Author Archives: rdmyers75@hotmail.com

winter clothes and jackets 101

Leave a reply

I occasionally read fashion blogs not because I am interested in fashion, but because I find clothes the most boring thing in the world and yet I occasionally need to project an appearance that others find acceptable in a professional (e.g., my employer is relying on me to sell something and therefore willing to pay me) or social (e.g., not embarrass my wife in public) situation. Anyway, this article goes through a long discussion on how to layer to stay warm. I have to say though, I find it a bit gross to have a synthetic shirt next to my skin with a bunch of stuff on top, and I am mildly allergic to wool. I love cotton, but apparently that is not the way to stay warm. There is talk of mittens, which I agree are warm, but I have never figured out how to use a key to unlock or lock a door while wearing a mitten. Maybe everybody else has moved on to other technologies and I am the only one still using keys. And finally, I’d like to hear more about socks and keeping my feet warm. I find that no matter how warm the rest of my body is, my toes are still the first thing to get cold.

The purpose of fashion blogs, of course, is to make us want to buy new stuff even when we often have perfectly functional old stuff lying around. Materials and fossil fuels get mined, the new stuff gets manufactured and moved around, people work in stores and call centers, and the old stuff gets disposed of. All of this gives some people work to do and keeps money moving around, but how much value is created? Warm hands have value, and buying my first pair of mittens therefore creates value where none existed before. Buying my fifth pair of mittens in the latest color or style would add zero value for me personally, but perhaps it brings joy to some.

February 2025 in Review

Leave a reply

Most frightening and/or depressing story: Donald Shoup died in February. He was a pioneer in parking economics, which doesn’t sound all that sexy, but his clear explanations really helped me see the light of what walkable, livable, healthy and low environmental impact cities can potentially be. What they can’t be is low-density and automobile-oriented. I put this in the depressing category both because I am sad at his passing, and because I do not see these trends going in the right direction.

Most hopeful story: The fool in the White House and the devils whispering in his ear can weaken enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, but they can’t actually make laws go away. They can try to ignore them, and then we will see how effective our court system and third party legal action can be at activating the checks and balances we are supposed to have. The other potential players are congress and widespread public action, and these do not seem to be active at the moment.

Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both: I continued to follow the emergence of AI agents in February. Outside the bananas state of U.S. and global geopolitics, this is one of the biggest things going on, or at least a big change playing out quickly. Even a “singularity watch” item – I’m going to give a 5% chance this is the start of the singularity. Hopefully not the Terminator version. But has anyone noticed we now have Starlink and Stargate – these even sound like Skynet. We already had Operation Warp Speed of course. What puzzles me is that conservatives usually don’t like science fiction because they lack imagination. So either somebody is a science fiction fan, or more likely they have these words in the backs of their minds from indirect exposure to science fiction, and now they think they thought of them.

his foolishness’s instincts on nuclear weapons

Leave a reply

Let me be abundantly clear on my position: Donald Trump is a childish fool and I am embarrassed for my country on the world stage right now. I am desperately searching for some kind of silver lining and not coming up with much. One thing is that he has made some statements over the years suggesting he understands the need for nuclear arms control. Now, with all the verbal diarrhea that comes out of the man’s mouth, we have to always focus mostly on his actions rather than his words. But here are a few points:

  • New Start treaty – In 2020, Trump oversaw mostly successful negotiations to extend this treaty with Russia. It was provisionally extended for a year, and the Biden administration picked up where Trump left off and agreed with Russia to extend it for five years. It’s one of the ironies of political polarization that opposing sides are sometimes willing to compromise and cooperate as long as there is not too much publicity about it.
  • Iran nuclear treaty – Here Trump dealt a massive blow to global non-proliferation goals. Whatever his instincts, I assume Israeli pressure played a big role here.
  • Here are some weird statements Trump made in the September 2024 presidential debate. “But eventually, you know, he’s [Putin’s] got a thing that other people don’t have. He’s got nuclear weapons. They don’t ever talk about that. He’s got nuclear weapons. Nobody ever thinks about that. And eventually uh maybe he’ll use them. Maybe he hasn’t been that threatening. But he does have that. Something we don’t even like to talk about. Nobody likes to talk about it.” Weird, incorrect since obviously most people on earth are going to know that Russia is a nuclear power, and yet it shows that Trump is legitimately concerned about the risk of nuclear war.
  • From The Intercept: “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many… You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”
  • And also: “I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost $1 trillion on the military. … I’m going to say we can spend this on other things… I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that.”

