Jesse Harber
@harber.co.za
Transport planner in South Africa. Infrastructure, public transport, walking and cycling, better streets for better cities. Focused on the big questions, like “why are you building that?”. Skeets in my personal capacity.
Reposted by Jesse Harber
The American/British food debate is played out.
The real hot button topic is Sephardi or Ashkenazi food
The real hot button topic is Sephardi or Ashkenazi food
I think if BlueSky has a weakness it’s that we need more transatlantic arguments about whose cuisine is worse, Britain’s or America’s, providing sufficient opportunity for some tasteful jingoism disguised as culinary critique.
May 27, 2025 at 11:51 AM
The American/British food debate is played out.
The real hot button topic is Sephardi or Ashkenazi food
The real hot button topic is Sephardi or Ashkenazi food
Reposted by Jesse Harber
A philosopher has hitherto only interpreted a diaper in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.
May 24, 2025 at 2:33 AM
A philosopher has hitherto only interpreted a diaper in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.
Reposted by Jesse Harber
Dads make diaper changes, but they do not do it as they please; they do not change diapers under self-selected circumstances, but respond to diaper circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. Remnants of past feedings weigh like a nightmare on the diapers of the living.
May 24, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Dads make diaper changes, but they do not do it as they please; they do not change diapers under self-selected circumstances, but respond to diaper circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. Remnants of past feedings weigh like a nightmare on the diapers of the living.
Chat, is it good if my CEO is a Chinese room?
If you thought social media had scrambled America’s CEOs just wait until they’re fully cooked by AI apple.news/AJ_ht7MMyT9G...
May 16, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Chat, is it good if my CEO is a Chinese room?
Reposted by Jesse Harber
What is the Jewish relationship to places that expelled us or made us flee? I don't even know. But it's not nothing, you know?
May 14, 2025 at 3:38 PM
What is the Jewish relationship to places that expelled us or made us flee? I don't even know. But it's not nothing, you know?
Extraordinary to see the gap between how both pro- and anti-Trump Americans are talking about Afrikaners, and how almost anyone talks in South Africa.
Antis, I know you think you’re helping but we generally frown on racial abuse in South Africa, even against your political opponents.
Antis, I know you think you’re helping but we generally frown on racial abuse in South Africa, even against your political opponents.
May 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Extraordinary to see the gap between how both pro- and anti-Trump Americans are talking about Afrikaners, and how almost anyone talks in South Africa.
Antis, I know you think you’re helping but we generally frown on racial abuse in South Africa, even against your political opponents.
Antis, I know you think you’re helping but we generally frown on racial abuse in South Africa, even against your political opponents.
IIRC this was a signature Noah Smith opinion. In the same tweet as saying Cuba was better off under Batista than Fidel.
This person is insane. I’ve never had someone argue the tsarist regime was better than the USSR. This is brand new to me. New levels of brain worms
April 25, 2025 at 12:00 PM
IIRC this was a signature Noah Smith opinion. In the same tweet as saying Cuba was better off under Batista than Fidel.
Reposted by Jesse Harber
This is revisionism. The US government was one of the biggest supporters of the South African apartheid regime. There are important things that USAID has done in SA since 1994 - including on HIV mitigation - that perhaps include funding civil society and dismantling initiatives after 1989.
Elon Musk wanting to dismantle the #USAID is starting to make sense. Just pure unmitigated revenge by “Apartheid Clyde.”
February 3, 2025 at 10:57 AM
This is revisionism. The US government was one of the biggest supporters of the South African apartheid regime. There are important things that USAID has done in SA since 1994 - including on HIV mitigation - that perhaps include funding civil society and dismantling initiatives after 1989.
This guy O’Brians
alright, fine, engagement bait, it's friday, whatever
okay let's do this. 1 like = 1 book on my bookshelf and what it means to me
January 31, 2025 at 4:21 PM
This guy O’Brians
I just finished this and it absolutely slaps. Just fantastic near-future SF.
'A visceral, doesn't-give-a-damn biopunk thriller that treats the "punk" part of that subgenre not as mere window-dressing but as an antifascist shriek... vital and urgent SF that reaches places realist writing never could' ― @interzone.press
If you like cool shit get this 🕶️
geni.us/extremophile
If you like cool shit get this 🕶️
geni.us/extremophile
Extremophile
Pre-order now:
geni.us
January 27, 2025 at 9:32 AM
I just finished this and it absolutely slaps. Just fantastic near-future SF.
Reposted by Jesse Harber
oh no the nap has become the territory
Last night I read about the importance of sleep, from 1:12am to 4:34am.
