East Lothian families to access free electric cargo bikes www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/2555796... It aims to help more people explore an alternative mode of transport for everyday journeys.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

It costs a lot less to house people.

this sounds like clickbait but nope

there was a huge modern-day slavery bust in Georgia in 2021, the Biden admin very deliberately put in a bunch of antislavery updates to the H2A farm guest worker program in 2024 as a result, farmers hated them, & Trump just got rid of them back in June

Doing some historical research for a project and more and more really would love to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day and then *add* a Garibaldi Day holiday somewhere. (Problem is Italian reunification is celebrated March 17 and, uh, that's taken and Garibaldi's birthday is July 4! )

“…people no longer hold the knowledge that robber barons were the bad guys…rehabilitating their names has worked b/c we have bigger villains in Silicon Valley, so people look at the Gilded Age w/nostalgia…They don’t realize robber barons actually killed some of their workers who dared to strike.”

The cruelty of this is, genuinely, staggering. This is a policy that saves virtually no money whatsoever whose success is measured in the number of children it kills.

@chrislhayes.bsky.social: "The United States government quite literally disappeared these people. It won't say where they are. We don't know. Their families do not know where they are. And they have essentially no recourse in U.S. courts because there are no records of their whereabouts."

Finished Dangerous Fictions by Lyta Gold this morning. Interesting book that has me rethinking how I talk about the value of reading and writing. It's going to reverberate and inspire additional thought for awhile. Wide ranging analysis including Don Quixote, Pamela, Lord of the Rings, DND Panic++

Finished "The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today" v2 this morning. A delightful manga starring a human sized cat and his overworked drunken slob of an owner. I definitely emphasize with the owner! Adorable read, highly recommend.
Pic:'Flore Pleno'poppy that bloomed today.

Eh, proper farm risk mgmt is mostly not farm subsidies.

It's insurance, crop rotation, diversification, & infrastructure to minimize disasters (flood control, fires, droughts) for the whole public- not just farms.

But we skimp on those, then act like farms "need subsidies & bailouts to survive." 🫠

Loving "Deep End" by Ali Hazelwood.
A variety of chapter lengths adds to a strong sense of timing & tone. I'm enjoying moments of pause after a good chapter close.
College sports romance with kinky overachieving neurotic characters and a large cast including previous lead characters from Hazelwood.

I'm a logistics consultant for farms & food facilities. And I'm telling you making food is VERY profitable! Already!

So what's the real problem?

People who have the land & capital to make food would rather be real estate developers.

That's it. That's the whole problem.