Phleum pratense 🌾

In Chicago, a Soft Architecture Biennial for Hard Times Inflatables and fabrics dominate at the sixth edition of North America’s largest design exhibition, but gentle materials mask hard questions for architects and organizers.

"Defying gravity, piercing the heavens: not these projects. The installations want to be touched and held. Maybe you do, too."

@zachmortice.bsky.social is in superlative critical mode in his review of this year's Chicago Architectural Biennial www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

what softness makes possible on giving form to ideas, making spaces to meet each other, and going beyond gestures...

This is a quiet, humble, reflective manifesto, but it is a manifesto nonetheless

"What we needed was not more education, but more spaces for witnessing. For presence. For turning toward and tending to each other."

Bravo @panthealee.bsky.social

panthealee.substack.com/p/what-softn...

ICE attacks on innocent people has risen 1000% since June.

Intro to Depave Webinar — Depave Have a project idea, interest in getting involved, or just have some questions you want answered about our work? Learn more about Depave through this live webinar introduction to the organization!

If you want to learn more about depaving and green transformation as a community tool to fight the climate legacy of urban redlining, Depave PDX is offering our first Depave 101 webinar next Wednesday the 15th. Beam in from wherever you are to join the depave movement!
www.depave.org/network-even...

America is now one big bet on AI It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

“The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year. And some analysts believe that estimate doesn’t fully capture the AI spend, so the real share could be even higher.” www.ft.com/content/6cc8...

Check the timestamps. On CNN’s website, the uploaded interview starts at 2:52. On their YouTube page, the upload starts at 2:47. The “plenary authority” comment by Miller was at 2:41, as shown in my side-by-side video post. CNN should be reporting on what Miller said. It’s news!

Stephen Miller said the quiet part out loud. Trump has “plenary authority,” then suddenly went silent. Their plan wasn’t to be public yet. Clearly, someone hit the panic button in his earpiece.

It gets weirder: CNN uploaded the interview with the “plenary authority” comment edited out.
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Cultural Regions of the US

This is the most accurate depiction of the Midwest to date. Wichita has always felt like the last Midwest city while also being the first plains city.

Trump raised $8 million for Hurricane Helene survivors. Where did it all go? On a dusty, warm day last October, nearly a month after Hurricane Helene tore across the southeastern United States, Donald Trump stood behind a podium in Swannanoa, North Carolina, to pledge funding ...

Trump raised $8 million for Hurricane Helene survivors. Where did it all go?

The presidential campaign bad-mouthed FEMA while using crowdfunding to donate to evangelical nonprofits.

grist.org/accountabili...

#Disaster #Climate #Trump #Donations #FEMA #GoFundMe

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Honestly, when the financial press starts printing diagrams like this, isn't it time for a regulator to step in?

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

“Far from comprehensive, the list does not include the thousands still buried under the rubble.”

@theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Shannon! I should’ve just interviewed you instead of quoting M+C. I had no idea you were so familiar with the work

🤗 to see @timothyaschuler.bsky.social on the work of Reimagine the Canals (+ my friend Angelyn!), who, in revitalizing the Erie Canal, "hope [to] serve as a model for how public agencies might approach aging infrastructure at vast scales, marrying... basic maintenance with... public access"

The Long Comeback of the Erie Canal One of America’s first major public works projects is marking its 200th anniversary — and seeking a path to the future.

Loved reading this @timothyaschuler.bsky.social piece about the Erie Canal’s first 200 years … and what’s next (bridges! trails! art!) www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Thanks for reading!

Brownies

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy. Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.social I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

Yet another good reason for locals to resist data centers: "electricity now costs as much as 267% more for a single month than it did five years ago in areas located near significant data center activity"

Gift link from @bloomberg.com

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Landlords Demand Tenants’ Workplace Logins to Scrape Their Paystubs Screenshots shared with 404 Media show tenant screening services ApproveShield and Argyle taking much more data than they need. “Opt-out means no housing.”

New: landlords are demanding potential tenants hand over employer login credentials so a tool can verify their income. We were sent screenshot of the tool, Argyle, downloading much more data than necessary to approve the renter. "Opt-out means no housing" www.404media.co/landlords-de...

wow, difficult decision! do the right thing and cement your legacy as a hero in history books. or make a lot of money!

tough!!

Smoke From Wildfires Caused by Climate Change Will Fuel Many More Premature Deaths in the U.S., a New Study Warns - Inside Climate News This would represent some of the country’s most costly consequences of a warming climate by mid-century, researchers say.

Smoke from climate-driven wildfires will kill nearly 2 million Americans by 2055, a new study concludes.

a healthy, 41-year-old friend of mine dropped dead in Sydney in 2020 because of what was probably a previously unknown heart defect triggered by wildfire smoke.

Sinclair is demanding that Kimmel apologize to the family (?) and also "make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA"

Are you fucking kidding me? It's not enough they got him fired, they want him to grovel and send money to these anti-free speech grifters?

We’d be in a much stronger position right now if mainstream Democrats had taken a common sense stand for First Amendment principles instead of piling on undergraduate standing up for Palestine.

Also I hope I’m still a curious and hopeful person when I’m 81 years old

It’s a bonus when they’re equally enthused about your own work

I’m not really active here these days, but I just came to say that I interviewed the artist and photographer Terry Evans today, and it’s so nice when the individuals you admire are gracious and thoughtful people

I knowwwww it just appeared

This morning's intrusive thought: H is for Hawk Tuah