Jeremia Kimelman

I do love making bar charts that go *way* up and to the right
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/116/302/671/519/027/638/original/850855891827d99f.webp

2026-03-27 18:57:50 UTC

Last year, Meta and Google spent tens of millions of dollars to buy influence in Ca. politics by contributing to campaigns, lobbying, and making payments to nonprofits on behalf of sitting officials.
Why? Mostly to fight AI regulation. My latest for CalMatters
https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/03/meta-google-ai-regulation-elections/

2025-09-09 21:07:24 UTC

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@nprofile…we7c In fact, there are no limits on spending for a ballot measure in California!

2025-09-09 20:18:35 UTC

Looks like Charles Munger Jr. is in for another $10 million, bringing his total contributions to California's Prop 50 opposition $30 million. So it's basically him and $5 million from a Republican SuperPAC
https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/PDFGen/pdfgen.prg?filingid=3078374&amendid=0
#capol #prop50
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/115/176/185/155/960/495/original/6bcfb5989d163773.png

2025-07-09 22:02:01 UTC

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@nprofile…f7fx I hadn't seen any DGS numbers - happen to have a link handy? From the story about a hearing earlier in the spring:
"The lawmakers didn’t hide their exasperation when administration officials admitted they did not even have a rough estimate."

2025-07-09 20:00:57 UTC

Was Gov. Newsom's return to office mandate a ploy for contract negotiations? Maya C. Miller looks into it for her first story CalMatters

2025-03-19 18:17:47 UTC

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At risk of exclusively becoming a @protomaps stan account, the `extract `command is SO SLICK
Want just a little piece of OSM so your map doesn't have third party dependencies? Boom! Saved my ass last night as a map was headed to publication.
https://docs.protomaps.com/pmtiles/cli#extract

2025-03-17 23:26:08 UTC

This new project from Dan Snow is a great freaking idea - pre-computed travel times between points for cars, bikes, and walking for FREE with bulk download available.
If you're making isochrones take a look
https://opentimes.org

2025-03-17 04:19:35 UTC

Purim is a top-notch holiday - it’s a story of Jewish survival, the cookies are sublime, & ppl get wasted. I’m _always_ in for a “People tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat” party!
But, somehow, I never really knew that the story ended with a massacre of 75,000+ people. We shouldn't be celebrating that exactly but it deserves some space, no? Was I just not paying attention in shul? Entirely possible (even plausible) but I don't remember a rabbi talking about this
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/114/175/847/573/052/229/original/53eeb2a7183e40cb.jpeg

2025-03-14 23:49:00 UTC

I'll never understand why anybody ever put one these things in their home.
From @nprofile…vvfe:
"In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud."
But I'm also a person that wants as *few* of my appliances connected to the internet as possible so 🤷 - I'm not the target market
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/

2025-03-14 22:59:43 UTC

@nprofile…66md and @nprofile…rf6s (plus their supporting ecosystem of tools) are cool as hell and an amazing toolset for building maps in a newsroom. If you haven't played around with 'em yet, you should!

2025-03-14 17:02:04 UTC

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Our unit was able to reduce the number of layoffs by identifying possible savings but 7 of my coworkers are out of a job in a few weeks, if you'd like to meet some fantastic people I'd be more than happy to introduce you.
We're trying to raise money to give folks as much of a cushion as possible - I sure would appreciate it if you could donate and share:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-laid-off-calmattersthe-markup-journalists

2025-03-14 17:02:04 UTC

This week was bittersweet for our merged union at CalMatters/The Markup. We were thrilled Monday to ratify our contract after months of bargaining, giving our members needed protections and raises.
But, as seems to happen often in nonprofit news, that victory was tempered by the notice that some of our colleagues from across the newsroom would be laid off.

2025-03-14 16:49:45 UTC

Stay healthy y'all, this winter's disease buffet is no joke and I'm 2 for 4 of terrible infections that are going around: got the flu a few weeks ago and norovirus earlier this week but have fortunately missed COVID or the measles. For now.
Masking and washing my hands every other second from here until summer. Also I never had norovirus before and it's HORRENDOUS. Avoid at all costs.

2025-03-02 22:23:37 UTC

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@nprofile…rw0n This is mostly just to test/justify my priors but is it possible for Sill to show how much paywalled vs. free to access pieces are shared?
Though I suppose there’s some tricky middle situations like 404 where there’s an email gate

2025-03-01 18:02:51 UTC

*Every* agency ruined by this regime had a purpose & did meaningful work.
But the news about #18F hurts extra - I was a fed there for nearly 3 years & every single person was dedicated to serving the public. And they produced amazing stuff (including policy) that made it much easier to interact with the US govt!
Not to mention that it was cost neutral to the gov’t! But none of this is about $$
Fucking terrible on top of terrible

2025-01-15 22:53:05 UTC

The fires in LA seem to be particularly destructive for an array of factors but a major one is just how dry it is in the area!
Soil moisture levels across southern California are between just 2% and 5% of average, "leaving dust where there should be mud" and resulting in alive plants burning like they're already dead, reports Alastair Bland
https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/dry-danger-zone-california-fires-climate-change/
#news #california #lafires

2025-01-15 22:53:05 UTC

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In his reporting, Alastair talked to Alexandra Syphard, a senior research ecologist & adjunct prof at San Diego State who said not only would clearing brush from the whole area not have made a big difference on this fire, it might make things worse!
https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/dry-danger-zone-california-fires-climate-change/#h-brush-clearing-wouldn-t-help-much-experts-say

2025-01-15 20:01:34 UTC

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Per a city spokesperson Chan will be paid $340,812.60 annually (he got $593,240 when he was city manager) and will get "all benefits under that classification for up to 12 month" in his new role

2025-01-15 19:04:58 UTC

Ummm I have no real idea what nostr is but I do know that every reply I get from there is semi-unintelligible, somehow about BTC, and the usernames make no sense. I guess that's just part of the federation game

2025-01-15 18:17:22 UTC

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FWIW, $352,000 for a city manager in California is nowhere near the top of the highest paid list. Here's the pay for city managers across the state
https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/Cities.aspx?year=2023&rpt=9

2025-01-15 18:17:22 UTC

Last night #Sacramento City Council approved the contract for Interim City Manager Leyne Milstein (previously Asst. CM) with an annual salary of $352,000
But look who's back (or maybe just never left?): Howard Chan as "Special Advisor to the City Manager"
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/833/740/968/958/048/original/7674a09fc2b7d407.png

2025-01-12 08:06:48 UTC

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@nprofile…fv4z Such a tremendous loss

2025-01-12 08:04:29 UTC

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@nprofile…mtgp What does zap mean?

2025-01-11 19:17:26 UTC

Thinking of Aaron Swartz today & I’m stuck on this photo - he & OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (both circled) each scraped 1000s of docs but one did it to make the knowledge free for all while the other did it to make $$$$ through probabilistic plagiarism. The US DOJ only came after one of them & the other is feted by tech bros and executives.
Thank you Aaron for so much, for RSS, for Markdown, for Creative Commons and more. I’m sorry our society failed you.
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/811/327/922/659/611/original/36bee08268222420.jpeg

2025-01-04 23:39:35 UTC

I had the cutest alarm clock this morning
#catsofmastodon
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/772/722/504/347/949/original/175cef014cf15521.jpeg