JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026It's pretty hard to maintain a high quality of services when you have groups of citizens harassing the Planning department and openly celebrating on FB when they get someone to quit, as has happened with the group suing the City for the last 2 years over the 2024 zoning amendment. An ugly business. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 27/08/2026There's an ice cream shop chain that does a liquid nitrogen gimmick with stand mixers to instantly make ice cream. They pour huge amounts of liquid nitrogen an hour with no PPE, floor covered in fog. All I can think about is someone walking in with a baby in a carrier and setting them down. 030
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 18/08/2026It also ignores the fact that speed cameras aren't primarily intended as a traffic safety measure, they are intended to produce revenue for the locality, despite the best intentions of traffic safety advocates. So when they are located in poor and minority communities it functions as a targeted tax. 010
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 18/08/2026You're complaining about the advocacy, yet without the advocacy the plans wouldn't have been modified. Which is it? Or do you just dislike people taking an interest in the future health of their communities? You can be pro-tech and even pro-DC while also recognizing that DCs don't belong everywhere. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 18/08/2026As an example, current drought conditions in a community in western Virginia have massively depleted the water reservoirs. Local communities use about 10M gal per day. New Google hyperscale datacenter being built will use an additional 8M per day. All drinkable water would then be depleted in ~250d. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 18/08/2026You know there are places outside of California that have water problems too, right? Even in places where there's no meaningful mass agriculture, but where data centers are creating real water supply concerns. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 18/08/2026"Speed" cameras are being augmented with other kinds of monitoring in many jurisdictions (ALPR, facial recognition, etc). 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Traffic cameras are now used for mass surveillance for reasons unrelated to traffic safety, and are a threat to everyone's civil liberties and freedoms. We should be categorically opposed to them on the left and the right. Traffic safety outcomes are achievable by other means. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Everybody knows the local intentions are good. But that doesn't change the demographically skewed outcomes. Drivers everywhere speed, but drivers in low income and black neighborhoods are policed disproportionately. This is a fundamental justice issue. 010
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Have you considered just applying the same standards of policing, traffic camera monitoring, and pedestrian safety to all neighborhoods regardless of their racial makeup? Stop me if I'm getting too wild and crazy here. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 17/08/2026No, what you're arguing for is a continuation of differential policing based on racial demographics. What people want is for the exact same social and legal conditions to exist regardless of the racial makeup of those being policed. Pedestrian safety should also be the same everywhere. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 17/08/2026No, what people want is for the same social and legal conditions to exist in both black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods without exception. I fail to understand why you either don't understand that, or are covertly arguing for something else. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 30/07/2026They originally didn't want any mirrors on it at all. So dumb. 010
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Nowadays, openly violent actors are more likely to use their real names than those they persecute. The violent element of the far right now enjoys the protection of the state in both the US and parts of the UK, among other places. 020
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 16/06/2026If people are forced to use their real names in online discourse, they become physically vulnerable to any random bad actor that might want to harm them. Anything from stalking, to swatting, to full-on physical violence. The modern Internet is full of lynch mobs. 121
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Whistleblower protections are designed to shield those who report government wrongdoing from legal retaliation. That has nothing to do with what I'm referring to, which is outright persecution of people based on race, religion, sexual orientation, political alignment, etc. 220
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 16/06/2026I can think of dozens of reasons, mostly tied to people not wanting to be personally hunted down or persecuted for their opinions. This was a major reason why online communities were able to flourish in the 2000s around topics and interests. Anonymity online is inseparable from user safety. 01132
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 16/06/2026What about when the government is the party doing things that are unlawful, and the online user is simply part of a class of people that are being targeted for persecution? Anonymity is very valuable to encouraging public participation, and is not always tied to criminality or abuse. 1101
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 15/06/2026The UK doesn't exactly have a stellar track record where court cases (or government action) involving human rights are concerned. WW2 whitewashed their cultural reputation in profoundly undeserved ways. 040
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 14/06/2026"Christian" colleges in the American south have been doing that for decades. 010
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Hasn't been since the 1980s, Reagan ended that. About the same time the UK abandoned all their principles and started worshipping at the altar of Thatcherite cruelty. 010
