I am frequently told that licensure and registration violations are "victimless" "paper" crimes, when these people are not paying the taxes everyone else has to pay and do not have insurance for the harm they do to others, and there's often a reason they cannot be licensed or should not be driving.

NEW VIDEO: North America’s Elevator’s Problem Elevators are absolutely essential to modern cities..... and it turns out North America kind of sucks at them. We partnered with @sightline.org to look into the many issues plaguing our elevator industry, and what it might take to fix it.

S&P futures and foreign markets up, US dollar down a fifth of one percent on news of the erosion of rule of law and end of central bank independence in the United States.

What is law?

The only thing that can halt the ongoing MAGAfication of the judiciary is a Democratic senate win in November. If you’re not thinking about how to win in Texas, Alaska, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, and Florida you’re asking the wrong question.

If your hotel tells you "we upgraded your room" but they do not specify how (eg, "to a suite"), you have almost certainly not received a real upgrade.

One of the alternatives being used to "distract" him is another strike on Iran.

This is excellent news for the future of transit in the US. LA is just too big to rely mostly on buses and light rail and needs to return to building subways. A NIMBY-pleasing highway-median monorail without a direct connection to a major trip generator (UCLA) would have been a huge mistake.

Today is the day! We're so excited to welcome everyone to TransportationCampDC! We heard a great Keynote from Jarrett Walker, author of @humantransit.bsky.social, and we're moments away from heading to our first round of breakout rooms!

"Ma'am please stop using your speakerphone." "I ain't on speakerphone. I'm on FaceTime." That's me shown then.

Holy cow: TRUMP LEAKED THIS MORNING'S PAYROLL NUMBERS. At 8:20pm last night he posted a photo of a briefing he received from his CEA. It reveals market-moving numbers that were officially released at 8:30am this morning. (Note: CEA receives the data—confidentially—on Thursday evening.)

Wow, that Minnesota fraud must be out of control.

I pointed this out once in a room full of US airport and airline managers talking about the curb congestion issue, but I did so knowing that everyone would roll their eyes because the opinion stateside is still "no way".

Some personal news.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee should announce they are suspending the award until 2029.

"He is now the face of US foreign policy and President Trump's point man on Venezuela, all in addition to his roles as Secretary of State, interim..." Okay, hold on. Face of foreign policy, point man on foreign policy and minister of foreign policy are, in fact, the same job.

Trump: [does x] Bluesky: "There is a specific and explicit textual prohibition banning x." SCOTUS: "Actually, history and tradition says the President can quarter at your mom's house."

dudes will refuse to click on links in email for security reasons but raw-dog terminal install anything from a blog that passes the vibe check

1. This sounds like a lot but is actually only ~4 days of US crude oil production. 2. In principle, though, if you're obsessed with energy dominance through supporting the US fossil fuels sector, taking Venezuelan oil and selling it here seems unhelpful. www.axios.com/2026/01/07/u...

It is crazy how close Brightline passes to FLL Terminal 1 without stopping.

You, dumb: Schools were closed and classes were held online for too long during the pandemic. Me, smart: Schools should be closed and classes held online for the rest of the year due to zoning.

Not The Onion.

Off to the big leaky building in the sky.

According to most engineers, humans are erratic creatures whose main purpose is to ruin the perfection of the rational engineering world, so provisions must be made to contain them. Human cubs are even more threatening, the quintessential pre-rational creature.

10L/28R, the longest runway at PBI, provides the most direct path to the ocean, a desirable place to send aircraft as no one lives there, but a straight line from 10L/28R is under 300 metres from the President's home. Planes are now sent 24/7 over Worth Avenue, Palm Beach's social and retail heart.

Inflation adjusted post-secondary tuition costs in the United States have been falling, not rising, net of financial aid. Net cost-of-attendance, while down at 2-year schools, has been essentially flat at 4-year schools despite falling real tuition, probably due to the Housing Theory of Everything.

Cal-SMU, a classic matchup in the Atlantic Coast Conference

USE HEADPHONES

Jail for speakerphone users.

Watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and shorting the companies with the most questionable floats.

A wise man once said that ‘jury trials are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement’. That man was David Lammy. Me for @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/scr...

Every American should have this in their wallet:

Wicked, Act 2: Wicked For Too Long These could have just been one movie!

Fascinating to compare analysis and messaging. WMATA publicly quantifying the efficiencies they want, meanwhile the MTA won’t even publicly quantify the inefficiencies they don’t want. Is it because the MTA is afraid of its shadow politically? Or do they not even know their numbers?

Twitter is forcing me to reenrol my hardware key to reassociate it with the x.com domain rather than the twitter.com domain but also the process does not work, so I guess I live here now.

They expect that 55% will renew their leases but 65% actually do. This seems like a normal (and historically good!) retention rate for urban multifamily in the Sunbelt? Camden reports a retention rate of about ~65%, which is a record high, and MAA's rate is just under 60%.

What's the worst James Bond film, and why is it Die Another Day?

The UK, if it hadn't wasted money burying urban power lines:

Concepts of a Plan

Gavin Newsom should buy the Reagan anti-tariff ad from Ontario and keep running it with a California logo at the end.

Trump, speaking from America's Florida province, called the ad "very bad"

Tariffs aren't working.

Not the point, but I think it's a problem that, until this year, if I saw this person in my car window, I would assume he was a carjacker, and now I wouldn't know.

Rick Scott, expert on healthcare:

Notably, this is the opposite of time-of-use pricing now! I imagine the shift from car charging during the night (when the car is at home) to during the day (when it often is not) may prove troublesome for some vehicle owners.

The study is about nighttime effectiveness, but I would like to mention that during the daytime, the Tesla Model 3 was the only vehicle that ever failed to apply automatic braking and was the only one that ever hit the dummy.

The Paris Crown Affair: Thieves Mark No Kings By Taking Royal Jewels