Are you or someone you know a MN State Fair enjoyer? They're selling tickets for $15 today only: www.mnstatefair.org/tickets/admi... They go up to $17 on December 1st and then $20 closer to the fair, so it's a pretty good discount.

I’m just thinking of this because I’m watching football while not paying anybody a penny: Do Americans know that you can (still!) watch HD digital broadcasts of all the major networks over the air, for free, complete with programming guide data, just by hooking up an antenna to your TV?

Yesterday I tried to put everything I knew about whistles—where to get them, where to get instruction sheets, how to distro—into one place so you can build off it for your own community's whistle needs: dansinker.com/posts/2025-1...

I am devastated for our neighbors and for our city. We will continue to do everything we can do push back against this authoritarian behavior by the federal government, just as we will continue to stand with every single immigrant who calls Saint Paul home.

It’s been almost 48 hours and we still don’t know with certainty how many people were detained on Tuesday, the grounds (if any) on which they’re being held, or what will happen next for these members of our community—all of whom have families and friends and people who love them. This isn’t normal.

OpenAddresses is still alive and well! Send me your addresses.

There have been reports of federal government activity in Ward Four this morning. As of right now, we believe the entities involved are FBI and DEA, not ICE. We’re continuing to work to get official confirmation of this, and to monitor the activity in the area closely. I’ll share more as I’m able.

About 30 cars of ICE and DEA agents staging st Newell park in St. Paul

Riding in these feels _dramatically_ safer than any Uber or Lyft that I've ever been in. If you're going to allow app-based rides and care about the safety of all road users, please don't immediately say no.

New feature is up: The Cameras Tracking You Are A Security Nightmare youtu.be/uB0gr7Fh6lY

Super happy to see people finding @openstreetmap.bsky.social even without local advocacy. I'm thinking we should bring back the meetups. Who would be interested in chatting in person about OSM?

If you read this–and you should!–you'll also see @dansinker.com's birthday wish: donations to Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. I sent some money their way. I hope you do, too. Happy birthday, Dan ❤️ illinoiscoalitionforimmigrantandrefugeerights-bloom.kindful.com?campaign=124...

It’s being reported that Greg Bovino and 250 of his goons will be leaving Chicago. But it’s also being reported that he’ll be back, in larger numbers. But Chicago is a boxer, tired but unbowed. I wrote about how we’ll be ready. dansinker.com/posts/202…

Shutting down the government is a big deal. People have been hurt in big ways as a result of the decision. To have that suffering be for nothing—to re-open the government without actually having protected people’s health insurance and economic well-being—is unconscionable.

How about we shut down the government for this very popular and specific goal and then, hear me out, we hold out for like a month and a half and then, ok this part is important, after a watershed election where we ran the table, ONLY THEN, fold and don't get the one thing we said we wanted.

You should do this. The emails I get from Dan are some of the only ones I actually enjoy getting!

@anildash.com time to move to Minneapolis

I finished Everything Is Tuberculosis this morning and am halfway through Enshittification so I'm feeling pretty great about American society right now.

Getting the shackles ready for today's ICE flight at MSP. Operated by Denver Air Connection as TYSON58 on N974DC. I counted 20 people, wearing said shackles, getting loaded today. Tracking data: adsb.lol?icao=ad92cf&...

For @techpolicypress.bsky.social I laid out a tech agenda for Mayor-elect zohrankmamdani.bsky.social that resists surveillance and extraction while advancing his goals for affordability, dignity, and justice.

Dots Pretzels (recently purchased by Hershey's) has to be one of the best examples of local snack enshittification ever. Smaller, worse pretzels, worse flavor.

The Ghostbusters just drove by.

I got an abatement order because someone dumped some trees in the alley along my property line. The city will charge me $450 to remove it if I don't do it. They even threaten a criminal citation. Why can the city charge/threaten me for this but can't clean up the CVS? Are there no code violations?

I wrote about the should-be-illegal trend of fencing off sidewalks because poor people are nearby. www.minnpost.com/cityscape/20...

Seeing this construction project was mind blowing: in Copenhagen, multiple apartment buildings are being built INDOORS and on-site, in a single “Site Cover” temporary shelter.

I've lately been obsessed with this app called StreetComplete. It gamifies contributing to OpenStreetMaps in by giving you you quests to do while you walk around. A fun way to get some steps in, to make you look closer at your environment and to do a good thing! play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Maybe the breeze just changed, but the Loons fans are remarkably loud from where I am ~2 miles away.

It's important to remember that even if you're lucky enough to be one of the 7 out of 8 people that can continue to afford groceries, a pretty sizeable chunk of the economy is supported by this money flowing through it. Think truck drivers, grocery stores, farmers, warehouses, etc.

What To Know About Data Centers https://theonion.com/what-to-know-about-data-centers/

This battery from Bluetti will run the fan on your gas furnace for a couple hours, keep your fridge going over night, or give you a couple hours of induction cooking while camping for $375: www.amazon.com/dp/B0F42CSQWG (code I got in an email PBDDSD5OFF takes $20 off)

Don't let your dogs outside tomorrow, Twin Cities.

It was great to see @itsthebrandi.bsky.social at Acme tonight. What a great set!

Hey it'd be super cool if people could ride the train to these spots.

Someone posted some old MacOS games and it reminded me of Armor Alley, which I'm excited to see has a web-based remake: play.armor-alley.net

I like how "MEA Weekend" and "First Wednesday of the month at 1pm" are two things that every Minnesotan knows about but never explains to anyone else.

Thanks for the mention of @censusreporter.org, @nerd4cities.bsky.social (youtu.be/QEIhHB-j_PU?...). Glad it's useful!

Anyone know of a bot account on Bluesky that mirrors the NWS offices that post discussions on Twitter (e.g. twitter.com/nwstwincities)

I'm finally scratching the itch of building a site to help alley captains with St. Paul alley plowing. As a starting point, I asked Claude to build a frontend. It came up with a very simple three-step process:

Built with @openstreetmap.bsky.social! Hank wrote a great post about how he built it here: www.openstreetmap.org/user/hankbp/...

If you're in the Midway and your power is out, its because some lines fell with the wind and were starting leaves on fire. Pretty exciting. Xcel is replacing the lines now.

Balloons that are likely from Near Space Labs (nearspacelabs.com) spent a couple hours over the Twin Cities today – likely capturing imagery. Pretty interesting to watch how much control they have over direction, speed, and landing location. Tracks are here: globe.adsbexchange.com?icao=000201,...

If you follow me you probably want to sign up to be notified when this game is released later this week: www.subwaybuilder.com

Brewers

Minnesota Achievements In Computer Stuff - The Gopher protocol - Control Data - Tinyurl - Oregon Trail - ???

I love that Charlie Berens is campaigning against AI data centers AND that he also has the same '90s Packers locker that I had when I was a kid (I picked "04" for Favre)

Hey St Paul followers: MnDOT is resurfacing Snelling from 36 up to 694: www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projec...

Powered by @openstreetmap.bsky.social, no less!

My home insurance premium went up ~45% My real estate taxes are going up ~18% Xcel is trying to increase residential rates ~15% USD is down 11% against the EUR, 7% against GBP. My stocks are up ~10% so that's good.

Hey Minneapolis friends, it's the last day to make comments on the comment map for the Lyndale Ave "final" concept design. Tell the County what you think about a shared use path and two ~12ft parking lanes along most of the corridor.