Seeing is believing, Senor Trumpez, and we will all see if these encouraging words lead anywhere.

cities need to take over sidewalks

Leave a reply

This article is about Denver taking over responsibility for sidewalks, rather than just putting this burden on private property owners. Sidewalks may seem like a wonky fringe issue but they are a big key to being able to implement green infrastructure effectively in cities. There are a few reasons for this. First, they are where the street trees are going to be, and street trees are a big part of the solution to urban heat and a smaller but significant part of the solution to water quality and flooding. Second, streets and sidewalks together make up a surprising portion (I’ve estimated around 40% in my city) of the pavement in a city. Curb and storm inlet design are key to how well and how fast all this pavement drains. This is because the sidewalk is attached to the curb, and the curb is attached to the gutter, and the gutter is attached to the inlet that drains the street – pretty obvious when you think about it right? But when private owners are responsible for sidewalks, those curbs that are so critical to channeling the water often aren’t built and maintained right. Finally, depending on how wide sidewalks are, they often are where there may be room for rain gardens and pollinator gardens, for cities and neighborhoods that want these things (most do in the abstract, but there has to be a good plan for taking care of them long term and they need to not be in the way.)

That’s the environment – obviously sidewalks are where people walk, roll on wheelchairs, push baby strollers, and hobble on crutches. Sometimes people ride bikes on them, particularly children and particularly when there are not safe or adequately maintained bike lanes. They need to be in good condition for all these people.

Speaking of bike lanes, then there is the whole world of bike lanes (which we should probably think of as light low-speed vehicle lanes), curb management, bus stops, delivery and contractor zones, taxi and ride share stands, street parking, and electric vehicle charging, not to mention all the other “street furniture” like trash cans, bike racks, and mailboxes. Design and maintenance of the sidewalk and curb impacts all these public uses and it makes no sense to put that burden on private landowners.

So where did Denver find the money to take on this new responsibility? Well, they are charging the private landowners by bundling the cost into an existing stormwater management fee. This makes sense because ultimately the city including the homeowners will get better and more cost-effective public infrastructure. But of course, I am well aware of the political law of gravity that PEOPLE HATE TAXES. No, I don’t have an easy answer on how to solve this one. Another thing people really hate though is the local code enforcement agency coming down on residential and small business owners on a piecemeal basis, especially for what many logically view as public infrastructure. So to summarize, there are three options – (1) enforce sidewalk codes on private property owners, (2) leave sidewalk codes unenforced and sidewalks in poor condition, except for maybe a few piecemeal complaint-driven enforcement actions, or (3) raise revenue through taxes or fees so the same public agencies maintaining the streets can maintain the sidewalks.

I’ll mention one final wrinkle though. Under sidewalks, there is typically a tangle of water pipes, sewer pipes, natural gas lines, and sometimes buried electric/communications lines that connect houses to public infrastructure under the street. So if a city “takes over the sidewalks”, it has to also figure out if it going to consider all this public or private infrastructure. For example, if a water pipe connecting the main under the street to a house is private, and the sidewalk is public, and that water pipe springs a leak, the sidewalk has to get dug up to replace the water pipe, and then the sidewalk has to get replaced. So it has to be clear who ends up paying for that or whether the cost will be shared. One thing homeowners hate and fear probably even more than taxes (me included) is large unexpected expenses.

Ha ha, did I say I was going to do some short posts?

Charlie Stross: “actual international Neo-Nazi conspiracy to destroy democracy globally”

Leave a reply

Dearest readers, I have been dealing with a family emergency here on top of a plate that was already full before the family emergency. I am trying to be somewhat kind to myself and acknowledge that I have very real physical and mental limits. Which is a way of getting to my point that I might be doing some short posts for a little while. I would rather do short frequent posts than long, infrequent ones.

I am not as smart or entertaining and awesome a writer as Charlie Stross, obviously, but here is Charlie Stross acknowledging that he is somewhat overwhelmed by events and might be doing some short posts for awhile.

it’s really hard to write a good carpet-chewing rant by an evil wannabe galactic overlord against a background of an actual international Neo-Nazi conspiracy to destroy democracy globally, and another international conspiracy of billionaires trying to immanetize the AI eschaton and enslave everyone else, and … and … fuck, even Space Opera isn’t safe from the maniacs these days!

You can make fun of people who are serious but somewhat bumbling (think of George Bush or, gulp, Joe Biden) but it is hard to make fun of evil clowns. Clowns can be funny, but only when they are not evil.

Donald Trump causes evil clown panic to worsen

Okay, put an evil clown in a diaper and it’s at least a little bit funny…until they come for you or someone you care about.

federal courts vs. the executive branch

Leave a reply

I wondered what happens when a federal judge issues a contempt order.

“Well, the court, a judge, has tools available to him or her,” Gertner said. “In the first instance, they can cite the parties in front of them for contempt. They can impose fines, of course. Since one of the parties arguably here is Elon Musk, it’s not clear that fines are going to make a particle of difference. There’s even the possibility of imprisoning someone until the order is followed…”

“All of these are obviously empty threats with respect to the defendants,” she said. “In this case, the marshals would have to enforce whatever orders the judge entered. The problem is that the Marshals Service is under the Department of Justice, and if Trump wanted to fully not comply, he could direct the Department of Justice not to comply.”