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Sure but in Europe you have liberal democratic governments that are absolutely committed to protecting the rights and safety of their citizens. In the United States we don't have that. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/06/202630 million gallons of water do not casually disappear "during the construction of any building." You're being disingenuous and you know it. Do you know how much water 30 million gallons is?? 230
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 02/06/2026Correction, it appears to be new construction comparison. Not including existing road maintenance. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 02/06/2026It's worse than you realize. The graph is showing all public expenditures on transportation infrastructure, not "public transportation". This includes roads and bridges. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 13/05/2026What determines "end of life" in your opinion? Houses built 100 years ago can sometimes have much higher intrinsic construction quality than modern homes. 050
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Graduating from law school can make you a JD but you can't claim to be an attorney if you haven't passed the Bar exam. You'd say, "I went to law school." 120
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 19/04/2026He makes a very good point though, which is that if you want to win elections you should talk to people in ways that feel familiar and honest to them. 310
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 10/04/2026This. It's people with a painful lack of confidence in their own abilities who use this stuff the most. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 15/03/2026This guy has to be some kind of plant. A human false flag op. Nobody is simultaneously that clueless and that Nazi-coded, it's not possible. 3680
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/03/2026Don't believe the bots. Half the reactions you're seeing aren't even real people. 0110
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 21/01/2026It also gives them the ability to individually micro-target Democratic voters in key swing districts and then harass them personally, electronically, or even financially. You can do a lot of damage when you have a list of names and social security numbers that you've identified as "the enemy". 0123
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 21/12/2025The Purple Heart is for wounded *in combat*. Do you think our troops are in combat with the American public? Specifically, awarded for: 0340
Reposted by JPJames Ball @jamesrball.com · 09/12/2025Absolutely amazing chart from @peterkellner.bsky.social's piece in @thenewworldmag.bsky.social today: www.thenewworld.co.uk/peter-kellne... 601588618
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 25/11/2025If you want to know exactly how that happened, read this. www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-...wheresyoured.atThe Man Who Killed Google SearchWanna listen to this story instead? Check out this week's Better Offline podcast, "The Man That Destroyed Google Search," available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.... 062
Reposted by JPLora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 25/11/2025in which the Chief Strategist and Portfolio Manager for Simplify Asset Management discovers how anachronistic & damaging “the poverty line” metric is in the USA— www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...yesigiveafig.comPart 1: My Life Is a LieHow a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America 1019275
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 08/11/2025I think they came off flat and lifeless because of comically bad directing by George Lucas, and a weak script. Not because of CGI. Those movies could have been SO much better with an improved script and the kind of performances that you'd expect from the star studded cast they'd assembled. 120
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 31/10/2025Rosie the Riveter? And she was fictional. Other than that, it's some home improvement personalities I think. 040
Reposted by JPPrem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 23/10/2025Andrew Cuomo’s campaign just posted — and quickly deleted — this AI-generated ad depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani.” Features a Black man in a keffiyeh shoplifting, an abuser, a trespasser, a trafficker, a drug dealer, and a drunk driver all declaring support for Mamdani. 68049261245
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 05/10/2025You have no idea what the internal construction is of that cable and neither do I. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 05/10/2025Those are peripherals, not host devices. By "computing device" I mean a phone or laptop capable of USB host mode. Typically they are released at (or near) the fastest current USB spec available. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/10/2025The common case is the other way around. Host devices that only have USB-C, with legacy USB devices being plugged in via adapter. 000
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/10/2025They're the only computing device manufacturer in the past decade that's released a USB-C device at forced legacy 2.0 speeds, so it was a reasonable assumption. 200
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/10/2025If it didn't support backwards compatibility to classic USB via an adapter, it wouldn't be very Universal, would it? Orphaning billions of devices isn't considered a win, unless you're a device company that routinely cashes in on planned obsolescence. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/10/2025You have no idea how many users I've run into in the real world who are convinced that USB-C is a 2.0 protocol because their "new phone" is nerfed to 2.0 speeds, regardless of cable. Maybe you're not aware of how people talk about this as they pine for their lost Lightning connector? 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/10/2025Who knows how this particular cable is constructed? It certainly doesn't say. Also, that still doesn't imply that *USB-C itself* is limited to 2.0 speeds, which is the assertion I was originally responding to. 100
JP @thermionic.bsky.social · 04/10/2025I literally asked the question because the statement I was responding to indicated that all USB-C was limited to 2.0 speeds, which is absolutely not the case. 110