Austin Wu
@austwu.bsky.social
(vague lyrics about history or economics) 🚰
https://linktr.ee/austwu
https://linktr.ee/austwu
Pinned
Reposted by Austin Wu
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
AirBnB CEO calling it “vibe revenue” just 👨🍳 😘
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
November 22, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
Reposted by Austin Wu
It turns out that childbirth is really fucking dangerous and that medical support is a good thing overall.
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.
Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:51 PM
It turns out that childbirth is really fucking dangerous and that medical support is a good thing overall.
Reposted by Austin Wu
I'm alive right now because I gave birth with medical professionals who had ready access to lifesaving medication.
November 22, 2025 at 9:57 PM
I'm alive right now because I gave birth with medical professionals who had ready access to lifesaving medication.
Reposted by Austin Wu
Hell yeah I wanna do favorite Kate Beaton comics, it's so hard to choose but I think about "the Canadians heard us making fun of them and got all fucked up on hockey" often
November 22, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Hell yeah I wanna do favorite Kate Beaton comics, it's so hard to choose but I think about "the Canadians heard us making fun of them and got all fucked up on hockey" often
an everlasting classic www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id...
November 22, 2025 at 8:47 PM
an everlasting classic www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id...
Reposted by Austin Wu
Check out this 1923 transit plan commissioned by the Chicago City Council. We use to be insanely ambitious. A network like this would've supported Paris-level population densities.
It's never too late!
It's never too late!
November 21, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Check out this 1923 transit plan commissioned by the Chicago City Council. We use to be insanely ambitious. A network like this would've supported Paris-level population densities.
It's never too late!
It's never too late!
Reposted by Austin Wu
More and more people are talking about Rosa Luxembourg. we like to call her red Rosa, don’t we folks. she was treated very unfairly by the social DEMOCRAT Party. and freikorp. We don’t like freikorp. we like people who win wars. but they LOST. Never would have happened if Trump had been there
yeah I can’t find it now but someone in a post pointed out that it could get pretty funny since Trump usually spends 36ish hours agreeing with the last charismatic person he talked to.
November 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
More and more people are talking about Rosa Luxembourg. we like to call her red Rosa, don’t we folks. she was treated very unfairly by the social DEMOCRAT Party. and freikorp. We don’t like freikorp. we like people who win wars. but they LOST. Never would have happened if Trump had been there
Reposted by Austin Wu
Every single time, what we learn is that there's like 10% of the population that can actually constructively learn things through independent self study and everybody else needs their ass in a school desk.
November 21, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Every single time, what we learn is that there's like 10% of the population that can actually constructively learn things through independent self study and everybody else needs their ass in a school desk.
Reposted by Austin Wu
Somebody in the audience pointed out something that I didn’t know, which is that Queensbridge Houses, the largest NYCHA project in the city (and thereby largest public housing complex in North America), is single-stair. platform-affordable-dwelling.bk.tudelft.nl/database/201...
November 20, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Somebody in the audience pointed out something that I didn’t know, which is that Queensbridge Houses, the largest NYCHA project in the city (and thereby largest public housing complex in North America), is single-stair. platform-affordable-dwelling.bk.tudelft.nl/database/201...
if this was russian revolutionary times mfs would be cancelling marshal zhukov because he started off in the imperial army before switching sides 😤
It is not bigoted to say that pinkwashing state violence is bad.
November 21, 2025 at 6:14 AM
if this was russian revolutionary times mfs would be cancelling marshal zhukov because he started off in the imperial army before switching sides 😤
Reposted by Austin Wu
me every time i get an email:
I didn’t ask for this lol
November 21, 2025 at 5:56 AM
me every time i get an email:
Reposted by Austin Wu
As I was saying. Bro-Tex, the 100yo family-owned business that makes cleaning wipes and helps fund murals on the sides of its building… a criminal warrant? Right.
So it’s quite notable that local elected officials were directly lied to repeatedly that this was not an ICE raid.
www.startribune.com/ice-says-rai...
www.startribune.com/ice-says-rai...
www.startribune.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:56 AM
As I was saying. Bro-Tex, the 100yo family-owned business that makes cleaning wipes and helps fund murals on the sides of its building… a criminal warrant? Right.
