#1 Shoup Fan

Many of the US railroads from the late 19th century were really bad. Garbage quality tracks laid on garbage easiest to access right-of-ways. And then set up the era where rails received nearly 0 investment. Super mixed

Well that or a recession which causes the GOP to vote for cuts and remind people why they hate them.

We basically have to hope that
- AI doesn't kill education
- GOP interest in ruinously expensive charter/private/homeschool payments has outcomes so bad people come back
- Dems give up on most progressive ed. theories/AA (this sucks b/c some of this so good)

We've lost education. Gut blow.

I think even then as long as there are open primaries we will still have some kind of electoral politics? Like in Jim Crow South: only about 10% of people can vote, but they're still voting in this weird system, where it's all about the primary and/or convention

Get them across the Hudson!

This is unfair, grassley is broadly defending renewables, apologies.

In old voters defense (?) they really loved young upstart Buttigieg. They wanted a young guy after they wanted the oldest guy. You just have to look like a nice young man TM

Ok, there are two topics legislative Rs can actually fight Trump on:

Space policy
Ethanol

Maybe when his approval gets to 35% they'll find a 3rd

What's funny about this is that online Dems have trouble talking about it b/c the primary voters like the old people. It's not a classic "if only they listened to the voters/the base/etc" issue. Which doesn't make it not real.

The Dubai Blue line (latest expansion) has a construction contract with a Turkish/Chinese consortium with American project management.

I'm not sure about costs, but I think we can at least say that turkey is not out.

www.enr.com/articles/610...

The Dubai Metro was Japanese/Turkish for design build and French/American for construction management, with operations run by a British and then Japanese/French consortium (according to wiki) so I don't think this says much about who will actually do any of the project.

Here's a map from Twitter, not sure if it's real

Excited to find out if they can finish this before the 2nd ave. Subway or Seattle's ST3 projects (probably)

x.com/clashreport/...

Syria, UAE-based firm discuss funding, execution of Damascus Metro project UAE National Company for Investment in Projects holds talks with Syrian government - Anadolu Ajansı

Syria in talks about Damascus Metro.

www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-ea...

Judd must have a legit interest in vernacular architecture b/c OFFICE SPACE is one of the few movies where you see it ( I suppose his SV was also pretty accurate to how boring the south bay is, but it's also quite rich so it's not that unusual looking )

Great point! I think TV is kind of allergic to this because most people think this looks ugly (wether or not that's fair). Same with how TV rarely shows suburban office parks, or rundown strip malls, it just doesn't fit the look they think people want to see.

I feel like "Lewis has some tremendously interesting ideas he does nothing with" is pretty typical of him. Did you ever read his SF? You'll be amazed how boring traveling Venus and resurrecting Merlin can become.

I mean I think it's a pretty obvious idea (hence all the fanfic/parodies). But is it good? Well so far we have 2/3? I never read NEVER ENDING so I'll take your word for it that part 2 is good. Lewis' is so bad that there Gaiman got a well received story out of it.

It was a cost saving measure by Bellevue City Council after they paid for the downtown Bellevue tunnel. Poor choice, the extra $100Ms would've ultimately been better for everyone.

I tried digging through the SeattleTransitBlog archive, I'm sure it's there somewhere, the decision was ~2012

It would help if FARTHEST SHORE was good, but yeah in a way the contrast is good. I sort of think you should read it w/out SHORE, I think Ged appearing and saying "yeah I defeated an evil wizard to fix magin and life/death" would be enough.

It really does hit you w/ life just happens though!

So I never read TEHANU as a child, I'm very confident I stopped after FARTHEST SHORE disappointed at how bad it was. Did anyone?

What was it like reading about the struggles of aging, and wondering if you raised your kids badly? Was it good as a kid? I feel like I wouldn't've liked it

She basically wrote the "Fat slobby Harry deals with taxes" that was a common joke fanfic, except it's good (old man Ged and Older Tenar are thoughtful takes).

It's particularly odd since she wrote FARTHEST SHORE, which was a kiddy parable about death (IMO it's bad) and took an 18 year long break.

People often joke about taking a YA fantasy series and making it about adult problems in a depressing way, and it's funny that LeGuin also did it with Tehanu

WI the wizard and his escaped priestess friend had to deal with a difficult custody battle and her chud son? (Also a dragon shows up)

YouTube video by Channel 4 Comedy Liam Neeson Faces His TOUGHEST Challenge Yet | Derry Girls Season 3 | Channel 4

He also had a brief scene in the final ep of DERRY GIRLS which was incredibly funny, but uh, very brief and I assume obscure in the states. [Warning: very thick NI accents ahead]

youtu.be/yEqi-RT3YoU?...

Sakoku America folks, they're calling it Sakoku America. Shogun Miller is keeping us safe, while Emperor Trump rules serenely from his castle in Florida.

There's an interesting but in Stephenson's FALL OR DODGE IN HELL about how the rich buy better info in their feeds with AI and workers, but you're right in the real world no one seems to care!

(The book is mostly bad this is in the good 2nd quarter)

Sure! I'd believe it! In general there are a lot of books.... Hello giving a kid a LitRPG to read is probably better than another 10H of YT content.

I do think it's fair to think "a boy who doesn't like to read and thinks he doesn't like to read is probably not going to want to pick up MONTE CRISTO" even if you know it's an exciting adventure story. I just have no idea if Sen or I would know what to give him

Complaining that there's a lack of fiction for contemporary teens that they want to read, particularly boys, is a pretty old complaint (I remember seeing it 20 years ago!)

No idea what books you should recommend, or what people are writing now for that space.