On the day I went away Goodbye Was all I had to say Now I ... I want to come again and stay Smile, and that will mean I may 'Cause I've seen, oh, blue skies Through the tears in my eyes And I realise I'm going home

I could never have imagined the sentence in the post below in even my most substance-fueled fantasy hallucinations (hallucinatory fantasies? Grammar nerds weigh in). TL/DR: Oh.

Waymo's California robotaxis are driving empty almost half the time they're on the road. That's...a lot of new traffic congestion for the money and usefulness....

Telling people who filed FoIA requests that you have no records about air quality in NYC after 9/11 ... when you actually have hundreds of thousands of documents ... does indeed seem like it would land you in front of a judge. ' [hat tip: @hellgatenyc.com]

Important, deeply reported story on #Tesla + its 'Full Self Driving' software. Per interviews with a former FSD engineer + 9 former "labelers" who look at its mistakes + try to train it to stop for school buses, not get close to emergency vehicles + not to speed in school zones, it still struggles.

How DID June become Gay Pride Month or, these days, #LGBTQ+ Pride Month? I knew; most of my activist friends knew; a surprising number of older people from all walks of life know. For everyone else, @snopes.com has broken it down.

I believe it was @eringloriaryan.bsky.social who once said to me, maybe a decade ago, that the stock market is astrology for boys. This headline, published three hours ago before Iran said "you either get to bomb Lebanon or you get sub-$10 gas," has done nothing but confirm that. It's all vibes.

My first-ever Dacia experience!

Remarkably, this facile analysis manages to ignore the fact that since 1980 the upward distribition of total wealth in the USA ... away from workers + to the billionaire class ... has been so extreme that inequality now *exceeds* that in pre-Revolutionary France. Remind me how that one ended again?

Some good news for #EV advocates. Have a look at what Ann Arbor, Michigan, is doing.

What could possibly go wrong? (Aside from small crowds, angry protests, a lengthy rambling speech full of boastful lies, grumpy attendees waiting for the music they were promised + sweltering heat or bad weather.) I'm sure it'll be fine. (1 of 2)

"On May 11, [German Defense Minister] Pistorius arrived in Ukraine on an unannounced visit. "The headline was 'Brave Germany', a joint program to accelerate Ukrainian + German defense startups + joint development of defense tech, AI-enabled weapons, unmanned systems + deep-strike capabilities."

NEW: The Trump administration's DOJ has been systematically removing materials from its websites regarding the many indictments and convictions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In response, @lawfaremedia.org has been systematically restoring them:

Wind and solar just generated more electricity on Earth than fossil gas. In April 2026, wind and sunshine supplied 22% of the world’s electricity compared with fossil gas at 20%.

Note the outlet that published this op-ed suggesting the #EV transition is now "unstoppable". Brits will understand what The Telegraph is + why it wouldn't have published anyone saying this even 2 years ago. Reality bites.

I'm on vacation. Rather a fun idea, must try it again sometime.

"If Bezos wants to say mainstream media outlets should be profitable, fine. "If he wants the @washingtonpost.com to take a more libertarian bent because it reflects his worldview, fine. "But he can’t have both, not in 2026. "Unfortunately, it seems doubtful anyone will make this point to Bezos."

It's 1972 all over again.

Data suggests singing together increases social cohesion among even people who don't know each other. A Democrat who gets his entire audience, supporters + opponents alike, to sing "America the Beautiful" at the start of every public event, is near genius these days. Well done.

Vertigo?

Mandatory reading for any #EV or industrial policy makers. Or, really, any American, European or Brit.

Jim Acosta argues he should be eligible for the so-called "anti-weaponization" fund, given Trump revoked his press pass in his first term. "As a result of this sustained government effort to destroy my career, I hereby submit my claim."

Golly. But if true, it WON'T be because we couldn't get to Mars. It'll be because we can't take care of the planet we live on today.

Missed this til now. Good.

Some smart thoughts about activism, and its types, from an old comrade. "The enemy doesn’t give a damn which category you’re in." "Pick your fights. Own your reasons. And when someone else is in the street for theirs, if you can’t join them, get out of the damn way."

Point, game, set.

Spotted in the German countryside, it's a Porsche 718 prototype with no signs of combustion. No exhaust. No engine noise. After all the chatter of the EV being canceled, I'll take this as an encouraging sign that the project is continuing. #porsche

Mortifying ... or appropriate? Discuss.

