From 2 years ago. Government-funded science ftw. "Farmers and ranchers have been some of the greatest beneficiaries of government funded basic science over the past century." warning: disturbing images and one trumpian typo ;-)

Interesting reference here to the Statue of Liberty, given Hegseth's D-Day speech today, which conveyed a very different, un-American attitude toward "the wretched refuse of your teeming shore." In a way, has this Admin already started to bulldoze it?

Today we launched the California Wildland Interface Structural Look Book Dashboard. The Dashboard visually conveys information about wildfire hazard zone classification information for structures throughout California. Link: wuistructurallookbook.stanford.edu

If you've been at all disturbed by my Senate- and scotus-obsessed takes on Platner, I urge you to read this. Ms. Clymer's soul-searching piece captures almost perfectly both my thoughts over the last few months and my conclusion about what's hard but necessary to preserve our democracy.

Streisand ftw. Would you risk arrest for distributing a published, detailed editorial -- not just some rando rant -- at your next technical conference? These heroes did.

Big week for Alberto Giacometti with @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social

Just sayin' (today: Chapman)

Anybody following this? @herbscribner.bsky.social ? @jlazarus.bsky.social ?

If not an actual spaceship, it IS isolated from the earth, with friction-pendulum isolators to protect the visitors, staff, the building itself, and the contents from earthquakes. #structural_engineering www.som.com/projects/los...

I'm sorry but I just don't believe this is correct. An endorsement is a statement about what you believe. A vote is an effort to pick between one of several possible futures.

It absolutely does not say that. It says "My options were this guy and the continuation of MAGA rule, and though neither are acceptable, I opted for the course that protected tens of millions of Americans from being preyed upon by their own government"

That, in tandem with "death-qualifying" a jury, results in juries that are whiter, more conservative, more likely to find someone guilty, and more likely to impose the death penalty. We send our best to Terry Pitchford, his legal team, and all impacted. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/u...

Utility-scale batteries are now "essential facilities." Maybe code officials will believe me next time.

Strong recommend for non-experts like me. In addition to a good briefing on last night's decision, I'm also glad to hear -- if I understood -- @rickhasen.bsky.social acknowledge that the distinction betw racial & partisan gerrymandering was always bullshit anyway.

Reposting wrt last night's disingenuous scotus destruction of voting rights in Alabama:

Reposting wrt last night's disingenuous scotus destruction of voting rights in Alabama:

Reminder: A judge STOPPED the ballroom work back in April, but on appeal, a diff judge gave him 7 weeks to keep going and explain why the first ruling was wrong. That 7 weeks should be up this week? (Or was even that ruling vacated and I missed it?)

June 3, 1776: “Every thing bears a very great price,” writes Abigail Adams to John Adams from Braintree, Mass. “The Merchant complains of the Farmer and the Farmer of the Merchant. Both are extravagant. Living is double what it was one year ago.”

This is gobbledygook. The person who says this knows that what he’s saying is complete and utter nonsense. But even this person can’t just say “we hate global warming and disagree with it as an idea”. I simply don’t understand how Americans put up with this.

This is good news, but it's fraught. 3 initial thoughts: 1. This means the ICE funding is back on turbo, and Dems need to be prepared. See Kogan's thread. 2. It shows some Rs are already trying to separate from T as campaigns gear up. Don't let them. 3. The audit exemption has to be killed too.

Use of the word "weaponize" in official congressional e-newsletters over time, by party

"I understand the problem now. I'm the son of working-class immigrants." Becerra said. "You're a billionaire hedge fund founder. We have nothing in common." "Perhaps we do." "What?" "We are," responded Steyer, "both traitors to our class."

Today's facts make a bad Dem resume worse. But IF he wins, I hope Mainers will remember: - It's not about him. It's about not having to swallow another T judge or cabinet grifter. - Still more reliable than Manchin, Sinema, Fetterman. - Sotomayor is 72. Alito & Thomas likely to retire next year.

A round up of this week's @250to250.bsky.social one-minute videos about U.S. History:

Evergreen post. wtf #sfgiants

It's absolutely appropriate for GAO to do an analysis here and hopefully they get more out of FEMA and the White House (and on record) about declaration decision-making but it's pretty disingenious to not report the substaintial evidence that supports their request. www.eenews.net/articles/its...

The data I've been waiting for. I was prob going to vote for Steyer anyway (based on the endorsement of several bsky yimbys), but now there's another reason: If we can boost Steyer just a few points, we can shut Hilton out of the general.

