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Neil G.

@skyrefuge.bsky.social
34 followers 53 following 204 posts

Bicycle-based nomad exploring the world

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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
American in Paris here. The demotion of cars in the city (and really the whole country) is amazing, but so successful that even as an adult I wish I had someone to hold *my* hand to keep me from inadvertently stepping into the path of a bike (which can come from 6 directions at once!)
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I remember being on forums decades ago with libertarians railing against the horrible "socialism" destroying European countries. I was like "you should actually *go* to Europe sometime, because you'll see that the average person there is a lot happier with their life than you are!"
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Yeah, Iron Maiden's 4 albums since 2006 have all been top 10s in the US, and zero of their "classic" 1980s albums were. This is NOT because Iron Maiden is 2-3x more popular now vs. the 80s. It's simply because metalheads are freaks and still buy albums when fans of all other genres have stopped!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Same with people who use the phrase "no good deed goes unpunished". Good deeds go unpunished all the time! Stop making up lies to make yourself feel better about your cynicism and failure to do good deeds!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Why not? For millennia we've all agreed that humans "think", despite a wrong understanding (which may continue to this day) of how we work!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I started riding my bike around the world 5 years ago, beginning with the West Coast. Done a whole lot of coastlines since then, and it's remarkable how basically no one else has built a road on terrain like Hwy 1. That rarity (and ephemerality) make it even more gorgeous, but man, the hubris!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Two of the best "Reality TV" series ever, glad to hear someone else remembers them (PBS needs to just dump them all on TikTok or whatever). Every time I see one of those TradLife profiles I'm glad knowing that their whining and complaining is just as bad as the families on those shows!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Probably arose in the fever-swamps following a cross-breeding of the "Somali daycare" and "schools providing litter boxes for kids who identify as cats" episodes.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Another question: which of his friends are still all-in on the '80s Satanic Panic? It's a less-funny explanation (though equally stupid!), but makes a lot of sense:
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Isn't it likely that most of these openers were actually paying a "buy-on" to Sheeran for the exposure opportunity? Sure, they previously saw it as an investment that would be worth it long term, but short-term, they actually might be "saving" cash (depending on contract clauses, etc.)
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
16 direct trains a day from London to 8k Totnes!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Doing Plymouth-Penzance (15k) this weekend (to ride bikes and hike a bit of the SW Coastal Trail), and I'm already so spoiled that I was like "WTF, on Sundays this train only does ~10 runs, and the 1st isn't until 8:15?!" 😂
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
US Amtrak aficionado, 1st time in UK. Just did a round trip from Plymouth (300k) to Totnes (8k), for a 7 mile hike to a castle. Could pick almost any time of day. Outbound train was going to London, inbound coming from Glasgow! The latter was 10 minutes late and they apologized! 😲
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Oh, and of course New Zealand has their native charismatic megaflora, the kauris. Being in one of their groves is a similar religious experience to a redwood grove, yet its own unique magic.
Two enormous and perfectly-cylindrical gray-white tree trunks try and fail to hide amongst forest greenery. A woman is nearly unnoticeable standing in the bottom-right corner of the frame, dwarfed by the trunks.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It's on the edge of a town, Rotorua, which also has nice manicured city park next to the hospital, except its ponds are steaming and boiling and crazy colors. And then there's a near-Old Faithful geyser you can see go off while driving to work. All in a town I'd never even heard of. NZ is crazy.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
New Zealand has a big redwood grove, and since as non-natives they aren't protected, they've built a whole Ewok Village/Lothlorien thing around them, it's awesome. I just saw a couple random giant sequoias in England, and a hidden redwood grove yesterday. People like charismatic megaflora!
A photo of a redwood forest, with giant trunks encircled by elevated platforms, connected by rope bridges. Atmospheric lights glow from deeper within the forest.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Yeah, as an Edison Parker, I was surprised that I'd never heard that Ozanam (or Canfield?) was formerly "Pacific". Spent 10 minutes searching for the history, only to finally see it's further south in Dunning. Equally surprised though that I never knew there were "P streets" after the "O"s!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Yeah, alternate headline: "90% of Americans have enough extra money to buy cars more expensive than they need to". What's framed negatively by CNN is really a nice rebuke of the Stancil-triggering "but the economy is terrible and no one has any money!!" drumbeat.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I've never played a GTA game, have no intention of playing this one, and the last console I owned was an Atari 2600. And yet! I have twice gone to YouTube and actively searched for GTA VI content!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Oh, and here's my more-complete thread on the matter, for reference.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Appreciate the source-appreciating, from a fellow source-appreciator! (that's the main reason I put together the thread, so others could check/confirm/dispute.) And good call on screenshots too, since yeah, despite linking to sources, I still have no "proof", if Google does a ninja edit tomorrow.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
This was initially my assumption too, so I was surprised to find pretty good evidence that someone DID actually take manual action!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Nevermind, I found an instance of Google overriding USGS data. This one right here!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I was initially defending Google for not making an exception to their normal procedures. Maybe not right, but understandable. But further digging suggests this WASN'T just standard procedure; someone DID take a manual action outside of their procedure (if such a procedure even exists).
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Instead, it indicates that someone at Google actively made an exception, or took a positive action, to specifically change the name of Lake Ontario, while ignoring the older change that had been made to Spring Lake. (5/5)
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
So if you click this link, and you see the old name of "Spring Lake" AND you also see "Lake America" in the same app/website, that seems to imply that the "Lake America" was NOT just a natural consequence of their algorithm inhaling new database updates, as their statement suggested. (4/5)
google.com
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
On Google Earth, I see "Lake America" instead of "Ontario" (on Maps, I still see "Ontario"), so along with Google's statement, that implies that they have inhaled the latest GNIS update. However I do NOT see the update for Lake Foy, even though that update was made six weeks ago in the GNIS! (3/5)
