Finally got around to reading Jennifer Pahlka's "Recoding America" (2023). Direct, penetrating, and hopeful in its stories and analysis of how all government could work differently and better. An essential read. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jennifer-pahlka.html

This Washington Post article about the iconic yellow school bus is a great illustration of everyday inequities in urban planning, education, labor, parenting, air quality, government spending, and quality of life, all accelerated by the pandemic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/02/02/school-bus-era-ends/

@chrisnelder @waltbaldwin Also, I realize by cross-posting I give nobody an incentive to pick one network ... but that's the nature of network effects, and I'm a pretty small fish anyway. Your typical common pool resource Elinor Ostrom answer would be that there should be shunning to encourage-enforce a particular norm (i.e. sufficient distaste of X for people to move elsewhere).

I'm not really sure what to do with the divergence and fragmentation among social media sites, and so just cross-post everything. Please let me know if this is annoying and what you do instead.

A postdoc ad at BU with Ben Sovacool studying building decarbonization open to many methods and backgrounds.

Pass it on to someone who might be interested! @kevinjkircher

https://www.bu.edu/igs/files/2023/12/BU-SE-Job-Description-120523.TK-BKS.pdf

A great radio segment. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228067629/exploring-how-content-creators-speak-on-tiktok-it-s-known-as-influencer-speak

This article about Montreal’s Habitat from 1967 is OK but the video rendered using a game engine is mind-boggling. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/16/opinion/habitat-67-moshe-safdie/

Maybe I will read this handy article about universities and climate action ... later. https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000322

I guess I should share this nice profile, because the writer rather generously captured me on my best day, feeling positive, hopeful, and passionate about climate action. Now that I have tenure, I just have to figure out how to be this person all the time. https://news.mit.edu/2023/david-hsu-climate-action-0102

In advance of Taiwanese elections tomorrow, here is my article, from a year ago, on how China's economic/ information/political war against Taiwan has already begun

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/taiwan-china-disinformation-propaganda-russian-influence/672453/

If you haven't yet read the entire Fifth US National Climate Assessment #NCA5 -- hundreds of pages of summary by leading scientists on every aspect of climate change in the US -- then these coming webinars are your chance to catch up!

Schedule here: https://www.globalchange.gov/events?topic%5B135%5D=135

Ninety day countdown to a solar eclipse happening across a lot of the US. Libraries, do you have your viewing glasses? While this site is out of them (maybe just for now) they do have a lot of good public education information.

https://www.starnetlibraries.org/about/our-projects/solar-eclipse-activities-libraries-seal/

You're welcome.
Love,
A librarian whose town is just south of totality but the library in the next town is in the path

Here's a throwback eclipse photo from 1900. You heard me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2534500722/

@jgkoomey May all of our grandchildren outperform us “by between 1.6 and 15.7 times.”

Meaning you or someone you know should apply by January 15th!

I have high hopes for these two new colleagues! https://apply.interfolio.com/136680

"EVs catching fire" memes are regularly popping up on my feed, so I thought I'd share some data: ICE cars are 60x more likely to catch fire.

"According to one analysis of U.S. government data, EV fires appear to occur less frequently than ICE vehicles, with 25.1 fires for every 100,000 vehicles sold compared to 1,529 fires for ICE vehicles."

Please don't share those memes.

Repairing our entire family of bikes today for a happy and sustainable new year.

A good article about adaptation and green infrastructure, but it also helps that the main attraction here floats. https://wapo.st/3vdXSNk

Amazing work by an amazing student. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/12/29/arts/harvard-student-sleuth-cracks-code-hidden-lives-louisa-may-alcott-other-notable-women/

@solar_chase Loved seasons 1 and 2, watched season 3 but got occasionally annoyed with the more soapy aspects — enough with Danny and his brother already. Need to get into season 4 but waiting for some when I really need a diversion from earth.