can everything be outside now?

Walking, reading, riding San Francisco and actively hoping towards a better world.
I know just enough to get in trouble in far too many fields cuz I'm usually reading. Flower fan.
Therapy is hard to get, sometimes I vent here, sorry if it bothers you, but the personal is political and I stay real. also speculative. determine which is which at your own risk.
#parks #bikes #books #dogs #plants #flowers #gardening #place #epistemology #philosophy #anthropology #tellmeplease

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2026-05-14T14:22:34Z

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Last Notes

2026-02-06 16:30:57 UTC

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this is something I deeply feel.
It's not just being outside, it's the working with/in the land and the seasonal cycles and the biological cycles of the community.
We're trying to build a community garden in my neighborhood and I so hope it succeeds because it's a really hard thing to understand until you've had a chance to live it.

2026-01-31 17:03:10 UTC

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I mean remember how everyone laughed and thought Trump had no chance in 2015?

2026-01-31 16:55:56 UTC

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eh, not sure that's true. These are people desperate for a leader.

2026-01-31 16:48:44 UTC

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I hope so, but I tend to think this is the track Republicans have been on for so long, they'll do the same thing for another Republican soon enough.

2026-01-26 20:57:18 UTC

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yep. I've never seen anyone arguing so passionately for their own powerlessness as wealthy people who have to convince themselves (and maybe less importantly us) that there's nothing they could have ever done or will ever be able to do to make the world better for anyone they're not directly in relationship with.
This is also why so many people loved that "Better Angels" book - they need to convince themselves and others the world is getting better so that their default participation is positive.

2026-01-11 00:28:46 UTC

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all laws, including how we define private property, what counts as money, and littering are socially created the same as budgets. There's a spectrum of ways to get people to do what's socially and community minded - on one side is making it easy & providing services to support it, on the other side is making laws, policing & enforcing them. Both choices cost something, and generally America has chosen the second and pays way more with a lot more violence and less social buy -in and unity & social trust than comparable countries.
I think when we choose policing instead of support, it makes a worse world each and every time. What's legal has no bearing on what's ethical or the better choice for society.

2026-01-10 22:16:38 UTC

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yeah a lot of the trails I go on either have trash cans at reasonable intervals or are backpacking trails where it's not just dog poop that's being buried 😅
But yeah a starved Parks & Rec budget is an advocacy point, not a reason to get mad at the users who are disadvantaged by the low budget.
It's like saying kids with low literacy are too expensive for public schools - the point is to increase access for the whole community. The people who have the least familiarity with parks & trails are often the ones we need to get on board with loving them the most - that's how we get higher budgets!

2026-01-10 21:53:29 UTC

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I agree about the poop bag! If you're going to leave the poop anyways, better to not have bagged it in the first place, dig a hole and bury it is much better practice! One technique a friend I hike with does is use an old plastic take out container and duck tape so it can hang hands free from the backpack, then bag the poop, put it in the take out container, and hike it out that way. Very convenient for not having poop in your hands or smell, and being able to put multiple bags in there for a long hike without the risk of the bag(s) somehow getting damaged and getting the poop on you/your stuff.
And I guess garbage practices are very cultural & geographically specific - NYC is more like what you describe where the city picks up the trash with or without a container, where in SF the container is how they measure & charge for pickup, and then there's like Taipei where you hand a specific bag to a collector and the bags cost different amounts.

2026-01-10 20:32:40 UTC

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just that if they provide a parking lot, it seems reasonable to provide a trash can, the arguments for both are similar. Cars produce a bunch of waste that the city will have to pay to handle as well (tire pieces, air & water particulates, CO2, the pieces that get left behind after a crash) and this seems like it's putting a higher expectation on dog owners than car owners. Both of these (dog cleanup infrastructure, car cleanup infrastructure) make more sense as infrastructure fixes because they're marginal effort to do it as a community while for each individual they're more annoying. Like if you don't have a car, how far are you carrying the poop? If you have a car, you're supposed to bring the poop in the car? And I don't even know that it's possible for an individual to clean up their cars waste even if you just did a karmic matching(ie planting 20 trees, picking up a tires worth of plastics or whatever) instead of specifically your own cars waste.

2026-01-10 19:37:19 UTC

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yeah, and I guess that's to the same point right? Trash is a basic infrastructure service same as providing parking. Each car creates more waste than each dog...

2026-01-10 18:58:36 UTC

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feels like they maybe should install a trash can...

2025-12-16 17:44:22 UTC

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so much of this. It's lifestyle change, not one simple one time change.. continuous improvement.
And also as we make one change, we discover how that works and other adjustments can come easier and it's a process of discovery of what works, and especially what works for you and your life.

