Bicycle Nerd

An orange velomobile (e-trike with a partial enclosure for sun+rain protection) with an aluminum trailer, on which is an orange double kayak. It's parked in a parking spot at a grocery store.

Grocery run en route to a kayak outing. (mid-2020)

#ebikes
#kayaks
#ClimateSolutions

It can be difficult to face our low points, especially as parents. But you hit a child - twice - and that's a very low point indeed. You're human, and you can do better. Face it; own it; learn from it; apologize for it; do better.

My Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab.

Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he’ll have to come through us.

It’s time to fight back.

Opinion | José Andrés: People of Good Conscience Must Stop the Starvation in Gaza

“There is no excuse for the world to stand by and watch two million human beings suffer on the brink of full-blown famine.“

It is pretty noticeable that even as mainstream opinion on Israel and Gaza finally shifts, you don’t hear the Responsible Adults apologizing for punishing all the college kids protesting the atrocities. Quite the opposite in fact!

Why spend your energy repeating what that pedophile tyrant says? It doesn't inform anyone. It only benefits him.

A person riding a purple ebike with a colourful flag on a bike path next to Monterey Bay

We went on a 32-mile-round-trip ebike ride to join a friend's neighborhood block party.

After we had our fill of tacos, bounce houses, face painting, and socializing, our bike ride home through the forest included owl and bat sightings.

Glad we skipped the car. Life is much better by bike.

‘Mommy’s coming’: Video shows what happened before ICE arrested parent outside Oregon preschool Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, 38, was arrested by immigration authorities last week.

"...reaching with one hand to embrace his young child who is in the back in his car seat.

“Mommy’s coming,” he said.

The video doesn't show the child exiting the car. But in a later clip, Khanbabazadeh is alone in the vehicle when ICE agents break his window..."

www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

It's not at all alarmist to expect that the new network of detention centers will be used to confine unhoused people—and to extract free labor from them. Everything in this executive order points in that direction.

🧵
Where is the list?
Not the headlines. Not the spin.
Let’s talk about them.
The girls.

Flown to mansions. Locked in rooms with gold fixtures and no exits.

Too young to rent a car, old enough to be sold.
Promised dreams, delivered nightmares.

Ex-farm worker here.

We need to talk about this whole "But a living wage for farm workers would spike the cost of food!" thing.

Not true AT ALL.

Y'all don't understand how fast experienced farm workers are.

The average tomato picker pulls 650lbs per hour.

At $20/hr, that's $0.03/lb for labor.

4 U.S. citizen children, with their mother, held in a detention facility for 2 WEEKS. Denied access to lawyers and even communication with family.

Disappeared. Held Incommunicado. No charges have been filed.

Philosophy Professor Reportedly Assaulted & Abducted During ICE Raid on Farm - Daily Nous Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer in philosophy at California State University Channel Islands, was reportedly "piled on by multiple agents all at once" as "he tried to help a man in a wheelchair" who wa...

"Jonathan Caravello...was reportedly “piled on by multiple agents all at once” as “he tried to help a man in a wheelchair” who was having difficulty moving after...[ICE] agents threw canisters of tear gas"

our colleague is still missing as of the last info I got

dailynous.com/2025/07/12/p...

All aboard for a #TrainTake 🚆: : “Co-equal branches” is a myth—but Congress isn’t just one of three.

Congress was designed to be the most powerful branch—holding the purse, declaring war, and checking the others. It is not merely equal. It is foundational.

The more you know 😊

I just realized: this is your resistance! Being so transparently bad-faith in your platforming and defending right wing extremism, making it impossible for even the most complacent NYT reader to ignore how far you've let the bar sink. It's very effective.

Defending Nazis on the 4th of July, and doing a laughably terrible job of it too. I hope you find a better path one day. You don't have to do this.

The “Homeland” is not a thing, it was made up by GW Bush and anti-Arab warmongers to help the climate for militarization after 9/11, Dept of “Homeland Security” was invented 22 yrs ago and widely seen as creepy and propagandizing at the time

It’s only ever been bullshit

When last I hauled a load to the local transfer station, they tried to deny me access for "liability reasons", because trucks are safe but bicycles are not(?). I pushed back diplomatically and persistently.

If you get denied, let's each take it up with Martinez.

We have GOT to be willing to extend ourselves in curiosity for one another.

It's all of us versus the forces of harm and hate and greed, or we won't make it.

We cannot spare throwing anyone off.

Which means that we need to figure out how to make it work.

Uncomfortable conversations and all.

They're building a security infrastructure far beyond what would ever be needed for basic immigration enforcement. They will eventually attempt to use it against U.S. citizens for non-immigration matters. Get prepared.

Transportation ⚡️ to a conference:

Bulk of the trip: Compact EV, mostly charged by solar

Last mile: Compact ebike, also mostly charged by solar, & supplementally powered by burritos

🎉: sightseeing by ebike is the best!

👍: rockstar parking at the conference center. Bike racks mere feet away.

Worth a watch:

Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

We will not stay silent on vaccines, say leaders of five major U.S. medical associations “We cannot and will not gamble with our patients’ health or the health of our communities,” write the presidents of the AAFP, AAP, ACP, ACOG, and IDSA.

“Immunizations work, they are very effective and safe, and they save lives. Vaccines are among the most rigorously studied and effective tools in public health.”

Kudos to AAFP, AAP, ACOG, ACP, IDSA for this.

www.statnews.com/2025/06/26/v...

It is remarkable that the west is committing to spending 5% of GDP on defence, and almost no one has made the case that the most pressing threat to our security this century is climate change and we should be spending more on tackling that.

We're so close to fixing key drivers of California's housing crisis:
✅️ SB 79 would legalize apartments near transit.
✅️ AB 130 would end frivolous litigation against infill.
✅️ AB 253 + AB 1308 would prevent permitting/inspection delays.
➡️ Here's how you can help.

Detained immigrant's pregnancy fails while in ICE custody - Nashville Banner ICE's treatment of undocumented immigrants raises concerns as a woman's experience highlights what she described as inadequate medical care while in detention.

A pregnant woman lost her baby after ICE refused to give her prenatal care.

She begged for help and was denied. She was fed food full of cockroaches. She was forced to sleep on the floor.

This is absolutely disgusting and we should all be outraged. nashvillebanner.com/2025/05/27/i...

What’s the worst detail in this story?

The mother forced to use unclean water to make formula for her baby?

The child w/cancer now facing relapse symptoms?

The 16-year-old trying to be strong for her 2 younger siblings and mom, all trapped in the camp together?

This is America. Don’t look away.

Spotted this heckin' rad orange e-bakfiets outside a grocery store at last weekend's No Kings protest in Fort Bragg, California.

The living roof at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

@calacademy.bsky.social