Ted Lasso and Coach Beard rolled up. And the Muppets?!?!? Maestro Dudamel looked like her was having the time of his life.
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ChiliDishGamBOO!no @chilidishgambino.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Calling the RFK Jr diarrhea strain “MAHA Blast” since it has now evidently infiltrated Taco Bell
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
My niece is competing at Theater on Ice Nationals in Irvine, CA tomorrow. I just figured out I can take my folding e-bike on the early Pacific Surfliner Amtrak train from Goleta to Irvine and roll up in time to watch her team skate. Wish me luck in my lower-VMT adventure!
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
A new RAND study of impact fees finds that a 25% reduction in such fees would increase the number of feasible housing developments by 20%, and pay for itself via increased taxed revenue. www.rand.org/pubs/researc...
rand.org
Understanding How Impact Fees Shape Housing Development Feasibility
As California cities face growing pressure to build more housing, high development costs remain a major barrier. RAND researchers examines whether reducing impact fees could help make more housing pro...
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Can they eat freshwater algae? Asking for a reflecting pool...
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Just, WOW
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Arrived home last night to another of the cats' mixed media art installations, "The Remains of the Jay".
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Guy Venables @guyvenables.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
One of my cartoons for Monday's Metro
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Proud to have voted yes. More homes for neighbors!
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Reposted by Rachel Mann
Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 01/06/2026
Brand new homes are expensive primarily because building them costs a lot of money and the sale or rental price needs to cover the cost of construction. We have a housing affordability problem because restrictions on new home building have driven up the prices of OLD housing that should be cheaper.
thewychefamily.com
Affordable Housing Is Harder to Build Than We Want to Admit
Affordable housing isn't built by demanding it, it's built when the math works. A look at the financing gap behind every project, and who closes it.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I impulse bought this curvy Heywood-Wakefield desk yesterday off FBMP for $220. Braved a meetup at a storage unit with a thankfully decent seller. Champagne finish, solid hard rock maple, and all the drawers have dovetail joints. No apologies.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I discovered a few days ago that my health insurance now covers the extended-release version of my ADHD medication for a reasonable $40/mo. Well hello, quiet brain!
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Reposted by Rachel Mann
Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 28/04/2026
The price of housing is set by supply and demand. The only way to reduce rents and home prices in high-demand cities is to build a lot of new homes. Rent control only slows down price increases for incumbent tenants. It does not reduce prices for newcomers or people who want to move.
theargumentmag.com
The anti-market delusion at the heart of the housing crisis
Breaking news: Housing is a market
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
My hips don't lie and they are excited about this possibility.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
This is your reminder to make art and music at all times, but especially in chaotic times. POV: my seat at today's rehearsal for the SLO Master Chorale concert tomorrow of Haydn's "The Creation" at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo, CA. I'll be thinking the #Artemis mission.
Rearview from seated onstage of a large choir and orchestra rehearsal. The conductor's arm is raised with a baton. Behind him, the seats and three balconies are empty.
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Reposted by Rachel Mann
Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD @mbonsma.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Awesome new paper by @ashtonindc.bsky.social unpacking ideas about "what—and who—our streets are for" that are behind car supremacy. By analyzing what people say at public meetings, this paper makes the case that individuals are upholding car supremacy and stymieing efforts to build safe streets.
"Car supremacy: Deconstructing the ideology driving our modal hierarchy" by Ashton Rohmer.

Abstract: Cars have shaped modern life in profound ways, from restructuring our built environment to altering our notions of success. They have also had a variety of negative impacts—neighborhood destruction, resource wars, ill health, and environmental damage to name a few—which are largely normalized in our collective psyches. Existing theories of the rise of the automobile are focused on macro-forces such as a globalizing political economy; while important, these fail to explain how local transportation policy has been leveraged by members of the general public to perpetuate an unjust system of automobility. This article argues that our existing beliefs about who has a right to exist in our public rights of way are socially constructed through an ideology of car supremacy. This ideology is used by private citizens in public meetings to prevent our streets from being safe, accessible, and equitable for all road users. Using existing literature and a critical discourse analysis of empirical data gathered from local public meetings, this article defines the core convictions of the ideology of car supremacy—moto monoculture, auto impunity, and modal marginalization—and demonstrates how individuals enact it in public discourse through three rhetorical devices—static scarcity, blame inversion, and nefarious minority—to create a modal hierarchy that marginalizes non-car users. Moreover, this article suggests how urban planners and policy makers can cultivate civic engagement practices that curtail the harmful system of power perpetuated by the ideology of car supremacy.
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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
The shared excitement over NASA’s recent mission compared to the general indifference to SpaceX missions speaks to the power of something seen as the product of communal human effort rather than just the ego and avarice of one obnoxious dork.
