Star Simpson

hello neighbor 👋

Find me out here on the fringe, as ever

ooh what’s it about?

no what’s it about??

I finished the book I was reading and now I need a new book 🥲

hey BlueSky are any of you the sort who might recommend what I should read next? last book was an aerospace history audiobook.

The tide ebbs, so at present the problem of providing regular scheduled service without dredging would mean building a boat that could navigate reed-thick mud.

In this sense, not exactly “not enough” ferries as in quantity of routes, but more so “not enough [like Hong Kong]”

Yes, exactly. No high-capacity high-speed ferries, no ro-ro car carriers, no truly competitive-transit-option ferries. The ones up to Saus make more sense but mostly because BART was killed and the buses also suck.

I couldn’t complete my senior high school science fair project because of the prohibitive cost of shipping one component due to the Jones Act and since that day (until it is canceled) I can never stop ranting about how bad that law is.

No ferries in the Bay Area. Hawaii has the biggest privately owned ranch in the United States but the highest price/gal on milk. Maine islanders use electric heaters in every room rather than fuel through winter because the utility price is capped vs fuel comes on a boat. Puerto Rico

The Jones Act!

Also- to be fair a lot of the South Bay is very shallow marshland. Ferries would be great but opening up that area is a Works project.

There are no ferries because you have to use a US-built boat under the (1920s!) Jones Act and the United States essentially stopped building commercial watercraft of any kind. So right there, no ferries.

It’s because of the stupid Jones Act. That thing erodes quality of life all over the place in subtle and often imperceptible ways.

Based on real events.

It took so long only because the Blue Angels got canceled from Fleet Week.

I moved to the United States and
it took just about 6 months before I got to see some F-18s recreationally circling overhead in formation, for national entertainment.

The Aerospace Republic is up to its usual —

I’m in a Super Bowl city and it’s like 65°F/19C

To clarify for the non-roboticists out there:

Two legged humanoid robots only stay standing when they’re powered and the control loops managing the joints and actively detecting the balance situation are all functioning.

Lose power? It keels over. All 120-200 lbs of it.

the magic of the Muppets is that there are two fourth walls. they constantly break the one that reminds the audience they are performers. they NEVER break the one that reminds the audience they are puppets. this dynamic is the key to their entire comedy style

The drone footage of this race was bonkers. Stomach-dropping in a good way.

Massholes about to sweep this event until we’ve poured enough money into Boston transit that nobody in the city is allowed to own a car

coming up with a new idea called "driving like shit olympics". no more bland, unprovable statements like "california drivers are the WORST" allowed. whichever state wins every 4 years gets a moonshot-sized public transit investment to get those fuckers off the road

😞

Red checkmark for approved materials Green X for materials that are contraindicated

Is this a test 🙈

A twitter thread with a series of tweets documenting without commenting on issues of the day giving the noun of the issue follows by the word ‘tweet’; The text of each tweet in the thread says: Ralph Tweet Clawdbot tweet Kimi k2.5 tweet Clawdbot name change tweet moltbook tweet Genie 3 Tweet

I’d love if such skeets were summarized in the same way @visakanv.com used to acknowledge but pass on commenting about issues of the day with a placeholder tweet, but then maybe you could click on the skeet to then go ahead and read the specifics (image is first example I found of similar such)

I wish I could somehow curate a bsky feed that just got rid of the same 3 variations of takes on the major issue of the day and just summarized them into one. Or I'll take "ability to turn off rts from a person you follow"

Ugh, oh no

That’s how everyone feels about puns 😂

I’m sorry but now there’s a punmanned aerial vehicle presently en route to your location

I mean, Kamen’s reputation has been whisper network 👎 for years and years (decades and decades?), in a “girl, protect your IP or better yet don’t talk to him at all” way.