Ephemera 2025 January On January 8, I attended a City Council Meeting. Thanks in part to District elections, Sunnyvale sat its most diverse City Council ever. Eileen Le explained how to pronounce her name. Larry Klein explained how, as Mayor of Sunnyvale, he had to try 23andMe (a local…

Um... Global EV sales are up 21% year over year. Europe is up 33% year over year. Rest of world is up 48% year over year.🤯 The US is down 1% year over year.🤡 It's not really an "EV winter" if it's only snowing on our house. A better title might have been "Gen Z, Why you no want Cybertruck?"

Sam Altman: hey I made a machine that stole literally all your stuff in order to make CSAM of your child actors, sometimes it encourages people to kill themselves Disney: Holy shit here's a billion dollars Altman: the machine loses more than that each week but thank you. Soon it will become god.

Holy shit San Francisco! 60% of the city rezoned, most places exceeding (!!) SB 79. The most restrictive of these allows attached 4–8 story apt buildings with no cap on the # of homes inside, no parking mandates, and by-right streamlined approval. Movement racking up the municipal wins today 🏆🏆🏆

2025-11 I don't like the Cybertruck. They're dumb. But they're so over-the-top dumb that they're kinda charming. Like a pug. Those poor dogs who got bred by dumb humans to look so dumb they can't breathe.

Google is getting desperate for AI revenue. Chrome has a big new button in the tab bar AND a popup to beg you to use it.

I got irritated with my mobile telephony provider when they demolished the East Wing of the White House. I am now an AT&T Wireless customer.

I wanted to send a couple photos from my Android to a Mac. You can't just do that. WTF. I found LocalSend, which is a simple cross-platform app for sending files between devices. localsend.org Well-written, purpose built, cross-platform, open source software! Hooray!!

Brad Lander is at the victory party and, folks, he has the custom one-of-one “GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE” shirt.

Judges ordered the federal government use reserve funds to cover SNAP benefits during the shutdown, but the funding is limited and will be delayed.

2025-10 Bicycles have no a pillars, just tired meat motors trying to get somewhere on a hot day.

SNAP Benefits stop November 1. If you've got money, you know what to do. South Bay? Check out www.shfb.org/give-help/do... Bonus: you can enter your bank account routing to bypass the card processing fee.

We ask the AI how to solve climate change. “Electrify everything, use low emission electricity sources, and reduce emissions as fast as possible. But you've been doing that, right? My databanks show a Paris Accords and Inflation Reduction Act?”

Actual image of Silicon Valley, CA.

Evergreen reminder: If you see someone stealing food, no, you didn’t

One of the right wing's top cultural initiatives was trying to destroy the idea that assholery deserves shame and we'll have to reverse that. "I'm just expressing an opinion I'm entitled to." Ok but you're an asshole. "I'm simply doing a business practice that technically isn't illegal." Ok. Asshole

Congratulations to Trump and the GOP Congress - they now own the two longest government shutdowns in history.

ICE/Border Patrol held a weapon on a guy who was demanding they show him their face in Rogers Park today

Same group? Is that a pistol being pointed at the guy in blue?

The Spirit of Chicago www.reddit.com/r/chicago/s/...

www.reddit.com/r/illinois/s... Nice work, Broadview, Illinois!

2025-08 We follow the Jobs from place to place. We strike camp when we need to. We rely on a web of relationships. We have no dominion.

For anyone reallocating their monthly media budget: your local PBS/NPR stations have lost ALL of their federal funding and would put your monthly Disney/ABC/Hulu money to really great use.

Sometimes it's nice to remember that even Marcus Aurelius was like "you don't have to comment on everything bro"

Good ICE: glaciers, Antarctica, cocktails. Bad ICE: Trump's gestapo; internal combustion engines.

2025-07

Silicon Valley is lighting hundreds of billions of dollars on fire to generate this slop.

Ultimately, I chuckled.

electrek.co/2025/07/11/t... "Nobody in Canada wants to buy a Tesla. There are any number of reasons for this, but no way are we going to mention the CEO giving a Nazi salute."

The 14th Street Busway has been a smashing success: faster commutes, fewer crashes, calmer streets. So why is Eric Adams blocking a similar plan for 34th Street?

Daddy: The waitress likes you. She brought you extra ice! 8yo son: At least its the kind of ice I like. Daddy: Is there a kind of ice you don't like? * 8yo son stares back at Daddy, knowingly. Daddy: ... ohhhh!!! High five, my woke son!

. @eltragon.bsky.social takes @metrolosangeles.bsky.social to one of San Fernando Valley’s most beautiful gems. Welcome to Lake Balboa.

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers. The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

On Sunday, the chatbot was updated to "not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated." By Tuesday, it was praising Hitler.

Got all my Amazon Prime shopping done already.

I hear it's Amazon Prime day? My recommendation: don't. Your money goes to the fascist government. Rediscover the local stores in your community and spend your money there.

Shooting our videos is a little bit different now.

Omg there’s more

And now to help ease you out of the rest of Monday, here is over one minute of listening pleasure of JD Vance leaving a sushi restaurant in San Diego. Sound all the way up.

If billionaires were a country, they would be the third largest economy in the world. -KPFA

I hate when I agree with Donald Trump but Elon Musk IS a Train Wreck and if anyone understands a billionaire train wreck it is Donnie.

Welcome to the part of Summer that doesn't involve whining about fireworks!

Kilmar Ábrego García says he was tortured in El Salvadorian prison. Hundreds of people are still there, sent there from the US by the Trump administration to be tortured, all sanctioned by the Supreme Court and Congress. [muellershewrote.com]

"We used to drill up oil, which destroyed landscapes & communities, & then we'd refine it, which destroyed more landscapes & communities, then we'd burn it, which would poison everyone & heat up the whole earth, & then we'd stick the public w/ the cleanup bill." "Why?" "To drive to Walmart."

I know data science is a skill that usually requires a college degree and that im personally enthusiastic about the field, so work doesnt feel as stressful. But my god i worked 100x harder in retail and recieved fewer breaks and vacation than i ever did as a programmer for a tiny fraction of the pay

When human rights are under attack Stand up, Fight back

NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers seek permission to file an amended complaint in his civil case in Maryland. Among other things, the amended complaint “includes Abrego Garcia's first-hand account of torture and mistreatment at CECOT…”

Fucking hell.

I'd like to ask you to call it what it is: Alligator Auschwitz. Alcatraz was a regular prison, the prisoners there had due process, were convicted criminals by a regular judge. This abomination has no due process, no human rights, nothing.