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Preston

@prestonrhea.bsky.social
205 followers 771 following 165 posts

San Francisco, being on a bike, music, the built and shared.

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Reposted by Preston
Mission Local @missionlocal.org · 28/09/2026
San Francisco's richest have never been richer, more brazen or faced weaker political opposition — going back to the Gold Rush. Latest column from @esksf.bsky.social missionlocal.org/2026/09/san-...
missionlocal.org
San Francisco's wealthiest have unprecedented control of city politics
Our city fathers (if you like them) or oligarchs (if you don’t) have never been richer, more brazen or faced weaker opposition
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The most important thing I learned in my 20s is that being smart doesn't make you special. Eventually you need to learn to try hard and to enjoy learning to do things you're not immediately good at. It turns out that the people who didn't learn this lesson were reading Harry Potter fanfic.
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Sasha Costanza-Chock @schock.cc · 23/09/2026
This year at #MozFest26, I'm honored to be moderating "Pushing through the Concrete," a showcase of visionaries who aren't waiting around to build the worlds we need. Feat. @blackskyweb.xyz's R. Fraser; MakerBay's C. Harada, Thaura.ai's Chihabi bros.; Ushahidi's A. Oduor Lungati; & Prof Min Jiang
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Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Researchers have been asking, why are pedestrian deaths going up, particularly driven by a spike in the dusk period? Well, right now it's 8:30 pm and I'm walking the baby to sleep, and every other driver I have seen is staring at their phone while rolling stop signs. Just a thought.
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Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This aired just the once in 1998 on the live SNL show for which McKay wrote it. It was effectively banned as it never aired again. I wonder why. MEDIA-OPOLY
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tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Like Octavia E. Butler said, “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.” “Do the thing and you will have the power.”
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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I've spent a lot of years studying a lot of collapses, and the truth of the matter is that they're always mundane: mild climatic shifts that reduce crop yields, a dumbass in power who makes some terrible decisions, neglecting things that obviously matter but the will to fix them can't be summoned.
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Dean Preston @deanpreston.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Empty Homes Tax was working to get owners to fill vacant units until landlords sued and court struck it down. We had a multi-unit building in D5 that was left empty by a speculator for 7+ years. As soon as vacancy tax passed, they fixed it up to get it ready for occupants. Now it will stay empty.
sfchronicle.com
S.F. landlords win battle over tax on empty apartments in wake of court ruling
A voter-approved ballot measure intended to tax owners of San Francisco apartments that have been vacant for six months violates property owners’ rights under California law, a state court ruled.
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Gilly @gillyarcht.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Dolly, gracing us, on Bernal Rock
radiant poster of Saint Dolly Parton, beatified on gilded Bernal Rock, San Francisco skyline beyond
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 14/09/2026
One thing not getting as much attention re: Dario's essay. In it, he talks about the need for third party evaluators to review models for safety. But a few days before the essay, Anthropic... refused to submit its latest models to the UK's evaluator: www.ft.com/content/560e...
ft.com
Anthropic withheld latest AI model from UK testing agency
Decision to exclude Aisi has prompted fears inside British government of protectionist shift among tech groups
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 14/09/2026
The only person in public service who has consistently made 100% sense on issues of "AI," which is why they hate her so much.
Law enforcers already have authority to charge companies and their CEOs for creating and releasing dangerous, unvetted, or defective products. We shouldn’t let discussions about new legal regimes distract from the fact that there’s no AI exemption from laws already on the books — a point 
@FTC
 emphasized repeatedly during my tenure.

1. There is an extensive set of laws that govern dangerous and defective products. For example, releasing unvetted AI models or agents can violate consumer protection laws. Shipping flawed AI tools without implementing adequate measures to detect and stop rogue or defective AI agents can be an “unfair or deceptive” act or practice under the FTC Act (and analogous state laws). And some state AGs are already exploring holding AI firms and their CEOs criminally liable when their models participate in criminal activity.

2. Existing laws also prohibit “unfair methods of competition.” This covers instances where AI firms appropriate the competitively sensitive information of their customers, including through tracking their use of various tools. It can also cover instances where firms pursue dangerous behavior, aware that doing so may compel rivals to do the same.As the Supreme Court has noted: “A method of competition which casts upon one's competitors the burden of the loss of business unless they will descend to a practice which they are under a powerful moral compulsion not to adopt, even though it is not criminal, was thought to involve the kind of unfairness at which the [unfair methods of competition] statute was aimed."

3. The highly concentrated and interconnected structure of these markets could be creating major risks and conflicts of interest. We had started investigating these partnerships and cross-investments across the stack (and released a preliminarily overview of some findings: https://ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-issues-staff-report-ai-partnerships-investments-study). 