Reposted by Austin Wu
(Working on a take) parental involvement in schools is a kind of NIMBYism
November 21, 2025 at 5:13 AM
(Working on a take) parental involvement in schools is a kind of NIMBYism
Reposted by Austin Wu
Reposted by Austin Wu
i have, uh, been saying this
Another day where you have to wonder whether the Canadian and Mexican governments have prepared contingency plans to handle any regional fallout from serious civil disorder in the United States
November 21, 2025 at 1:00 AM
i have, uh, been saying this
Reposted by Austin Wu
For a fun GIS project I mapped the highest transit mode share census tract in every state to examine transit dependent neighborhoods across the country, particularly in less urban states. The national peak tract map is below with individual maps in this thread from highest to lowest.
November 20, 2025 at 8:51 PM
For a fun GIS project I mapped the highest transit mode share census tract in every state to examine transit dependent neighborhoods across the country, particularly in less urban states. The national peak tract map is below with individual maps in this thread from highest to lowest.
Reposted by Austin Wu
Woke 2 will include legally mandating Activision to switch Call of Duty back to WWII
November 20, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Woke 2 will include legally mandating Activision to switch Call of Duty back to WWII
Reposted by Austin Wu
The real inflection point was when we stopped making blockbuster FPS games in WWII nonstop and shifted into Nonstop Operator Cult Slop full-time
American youth need to grow up with a Wolfenstein understanding of Nazis and how to respond to them
American youth need to grow up with a Wolfenstein understanding of Nazis and how to respond to them
November 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM
The real inflection point was when we stopped making blockbuster FPS games in WWII nonstop and shifted into Nonstop Operator Cult Slop full-time
American youth need to grow up with a Wolfenstein understanding of Nazis and how to respond to them
American youth need to grow up with a Wolfenstein understanding of Nazis and how to respond to them
Reposted by Austin Wu
What not making a band of brothers show every year does to a mofo
Exclusive: The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika, nooses and the Confederate flag as hate symbols.
The military service drafted a new policy that classifies them as “potentially divisive.”
The military service drafted a new policy that classifies them as “potentially divisive.”
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:45 PM
What not making a band of brothers show every year does to a mofo
Reposted by Austin Wu
Ah! Well, nevertheless
November 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Ah! Well, nevertheless
Reposted by Austin Wu
I always think it's funny that the US developed pretty much the optimal--by revealed preference--kind of suburb (close-in streetcar suburbs) in the early 20th century and then spent the rest of the century trying furiously to undo that good idea
as will notes, people tend to *say* they want suburban living. they want a big house and a big yard and etc. this is not however what is suggested by their actual purchasing practices, which invariably result in something like this:
raincitymaps.com/maps/inspect...
raincitymaps.com/maps/inspect...
November 20, 2025 at 2:29 PM
I always think it's funny that the US developed pretty much the optimal--by revealed preference--kind of suburb (close-in streetcar suburbs) in the early 20th century and then spent the rest of the century trying furiously to undo that good idea
Reposted by Austin Wu
Then Toad began to bang his head against the wall
November 20, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Then Toad began to bang his head against the wall
Reposted by Austin Wu
President Trump has called for Democrats to be executed for sedition. The voters expect Democrats to come to the table with a real counter-proposal and negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise. That’s doing politics the right way.
-Ezra Klein, New York TImes
-Ezra Klein, New York TImes
November 20, 2025 at 5:37 PM
President Trump has called for Democrats to be executed for sedition. The voters expect Democrats to come to the table with a real counter-proposal and negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise. That’s doing politics the right way.
-Ezra Klein, New York TImes
-Ezra Klein, New York TImes
Reposted by Austin Wu
I've spent the last decade trying to figure out whether the US or UK was circling the drain faster, and every time I think I have it figured out one of them throws me a curve ball
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM
I've spent the last decade trying to figure out whether the US or UK was circling the drain faster, and every time I think I have it figured out one of them throws me a curve ball