January 27, 2025 at 6:15 AM
oh no the nap has become the territory
It’s kind of interesting that, apropos Musk, I keep seeing people here talk about apartheid South Africa like some kind of unknowable hermit kingdom as opposed to a place where I and many others remember* and can talk about in some detail
*only a little in my case
*only a little in my case
January 22, 2025 at 7:36 PM
It’s kind of interesting that, apropos Musk, I keep seeing people here talk about apartheid South Africa like some kind of unknowable hermit kingdom as opposed to a place where I and many others remember* and can talk about in some detail
*only a little in my case
*only a little in my case
Reposted by Jesse Harber
Do any of my contacts know someone who works for the #Fisheries Department in #CapeTown (or #SouthAfrica more broadly)?
January 14, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Do any of my contacts know someone who works for the #Fisheries Department in #CapeTown (or #SouthAfrica more broadly)?
I would ask the fire ecologist I once met, but that happened when her dog savaged me in the street. So perhaps not.
As a resident of a city perched against a dry, windy, fire-prone mountain, I’m wondering why Cape Town’s fires don’t seem to be as destructive as the ones in California. Is it more proactive management? The simply larger scale of CA fire country? Some other innate advantage of geography?
January 8, 2025 at 8:58 AM
I would ask the fire ecologist I once met, but that happened when her dog savaged me in the street. So perhaps not.
As a resident of a city perched against a dry, windy, fire-prone mountain, I’m wondering why Cape Town’s fires don’t seem to be as destructive as the ones in California. Is it more proactive management? The simply larger scale of CA fire country? Some other innate advantage of geography?
January 8, 2025 at 8:58 AM
As a resident of a city perched against a dry, windy, fire-prone mountain, I’m wondering why Cape Town’s fires don’t seem to be as destructive as the ones in California. Is it more proactive management? The simply larger scale of CA fire country? Some other innate advantage of geography?
Car-brained planning is similarly universal
and every nimby complaint is the same regardless of the city. it's a script.
January 7, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Car-brained planning is similarly universal
To be a dad is to finally and frequently get that crucial question answered. I am, indeed, chopped liver.
January 4, 2025 at 7:57 PM
To be a dad is to finally and frequently get that crucial question answered. I am, indeed, chopped liver.
Oh to drive the little fire truck
January 1, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Oh to drive the little fire truck
Reposted by Jesse Harber
Reposted by Jesse Harber
Toby Young becoming a Lord has reminded me of this incredible exchange
December 21, 2024 at 10:34 AM
Toby Young becoming a Lord has reminded me of this incredible exchange
It’s this sort of petty provincial tribalism that makes it hard to see Europe ever modernising
It's possibly underappreciated by those who haven't lived in Belgium and particularly Brussels that the widespread use of English there isn't just because it's the eurocrats' lingua franca - it's to avoid utter insanity like this.
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
Train conductor’s bilingual morning greeting raises hackles in Belgium
Ilyass Alba welcomed passengers onboard a rush-hour train in Dutch and French – flouting strict language rules
www.theguardian.com
December 20, 2024 at 4:15 PM
It’s this sort of petty provincial tribalism that makes it hard to see Europe ever modernising
This has no business slapping as hard as it does
Gunsteling - Keith Juluka (Lyrical Video)
YouTube video by Keith Juluka
youtu.be
December 20, 2024 at 8:47 AM
This has no business slapping as hard as it does
Our downstairs neighbour has, very politely, said she is woken by a loud bang some mornings around six. We’re up with the baby so it’s plausible it’s us, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. It’s driving me (and I guess the neighbour) nuts.
December 20, 2024 at 8:13 AM
Our downstairs neighbour has, very politely, said she is woken by a loud bang some mornings around six. We’re up with the baby so it’s plausible it’s us, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. It’s driving me (and I guess the neighbour) nuts.
Something I’m not sure I’ve seen discussed is the prospect of a real knock-down fight between fractions of capital.
Trump’s patrimonial mercantilism is going to be a lottery, with effects on stability and legitimacy *even among capitalists*. What happens when capitalist unity is eroded?
Trump’s patrimonial mercantilism is going to be a lottery, with effects on stability and legitimacy *even among capitalists*. What happens when capitalist unity is eroded?
Trump has promised policies every halfway sane economist assures us will be inflationary - today the Fed announced that it will proceed with caution in cutting rates as it waits to see how it goes with inflation and today the stock market got real about the death of Bidenomics
December 19, 2024 at 7:23 AM
Something I’m not sure I’ve seen discussed is the prospect of a real knock-down fight between fractions of capital.
Trump’s patrimonial mercantilism is going to be a lottery, with effects on stability and legitimacy *even among capitalists*. What happens when capitalist unity is eroded?
Trump’s patrimonial mercantilism is going to be a lottery, with effects on stability and legitimacy *even among capitalists*. What happens when capitalist unity is eroded?