Out in Silicon Valley, hacked crosswalk buttons started telling the truth last weekend.
Previous “Links” posts
An Unacceptable Level of Care ∞
Maybe the DHS could immediately start paying attention to detail.
Monday, April 14th, 2025
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security sent Nicole Micheroni an email stating it was “exercising its discretion to terminate [her] parole”, and telling her “[i]t is time for you to leave the United States…Do not attempt to remain in the United States – the federal government will find you.”. There was just one problem.1 Micheroni is an American citizen, born in Massachusetts.
Per her LinkedIn profile, Micheroni is an “immigration attorney representing asylum seekers, families, artists, and small businesses in complex immigration matters”. Even if we follow Hanlon’s Razor and attribute this error not to malice but to stupidity, it remains horrifying that the government of Donald Trump is so incompetent that it’s telling US citizens to self-deport.
Footnotes:
There are actually myriad problems, including using email to deliver such a message, as well as the inaccurate contents of the message even for those who are not citizens. ↩︎
This Post Might Get Me Banned From Madison Square Garden ∞
”Memes are powerful, and so is the surveillance state.”
Friday, April 11th, 2025
New York Knicks owner James Dolan is a small, small man, and his company’s misuse of facial recognition to identify people he doesn’t like and bar them from his venues is dystopian and disgusting.
Car-Free in Tempe ∞
Decoupling parking from development is a great idea.
Wednesday, April 9th, 2025
In January, I wrote about how too many Americans need a car and how the mammoth size of those cars is killing us. There are some signs of progress, however. In the Culdesac Tempe rental complex, in Arizona, hundreds of families are living without cars. It’s a start.
It’s a Baseball! It’s a Pearl! It’s… ∞
Always Be Checking-if-your-design-is-vulvular
Tuesday, April 8th, 2025
One of my favorite things about minor league baseball is how teams simply do not care about their identities. They’ll start with the most ridiculous name, and then change it to something else preposterous for a single night. In a rigid world of brand guidelines and ridiculous intellectual property lawsuits, brands not taking themselves too seriously is fun.
Usually, though, it‘s not quite as graphic as the logo seen as part of the Chesapeake Baysox alternate identity, the Oyster Catchers:
[Image source: Chesapeake Baysox
Instagram]
Oh my! Shortly after posting their alternate Oyster Catchers identity, fan response led the Baysox to pull the logo seen above. The internet wasn’t about to let it disappear, however, and it quickly went viral. At that point, the team wisely pivoted to embracing the logo, even using it to raise money for those affected by cervical cancer. Good on them.
Still, for the designers out there, perhaps a second ABC is in order.
They’re Interested ∞
Let’s hope that’s not the royal “we”.
Monday, April 7th, 2025
A couple years back, Massachusetts made it illegal to throw out old clothes. Now, they must be recycled, and that’s good. But while researching my recycling options, I came across this awful quote:
All types of textile items can be recycled, said Steve Lisauskas, vice president of government affairs at Waste Zero, a nonprofit that focuses on reducing trash nationally.
That includes shoes, socks, jackets, coats and cloth used in draperies or bedspreads.
“It doesn’t have to be pristine off-the-rack clean,” he said. “We are interested in used socks. We are interested in used underwear.”
Oh Steve, no. No, no, no.
A Country Club for Older Animals ∞
Geriatric penguins need a slower pace.
Friday, April 4th, 2025
At New England Aquarium here in Boston, several aged penguins have moved to their own section, with less pecking and noise.
Eventually, You’ll Pay ∞
Later, in the bathroom, the prophesy is fulfilled.
Thursday, April 3rd, 2025
“Buy Now, Pay Later” sounds more like a warning about fast food than a method to pay for it.
Forks or No? ∞
Just answer the question!
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025
Recently, Pew Research Center got some surprising feedback to one of their surveys:
While we get a wide range of feedback on our surveys, we were surprised by a comment we received on an online survey in 2024: “You misspelled YES with FORKS numerous times.”
Forks, that would certainly be surprising. It seems a Google Translate issue combined with other bugginess, and that caused some folks to be presented with some surreal survey answers.
Thanks to friend-of-the-site Adam E for alerting me to this ridiculousness.
Update (April 5, 2025): There’s at least a bit of explanation for why Google Translate turns “Yes” into “forks”. Thanks to reader John M. for the link.
Chicanes, not Chicanery ∞
That joke is imperfect, but I’m rolling with it anyway.
Tuesday, April 1st, 2025
In the area of traffic calming, chicanes are a useful tool. They take a straight speedway of a road, and make physical changes to give it more meandering curves, forcing drivers to reduce their speed. Chicanes are a bit strange at first, but they’re very effective.
A paint-only chicane, however, is very dumb. Just look at this nonsense in Montgomery Township, near Philadelphia:
[Photo credit: Montgomery Township Police Department]
While the police department indicated that the design isn’t yet complete, I’m pretty skeptical that this draft will be cleaned up into something that isn’t ridiculous.