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California YIMBY @cayimby.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
U.S. building codes require two stairwells above three stories, which forces a layout that squeezes out larger apartments. Much of the developed world allows single-stair buildings even up to 10 stories with no measurable safety tradeoff and more room for families. cayimby.org/blog/the-sin...
cayimby.org
The Single Stairway to Heaven
Stairway reform could increase housing abundance and affordability by making better use of a building’s floor area.
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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Things that help calm the nervous system, quickly: - Box breathing (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4, repeat) - Immerse your face in cold water (activates mammalian dive reflex) - Humming (stimulates vagus nerve) - Exercise (anything helps, outside even better) - Impeachment and removal
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
When new homes go up rents go down. @kpbssandiego.bsky.social www.kpbs.org/news/economy...
kpbs.org
San Diego rents declined more than 19 of nation’s top 20 markets following surge in supply
Rents in San Diego for a 1-bedroom apartment decreased by 5.6% year-over-year, more than every city in the top 20 priciest markets except New Haven, CT
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Somebody reassure me there's a seven-second delay on the Artemis II launch broadcast? I'm still traumatized from watching the Challenger shuttle explosion live as a 5th grader.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Enjoyed this story on my morning commute.
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Reposted by Rachel Mann
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Nice work, Florida! www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
politico.com
A Mar-a-Lago flip: Dems win Trump's hometown Florida House district
Tuesday's results add more tallies to a trend of Democrats flipping Republican-held seats in state legislatures across the country over the past 14 months.
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Steve the Muppet Wrangler @beardog63.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
I’ve started investing in stocks: beef, chicken, and vegetable. Someday, I hope I’ll be a bouillonaire.
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KAFUI 🇬🇭 @mykafuiohkafui.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Graduating high school before ChatGPT is like having a brain made of recovered steel from warships old enough to not have been weakened by atomic bomb isotopes.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Tuesday stopover at Apogee Brewing in Grover Beach, CA. I met 93yo former UCSB printmaking professor Ed, born in London, 1932. Sharp as a tack. He shared about being evacuated to the countryside of Yorkshire during WWII, meeting his wife of 70y, Nora (RIP) at his uncle's post-war wedding reception.
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Dr Grace S Peng @gspeng.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Car tires are the leading source of microplastics in coastal CA waters. We're also breathing it. Electrifying cars won't help particulate air pollution (strokes, heart attacks, asthma, dementia) at all because they trade fewer tailpipe particles for more tire particles.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
More evidence that building new market-rate "luxury" condos frees up more affordable rental vacancies than building new low-income-restricted units. uhero.hawaii.edu/wp-content/u...
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Gentle reminder to take a break from the horrors and set your alarm for the lunar eclipse at 3-4am PST. Expecting clear skies on California's central coast. I'll be up, contemplating our 'island home' as it aligns between our two lights, source and mirror, sun and moon.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Cover of The Lancet: @thelancet.com www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
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Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl @deardara.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
open-mic in front of the concentration camp...
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Robert Prinz @prinzrob.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Imagine if people kept complaining "Why does this juice keep getting me drunk!?" and you had to explain over & over again that it's wine, not juice. But then they continued to complain about the "juice" anyway, and tried to ban it? This is how I feel about the e-moto versus e-bike debate right now.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Even more evidence that building new housing decreases rents: Researchers tracked the residents of a newly built luxury condo building and found that they freed up less expensive apartments nearby. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Using detailed address-level microdata, we trace movement chains originating with
the initial residents of The Central and document three main findings. First, we show
the building generated a substantial number of local vacancies. We identify 180 specific
addresses that became vacant because of moves into The Central. Scaling to account
for data coverage suggests the new tower induced more than 500 local vacancies in
the three years after construction, by setting off chains of moves. Second, while The
Central units were expensive on a per-square-foot basis, the homes vacated by movers
were significantly cheaper. Homes left behind by those moving into The Central were
about 40% less expensive. Unlike much of the prior literature, which track the changing
neighborhood characteristics of movers
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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 19/02/2026
Just unveiled the Building Up IL Developments (BUILD) plan and gathered a group to talk about housing in our state. The consensus? We need to build more and fast. Looking forward to getting it out to communities across Illinois.
Governor Pritzker convenes a roundtable on housing in Illinois.
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Viva Italia!
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Benjamin Schneider @benschneider.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Architectural beauty is a really important issue in housing advocacy, but it can be hard to address with policy. So many "design" regulations end up making buildings uglier. This piece is a great summary of the kinds of policies that could actually promote beautiful buildings.
cayimby.org
Building Beautiful Homes - California YIMBY
The Next Phase of California’s Pro-Housing Reforms By Eduardo Mendoza California is finally making it easier to build more housing – but the next fight is whether people like what gets built. Ugly and...
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Cartoon by Adam Zyglis
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Rachel Mann @biofillea.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
PSA from the Strib, of all places:
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