Pedro @PedroMiguel@qoto.org

The average INDIVIDUAL U.S. resident now has as much living space in their home as entire families shared in the 1950s. That’s 3X as much space per person.
We’ve convinced ourselves we NEED all that extra space, and the excessive stuff we fill it with that we likely wouldn’t buy if we didn’t have the space we thought we needed to fill.
We really don’t.
Via #TreeHugger @lloydalter @conradhackett #Sprawl #SuburbanSprawl #urbanism #cities #suburbs #suburbia

Ce format est incroyablement efficace : https://pudding.cool/2022/12/yard-sale/

1. He’s not My son.
2. It’s not his birthday.
3. He wasn’t born in a manger. It was Bethlehem Memorial Hospital.

People really be like "oh imagine a future society where humans have to be cybernetically enhanced by machines to get a job" bro wake up just be an American without a car

READ: This is STILL probably the best #ChristmasEve tradition I’ve heard. HT @NicoNovito. Iceland certainly does #Christmas well! (I’m really looking forward to working in #Reykjavik this year).
Are you giving or hoping to get some great #UrbanismBookClub books on cities this Christmas? Share what you give or get! #MerryChristmas #books #cities

I'm excited about uranium!

Someone asked why we don’t have our blinds open, as is the #Chanukah tradition, with menorahs in the window. This is #Ottawa today, #Canada today. As the recipient of multiple #antisemitic death threats, it isn’t safe to indicate that our home is Jewish. Let that #hate sink in.

One thing Canadians can count on with Minister Patty Hajdu: she'll ALWAYS lie to protect the government at the expense of the public interest. She did so copiously about COVID (remember her saying it was no big deal?) and now she's been caught fibbing about compensation for abused Indigenous children. Horrible, awful woman. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-human-rights-tribunal-full-20-billion-decision-1.6694892

So, I'm finding out the hard way that if you start a new Mastodon server, nobody can find you.

This is a shameless request for some boosts so some of the bigger instances see me.

#mastodon #twittermigration #mastodonserver #findme #helpimtrappedinawell #imlonely

AI tools like #ChatGPT will soon be capable of answering a large fraction of traditional university homework type questions with reasonable accuracy. In the long term, it seems futile to fight against this; perhaps what we as lecturers need to do is to move to an "open books, open AI" mode of examination where we give the students full access to AI tools but ask them more challenging questions, both to teach the material and also to teach the students how best to use the AI tools of the future.

"Hey Everyone! I made an App to recognize Lady Gaga songs. Here are the songs we used to train the app, which I am releasing under a Creative Commons license, please credit me when you share them"

Chemistry of nutmeg

https://doi.org/10.1002/chemv.202000140

#chemistry #chemistryviews #chemviews #chemicaleducation #everydaychemistry #everydaylifechemistry

Have you seen this one? Before & after of a brain after a 20 minute walk — illustrates why walking to work, or school, or just to get the intellectual juices flowing, has been strongly linked to better creative & intellectual performance.
Just one of MANY benefits of choosing to walk, for you and for society.
Design and build walkable cities.
#walking #cities #urbanism #WalkableCities #WalkToSchool #WalkToWork #city #cars

Elon Musk was never a liberal, and his plans for Twitter were never benevolent
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/21/elon-musk-liberal-twitter-plans-benevolent

I deeply dislike you.

When you lose a sock in the dryer, it gets reincarnated as a tupperware lid that doesn't fit anything.

I probably should have done this first, but never mind, here’s #Introduction post!

I’m an #editor and a #writer. I have a #Chemistry PhD and I used to be a science/chemistry teacher. But that was too scary so now I’m one of the editors of the #horror #podcast, PseudoPod.

That, sadly, doesn’t pay many bills—so I also work as a medical editor and #proofreader for one of the bigger #advertising companies.

I like details and patterns and am slightly obsessed with the works of #TerryPratchett.

A reply to one of my recent posts asked me to “be realistic.”

Let’s be REALLY clear here.

I’ve been doing this for 30+ years in every kind of city. I’ve been in more decision-making rooms than I can count.

I know what’s possible and what isn’t. I know why things happen and why they don’t. I know what excuse sounds like.

Everything I talk about regarding better cities is “realistic.” It takes telling the truth, actually WANTING to make different choices, & real leadership.
#cities #urbanism

Considering my change of job this year I was mulling over what to do with my ACS membership. The two biggest reasons I maintained membership were access to C&EN (because of the great coverage of the chemistry community) and the reduced conference rates. The latter I no longer need and sadly the former may no longer be a compelling reason to stick around. 25 years ain't bad, but I think I'm done. Good luck to all the former C&EN eds & those still holding the fort.

#ChemiVerse #ChemToots

Any conversation about “better” cars HAS to be in the context of real, ambitious strategies to achieve FEWER cars. As I put it recently in my blunt advice to Irish cities, “Your goal SHOULDN’T be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with a million electric vehicles [that was their stated goal]. It should be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with 250K electric vehicles. The answer HAS to be FEWER cars and LESS driving.”

#ElectricVehicles #EVs #cars #cities #urbanism #transportation