Both federal and state enforcers should be scrutinizing these opaque relationships and inter-dependencies. We are already seeing how these relationships could undermine accountability. For example, OpenAI could face liability given the Hugging Face incident, but Hugging Face being bought up by Nvidia means that we’re unlikely to see it file a lawsuit over this — given Nvidia’s strong incentive to see OpenAI continue full speed ahead.4. As AI tools dramatically change the landscape of cybersecurity risks and hacks, all businesses should be doubling down on having core security protections in place. Firms that fail to invest in adequate data security measures or fix known vulnerabilities can also be breaking the law. A recent analysis showed that around 1/3 of Fortune 100 companies do not even have a way to notify them about security issues. During my 
@FTC
 tenure, we sued firms for poor data security practices and held CEOs liable when they were personally responsible.

https://this.weekinsecurity.com/dozens-of-americas-largest-companies-have-no-simple-way-to-report-security-flaws/

https://ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/10/ftc-takes-action-against-drizly-its-ceo-james-cory-rellas-security-failures-exposed-data-25-million

5. As policymakers consider new legal regimes, we should be looking to lessons from prior efforts to govern major sectors, such as banking and other networks, platforms, and utilities. Tools like structural separations, nondiscrimination, and supervision could be key, and there’s a rich history of what works and what doesn’t. But we can and must pursue any new efforts alongside enforcing existing laws.
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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 13/09/2026
for two months, I've been flying drones over Flock cameras to situation them in space and geography; I even got my commercial drone license in order to do it. I'd like to share this project with you all: it's called Records Of Enemy Surveillance: recordsofenemysurveillance.com
image of a residential intersection with one red car driving across it and a baseball field in the backgroundblack and white dithered image of two red squares around the flock cameras in the previous image, on either side of the intersection
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Gazetteer SF @sf.gazetteer.co · 12/09/2026
“There’s a long tradition of libraries being shut down and destroyed by the powerful,” said the Internet Archive founder. “The good news is, we’re still here.” Sofi Cisneros goes inside the Funston Avenue library that houses the massive digital archive:
sf.gazetteer.co
Brewster Kahle’s Memory Palace
In a time when everyone from the Trump administration to the companies serving up your daily doomscroll wants to erase the past, the Internet Archive refuses to forget
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Preston @prestonrhea.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Leave it to The War On Drugs to drop a track that makes you feel “maybe turning middle age isn’t the end” youtu.be/1fMvp6GCyZI?...
youtu.be
The War On Drugs - Who's That (Official Video)
YouTube video by The War On Drugs
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 10/09/2026
"Did these AI models “go rogue”? Not exactly. the models were tasked with finding solutions to a hacking challenge, and this is what they attempted to do, though in an unintended and surprising manner." aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading...
aiguide.substack.com
Misleading Metaphors, Real Risks
What To Fear from AI Agents and How to Reclaim Our Human Agency
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dr. rich traditions, JD @helldude.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
im inclined to agree with the techlords that AI is dangerous. again, not because it's alive but because they're insisting on putting it in positions where it can hurt people, leaving aside the promised jobpocalypse they're promising us. chimp with gun
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
at this point: carbon removal is, at best, essentially a research project. renewable expansion is a policy project
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Sridhar Ramesh @radishharmers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"Bayesian" means "from the Bay Area".
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ghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
ok look The Odyssey is very much a sequel
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Tiff E. Sniffs @tiffysniffs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Sssssomebody hire me!
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Luis Villa @lu.is · 29/08/2026
Every leader in San Francisco: we really care about climate change! Also, in a city with the country’s best cycling climate: no not like that
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warrior cop @wyattprivilege.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Just found out my life experiences confer universally valid truths I am ready to dictate
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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Harris, Parton, Ronstadt on Late Show, March 24, 1999
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Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 29/08/2026
Scheming to drop a giant dome over Burning Man, Wile E. Coyote style, to contain tech oligarchy once and for all
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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton rose from poverty to stardom. She gave $500 to every student in her hometown who finished high school; she built hospitals & bald eagle preserves; her Imagination Library has gifted 300 million books to children. Roger Ebert met her and came away thinking she was a literal angel. RIP.
“In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder.”
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Letterboxd @letterboxd.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton (1946-2026)
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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Interesting to look at this in Alabama; no surprise these numbers are low in the four major cities and the Black Belt, but Trump is also negative in Tuscaloosa and Auburn and not especially strong in Shelby or Limestone counties, two fast-growing and traditionally Republican areas.
projects.gelliottmorris.com
Trump's Job Approval by Geography and Demographics
Explore Donald Trump's approval rating across every U.S. PUMA and by demographic group. MRP estimates from the monthly Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 16/08/2026
Every conversation about bike lanes is like: "Car crashes kill a huge number of people every day, including pedestrians, cyclists, & car occupants. Good bike infrastructure has been shown to make everyone safer (& doesn't increase congestion)." "But sometimes cyclists break rules & hit people!"
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Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
if there's one thing boomers hate across the political spectrum it's a new bike lane
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Richard A Carter @richardacarter.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Think I'm going to post eclipse images on here all day, because 🌑🌕🔭 Four views of the solar eclipse August 1869, John Adams Whipple
Four viewsof the solar eclipse - showing various stages, including total. Distinct orange filtered hue on this photograph
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Sovereign AI budgets are growing faster than the analysis behind them. Joel Christoph argues that governments should ask how much bargaining leverage each public dollar buys, and stop calling the rest sovereignty.
techpolicy.press
What Sovereign AI Budgets Actually Buy
Around the world, 'sovereign' AI budgets are growing faster than the analysis behind them, writes Joel Christoph.
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jae holzman @jael.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Carly Rae Jepsen’s EMOTION is one of the best pop albums ever made. Is this even a debate?
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Preston @prestonrhea.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Bill Adama from Battlestar Galactica
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Tech Won’t Save Us @techwontsave.us · 23/07/2026
Libraries are still essential in the digital age. Some librarians are even helping patrons ditch AI and get off Big Tech. This week Hannah Cyrus and @flexlibris.bsky.social join @parismarx.com to discuss how libraries address people’s concerns about tech. Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/338_...
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Infrastructure Weak @infrastructureweak.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I've just published this article, Part 1 of 4 about the choices that will enable San Francisco to finally build a Geary metro. medium.com/@infrastruct...
medium.com
Plan the Geary metro right, right now
Part 1: Strong corridor; tight station spacing; frequent trains
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Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
On BART sitting next to an electrician (IBEW Local 595) who is taking his tools to the job site on *transit*! People, I was told this was 100% not possible without a Ford F-150.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
There was a moment in the 2010s when a lot of us believed this, myself included! But sousveillance really hasn’t brought about the justice we want from video evidence. If anything, we have fed training data on how best to abuse us and anesthetized the public to death rituals.
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Sean O’Kane @okane.fyi · 04/07/2026
Michael Douglas’ character at the end of The Game
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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 03/07/2026
living in the Bay Area is so fucking weird sometimes dude
Image of a solar panel:

