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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • OP using word ‘convinced’ is relevant here because whilst most people in USA ‘need’ a car (because there is no practical alternative to driving), they are being convinced every day that a private car is the only viable solution to transport in general…

    … and then of course you get everyone freaking out when someone has the audacity to suggest that installing a dedicated bike / bus lane would mean less people need a car, and that would save everyone time and money.

    Also while I’m ranting, I’m so over people harping on about how they can’t rely on public transit and that’s why they need a car. Like reliable and affordable public transport is some magical and unobtainable goal.

    But then when gas prices inevitably get crazy high, or they get in a wreck, or traffic is a mess then that’s just The Way It Is and in no way an indication that maybe everyone driving a personal car for every single trip isn’t the most reliable or sustainable way to run a city.














  • I think the USA’s National Weather Service Twitter presence is a good example.

    If you look deep enough you’ll see caveats like “supplemental service provided by NWS” and “Twitter feeds and tweets do not always reflect the most current information”, but the truth is that a lot of people (and news organizations) depend on Twitter as their main interface to the NWS, and rarely if ever go to their website.

    That obviously creates a tension, which bubbles up in scares like this:

    Before last weekend’s storm, the National Weather Service’s Baltimore-Washington office sent this tweet saying that because of a new Twitter policy, automated tweets that show advisories, watches, and warnings might not load.

    Contrast that to a world where NOAA (the federal administration which runs NWS) has their own instance: they get the benefit of being able to disseminate updates in a consumer friendly ‘social media’ style and they retain full control of platform and can be sure the service won’t be held hostage, or go down in the middle of a storm.

    Finally: if you’re reading this from the USA, consider contact NOAA/NWS to let them know you’d like a fediverse presence, I did!