Krishnan Viswanathan @matungawalla@transportation.social

One way to understand how Putin’s Russia operates more like an organized crime syndicate than a conventional state is through their systematic doping programs in sports. See Icarus on Netflix for wild window into that world: https://www.netflix.com/title/80168079

Let’s get this right. Scientists didn’t fail to communicate the risks of #climatechange, they have been warning us for a century. Our policies are failing because after knowing the risks, fossil fuel companies spent billions of dollars blocking meaningful action on #climate.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4057045-catch-22-scientific-communication-failures-linked-to-faster-rising-seas/

#DOT Researchers Suggested a Way to Make Big #Trucks Safer.

After Meeting With Lobbyists, Agency Officials Rejected the Idea.
==

The Department of Transportation allowed #trucking lobbyists to review an unpublished report recommending a #safety device that could save lives by preventing #pedestrians & #cyclists from getting crushed under large trucks.

“PLEASE delete any mention of a recommendation to develop … any regulation,” the DOT supervisor wrote in an email.

https://www.propublica.org/article/dot-rejected-truck-side-guards-trucking-lobbyists-safety?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

Republicans Declare Banning Universal Free School Meals a 2024 Priority | The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/post/173668/republicans-declare-banning-universal-free-school-meals-2024-priority

I want to live in a world where 500 migrants lost at sea evokes more concern than 3 millionaires lost in a vanity submarine.

I'm laughing at memes about billionaires who can't pull themselves up to the surface by their own bootstraps, but in reality I'm furious.

I'm furious I was accused of human smuggling by FRONTEX (European border agency) for being part of a sea rescue operation that saved 1000+ lives of refugees fleeing war & terrorism.

I'm furious at the money and international effort being spent to rescue these billionaires when operations like ours cost so little and save so many lives, but are punished.

The Supreme Court Upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act. The Long Struggle to Implement the Law Continues.
==

A recent ProPublica investigation showed how #ICWA was being unevenly applied in some states, breaking up #NativeAmerican #families that should have received additional protections under the law. There’s still room for improvement, advocates say.

New, by @lussenpop

#Parents #Children #Kids #SouthDakota #SCOTUS #SupremeCourt

https://www.propublica.org/article/scotus-icwa-decision-questions-native-american-families?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

Who called it Generative AI instead of Plagiarism as a Service?

Maybe the poor souls trying to cross the Med in janky, home-made, substandard equipment should rebrand themselves as "Explorers" for more sympathetic media coverage.

How to make 3D spike maps with the {ggplot2} and {rayshader} #rstats 📦s
Video: https://youtu.be/bvlB5yb_uVQ
Code: https://github.com/milos-agathon/3d-forest-map-ggplot2
By Milos Popovic
#ggplot2 #ggplot #rayshader #rspatial #dataviz #GIS @rstats

"Reddit represents one of the largest data sets of just human beings talking about interesting things," Huffman said. "We are not in the business of giving that away for free."

You and me, we're just data sets. Years of interaction with fellow human beings, building community, sharing insight and creativity…it’s all just data. Data to be mined and monetized.

Huffman's not mad Reddit was scraped for a chatbot. He's mad he wasn't paid for the privilege. It's his data, you see. His. Not yours.

If we could see CO₂ from fossil fuels…

🧵Sometimes friends of mine say they feel guilt they aren't recycling more, or swapping out their lightbulbs for more efficient ones.

But those aren't really very important things to do to lower your emissions.

I think it's important that we all have a basic mental map of what really are the effective consumer choices.

This chart from Kimberly Nicholas and Seth Wynes at Lund University (2017) deserves to be more widely known.

We keep seeing charts of record high ocean waters — nature has a good and fairly short explainer about the consequences of it 👇👇

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01573-1

The greenest EV is a bicycle.

E-bikes are currently displacing a million barrels of oil per day, nearly 4x more than passenger cars.

Plus an e-bike needs 100x less lithium than an electric car battery.

Source: https://about.bnef.com/electric-vehicle-outlook/

#ebike #EV #sustainability #climate

What happens in Canada doesn't stay in Canada.

Climate change is coming for all of us.

Census Bureau to hold webinar about uses of decennial census programs data in federal funds distribution

Wednesday, June 14, 2023, at 3 p.m. EDT

Livestream (with captioning) on YouTube https://www.census.gov/newsroom/census-live.html

#Census #FederalBudget #FederalBudget2023 #Data #FederalStatistics #Budget #Budget2023