100%. In my years of code development, this is a new but persuasive argument -- "If the ICC doesn't do this, legislators will do it without us!" The key speaker at the last public hearing, a respected code official from Texas, was "radicalized" by a single stair webinar. Great work, Stephen.

#AndrewLukehart is days away from execution in Florida.💔 His life has been shaped by severe trauma, neurological impairment, and serious mental health struggles that were never properly treated. Even 3 jurors saw his situation fit to receive life instead of death

Scoop: NSF has been quietly blocking new funds and grants to four top universities: Duke, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Dozens of proposals from PIs at these universities—and their collaborators—have been stuck at the Office of Award Management awaiting finalization for months.

This is troubling, and surprising, tbh. It's good to know the portion of US adults who identify as maga -- T's base -- is under 20%, but it's rising even over the last two years? oy

I love this account. It adds a ton of info about the day-to-day logistics (and sometimes the personal pettiness) behind idealism. It also reminds me of a takeaway from Ken Burns' recent series on the Revolution -- that it was motivated a LOT by our founders' personal and financial self-interest.

Just adding this to the pile of references showing that utility-scale solar + storage ought to be considered critical infrastructure or, in code terms, "essential facilities" and therefore properly designed for natural hazard resistance. (SEIA and others are disingenuously fighting that.)

Memorial Day 2026 They didn't give their lives for an autocracy anntelnaes.substack.com/p/memorial-d...

In college we would post these on the outside of our dorm room doors. It's how we learned the word "commensurate."

Something crazy happened to @micahloewinger.bsky.social this week while preparing the final episode of his deep dive investigation into FEMA.

A revealing thread. Despite all of T's laughably draconian campaign promises (20 MILLION deportations?), we really did underestimate the creativity and determination they would bring to their cruelty and racism.

May 22, 1776: “We have dismal Accounts…of the Preparations against Us,” writes John Adams of British plans to invade. “This Summer will be very important to Us. We shall have a severe Trial of our Patience, Fortitude and Perseverance. But I hope we shall do valiantly and tread down our Enemies.”

As Lisa Needham details here, one state prosecutor, Hennepin County, Minn. Attorney Mary Moriarty, has taken the first, effective steps, to use the authority the Constitution gives to The States to enforce their criminal laws against Trump thugs. 4/

In 2007 I turned down a job leading GSA's seismic program because I didn't want to spend the rest of my career building prisons and border stations. Now, that's where way too much of our taxes are going anyway. sigh.

not as bad as the Cavs tonight, but omg #SFGiants getting walked off by the Dbacks. sigh.

1/2 I mean, lots of us are eager to prosecute T and his appointees and to TRY to compensate his victims. But do we trust the courts -- we now know every judge by who appointed them -- or even a Senate-approved Garland-type AG to get that done, when we've seen how the guilty can exploit court rules?

One way to think of this is that WE ALL FAILED miserably to hang Jan6 on Trump in 2024. Trump has given us a 2nd chance to do that, made all the easier bc 1) This is fucking corrupt as hell 2) GOP is already underwater 3) Voters already recognize Trump is corrupt. Here's our chance for a redo.

There are many more groups of GOP voters. And the historic GOP voters & many other ppltake their cues not so much directly from GOP elites but from Right Wing media, which are most media now W/o RWng disinfo media there would be almost no GOP politicians or other GOP elite bsky.app/profile/upin...

For my own mental health, I might need to unfollow some accounts. I'm all in for solar+storage, but every story like this reminds me that it's the SOLAR INDUSTRY, SEIA, that kept the building code from recognizing this increasingly critical infrastructure as "essential facilities." rrrghhh

Just got the notice that Microsoft will kill all my files if I don't make some security update by July. Time was when Bill Gates was the most hated man in every office because of shit far less than this. Musk and Zuck now fill that role, and I bet Satya Nadella loves that nobody knows who he is.

Thanks for the gift. Good to see Jamelle starting to get the urgency of this. He also channels the other thought I've had since Callais: Yes, the racial animus is obvious and awful and must be fought. But the underlying presumption that PARTISAN gerrymandering is ok is awful and UnAmerican too!

Despite the headline, the LAST 30 secs of this clip might be the most important. I (& you?) are already voting on democracy, rule of law, existential issues. But to win this election (we must), Dem leaders have a point [shudder] that the broader electorate has other motivations we should recognize.

Looking forward to this, given the retrograde changes for healthcare facilities coming in the 2027 IBC. This tornado destroyed a hospital with wings built between 1965 and 1990, killing 14 people, including several due to loss of emergency power. Tornado design is ONLY required for Risk Cat IV.