I wrote about how I read, what I listen to, and where I visit for Hilobrow’s MEDIA DIET series (ft. me not walking into people while reading, Pacific halibut hooks, and my favourite ways to listen to music): https://www.hilobrow.com/2026/07/05/debcha/
ICYMI, I wrote a piece for Dezeen on how FIFA’s (entirely self-serving!) mandate that World Cup host cities provide game-day public transit at cost is a unique opportunity for American cities, especially for really car-centric ones — it’s a chance to experiment and to learn from other places that are addressing the same challenges at the same time. https://www.dezeen.com/2026/06/30/world-cup-transit-opinion-deb-chachra/
ICYMI, I wrote a piece for Dezeen on how FIFA’s (entirely self-serving!) mandate that World Cup host cities provide game-day public transit at cost is a unique opportunity for American cities, especially for really car-centric ones — it’s a chance to experiment and to learn from other places that are addressing the same challenges at the same time. https://www.dezeen.com/2026/06/30/world-cup-transit-opinion-deb-chachra/
[I once drove to the University of Washington campus on a Saturday, instead of taking the bus, without realising there was a football game that day — I remember trying to convince the parking lot attendant that I was there at 10am to work in my office, not to tailgate to avoid being charged for game-day parking. Evidence: My laptop bag and also complete lack of anything purple.]
It wasn’t until I was researching that piece that it finally dawned on me that the logistical challenge of getting thousands of private vehicles into stadium parking lots so that tens of thousands of fans can be in their seats at kickoff is *why American tailgating culture exists*.
“FIFA essentially forced American cities, even car-centric ones, to run month-long experiments in public transit” https://www.dezeen.com/2026/06/30/world-cup-transit-opinion-deb-chachra/ by @debcha
We originally wrote this paper nearly a year ago. As of last June, the CRASH Clock was at 5.5 days. It's now down to 2.5 days. It was 168 days in 2018, pre-Starlink.
It just keeps dropping as we launch more satellites into orbit.
This metric shows how completely dependent we are on continued perfect operations in orbit. 2/3 of all satellites today are Starlinks, and they performed 300,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers last year. They have done it perfectly so far. How long can that continue?
The CRASH Clock (which is an acronym, I apologize deeply) is our metric for how dangerous orbit is. We download real orbits for everything (satellites, rocket bodies, tracked debris) and calculate how long it would be for a collision to occur if no orbital maneuvers happen.
This is a worst-case calculation. What if everyone suddenly lost control due to a solar flare, a bad software update, or someone hacking Starlink? How long do we have to regain control?
On the last day of Pride Month, happy Trans Pride, now and forever and ever and ever, Amen.
Daily intersectional reminder that restrictions on certain groups of women are restrictions on all of us. A ban on trans girls in sports puts every woman’s womanhood and girl’s girlhood up for public critique: Are your shoulders too wide? Or your forehead too large? Are you too tall? Or maybe too muscular?
Time and time again, these bans work as restrictions on the types of femininities and bodies which are seen as women, and most often they deny the womanhood of queer women and women of color.
Dear quilting/library community, please enjoy this bookshelf quilt made as a fundraiser for the new library (in Belleville ONT). The books are all named after local people and organizations.
California is putting nearly half a billion dollars into free home electrification for low-income households, using revenues from its carbon-market to replace fossil-fuel appliances with heat pumps, induction stoves and efficiency upgrades.
The program just completed its first retrofit in San Diego and expects to reach around 15,000 households. This is climate policy via the front door: buildings produce around quarter of California’s emissions.
RE: https://flipboard.com/@cbcnews/toronto-qajtcaoiz/-/a-AsI_bKk-RO6ZBi4dIpufvQ%3Aa%3A107108217-%2F0
I'm old, I can remember when the CN Tower was new. A small group of artists anonymously plastered downtown TO with maps showing the radius that was at risk should the tower fall over. Cool visual design. There was a flurry of news coverage before people figured out it was art.
Purple martins are really neat birds (especially when your bird biologist friend builds you a house that makes it easy to check in on them).
Check out this super cute tidy nest they built! They pick aspen leaves, using the leaves to regulate moisture for the incubating eggs. Look how perfectly they layered the leaves! Evolution is SO COOL.
Reading is how we attend the world, *which is also how we change it.* https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/umyazu
Apostolos Christou (Armaugh Obs.) this talk title is hilarious "Larger asteroids stay sober, smaller asteroids get drunk"
Wow what a cartoon!
Small asteroids end up with gaussian distributions around the family centre.
The dirty secret is there hasn't been any big tech revolution. Just normal progress and many people who really *wish* they had a lightning in the bottle.
Image recognition and composing text were always tough problems in CS and they have been largely solved. Let's clap. That's an achievement.
This means you can make a self driving car that works most of the time, a pick and place robot that works ... most of the time.
The 20 percent isn't a bug fix, it's another millennium problem.
Nap time. It's always nap time.
#photography #wildlife #VancouverIsland #BritishColumbia #VancouverIslandWildlife
Hey so buying books direct or from independent bookstores is always great, but if that’s not an option, Bookshop.org is offering free shipping from now until June 26th, for Anti-Prime Day. A percent of profits (always, not just these four days) go towards the support of indie bookstores, so not a bad place to buy. They’re also running 15% off select titles for Pride month.
#books
US's climate.gov site, taken down by Trump, relaunched by nonprofit
Climate.us has now restored everything taken down by the government.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/uss-climate-gov-site-taken-down-by-trump-relaunched-by-nonprofit/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social