Stellantis (owner of Fiat, Opel + Peugeot-Citroen) said it will build an affordable, compact, fully #EV "E-Car" at an Italian plant from 2028, with potential for "significant" volumes. It will have a price of ~ 15,000 euros ($17,500), a source said. It will almost surely not come to North America.

Bowing in appreciation to the @nyc.streetsblog.org headline writer who created this one.

“Ukraine is going to triumph and we’re going to be on the right side of history for that." — Canadian PM Carney, at a news conference in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, May 19th.

"What made the discourse around clipping so scrambled is it’s both flattening a bunch of different viral marketing strategies + also only one downstream effect of a much larger issue plaguing the web now." "An entire broken, even fraudulent, media economy propped up by a handful of major tech cos."

The 2027 Volvo EX60 midsize #EV crossover utility goes on sale this summer in the U.S. I got a chance to drive it 10 days ago + came away impressed. It's smooth, quiet, with either sufficient or more-than-sufficient power, and every model has 300+ miles of range, with 400 from the P12 coming later.

"We want to remind drivers that although a vehicle may be physically capable of entering shallow freshwater areas, doing so can create legal + safety concerns under Texas law." #Tesla #Cybertruck Ooops.

Most visitors to U.S. #Disney venues are unaware of the facial-recognition tools it uses ... and opt into having their faces AND the face of their children scanned for corporate use. Mass adoption of the tools at sports + entertainment venues raise concerns of mass private biometric surveillance.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for New York State governor, posted an AI-generated campaign video that may run afoul of a 2024 law aimed at curbing deceptive political communication. Oops.

The so-called U.S. "Environmental Protection" Agency plans to kill requirements for diesel exhaust aftertreatment in equipment used on farms ... allowing hundreds of different kinds of farm machines to emit soot, NOx + other pollutants at levels made illegal for road vehicles way back in 2008. Oh.

Like countless other tacked-on AI chatbots, Amazon's Rufus repeatedly offered help few people wanted that it was barely equipped to provide. Rufus, we hardly knew ye.

Define "widespread" ...

Trump 1 "generated recurring conflict-of-interest scandals: hotels, golf clubs, foreign patronage." Trump 2 "produced a far more sprawling ecosystem for enrichment." His latest quarterly financial disclosure shows > 3,700 stock trades, many in firms he praised or promoted as he bought the stock.

A handyman from Ellenwood, GA, stuck a single-piston engine from a power washer into a broken pink Power Wheels Barbie Dream Camper, a battery-operated toy car less than 4 ft tall. One pull of the lawnmower-like rip cord and he's off to the supermarket, knees at his ears, dirt-bike helmet on head.

A proposed national #EV registration fee starts at $130/year. That compares to $80-$90 in federal gas taxes paid by an ICE vehicle driver. The proposed national fee is on top of existing state fees. Michigan's $267 charge is the highest in the U.S. Hey, let's punish those damn EV owners MORE!

Patients would meet a medical professional + climb into a customized truck in a church or Walmart parking lot. "An AI-guided system would assist the health worker in performing activities beyond their usual training, tasks typically performed by [scarce] specialists." What could possibly go wrong?

An ICE supervisor appears to have lied in a sworn affidavit on an incident last year that saw several journalists roughed up by masked federal agents. Press photographers were manhandled by multiple masked ICE agents who became irate as they were photographed + documented apprehending a woman.

Got a kid in youth sports? Have those sports suddenly become startlingly expensive? You should read this, from my local Congressman @pkryan.bsky.social.

Very probably the best photo I've ever taken of a 16th Century dovecote with a cow standing in front of it, surrounded by buttercups, looking like she has just dropped a debut album she is thoroughly proud of.

This. Discuss.

This year, in Texas, renewable wind + solar energy will provide almost as much generation capacity as natural gas ... and more than coal or nuclear. Texas is the top natural-gas producing state in the U.S. The state accounts for roughly 27% of the nation's marketed natural gas production.

BYD Executive VP Stella Li said the company’s growth does not depend on entering the US market. “We survive + are successful without the US today,” Ms. Li told the BBC. She added BYD’s challenge is meeting soaring demand in other regions, including Brazil, the UK + Europe. Do you believe her?

Wow. A judge banned #Kars4Kids, which uses the most intrusive jingle ever to ask you to donate your car, from airing its current ads in CA. Why? It doesn't specify that funds go to the Orthodox Jewish group Oorah, vs "underprivileged kids all over the U.S.," as the plaintiff thought its ad implied.