Tom Metcalf
@thmetcalf.bsky.social
Physicist, cycle-commuter, urbanist, homeowner, dad. Coffee drinker. Youth baseball scorer. Amateur astronomer and chemist. From Sacramento. Government scientist in DC since 2001.
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
I knew it would take less than a day for a tiktok dj to make something.
November 5, 2025 at 12:13 PM
I knew it would take less than a day for a tiktok dj to make something.
Mary Brunkow, one of three to share the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine, announced today, did not have a Wikipedia entry until this morning.
October 6, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Mary Brunkow, one of three to share the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine, announced today, did not have a Wikipedia entry until this morning.
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
Bondi purports to appoint an “emergency police commissioner” and orders specific DC policy on sanctuary laws to be deleted from police guidance.
I’m no expert, but this seems illegal under the Home Rule Act, which says only that the President may direct DC police to “provide services.”
I’m no expert, but this seems illegal under the Home Rule Act, which says only that the President may direct DC police to “provide services.”
August 15, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Bondi purports to appoint an “emergency police commissioner” and orders specific DC policy on sanctuary laws to be deleted from police guidance.
I’m no expert, but this seems illegal under the Home Rule Act, which says only that the President may direct DC police to “provide services.”
I’m no expert, but this seems illegal under the Home Rule Act, which says only that the President may direct DC police to “provide services.”
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
This is 100% malicious compliance, it has to be
June 14, 2025 at 11:40 PM
This is 100% malicious compliance, it has to be
Counting travel and high school, my son has played in 324 baseball games, and I've scored every one of them. Today was his last game. Like most teams that make the playoffs, it ends with a loss. But, not a devastating one. And so my ten and a half years as a baseball dad is done as well.
May 16, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Counting travel and high school, my son has played in 324 baseball games, and I've scored every one of them. Today was his last game. Like most teams that make the playoffs, it ends with a loss. But, not a devastating one. And so my ten and a half years as a baseball dad is done as well.
More than three times as much fraud as funding.
May 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM
More than three times as much fraud as funding.
If you're approximately my age, Everybody Wants to Rule the World is a part of the soundtrack of your youth. Hear about how it came together: songexploder.net/tears-for-fe...
Episode 292: Tears for Fears
"Everybody Wants To Rule The World"LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON · OTHER APPSTears for Fears is a duo formed in 1981 in Bath, England by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. They’v
songexploder.net
May 9, 2025 at 2:01 AM
If you're approximately my age, Everybody Wants to Rule the World is a part of the soundtrack of your youth. Hear about how it came together: songexploder.net/tears-for-fe...
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
you know who else came from chicago and was on "a mission from god"
May 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
you know who else came from chicago and was on "a mission from god"
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
Conclave Selects First Chicago-Style Pope
May 8, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Conclave Selects First Chicago-Style Pope
@scoringchanges.bsky.social I'm trying to understand inning reconstruction for earned runs. Suppose: 1 out. Abel reaches on error, Baker and Charlie walk. Daniel hits the ball to the third baseman who throws home to play on Abel, in time but the throw goes way over the catcher's head.
April 10, 2025 at 11:18 AM
@scoringchanges.bsky.social I'm trying to understand inning reconstruction for earned runs. Suppose: 1 out. Abel reaches on error, Baker and Charlie walk. Daniel hits the ball to the third baseman who throws home to play on Abel, in time but the throw goes way over the catcher's head.
I learned about Ken Dryden soon after I started going to Cornell hockey games, and read "The Game," perhaps the best sports book ever written. Here, he writes about Ovechkin's record for The Post: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | The goal scorer
Alexander Ovechkin’s pursuit of the NHL’s goal-scoring record is a tribute to the player and the Caps.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 6, 2025 at 6:59 PM
I learned about Ken Dryden soon after I started going to Cornell hockey games, and read "The Game," perhaps the best sports book ever written. Here, he writes about Ovechkin's record for The Post: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Today is the last day for music--hopefully not forever--at the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia. I went to one performance over Presidents Day weekend in 2020. Links to streams of today's performances can be found at this page:
wanamakerorgan.com
wanamakerorgan.com
Friends of Wanamaker Organ – Celebrating the Heritage of a National Historic Landmark Pipe Organ
wanamakerorgan.com
March 22, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Today is the last day for music--hopefully not forever--at the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia. I went to one performance over Presidents Day weekend in 2020. Links to streams of today's performances can be found at this page:
wanamakerorgan.com
wanamakerorgan.com
This is Roy Jones, PE teacher at Sutter Middle School in Sacramento in 1987, in a photograph with George Foreman, who has just died. The photo is from my 8th grade yearbook.
March 22, 2025 at 3:04 AM
This is Roy Jones, PE teacher at Sutter Middle School in Sacramento in 1987, in a photograph with George Foreman, who has just died. The photo is from my 8th grade yearbook.
