Every ten years, Somerville reviews our "multi member bodies" (committees, commissions, working groups, and the like). I'm on the committee that's doing the review this year (thanks @mayorjakewilson.bsky.social!) If you have thoughts on that topic, please shoot me a DM. 1/?

I hope something good happens to you today.

Listening to the morning sport yelling over at Conway Park and thinking about how once upon a time we all got in a big ‘ole argument about whether or not there was a shortage of ‘playable hours’ on the city’s athletic fields. Feels like a thousand years ago.

Every goddamn day.

I'm super psyched about this month's Streetwise talk at Aeronaut. Clark is an old friend who started out in robotics, pivoted to autonomous vehicles, and has now started making AI powered bike safety gear both for detecting dangerous drivers and also for mapping dangerous spots. C'mon out!

Some of these AI ‘partnerships’ in biomedicine are giving strong IBM Watson energy.

It takes a particularly supple kind of mind to claim that markets are wise, subtle stewards who allocate capital in accordance with long term value … and to proceed from there to using a real time online betting service to time moves within those same markets.

Even though I know what the reporter meant by the word ‘escorts,’ it would not surprise me in the least to learn that Trump is hiring professional arm candy to accompany him to public events. Honestly I would prefer that to the wars and bribes and treason and genocide and stuff. Pros are fine.

I just had the most baffling interaction with Mass General. I got referred to a specialist. They called me, went through a battery of questions to confirm my identity, and then were like "the system says we can't schedule you." I feel like I'm being trolled here.

Red light cameras would print money here.

A carpet of blue Tiny flowers at the park Spring is beginning

I am begging you. Just skip the April Fools lies this year.

Press Release: Dorchester packie under new management

An unusual instance of the genre.

It’s the international transgender day of visibility. I support unconditional equality under both law and social custom for every human being to fully express themselves as any or no gender with no fear, shame, or risk. If that makes you uncomfortable, today would be a great day to reflect on why.

I wish I was more confident that we had 100% control and accountability for the use of these [checks notes] Jesus H.Christ these actual military attack helicopters. Seriously, they’re strafing crowds and preening for MAGA celebrities. It’s real bad. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/u...

LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! (For real though, this is for sure court martial / revoke clearance / double dealing / jail time / maybe treason territory)

If we require speed limiters on e-bikes before we have them for cars, that may just push me over the edge into full supervillain-origin-story territory.

Trump has admitted that the vanity ballroom for which he tore down the east wing of the White House is actually cover for a "massive" underground military complex. I called that last year. 1/?

Happy "play your music with the windows open" season, to all who celebrate.

I absolutely love this brief piece by Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. ‘Making money isn’t proof to me that I know something any better than someone else … I was in the right place, at the right time, and I don’t exactly know why.’ www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/o...

Some folks don’t seem to understand the magnitude and immediacy of the threats that trans people are facing right now. Idaho just made it a crime to use a bathroom other than the one designated for sex assigned at birth … the second offense is a felony with a 5 year prison term. 1/?

No kings in Boston.

Boston common, no kings. 1/?

FYI, my phone is blowing up with people heading to the protest at 1:00on the common. It’s going to be large. I understand that not everybody can or should - but if you can, you should. See you there. No kings

I continue to laugh about this description of my recursive writing on police reform and other topics. It’s serious though: We lack institutional memory, sustained attention, and follow-through … so we keep having the same conversations over and over.

Bicycle time.

Is anybody else having trouble with Citizenserv? I went to look up the permit for the dumpster in the handicapped space at 33 Bow and the whole database seemed borked.

An interesting stroll through the budget priority memos submitted by the city councilors.

I guess the dumpster is technically only blocking a couple feet of the handicapped parking space … but it’s still a pretty bad look.

The critical mass bike rides have been a balm to me through an otherwise shitty year. There’s another one tonight (it being the last Friday of the month). We meet at Copley at 6:30 and roll at 7. C’mon out.

In order to participate in a city committee, I had to take the state's training on conflicts of interest and open meeting law (again). Occasional reminder that (a) this is not complex stuff and (b) most government employees are diligent, good service minded folk. bsky.app/profile/some...

When posts break containment, I am reminded of why I try to stay hyper-local. My usual feed of neighbors and regional activists is, by and large, pretty reasonable. We’re not all besties, but we at least act like people who might see each other at the grocery store. The broader internet, hoo boy.

I can't believe countries are participating in and people are consuming FIFA World Cup 2026. Giving real Berlin Olympics 1936 vibes.

Friends, I have been in the nerd stew all day today down at PAX East. I have looked at video games, tabletop games, costumes ... all the things. Yet, somehow, I am LIVE AND IN THE CHAMBERS for this evening's meeting of the Somerville City Council. somervillema.legistar.com/MeetingDetai... 1/?

Ladies …

Hey, did you know that the fertilizer required for modern farming takes huge amounts of energy to manufacture (cracking those famously stable nitrogen pair bonds into an organically available configuration ain’t free)? Fuel crisis = food crisis. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaa...

Nobody gets to pretend that Musk’s ‘weekend at the wood chipper’ had anything to do with efficiency. It was a racist attack on vulnerable black and brown people all over the world. He should be pariah, unwelcome in every room. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/w...

I’m pretty dark on security and privacy. I don’t think that either is meaningfully possible in the modern age. Even so, this Pokémon Go thing is depressing even by my standards. Read to the end about how re-captcha is also AI training at scale. thelibertyline.com/2026/03/18/p...

Matt McLaughlin's kickoff for his State Senate campaign this evening was a remarkable gathering. Despite being just ever so slightly across the border into Medford, everybody from 311 operators to Mayors (both former and current) were in attendance. 1/?

A faded banner Saying that Black Lives Matter Hangs at city hall

If only someone was writing about this! csindie.com/mourning-dov...

Whoever is out there making actual stickers of Yeats and putting them up on the light posts … well done. Well done indeed. I needed to see this today.

March 2025: ‘Sure, but is it a constitutional crisis?’ March 2026: ‘Sure, but are they really war crimes?’ bsky.app/profile/some... 1/?

Looks like Sign of the Dove is getting the boot from Porter. Another local art store gone. I wonder what we’ll get instead? Bank? Personal trainer? Dispensary?

This exactly. Imagine if we had Democrats in Washington who brought the same no-holds-barred unflinching discipline to protecting human rights as the republicans to do violating them.

This whole thread is interesting in its own right, but this is just a fantastic point about how risk management functions (law, fire, HR, public safety) need to operate in balance with optimistic and strategic planning. Otherwise you win every battle but still lose the war.

Hey everybody, this is a fundraising pitch. I'm on the board of directors for WEST: Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology. WEST is a nonprofit with a 25 year history that puts on programs and events supporting women from junior associates to the C-suite. www.westorg.org 1/?

As a public service announcement: I string a hose up to my back deck to water my container garden every spring. If the porchfest crowd gets too weird in my backyard I'm not above just turning the hose on 'em.

It helped me to realize that i’m grieving: … a country that never really existed. … an age of abundance that was absolutely within reach. … a global enlightenment with most of human knowledge freely available to most people. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. 1/?