Mastodawn

Honestly, my main objection to the film is that in plot and aesthetics the First Order is the new Empire (and this makes sense on screen, with Kylo Ren very explicitly a Vader wannabe), but then the film shows us the New Republic exists and Coruscant is under its control, so why is it a resistance vs. empire plot and not a symmetric total war?

Alon 9h ago

Finally watching the Star Wars sequel trilogy with Cid. The Force Awakens is just a woke remake of A New Hope. Rey is the new Luke (more Mary Sue-ish with the Force, less so with ace piloting), and Kylo Ren is Temu Darth Vader and all the other First Order characters are Temu Empire too.

Alon 1d ago

Why is Harry Dempsey writing that Shinkansen passenger numbers are "dwindling"? They are at their peak, on a par with the pre-corona peak. Wikipedia has numbers by line, but its "sum" column is unlinked for 2018 and linked for 2024, creating a fictional decline. https://www.ft.com/content/aaac943e-34ee-4b05-9ef4-ff112341cc52?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Japan’s bullet trains shift to cargo as seats go unfilled

High-speed rail freight services aim to offset truck driver shortages and dwindling passenger numbers

Financial Times

Alon 4d ago

I'm watching Star Wars with @cidney, one day, one film. Today, the Phantom Menace. It's a lot worse than I remember. Anakin acts like a middle-class American boy, Jar-Jar is a generic ethnic stereotype, Watto is a greedy Jewish stereotype, Panaka is forgettable...

Alon 5d ago

Live now, talking about what the EU can do to build an EU-wide HSR network. https://www.twitch.tv/alon_levy

Alon_Levy - Twitch

I study and write about trains, especially how they compare in different places. I live in Berlin, but have lived in a bunch of other cities (Tel Aviv, Singapore, French Riviera, New York, Providence, Vancouver, Stockholm, Paris), so I have eye level experience of a bunch of different systems.

Twitch

Alon 5d ago

I'm back on Twitch stream today! 19:00 as usual (in 5.5 hours), talking about EU high-speed rail, what it would cost, and how the EU could help build it.

Alon Mar 14

Do you find that your teenage son is absent from home a lot and doesn't say where he's going?
Is he strangely interested in reading about the Anschluss?
Does he have Nazi stormtrooper uniform?

To prevent this from happening, have a conversation with him about how it's okay to be a thespian.

Alon Mar 14

RE: https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/116226910892592462

This entire thread.

Alon Mar 11

Pedestrian Observations: Why Building Metros is Necessary for the Green Transition Away from Cars https://pedestrianobservations.com/2026/03/10/why-building-metros-is-necessary-for-the-green-transition-away-from-cars/

Why Building Metros is Necessary for the Green Transition Away from Cars

There’s controversy in Germany over building U- and S-Bahn extensions, in which environmentalists argue against them on the grounds that people can just take trams and the environmental benef…

Pedestrian Observations

Alon Mar 8

Greens up 3 points in the exit poll, paving the way for Cem Özdemir to be minister-president of BW, the first in German history of non-European migration background. https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2026-03/wahl-baden-wuerttemberg-2026-live

Wahl in Baden-Württemberg: CDU verringert Abstand zu Grünen auf rund einen Prozentpunkt

Laut neuen Hochrechnungen liegen die Grünen nur noch sehr knapp vor der CDU. SPD erzielt schlechtestes Ergebnis denn je. FDP-Landeschef will zurücktreten. Das Liveblog

DIE ZEIT

Location	Berlin
Website	http://pedestrianobservations.com
Pronouns	They/them
Email	[email protected]