The president of the United States giving a Bond supervillain speech to an international audience.

I have met toddlers more capable of emotional regulation

For some reason, very few people these days will stand up and say it, but: the US federal bureaucracy is one of the great wonders of the world, staffed with incredibly diligent people who do their jobs well and care deeply. Trump's destruction of the federal apparaus was a historic crime.

Cities need to engage with state DOTs on highway projects in city limits - these are decisions about what kind of city we want to be. We'll be discussing a Common Council resolution at the Transportation Commission next week and working on a detailed staff comment letter. madison.com/news/local/g...

My home river - the Yahara - flows 1 mile from lake to lake.

Some big patches of open water on Lake Monona.

Duck-signal?

Stephen Colbert on the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good: “The message from this administration is clear. Only they determine the truth. And when their forces come to your city: obey or die. And if you die, you clearly didn’t obey. This should be an alarm bell for the entire country.”

We call this the "hairball" and it's an intersection where way too many things cross in one place, with no obvious way to reroute any of it. As noted, it's better than it was. I regularly bike, ride the bus, and drive through here. Oddly it probably works better for bikes than for anything else.

I love the range of winter bike gear: everything from jeans+hoodie to astronaut.

Freight across the frozen lake.

It's funny that Britain is seen as this stubborn, unbeaten island when they were successfully invaded and conquered by the Danes, the French, and the Dutch, and later taken over by a minor German duchy. (And that's not to mention the time the Scots inherited the place and moved in.)

A Pittsburgh light rail train prepares to head under the mountain, across the river, and into Downtown.

Wheeling & Lake Erie in the snow, Green Tree, PA.

Norfolk Southern alongside Pittsburgh's South Side Slopes.

Boggs Station in Pittsburgh with a panoramic view of transit infrastructure. Silver Line clings to the hill. Across the valley, Red Line takes a different path to meet Silver again 4 miles south. South Busway shares the bridge across the valley with Red, then branches off to closely follow Silver.

At its outer end, Pittsburgh's West Busway is fully "closed" - buses stopping at Carnegie, the last stop, can't leave the busway, only turn around and go back the other way. But a ramp 1/2 mile back allows the airport flyer and other routes to take Interstate 376 to destinations beyond the busway.

at least part of everything this government does is to impress a handful of psychos on twitter

Three basic rules that Trump is determined to break: (1) Congress, not the president, declares war (2) you don’t invade anyone who hasn’t attacked you (3) countries are governed by themselves, not outside powers. This is the path to international chaos and endless war.

Credit to the Twin Cities for an airport transit hub with an indoor waiting area where you can see the buses pull in from the comfy seating and then step outside (but under cover) to board.

I like the new Pittsburgh airport terminal in general but this is a bad bus stop — furthest end of the curb, minimal shelter from wind, no good way to wait indoors and watch for the bus. Bus stops should be a part of the design, not an afterthought.

Happy New Year!

This should not be shrugged aside. They have stopped with the fake 22 million illegal immigrants things and are flat out saying we want to deport 10's of millions of citizens and legal residents from "third world countries" Basically they are advocating removing 1/3 of the population on a gov site.

A great example of how the @nytimes.com centers white Americans and Trump supporters in its anecdotal political coverage. You never see stories like this about Black Democrats whose cities are cracked in Republican gerrymandering to give them Republican elected officials.

There's an "spooky stories" AI slop account on Facebook that is oddly obsessed with transportation data and control systems.

A big thank you to everyone working to keep things running today.

Merry Christmas!

The Capitol in the fog.

Reflections on the ice, Lake Mendota.

Examining the ice.

Imagine a vintage London Underground font: "Skating on the lagoon... by bus"

Cars are now being programmed to violate traffic rules. What could go wrong? Me, in @fastcompany.com. (no paywall) 🧵

Lake Mendota, sunset.

One of the nice parts of being in Wisconsin: the statues at the Capitol are of people who fought for good, not evil.

What city is Penny in?

Today we discuss the news that NCAR, a critical cog in weather research has been targeted to be dismantled by the Trump Administration and why that's a really, really bad decision. We also connect NCAR to ongoing atmospheric river events. More below or at theeyewall.com.

Lake Monona status: hockey.

Still a few open patches of water on Lake Monona.

The B passes the Madison Mallards stadium. Pitchers and catchers aren't reporting anytime soon!

The birds are migrating south and the Bcycles are going into hibernation.

Lake Mendota at 3 degrees.

Cold, but not really cold.

A very thin layer of ice on the main body of Lake Monona.

Sunset on Lake Mendota.

After the snow.

From the @wsj.com chief foreign correspondent

Is there anything more Madison than biking to the lake to play hockey?

wtf is a FIFA peace prize? that's like being an NFL laureate in physics

In a stunning 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court found that the Constitution is unconstitutional.