2025-12-01 15:43:54 UTC

I need to refresh my sewing skills before using fancier new fabric I bought.
Duvet cover seems easy... Several long seams, a couple corners, a couple button holes..
Sewsters out there what do you think?
Duvet cover as first project with new to me sewing machine after a decade long break
#sewing

2025-11-29 18:04:13 UTC

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Makes sense.
I tend to think of all this stuff as the basic measurement mistake - they started thinking the number on their measurements were the important thing, and completely disregard the underlying reality.
Feels very 20th Century logic.
@npub19tu…g2xv @npub1uv3…f3y8

2025-11-29 17:25:59 UTC

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yeah but that's missing two of the most crucial points of the principle. Those that burn 1) most efficiently through the maximum power for the most 2) useful output.
So unless 1) the output is useful, and 2)it's done efficiently, the principle doesn't apply.

2025-11-23 19:28:40 UTC

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well so I do containers generally, and basically I put some small amount of soil and sprouted organic potato part in a container and then cover it with whatever leaf litter and other stuff I'm pulling out of my garden that day, and then I place them under a lemon tree.
A season or two later I remember to check the containers and there's usually a bunch of potatoes and sometimes there's not, and sometimes the containers get knocked over and I have seen potato leaves growing from the ground around there.
There's probably some potatoes growing under my lemon tree but I'm not going to dig for them.

2025-11-23 18:13:42 UTC

The overlap between my techniques for composting and growing potatoes is somewhat disturbing.
#gardening

2025-11-14 17:47:21 UTC

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My matilija poppies get that tall! I think the fence in this photo is 12' and the flowers (the white ones in the back) were another few feet above it.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/549/291/709/490/793/original/34df976f46d58a86.jpg

2025-11-12 18:47:29 UTC

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it's much faster moving than that. The human use case and the profitability of the company are fundamentally no longer tied together as a general economic principle.

2025-11-12 18:36:54 UTC

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but then why OpenAI? It also has no pathway to profit.

2025-10-19 02:46:53 UTC

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I'm imagining split keyboard but over the cups of a bra now

2025-10-14 21:08:33 UTC

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I mean I think I can speak for the elder members of my family in that they're defending their family narrative/self-conception. Like the idea that they own multiple houses because their great grandparents displaced or at least used land that had been taken from people displaced in the Trail of Tears I think harms their "I shouldn't have to pay taxes & private property is sacred" narratives which are also mixed in with a "our parents were good people so I'll stick with the same party they supported" politics.

2025-08-28 15:34:55 UTC

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Yeah, I know a lot of people who stopped reading because grad school (of literally any profession) burned them out. Which I think is an indictment of grad schools.

2025-08-19 00:54:57 UTC

So I'm doing a classroom exercise for intro to gardening (a class mostly outdoors, in the garden) - I am thinking I'm going to talk about cycles. Seasonal, nitrogen, growth & decay, maybe some conditioning: cold hibernation or fire germination or heat ripening, that sort of thing..
Anyone have any tips on what they'd want to hear about in their first gardening class?
#gardening

2025-08-11 15:57:30 UTC

A riotous section of flower bed
#bloomscrolling
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/010/942/675/688/353/original/5bfa2738327efa3e.jpg

2025-08-09 14:10:00 UTC

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broken link fyi

2025-08-05 16:24:48 UTC

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If there's not fully reciprocal and generous immigration policies, there shouldn't be international financial investment between the countries.
So many of the economic woes are caused by UK/American companies, stockholders, extraction, it seems extremely hypocritical to take resources and labor but not people from other countries.

2025-08-04 21:19:49 UTC

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yep, and he doesn't seem to get the idea that conspicuous carbon consumption is unkind to future generations. Like he's super pissed at me for criticizing(to him, not even to their face) his friends who fly private multiple times a year. Apparently my judging them is worse than their actual actions.
I feel like it's part of a whole 'thoughts and prayers' way of looking at the world where people think that choices are good or bad based on vibes/feeling rather than actual outcomes.

2025-08-04 21:09:22 UTC

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I think he's planning on dying before it impacts him

2025-08-04 14:49:47 UTC

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I wish it was just Republicans :( talking to my lifetime Dem dad, and the amount of "but nothing I or any of my friends do needs to change at all" reached intolerable yesterday.

2025-07-27 18:27:24 UTC

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my grandfather had bomb souvenirs from WW2, bet plenty of people passing (vets and their surviving partners) have those + Korea + Vietnam. I bet many are just going to be sent to the dump too.

2025-07-11 16:18:12 UTC

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the plan is to bring back indentured servitude I think, and some like that idea but some realize that actually will be more expensive than their current practice of criminally underpaying undocumented people who are afraid to go the authorities.. at least from my brief glances at reporting.
It also appears that crop losses due to government policy changes are covered under some insurance plans.