If a state judge issued a contempt order against me, a local police officer or county sheriff’s deputy or state police officer would show up at my door. At the federal level, this would be a U.S. Marshall apparently. But the U.S. Marshalls fall under the Department of Justice. If the President ordered the Attorney General not to comply with a court order, the Attorney General would have an awkward decision to make. Presumably, every agency is going to have a team of lawyers giving them advice on the potential consequences of various courses of action, and they are going to make their decisions. Even then, one wonders if the President could pardon someone (even himself) issued a federal contempt of court order. Or appeal to the Supreme Court, and then we find out if they are as corrupt as some of us suspect they are. At this point, the Constitution is done and the next steps would have to be mass civil action or a military coup. All these things seem unthinkable in the United States, but the trend seems to be toward increased thinkability.

January 2025 in Review

Leave a reply

Well, January was a doozy. Here goes:

Most frightening and/or depressing story: Longreads #1 stories of 2024 – this is a lookback but I posted it in January and it has a ton of interesting stuff. Interesting, frightening, and depressing. The story on Israel’s dispatching of air strikes based on statistical analysis is the single most disturbing article I read last year. Everyone should read this article and decide for yourselves where you stand. Another one is called “When the Arctic Melts”. Even as the shadow of fossil fuel propaganda once again overspreads the land, I am afraid the globe could be approaching an irreversible tipping point into runaway warming and sea level rise. Let’s hope the world can afford another four-year round of U.S. backsliding and then pick up the pieces, but I am not sure.

Most hopeful story: I noted that congestion pricing in New York City could provide a glimmer of hope that transportation in the United States could begin to implement 21st century international best practices. (Yes, I am aware the century is a quarter over already – one more indicator of the U.S. slipping towards the bottom of the world’s more advanced nations.) Unfortunately, as I write this on February 13 we see the President himself actively interfering in this state and local matter. “States’ rights” for thee, not for me (i.e. only when it’s convenient to some disingenuous argument).

Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both: AI agents – coming soon to a computer near you.

R.I.P Donald Shoup

1 Reply

Donald Shoup explained why parking is so scarce in walkable, livable cities. Basically, you can have walkable, livable cities, or you can have free parking. You can’t have both. This is a matter of geometry. Pricing parking is one answer. Progress on this issue is a dog fight every inch of the way. Most people are not interested in waking up from the auto-oil-highway propaganda matrix and seeing the world for what it is. The fight is worth it. Thank you Donald Shoup for opening my eyes to reality.

Musk, Apartheid, and White Supremacy

Leave a reply

I’m not sure I can or want to say anything about Musk that others have not already said. As of a few years ago, I respected him as an innovator. While the U.S. auto companies hem and haw and make inferior cars at high prices and resist electrification, he figured out how to make superior electric cars at reasonable prices and get them into widespread commercial availability. While NASA couldn’t figure out how to get back to space since the retirement of the shuttle program, and quasi public-private entity Boeing seemed to be struggling to get the U.S. back into space, Musk stepped in and made real progress on that. Now certainly, he has been adept at using U.S. government contracts to massively scale up his business, and certainly heavy lobbying must have been a big part of that strategy. The latter is immoral in my view, and yet legal under what passes for outrageously corrupt U.S. law. For an amoral corporate “person”, legal compliance substitutes for moral and ethical behavior in a human person. Corporate “persons” seem to be able to corrupt human persons to their way of thinking. All that is pretty standard big business here in the corrupt U.S. system, and I wouldn’t consider Musk to be any more immoral or unethical than other humans who have played this game successfully under the established rules.

That was a year ago. Now, he is spouting what seem to be clearly white supremacist views. You hate to stereotype the Dutch South Africans as white supremacists, but there is a group of them including Musk and Peter Thiel who grew up under the apartheid system and seem to be motivated on some level by white supremist ideology. It is the very rare human being who pursue self interest in a truly amoral manner devoid of any sense of empathy – these are called psychopaths (and I truly think Donald Trump is one). For the rest of us, it is human nature to find ways to rationalize the advantages, or blame others for the disadvantages, we have been given on the uneven playing field of life. We can tell ourselves we are smarter or harder working than others, or we can come up with theories for why our genetic makeup or religious beliefs or country of origin make us superior to others in the natural order of things. Slave traders and slave owners did this, Nazis did this, American segregationists and red-liners and sub-prime lenders and mass incarcerators did this, white South Africans did this. So when we hear words like “meritocracy” or “preference” or “mentally deficient”, we should be asking ourselves if these are code-words for the same old tired Nazi/Jim Crow/Apartheid playbook we have been struggling to get past all these decades.

A quick aside on “supremacist” and “supremist”. The former seems to be the more accepted and widely used term, but both are accepted and widely used. Here are a couple fun quotes from the article I just linked to:

“The combine are determined to register the negroes, and the white supremacists are equally determined that they shall not.” (New Orleans Times Picayune, 1896)

“The ‘white supremists,’ or regular Democrats, say that the negroes shall not register.” (Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 1896)

Seriously, it’s 2025. Let’s not go backwards America.