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
But that USGS database (GNIS) can be checked for all recent updates. Since Jun 1, there have been 7 updates (so not many). "Lake America" is the most recent (Aug 27), but a "Spring Lake" in Utah was renamed to "Foy Lake" on Jul 9. (2/5) edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-dom...
edits.nationalmap.gov
Geographic Names Information System
Gaz Web Application
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Ok, I may have caught Google Maps lying about "Lake America". Their statement suggested that they simply pull all their place-names from a US Government database, so when the Trump admin updated that database, the change just flowed through automatically. (1/5) blog.google/products-and...
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Good insight with Denali/McKinley, and how "how much I care about that place/name" is a big part of it. Which I think points to the best generalized answer for us: try to care about this stuff less! Especially since we're all just feeding the troll here. Not that it's easy to stop...
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
When DoD ditched the Confederate loser Fort Bragg in 2023, and renamed it Fort Liberty, what should Google have done in that case? Not saying one is right and the other is wrong, just that "how to name stuff on a map" isn't always simple, and is often political.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
That said, how is this lake named for you? It's name was updated to Foy Lake in the GNIS weeks before "Lake America", so if it still shows up as Spring Lake, then we've caught Google lying. (mine still shows Lake Ontario, so my check isn't valid) maps.app.goo.gl/zr3wSAs9aP5g...
maps.app.goo.gl
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Presumably they have a regular cadence to pull updates from GNIS. If too slow, then they miss non-ridiculous updates (like "Spring Lake" in Utah being updated to "Foy Lake" on July 9). They could create a "TrumpExceptions" in their workflow that reverses his changes, but that's not great either.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Is there any evidence that Google's statement ("don't blame us, we just reprint unmodified data from GNIS") is a lie? Otherwise I can't really blame them for not creating a ReRenameTrumpsCrap.py exceptions file. blog.google/products-and...
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Either because other apps have different policies on where/how they source their data, or because they use a slower refresh of GNIS data than Google does. Maybe Google is lying in their policy statement, and if there's evidence of that, I'd love to see it!
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Google explains it here. Some of differences people are seeing now are not due to being in/out of the US, but due to the change rolling out over time. blog.google/products-and...
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Google's explanation is that they're just agnostically pulling in the data from USGS. Are there known instances of them overriding the USGS data? Do we *want* a team at Google overriding USGS data? Google has shamefully bent the knee before, but mucking in the GNIS is Trump's doing, not theirs.
blog.google
How the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps
The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" in the United States. Since we update Google Maps …
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Funny enough, I've now read the article and it actually includes a Bay Area girl who got accepted to SU! She had come to her senses and settled on Cal Poly instead, but then SU came begging with a late offer of $40k extra aid... ...which she still turned down in favor of Cal Poly, so, not insane.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Oh yeah, no doubt. I meant for my hypothetical student to be from Cleveland or Albany. Thus flying home from a school they escaped to in CA would be more expensive than taking the train home from SU, but not nearly as big a factor in the total cost-equation vs. 30 years ago.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Also transportation costs have become a negligible factor. When SU was $10k, flights home for Xmas or whatever was a nonstarter for most (and cheap easy access by Amtrak from anywhere between CHI and NYC was big a plus). When it's $90k, what's a few more $k to fly from CA?
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Certainly an idea, and probably works ok for GNIS labels, but I can imagine other constituencies getting mad when "good" updates (removing Confederates from military bases, the potential renaming of Nashville's airport for Dolly Parton, etc.) don't appear for years...
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I don't WANT one person at RideWithGPS naming/overriding things. I like that they just take in OSM's data. Same with Google, just taking data from the GNIS. Certainly Google has bent the knee on stuff they shouldn't have. This isn't that. The problem here is the goofball who changed the GNIS.
blog.google
How the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps
The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" in the United States. Since we update Google Maps …
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
In mapping app I use (RideWithGPS), the UK city of Exeter recently changed to "Sexeter". I'm not mad at RideWithGPS about this. They source their data from OpenStreetMap, and some goofball changed the name of the city in OSM. (1/2)
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
And you'll frequently hear "defenses" like this, which certainly have a large kernel of truth. But really, it's just that the Trump Show is a world-historical Attention Grabber, and their "we don't WANT to care, but we're forced to!" is just a rationalization of their prurient interest.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
And then I didn't think of it as all as a complaint *to you*, more a commiseration with other fans, because this is the only "forum" where I've seen the game discussed. But even with that (invisible) context, I now see I was being a rude jerk. Hopefully a rude jerk who can learn though.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
D'oh! Sorry, and thanks for pointing out my jerkiness. In my brain, I had already thanked you a few days ago for the link, because it was a fun game and I was enjoying it.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
25 letter boards are too big, it means most words exist on every board. The game becomes "from my memorized list of rare words, which appear on today's board?" Probably 80%! Reused rare words get penalized, but that's an ugly rules-hack to tape over a poor game design in the first place.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I agree that the Reuters article is very good and supports Gergely's reporting, I just think the line he put in his initial skeet ("...lay off ~60% of staff") is a clickbait-y lie, far beneath his normal sober and trustworthy standards.
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
C'mon, even before Meta's statement, Reuters' claim was only "executives *explored* slashing the size *of many* teams across Meta by *as much as* 60%" (emphasis added). That's something entirely different than "Zuck + execs wanted to lay off ~60% of staff", which I don't see anywhere in the story?
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Neil G. @skyrefuge.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Because people still want to strengthen social bonds via a shared media universe, even if an individualized feed of slop can be addictive. (This instinctive way of building social bonds by liking the same things is also why I don't think AI music/art will ever gain traction).
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