Favorites July 23rd 2022

San Diego, June 2022

Charlie Stross @cstross

This is what happened with the Millennium Bug. Civilization is still standing (well, the banking industry and capitalism) because an army of programmers worked overtime for years duct-taping systems together. Infuriatingly, denialism is everywhere now. They succeeded too well.

qntm @qntm

I hope everybody realises that in the best case scenario where we spend $300,000,000,000 and fix climate change, four years later everybody will be all "wow remember climate change, what a load of fuss over nothing"

Someone pointed out that being a highly effective bomb squad is probably a thankless job.

Mick Ryan, AM @WarintheFuture

My 2nd Sunday morning reading recommendation - an astounding story of Chinese spying on the U.S. nuclear missile capability. Some very good lessons here on the perils of using Chinese tech in military and sensitive national infrastructure | ⁦@CNN⁩

cnn.comCNN Exclusive: FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communicationsOn paper, it looked like a fantastic deal. In 2017, the Chinese government was offering to spend $100 million to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington DC. Complete with temples, pavilions and a 70-foot white pagoda, the project thrilled local officials, who hoped it…

The opening part of this story is wild, Chinese officials wanted to build a Pagoda in DC on a high hill, and they wanted to fill it with stuff they brought via diplomatic bags that no one would be allowed to see, totally normal stuff.

James Surowiecki @JamesSurowiecki

Only 24 percent of voters know Biden's infrastructure bill passed. In February, more voters thought the US economy had lost jobs in 2021 than gained them, even though it actually gained 6.6 million jobs. This can't be explained just by Fox. It's a deeply weird info environment.

Timothy Noah @TimothyNoah1

Fully 76 percent of voters either think Biden’s very popular infrastructure bill never cleared Congress or don’t know whether it passed or not. Only 24 percent are aware that, yes, it passed. https://t.co/PuKuq8PyM4

Also the popular gun control bill passed.

Catie Gould @Citizen_Cate

Oregonians, congratulations on a momentous rollback of parking mandates yesterday! 🥂 What will happen once parking lots are optional in a lot more places in 2023? Keep your eyes peeled for these 5 things ⬇️ sightline.org/2022/07/22/ore…

sightline.orgOregon Just Slashed Parking Mandates. 5 Things That Might Happen NextFrom more historic building renovations to smarter curbside parking management, two-thirds of Oregonians are about to experience the benefits of making more asphalt optional.

This is great news, I'm particularly excited about how getting rid of parking minimums motivates cities to charge for parking, which is also a good outcome.

purr.in.ink @purrinink

#cat #comic #joy