It feels like Twitter did 12 years ago - in my experience it’s a really engaged place with high-quality conversations. It really highlights how far Twitter has fallen, and after the last couple of years on Twitter I had to re-learn how to have civil conversations with people who are acting in good faith, because I’d grown so unused to that

Now imagine that, but onions

This is greenwashing. Global aviation uses almost 100 billion gallons of fuel per year. If we even began to address a fraction of that with magic new fuels (which won’t happen) it would require incredible amounts of growing, and if we had that sort of amount of agricultural capacity available on this planet, capable of producing crops at a price the aviation industry is prepared to pay, we wouldn’t have any hunger on the world.

Don’t fall for this. There isn’t such a thing as green aviation. I’m not saying there should be no flying, but we can’t carry on as we are and magic away the consequences. In particular, don’t fall for the snake oil salesmen trying to distract you with appealing non-solutions

If people are driving with appropriate skill and care, the number driving into large, well-lit buildings should be approximately zero per year. It sounds like you’re willing to excuse a lot of bad driving

Plumbers don’t carry massive heavy plant. But I know you were just picking a concrete example of a business there so let’s not dwell on that particular case. The real point is that if a business causes damage to the roads that has to be repaired, it should contribute an appropriate amount. If that makes the cost of doing business more expensive, that just has to get passed on to the customer - who, ultimately, is the one having the heavy stuff transported

Here in the UK, I’ve seen bloody sushi restaurants and hairdressers drive branded pickup trucks FFS. No tax exemptions for businesses. As another poster noted, the damage is being done and needs to be paid for - it doesn’t magically not matter because it was done in the course of somebody using the road for their business

2 and 3 are massive. I’m on Mastodon, but am having a much better time on Bluesky. Mastodon is full of gatekeeping and policing and people complaining - Bluesky is just fun and interesting, like Twitter 12 years ago

At this stage it’s a trope that people imitate, perhaps without really thinking about it. Originally it was almost certainly an ironic joke about the value of the medals, playing on the old-fashioned bite tests that would be used for for items of dubious worth

If they’re like the originals, let’s hope nobody ever needs to control them with the slightest bit of moisture on their hands.

I totally understand why you say this. But at the same time:

1. Be a politician

2. Do the right thing and invest billions in an amazing public transport system knowing it won’t be used properly until much later

3. Lose your job for wasting billions on a system nobody uses. Ensure that every other politician in the world cannot henceforth invest in public transport because “Look what happened when that other guy tried it”.

4. There is no Step 4

People are in engrained car habits. That’s why alternatives to driving are important, but people are unlikely to switch unless we ALSO make driving less appealing

“can be” is doing some heavy lifting here. I confidently predict the amount actually recycled is a fraction of one percent

3 dB is a doubling/having of sound pressure, so 3.5 is not nothing

If anyone finds themselves in this position, you should ignore everything else and just look at the ERTO size, which should be on the tyre itself. This is a standard way of measuring tyres and wheels, and is much better than the old ways

Here’s a really good analysis of how it’s not true the Boomers have all the money - there are lots of very comfortable Millennials too. It’s more complicated than people like to think

Didn’t want to walk more than the absolute minimum distance, I suspect. And/or didn’t want their precious PCP baby out of their eyesight

Hark at Simeon Stylites here

I got some of those Chipolo trackers shown in the photo. So far I’m pretty disappointed. Based on the locations being reported, I’m pretty sure my phone is the only one in my city working on the Find my Device system, and even that is intermittent. For example, I’ve left my bike, which has a Chipolo tracker hidden on it, in public places such as a busy train station. After two days on the station platform - with goodness knows how many Android phones passing by - the bike is still showing as being at home in my garage. Like, it didn’t even get logged on my own phone as I cycled to the station and left the bike and tracker there. The system really isn’t up to speed yet

The problem is that the populist, nationalist right tends to be good in opposition, because they can shout simplistic slogans and don’t have to actually deliver anything.

I’ll accept that the status quo might not support non-car travel. But this doesn’t mean it’s okay. What are people DOING about it? If they’re lobbying for change and pushing politicians, fine. But they’re not, are they? They’re buying pickup trucks