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Paul Opperman
@paulopperman.bsky.social
82 followers 350 following 21 posts
maps and open data | soccer goalie | bruins fleet sox rifc | he/him | creator of ambient/experimental electronic music https://linktr.ee/graphpapernotebook
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paulopperman.bsky.social
Paul Opperman @paulopperman.bsky.social · Nov 18
Hey there! Finally getting the hang of this place so I guess I'll introduce myself by distilling my interests and activities into a thread:

1/
Reposted by Paul Opperman
51st.news
For our end-of-year campaign, we’re setting a Big Goal that anyone reading this can help us achieve.
We need your help finding 3,000 new newsletter subscribers by the end of the year — paid or free.
⬇️
51st.news/signup
The 51st
Information with representation, by and for District of Columbia residents. A worker-led, independent nonprofit newsroom.
51st.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
howtoreadthisch.art
Part of this week’s newsletter was inspired by the post below. Was there a way to show the distance between normal Americans and the super wealthy?
1/8
www.howtoreadthisch.art/putting-the-...
November 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
harmitmalik.bsky.social
When people celebrate the individual genius of folks in science, they should also
mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
November 7, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
thomasfuchs.at
Meme showing six logical operators illustrated with jack-o'-lantern images. trick OR treat trick AND treat trick XOR treat trick NOR treat trick NAND treat trick XNOR treat
October 31, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
terriblemapshq.bsky.social
Space is a lot closer than most people realise

by u/Many-Excitement3246
October 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
emzconk.bsky.social
So come out to Newport City Hall at 5:30pm tomorrow, 10/29, or stream us online, to learn more about why I just took 40min of my life to write a 20 post thread about an initial discussion on the concept of a potential moratorium on new natural gas hookups. This is truly the tiniest first step.
October 28, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
mikeachim.bsky.social
Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."
October 6, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
lanrickbennett.bsky.social
I’ve had this conversation with @alexbozikovic.bsky.social Should E-Cargo Bikes replace trucks in Toronto Parks?

Opinion | How Toronto can take a lesson from Van Halen, and learn to sweat the small stuff - @shawnmicallef.bsky.social

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
rock'n'roll lore goes, Van Halen requesting that a bowl of M&Ms in their dressing room have absolute-ly no brown ones is legendary. Ce-lebrity excess perhaps, but also a lesson to sweat the small stuff sometimes. While there's debate around the reason, frontman David Lee Roth said it was a test. When Van Halen rolled into town witha complex stage show full ofhigh-voltage, heavyitems, their contract stipulat-ed technical specifications along with the M&M demand. If the brown ones were present, it was a sign of sloppiness andreason to check every other detail, some of which could be calamitous if over-looked. Ithought ofthose brown M&Ms while reading the response Toronto Parks and Recreation recently sent to city council, answering a request to look into the practice of driving trucks and large vehicles in Anybody who travels this city knows large vehicles are routinely in parks Sometimes contractors other times the city itself cleaning washrooms or trimming shrubs, of-ten with a supersized crew cab pickup truck worthy of the Alberta Landscaping that costs Toronto- nians substantial money to create and maintain is destroyed or dam-aged by the city itself. There's also less immediately visible damage to city infrastructure and tree roots. It's disrespectful to Torontonians, ascandalous waste ofmoney, but theres alo a human ande Parks are as essential as water and elec-tricity for urban life, the yards
October 5, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
thepwhl.com
PWHL HOCKEY IS BACK ON NOVEMBER 21! 🤩

The countdown to Season 3 has begun. Don't miss a moment. Grab your season tickets!
➡️ thepwhl.com/en/tickets ​
October 1, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
lanrickbennett.bsky.social
An Open Letter to @npr.org: Our Streets Are No Accident
medium.com/@lanrickbenn...

h/t @howdoyou.guide @jessiesinger.bsky.social @poolontheruf.gg @tomflood.bsky.social #BikeTO #WalkTO
September 29, 2025 at 1:48 PM
paulopperman.bsky.social
It was nice out this morning
A photo of a marshy coastline A photo of a big gnarly tree A photo of a beach A closeup of a pile of small shells
September 21, 2025 at 5:42 PM
paulopperman.bsky.social
This is 110% my jam and I can't even go! 😭😭😭
mapcenter.com Andrew Middleton @mapcenter.com · Sep 19
A big part of my goal as owner of the oldest map store on the East Coast, is show people that maps aren't antiques. They are living, breathing, ways of seeing the world.
Audio-visual artist Eric Theise gets this. Come see him perform at The Map Center next week!
www.eventbrite.com/e/a-synesthe...
A Synesthete's Atlas: Cartographic Improvisations: Eric Theise & Ed Osborn
Eric Theise manipulates projected digital maps while Ed Osborn wrangles live electronics & saturated field recordings.
www.eventbrite.com
September 19, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
garyhornseth.bsky.social
A website that lets you select a country or state and move it around a Mercator projection map to yield better size comparisons.