2025-07-10 14:48:34 UTC

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So much this. And with the accumulation of larger investment funds the scale really means they're also
1) investing in similarly large scale projects, decreasing economic democracy
2) overwhelming local or small buyers, creating price inflation in any asset categories they decide to invest in (see farming, housing, land purchases for specific problems)
@npub10zv…wpjj @npub14sz…ur2r

2025-06-11 19:45:39 UTC

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I really liked some of the Mexican anarchist movements I've heard of which were a bit more successful & explicit than Euro movements IMHO - they'd take over towns and free everyone in jail and burn the property records. Goals included returning land & production to indigenous/worker stewardship & empowering women. There's stuff I don't like too - they banned booze for example - but seemed a bit better.

2025-06-02 07:04:05 UTC

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living life on challenge mode :/ the problem for me is that most people are living unsustainable lives so they generally think they're doing the best when they're digging themselves into the worst hole. Or when they think they're at the bottom, they're actually in the safest place they have ever been and are fighting to get back to being in a terrible no good dangerous to themselves and everyone else prison.

2025-04-05 14:38:46 UTC

Glad I'm not dating right now.
Latest Republican special:
Antibiotic resistant gonorrhea outbreak that's now got nobody working on it. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-cdc-labs-stds-hepatitis/

2025-03-23 20:57:51 UTC

Hiking in Marin photos from yesterday. I'm so glad to have nature access. Pictures taken on the Cataract Falls & Rocky Ridge Trails. We also saw salamanders, spring wildflowers and heard the croaking of so many frogs.
#hiking #BayArea
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/114/213/727/513/295/218/original/c072df670b31ddf3.jpg
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/114/213/728/709/353/456/original/47202f04e70a5829.jpg

2025-02-09 04:35:47 UTC

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on the fix it list for the next generation right?

2025-02-08 23:56:45 UTC

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oof yeah. Trains? @npub1g8l…vwtm @npub1ldj…5q07

2025-02-08 20:08:30 UTC

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e-bikes are great :)

2025-02-06 05:01:36 UTC

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not black. But have I considered emerald or sapphire velvet wallpaper? Absolutely. But that's also because I want sound dampening & insulation.

2025-01-31 16:14:39 UTC

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IMHO working in a bunch of coffeeshops as long as there are free tables one being occupied by someone (who doesn't need additional service) improves the atmosphere, makes the cafe look popular & others more likely to come in - so staff doesn't mind at all (esp if you tip well for your purchase). Owners/bosses sometimes get weird though.

2025-01-31 16:00:16 UTC

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as long as you have coffee or pastry or something in front of you...

2025-01-17 22:43:29 UTC

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Jennifer Jewell has a podcast called Cultivating Place where she interviews a lot of native gardeners and nursery owners and talks about how they got started. In defense of plants also has some interviews like that though many of them are more science oriented.

2025-01-15 15:19:10 UTC

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It's not a human thing. It's a distinctly Colonial/Capitalism thing. We will have to make big changes to our social & physical systems to make sustainable lives, but we've made bigger changes in the last century - that's how we got here in the first place!
@npub1q49…gjds @npub1vdu…x2x9 @npub1ztx…9x8l [@John_Loader](https://ohai.social/@John_Loader ) @npub13cf…nrp5

2025-01-13 19:20:49 UTC

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EVs still leave harmful particulates in air & water, increase environmental noise, harms plants & animals, generally shortens lives & decrease quality of life for unconsenting people outside the vehicle.
A good test for this is .. Is the cab of your vehicle noise protected? Does the brake & tire particulate end up in the cab or elsewhere? Would you be willing to be exposed to all the particulates and sound you choose to produce? Would you be willing to live next to a highway you'd be willing to drive on?

2025-01-13 15:41:57 UTC

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you're right, but that doesn't mean you're not harming people when you drive.
We do lots of violent things and justify them lots of ways. Just because we have justified them doesn't mean the act isn't violent.

2025-01-13 14:51:57 UTC

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every drive is an act of violence.

2025-01-04 16:41:50 UTC

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I looked at Scammon Bay askance until I zoomed in.

2024-12-31 20:56:28 UTC

Not only do the ends not justify the means, there is no such thing as an end.

2024-12-14 18:29:03 UTC

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I haven't watched all the Treks but... Are there librarians? They're out there doing science and collecting massive amounts of information - who is organizing it?!?

2024-12-01 05:41:15 UTC

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I've had friends who had contacts with banned autocorrect words to get arrive the ban.

2024-11-21 16:31:38 UTC

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I'm so ace that literally all the results were just bust magazine being profiled in other media. (Though my reading is spicy, that doesn't show up in Google results)

2024-11-14 19:39:51 UTC

Just did a Google search for bust magazine - the bust magazine website was not on the first page of results.
Google gets worse every day.

