The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!
This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/the-world-factbook/
learned from @notjustbikes that the same model cars sold in America get upgraded pedestrian safety features in Europe https://youtu.be/--832LV9a3I&t=470
Meanwhile here in Georgia, truck owners get billion dollar judgments at trial when they crash and rollover, but pedestrian victims of giant hoods get ~nothing.
https://www.georgiapolicy.org/news/tort-reform-gwinnett-county-slapped-hard-by-georgia-court-of-appeals/
@DecaturNature @michael I was mostly joking that more people should join us at Michael's theatl.social.
But I agree with you that something more structured would be needed for that result. Wikipedia's a marvel of mass information collection and communication, but even it's not trying to contain everything. The risks of flawed organizers having influence on a message is unavoidable, just gotta e.g. read https://austinlouisray.com/how-id-fix-atlanta until it stops being good and then find something else.
I do think it'd be healthier if we could e.g. rewind, save google reader, and have an online culture of reading fewer longer blog posts from consistent sources, make even fewer blog length responses. Instead of so many posts coming from feeds written by who knows who/what. The sheer volume is overwhelming even if every actor online had good faith.
@bdatlrides Those are certainly "interesting" numbers. Did they break down the funding for the pilot? I.e., how much will it cost per ride, and if ridership does not meet targets what entity absorbs that cost?
I'm sure I could find some systems to compare it to, that would cost 10x to build and 3x to operate, as uninspiring as it is. But 10,000 people per hour, that's 166 per minute. How big would the airport Glydway boarding area have to be to fit enough pods to get passengers on and off that quickly?
Simon Willison
