Maaaaannnn

Year to date homicides down ~ 50% ~ from 2023 Homicide rate will still be quite high by state and national standards, but huge huge improvement.

Some posts on here have me thinking about the great Octavia Butler's take on sexiness in her notebooks: "Evil is sexy. Good is only sexy when its very powerful, not sanctimonious and not too good <Real>"

Greg with the rare Democrats in Array argument

I am worried about all the centrist Dems who are cooking their brains on an Elon Musk-tuned Twitter, imagining that is what “real life” is in this country. The mapping of Twitter—>IRL was always imperfect (as is Bluesky’s), but the current Twitter is obviously, intentionally, brutally skewed.

Are there protests yet at the single, small road link from the Coast Guard island to the rest of the Bay? This almost seems like inviting a long-term protest there.

Really looking forward to this. It’s a dark and instructive story.

first time I've been on the air when an earthquake hit and YES I did consider coming on here to post about it

hey friends — if you haven't seen, The Verge is running a series on the future of being trans on the internet. it's got a bunch of very cool stories from talented writers! you should check it out www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

🔥🔥🔥 This looks so good.

This is the way.

This rain! Damn! I feel like quakesky should activate for moments like this in the Bay

We’ve got a fascinating event at our community space Local Economy tomorrow with some of the immigration judges who were recently fired in San Francisco and some Polish counterparts luma.com/2th83vpt

I know people talk about Bluesky as some dogpile hell… but wow, have y’all seen Threads recently? Every single post seems to have a nasty newspaper comment section from 2003 attached to it. Truly the weirdest and worst form of social media I’ve ever encountered.

Warm, soft rain

So excited about this! You know, I've never actually talked on stage or radio with Alice Waters? I can't wait.

Child care in this country works for almost no one, care providers and parents alike. And yet ... you have to figure it out or your family can't survive.

Wow, what a gorgeous poem… that feeling of connection across a millenium is intense

The @oaklandreviewofbooks.org weekly calendar is up! www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/oakland-revi...

Aftershock!

Damn! Only a 4.8 but basically at the Claremont Hotel Felt big! earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

This was the weirdest day of parenting that I can remember. Getting the kids ready for the day (they were little then)... like... "Hey honey, want some toast?" Trying to maintain some sense of normalcy for them, so it wouldn't be apparent that the APOCALYPSE NOW sign was flashing in our heads.

I'm working on a little piece of writing and I realized that I just don't know the little San Jose spots that locals know. Take "spots" broadly ... What should be on that locals-only map?

Anyone know a great serious history of Helen Keller and her learning process? Academic, probably?

This really is the original sin of the current era of AI. They work precisely because humans react to human imitators in the same ways we evolved to respond to one another.

I want to file all memories big and small. It's part of a project I'm working on for Fort Mason to commemorate the institution's founding, which is fascinating and unexpected.

I have a very precocious 12 year old who is hooked on the podcast History for Weirdos. They want more podcasts like it: 2-3 host history podcasts that are loose and fun. Rome would be a topic of interest, but also ... kind of anything else ancient. Any ideas?

Woah! This is awesome.

If you’re in the Bay Area (and even beyond), just a heads up that the new community space we’re opening up in Oakland has opened up memberships ahead of our October open. We’ve got so much good programming on tap. Way more info here: www.thelocaleconomy.com

If you’re in the Bay Area (and even beyond), just a heads up that the new community space we’re opening up in Oakland has opened up memberships ahead of our October open. We’ve got so much good programming on tap. Way more info here: www.thelocaleconomy.com

My next book publishes in October. I hope that you’ll consider pre-ordering it: “In Poppy State, California plants serve as structural anchors in a wildly inventive work of narrative nonfiction that is part botanical criticism, part personal storytelling, and part study of place.”

Fascinating thread. I always wondered about these estuary systems.

Can testify that MacKenzie is REALLY good at this.

Do I know anyone who is really good at Shopify templates? I feel like I'm on acid every time I contemplate the UI.

In the Bay, @oaklandreviewofbooks.org is doing such a community service with its listings… which also have that alt-weekly flair www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/oakland-revi...

CORPORATE SLUDGE

MOON

Oh yes, I should also post this here! It’s the soft launch of our cute dog… errr… community space.

I love all these new publications! Just starting from much better premises than the generation of digital startups of the 2010s. (Which are almost all gone or devolved into absolute garbage…)

Navy veteran Harvey Milk, who was assassinated while in office

Now we're cooking

This story made me very sad. We have a women's shelter in our neighborhood, and it is a good thing. sanjosespotlight.com/west-valley-...

Turning the pages of some collection in the archives is the second-greatest activity in the world... right after finding/talking with people who know the history that never made it into them. People vastly overestimate how much of human experience has been recorded in written words.

This is gotta be intentional. But it’s also just weird! How many NYT readers were at protests? What % of subscribers? A substantial %! How can it not be seen as newsworthy, especially given the readership?

I’m really curious how: is there a good profile of the national No Kings organizers?

One thing that's interesting to consider: how would the NYT cover protests of this magnitude if they were right wing? Would the coverage be played differently? Why?

I mean, Oakland only has 400 thousand people!

This book will infuriate you. It focuses attention on very important and underplayed aspects of our homelessness crisis. For example, I did not realize how much the extended-stay hotels function as a kind of payday loan for housing. Just horrific stuff.

from "Classical Studies memes for Hellenistic teens" on FB