Krishnan Viswanathan @matungawalla@transportation.social

"It's almost impossible to over-invest in communication." -Elaine McVey
#PositConf2023

The American Library Association, an organization founded in 1876, is under attack by the US right-wing. The race to the bottom continues.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/15/american-library-association-book-bans/

Fantasy Forecasting Follow-up https://www.transportist.net/p/fantasy-forecasting-follow-up

Fantasy Modeling https://www.transportist.net/p/fantasy-modeling

🔨 stringr::str_squish() 🔨

"removes whitespace at the start and end, and replaces all internal whitespace with a single space.". This includes removing *new lines*!

https://stringr.tidyverse.org/reference/str_trim.html

#RStats

It's not someone else's problem.

Climate refugees. Canadian
Climate refugees. Hawaii.

#climatecrisis

The multiple Trump indictments are a harsh reminder that none of this would have been necessary if law enforcement -- federal, state, and local -- had held this slimeball accountable for his crimes in New York over the decades.

One reason they didn't is that our top "news" media organizations treated him like a celebrity. They mostly ignored what a crook he was -- and that extended well into his presidency.

When the prosecutors and the journalists collaborate in this evil way, evil prevails.

The marketplace of ideas is when the government chooses which subjects colleges may teach. Academic freedom is when the state decides your subject shouldn't be allowed. The Classical Liberal Arts Tradition is when political appointees get to judge whether something is science.

We should recall what happened a century ago, when cars arrived en masse.

US streets were redesigned for vehicle speed. Pedestrian deaths skyrocketed, sidewalks were ripped up, jaywalking was invented, and transit service collapsed.

We still suffer from those decisions.

Turns out love was a zero interest rate phenomenon

Wow! 16 pro-amateur astrophotographers imaged the Whirlpool Galaxy, then combined their data to produce an image with 255 hours integration time. This is the result.

Credits and results in here: https://www.astrobin.com/7hwtz0/?fbclid=IwAR1pAzvCnwViMAZebbwJ0ypUHmzZ9YFLWNyM_ZMT8Id1W_nRcix5A7ajLRg

I absolutely love hearing about amateur and pro-am communities collaborating and working together to really highlight the contributions they can make to science.

These communities are pretty much self-funded but can deliver lots!

More on the processing of this image can be found here as well: https://theastroenthusiast.com/m51-processing/

There's also a video they have put together here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkES2ltGSoc

#Astrodon #Astrophoography #Astronomy #Science #Community

Another day, another disaster, at another place.

This is the climate crisis.

Our debate must turn around: It is not climate action that has to justify itself, but rather inaction.

Problem 1️⃣ : Car bloat endangers others on the street

Tall vehicles have bigger blind spots and are more likely to strike a person’s torso or head.

Heavier vehicles exert more force crashing into a person, bicycle, or smaller car. They also have longer braking distances.

Summary: Car bloat is terrible – for road safety, for the planet, for equity, and for road maintenance.

But bigger cars are often more profitable, so automakers like making them.

The only way out: Government action. Examples:
🔹 Tax vehicles by weight.
🔹 Test vehicles for pedestrian and cyclist safety (still doesn’t happen in the US).
🔹 Require a CDL for the most gigantic vehicles.

Left alone, this problem will only worsen. Governments must step up.

https://slate.com/business/2023/01/electric-cars-hummer-ev-tax-fees-weight-joe-biden.html

After almost six months of work, I'm proud to finally present my integrated commuter rail map of New York City and Philadelphia!

Showing five different commuter rail systems (#CTRail, #MetroNorth, #LIRR, #NJTransit, and #SEPTA), this map depicts everywhere a passenger can get to by train from NYC or Philadelphia without using Amtrak.

This is by far the most complicated map I've ever made, but I'm incredibly happy with the result!