2024-11-07 16:53:27 UTC

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I don't know about that. I think there's a significant majority who didn't vote for him (many of whom didn't vote at all) and trying to convince his fans to move away from him is less important than providing a _positive_ alternative to business as usual & to the Republican brand of change. The Dems doubled down on centrism, bipartisanship & business as usual to try to court the GOP votes. That hasn't worked.
Perhaps learning a lesson and trying to actually make positive change might work better? Particularly now that we've all been primed that the old rules aren't in force anymore...
Let's see what happens if someone runs on Medicare for all, no more weapons to war criminals & human rights abusers, equal justice & speedy trials for all, easy taxes, bodily autonomy, raising the minimum wage, building housing, legalizing people who work here, stopping oil subsidies & extraction etc etc.

2024-11-02 18:15:36 UTC

Thanks to scammers, spammers and rampant fraud including by "legitimate" businesses & "regular" people the Internet is now next to useless for looking for dates, apartments or jobs.
Newspapers, are you still looking for a replacement for classifieds?
May I suggest "verified classifieds" where a reporter has checked to confirm the job exists & is budgeted for, the apartment really exists and is empty, the date is roughly who they say they are?

2024-10-10 18:21:19 UTC

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yep, more totally separated bike & foot & horse paths should be on the agenda for rural communities. Take advantage of the rural-ness!

2024-10-08 16:16:48 UTC

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i thought we'd already achieved that? Aren't we breaking records on fossil fuel extraction both nationally and globally?

2024-09-24 15:33:12 UTC

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that's the part of longtermist thinking that makes the least sense, even according to their own internal logics, for me.
If future lives are worth the same as current lives, the extinction crisis and climate changes degradation of the most pleasant and productive ecosystems seems like it should be even more crucial.
Also why wouldn't we be focusing on the elimination of long-term problems that create destructive cycles now if we're considering the cumulative effects?
Very sus.

2024-09-08 23:12:50 UTC

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which would be nice because a decade or so ago I remember that concierge was the most audited profession... While the average concierge made far less than $100k.

2024-09-01 03:00:52 UTC

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I can't attribute intentions to American political parties. Theory of mind for organizations is already hard, let alone for ones that routinely act in ways I can not comprehend or justify.

2024-08-31 16:01:20 UTC

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and I looked it up and the top priority is improving the economy and 20 out of 20 is dealing with global trade. That sounds to me like the tariffs/economic protectionism are not a priority but cost of food, housing, healthcare are.

2024-08-31 15:57:17 UTC

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sure, and what percentage of people polled are retirees? And does the poll have a category for 'affordable housing' or 'affordable food' or 'affordable home insurance' or are voters where those are the top priority issues left to try to figure out how to describe it? Cuz it might make sense to say the economy but have no interest in protecting factory jobs.

2024-08-31 15:29:31 UTC

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climate change will harm current workers more than economic changes. Seniors are more vulnerable to heat harms & extreme weather. The younger you are now the worse the heat incidents & extreme weather will be when you are an elder. Also the more harm you experience in the intervening years.
Maintaining the economy as is protects current senior citizens -the largest nonworking group- the most.
So if you want to help workers it's better to prioritize changes that provide stable access to healthy food, housing, clean water, healthy transportation, etc than to try to protect 'the economy'.

2024-08-09 16:41:25 UTC

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although, doesn't the idea that it would be a better world in that case depend on a continuously good or improving information ecosystem?
If everyone becomes more willing to listen to evidence and change their convictions but elite capture of media/information/evidence creation is continuously increasing...

2024-08-07 20:00:26 UTC

At Brenda's Meat & Three patio & may I say how much I love community restaurants like this? Ages vary from infants in arms to elders, there's welcoming places for groups, singles and couples. Despite the name it's also vegetarian & vegan friendly.
They just started a $5 breakfast sandwich. The most expensive (and most common) price is $25 but there's plenty of under $20 options too.
The staff is welcoming and personable and it is just the kind of place that can make any day better.

2024-06-17 19:24:17 UTC

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all things in moderation is real - I wear sunblock pretty much everyday but I try to also get outside in the morning for 15 minutes or so without sunglasses or sunblock.
According to multiple doctors I've visited most of the women they see have Vitamin D deficiency (they generally won't believe I don't unless I do a blood test) which has some nasty knock on health effects.
High quality sunscreen is generally fine, but avoiding the sun or consistently using sunscreens that block all UV are both more dangerous than moderate sun exposure. If you are avoiding all sun or using full UV sunblock it's important to ensure other sources of Vitamin D.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10239563/