thetruesize.com, created by James Talmage and Damon Maneice
Five rescaled maps of Minnesota on a Mercator projection map, covering 1) a large part of northern Greenland, 2) a large part of northern Scandinavia, 3) a part of central Europe, 4) a region of southern India, 5) a region of southeastern Australia.
August 30, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
sevier.io
Resharing this smart and widely relevant argument from @erincollins.bsky.social about how we urgently need to break free from the desire to depend on statistics to make moral arguments about an immoral system. inquest.org/the-evidence...
The Evidence-Based Trap | Erin Collins | INQUEST
Data-driven approaches to reform can reinforce aspects of a system that’s rotten to the core.
inquest.org
August 29, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
sevier.io
What happens in our cities following big disasters is the raw expression of what society truly is. It can either be a period of deep recommitment to a life worth living together or it can be the efficient execution of abandoning anyone deemed undesirable. It's up to us.
August 27, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
arstechnica.com
When AI acts up, it doesn't indicate some kind of awakening or rebellion—it's showing symptoms of a poorly understood system, as well as engineering failures we'd recognize as premature deployment in any other context.
Is AI really trying to escape human control and blackmail people?
Opinion: Theatrical testing scenarios explain why AI models produce alarming outputs—and why we fall for it.
arstechnica.com
August 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
paulopperman.bsky.social
Best use of a Tuesday afternoon
A picture of the Newport bridge taken from a sailboat
August 12, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
yonahfreemark.com
Raleigh increased bus service from every 30 min to every 15 min on its route serving Glenwood Ave. Ridership then doubled in the year that followed.

Over last year, city’s high-frequency routes have had 89% ridership growth.

People will ride when you give them service that they can rely on!
When does the next bus come? GoTriangle reduces wait time on its busiest routes
The regional agency joins GoDurham and GoRaleigh in offering bus service at 15-minute intervals between Durham and Chapel Hill.
www.heraldsun.com
August 3, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
sketchesbyboze.bsky.social
If you're using AI to write essays, eulogies, a text to your wife, I do think less of you as a person. Ceding your mental and creative abilities to a machine is an embarrassing thing and people should be ashamed to admit doing it in public.
[quoting a tweet by fractalcounty that reads, “today I learned that there are actual people irl who get genuinely upset if they catch you using chatgpt. like they view it as a serious moral failing in certain circles”]
August 2, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“Giving pedestrians a 7-second head start at traffic lights—known as Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPIs)—is associated with a 33% reduction in total pedestrian injuries—both fatal & non-fatal—at New York City intersections, according to a new study from Columbia University School of Public Health.”
New York City intersections see one-third fewer pedestrian injuries with longer head-start intervals
Giving pedestrians a 7-second head start at traffic lights—known as Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPIs)—is associated with a 33% reduction in total pedestrian injuries—both fatal and non-fatal—at New ...
phys.org
July 22, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
womensgamemib.bsky.social
Give your goalkeeper a hug if they saved a penalty to keep your team in the game
July 19, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
giannella.bsky.social
Is there a reason there are only 10 public comments on this request for input about a national SNAP fraud database? It seeks to not only collect data about recipients, but also about applicants, which would include people who never received a benefit. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
USDA and FNS will use the SNAP data in this system to ensure the integrity of Government programs, including by verifying SNAP recipient eligibility against federally maintained databases, identifying and eliminating duplicate enrollments, and performing additional eligibility and program integrity checks specified herein.
July 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
hanfinity.bsky.social
For the record this is one reason why the Idaho stop works: bikes have a much better field of view than cars and so can safely proceed through an intersection without stopping while a car needs to come to a complete stop to ascertain whether it is safe to proceed.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Why Did Cars Get So Hard to See Out Of?
If it seems like forward visibility has gotten worse, you’re right: Since the 1990s, cars and trucks have grown bigger A-pillars that can create dangerous blind spots.
www.bloomberg.com
July 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Paul Opperman
garlicbuffalo.gobirds.biz
amtrak’s marketing team gets it
June 21, 2025 at 12:21 PM
paulopperman.bsky.social
It's nice out
A view of Newport harbor A lobster roll
June 12, 2025 at 5:10 PM