NEW Ultralight (1 KG) 170W solar panels from Google Loon project approx. 3'x3' $65
Just listed 6 hours agoDescription
NEW Ultralight (1 KG) 170W solar panels from Google Loon project approx. 3'x3' We acquired the assets of Google's failed balloons-as-satellites project and this has left us with a surplus of ultralight solar panels. We need to make some more room in our warehouse so our loss is your gain.
Part of the $1 B+ USD they burned on fire was making these custom solar panels to their specifications.
We have 31 crates of 16 panels. Our price is $65 per loose panel (in similar range to the current best price found per watt for newer panels)
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Bill Mudron @mudron.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
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Preston @prestonrhea.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Sensational finish for Morocco
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 25/06/2026
Robin D.G. Kelley recommends three books every radical should read
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I now fervently believe this. Relatedly, I think celebrating good news and embracing joy are equally radical. You have to remember what you’re fighting for. We cannot sustainably organize around sorrow.
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Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
She won.
Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton
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The Cottage Garden @simonecannon.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
White nettle-leaved mullein, visited by a bee, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, USA #WildflowerHour #PollinatorPals #BugSky #Bloomscrolling
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🌅 Patricia Wallinga 🌇 @pwallinga.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
I've expanded the graph. Personally, mine veers a little towards Coach Dad, but remains firmly in The Lawn Zone™
The graph above, with colored zones of different types of dad.

Strongest Touching Grass, in order from Trekkie to sports fan: last remaining Sharper Image customer, mandatory yearly fishing trip, Coach Dad.

Leans Touching Grass to true neutral, from Trekkie to sports fan: still wants to be John Wayne when he grows up, still goes to see rock bands with multiple dead members, The Lawn Zone (trademark).

Big Bookshelf half of graph, from Trekkie to sports fan: don't touch Daddy's minifigures they're not toys, has a favorite war, your father is in the garage, baseball autism corner.
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Sasha Costanza-Chock @schock.cc · 19/06/2026
The most dangerous thing about AI is not that the machines might one day think. It is that we are being trained, by men with enormous financial gains riding on our acquiescence, to stop thinking for ourselves.
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WEATHER IS HAPPENING @weatherishappening.com · 21/06/2026
THE SUMMER SOLSTICE OCCURRED @ 4:24 AM
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This Day in Labor History: June 16, 1918. Eugene Debs gave a speech in Canton, Ohio, criticizing American actions in World War I and urging resistance to the draft. Two weeks later, Debs was arrested under the Espionage Act and charged with ten counts of sedition. Let's talk about the Red Scare!
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Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
[taking the deepest possible breath] the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602,
headline that says “why is trump hosting a cage fight at the White House” with photo of same
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