Folks from Europe fly all the way to New Zealand because “it’s so wild and pretty there”, but have never been to the Pyrenees, where they could go just by train.

GR11, July 2017

#hiking #trekking #backpacking #outdoors #nature #mountains #pyrenees #spain #GR11

Maria Skog guarantees her orange slices, turkey, and eggs won’t spoil. She crochets fiber-based creations with preservation in mind, ensuring that every berry and bagel stays as fresh as the day they were made. #crochet #food

https://links.colossal.art/maria-skog

Why are ethics questions always like:
"is it ethical to steal bread to feed your starving family?"

And not:
"is it ethical to sell bread when families are starving?"

@quoteme

The biggest lie the US public ever bought into about public transportation - busses, subways, trains, is that should be a profitable service. They're not a profitable service, they're public infrastructure.

Aside from toll roads (which are a regressive tax on the poor and should be eliminated), we don't expect our roads or sidewalks to earn a profit. They're simply a utility that is granted to the public because you live there.

The roads don't close at 2AM just because not enough people drive on them for them to turn a profit, they're there 24x7x365 for people to be able to get from point A to point B no matter when they need to go there. When I buy a house on a road, I don't have to worry that some future administration will decide to tear up that road in front of my house and leave me with no way to get to work. It's simply part of our social contract that you can get to every location in town via a road and a car.

Why can we not offer the public the same for mass transit? Define an area of the city that is a Guaranteed Free Public Transportation zone. Every home and place of business within that zone is guaranteed to have public transportation service 24x7x365 to every other place within that zone. where you'll never have to wait more than 15 minutes, and you won't have to transfer more than 2 times.

Sure, maybe you say "After midnight, the busses don't run, but the city will pay for your taxis, because it's more efficient to run a fleet of taxis than to operate busses", but you've maintained that public infrastructure commitment.

#publictransit #masstransit

Now that AI can write half-way decent student essays, we should create AI tutors, AI graders, AI administrators — in fact, whole AI universities. Then all the humans can leave the bots to it, go outside, and sit around in the shade of big, generous trees, talking philosophy.

#AI #universities #philosophy

I’m not saying EVs aren’t part of the broader #ClimateCrisis solution, but the main goal HAS to be fewer cars and less driving, rather than just “better cars.” Picture tobacco companies selling “better cigarettes” as the solution (which can actually lead to MORE smoking), when we know the solution is to limit smoking.

#EVs #cars #transportation #Cities #urbanism #ElectricVehicles #ElectricCars #GHG #city