@scoringchanges.bsky.social So glad you're on bsky!
I have a question. Can a batter get 2 RBIs when reaching on an error? The RBI rule says an RBI for "every run that scores..." but in the error clause, only mentions runner on 3rd.
I have a question. Can a batter get 2 RBIs when reaching on an error? The RBI rule says an RBI for "every run that scores..." but in the error clause, only mentions runner on 3rd.
March 21, 2025 at 3:00 AM
@scoringchanges.bsky.social So glad you're on bsky!
I have a question. Can a batter get 2 RBIs when reaching on an error? The RBI rule says an RBI for "every run that scores..." but in the error clause, only mentions runner on 3rd.
I have a question. Can a batter get 2 RBIs when reaching on an error? The RBI rule says an RBI for "every run that scores..." but in the error clause, only mentions runner on 3rd.
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
apropos of nothing: my favourite biking statistic is from the 18 year scottish longitudinal study which found that over the study period, compared to non-active commuters (ie cars and transit), cyclist commuters were half as likely to die for any reason.
half as likely to die!
for any reason!!!
half as likely to die!
for any reason!!!
March 13, 2025 at 1:22 AM
apropos of nothing: my favourite biking statistic is from the 18 year scottish longitudinal study which found that over the study period, compared to non-active commuters (ie cars and transit), cyclist commuters were half as likely to die for any reason.
half as likely to die!
for any reason!!!
half as likely to die!
for any reason!!!
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
Please salute a true hero.
#WorldBollardAssociation
#WorldBollardAssociation
Today a bollard that has served Calgary since the late 1980’s stopped a Chevy Impala.
@worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
#Calgary #bollard
@worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
#Calgary #bollard
March 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Please salute a true hero.
#WorldBollardAssociation
#WorldBollardAssociation
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
The quoted sentence takes you to whole new worlds every three words or so.
Worse than I thought! For example:
“John Lilly, a neurophysiologist and psychedelic researcher who once used LSD to investigate dolphin communication, famously abused ketamine until he believed that he was contacted by an extraterrestrial entity who removed his penis.”
“John Lilly, a neurophysiologist and psychedelic researcher who once used LSD to investigate dolphin communication, famously abused ketamine until he believed that he was contacted by an extraterrestrial entity who removed his penis.”
March 8, 2025 at 12:27 AM
The quoted sentence takes you to whole new worlds every three words or so.
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
Fun Fact: Democrats are wearing pink tonight as a symbolic protest against people who want them to do something meaningful
March 5, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Fun Fact: Democrats are wearing pink tonight as a symbolic protest against people who want them to do something meaningful
Growing up in the '80s, "Down Under" is a part of the soundtrack of my youth. Did you know it was also subject of one of the highest profile copyright cases in Australia?
timharford.com/2025/02/caut...
timharford.com/2025/02/caut...
Cautionary Tales – the Nursery Rhyme that Ruined a Rock Band
“Down Under” was huge. This jokey ode to legendary Australian wanderlust helped Men at Work win a Grammy and was a key part of the band’s creative legacy. It had also been earning…
timharford.com
February 24, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Growing up in the '80s, "Down Under" is a part of the soundtrack of my youth. Did you know it was also subject of one of the highest profile copyright cases in Australia?
timharford.com/2025/02/caut...
timharford.com/2025/02/caut...
How much of the Department of the Interior's budget could be recovered by selling sponsorships to geographic features?
February 11, 2025 at 3:42 PM
How much of the Department of the Interior's budget could be recovered by selling sponsorships to geographic features?
Reposted by Tom Metcalf
Triumph of Bacchus, by Michaelina Wautier, 1643-59, 📸 by @bkubena.bsky.social
February 10, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Triumph of Bacchus, by Michaelina Wautier, 1643-59, 📸 by @bkubena.bsky.social
As if we didn't have enough US-generated terrible stuff to deal with, the UK has decided to do something unbelievably bad--its demanding Apple let them spy on any Apple user of any nationality anywhere in the world. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
Secret order requires blanket access to protected cloud backups around the world, which if implemented would undermine Apple’s privacy pledge to its users.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 8, 2025 at 1:52 AM
As if we didn't have enough US-generated terrible stuff to deal with, the UK has decided to do something unbelievably bad--its demanding Apple let them spy on any Apple user of any nationality anywhere in the world. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Analysis of the ATC audio and flight paths for the collision at DCA suggests confusion about just three aircraft led to disaster. This should tell us how insane it would be to add widespread "flying cars" to the mix.
January 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Analysis of the ATC audio and flight paths for the collision at DCA suggests confusion about just three aircraft led to disaster. This should tell us how insane it would be to add widespread "flying cars" to the mix.