@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Alon

@Alon@mastodon.social

I write about public transport and do research for NYU's Marron Institute. I've previously lived in Tel Aviv, Singapore, the Riviera, New York, Providence, Vancouver, Stockholm, Paris.

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Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

If a space agency puts a Jew on the first mission to Mars, somehow Habad will find a way to beat them there so that they can guilt-trip the Jew about praying with them. If the Jew is male, they'll make sure to send a team of nine so they can tell him they need him to be the 10th for a minyan.

(I was sure I'd tooted this before but I can't find this take.)

ww3real, to random
@ww3real@mastodon.social avatar

Feng speaks with the lead investigator for the murder of Qian and Dai, NYPD Lieutenant Patrick Xiang (42). Xiang explains that the assailant was a very well-trained Chinese woman, judging by her accent and her ability to kill six people cleanly with 10 shots and evade detection.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@Truckasauruslex @ww3real Dai headed counterinsurgency in and around New York. Qian had Dai's job until the November 2034 uprising, after which he was promoted and became a floating consultant to regional counterinsurgency leaders across North America. (Feng headed counterinsurgency in Chicago in 2034, and was likewise promoted but kept his area of responsibility as the capital of occupied North America was moved to Chicago.)

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Relevant now that Israel is back to bombing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdSj0_Fd4ds

msappir, to Israel
@msappir@newsie.social avatar

“At a time when there are increasing efforts to police Jewish anti-Zionism, it is vital to historicize the traditions of non-Zionist Jewish thought and mobilization.”

by Rachel Solnick and Clive Gabay

https://www.identitiesjournal.com/blog-collection/jewish-anti-zionism

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@msappir The Ethiopians who the Israeli state so mistreated are with almost no exception loyal Zionists. The mid-20c alternatives to Zionism were not at all pro-Hamas (for example, Marek Edelman was a loyal Atlanticist - he criticized the Occupation but also criticized Hamas's terrorism). JVP is disconnected from these traditions to the point of saying things like "the first anti-Zionist synagogue opened in 2019"; the Israeli post-Zionist left wants little to do with political anti-Zionism.

LALegault, to Jewish
@LALegault@newsie.social avatar

This feels like a rabbit hole 🕳️ but what is the “ Autonomous Oblast” in ? Does anyone know?

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@WGH @LALegault It was specifically a way to forcibly Sovietize and de-Hebracize the Jews by offering an autonomous oblast thousands of km away from where Soviet Jews lived in the former Pale of Settlement (other autonomous oblasts and their PRC equivalents are generally where the minority actually lives, even if they've been swamped by Russian or Han settlers). The plan at one point involved forced deportation there, but Stalin died before it could happen.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@WGH @LALegault Think of the autonomous oblast/region/prefecture system as the closest Soviet and Chinese equivalent of the North American system of Indian reservations, before you get too excited. Similar mix of cultural and physical extermination accompanied by settler colonialism (fun fact: concurrently with the Holodomor, Stalin also starved 40% of the Kazakh population to death in the Asharshylyk).

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@WGH @LALegault Yeah, one way to think about the nationality policy is as an attempt to generalize Lenin's solution to the Ukrainian question. To Lenin, nationalism was bourgeois, to the point that the USSR's name didn't even include any geographic bounding (he expected Germany to undergo revolution at the end of the war and then the USSR's capital should be Berlin, not Moscow). So, each nation in the bourgeois European sense should get an SSR, run by the party, but the USSR would be united.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@WGH @LALegault Lenin, of note, was also anti-anti-Semitic; the anti-Semites in Russia fought on the White side in the civil war, leading to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholem_Schwarzbard

Of note, the system extended to Central Asia decently well, if imperfectly - the various Turkic groups could fit the European model of nationalism, and in the case of the Kazakhs, national-minority-fication (e.g. secularization, language standardization, Cyrillicization) goes back to the Tsarist era.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@WGH @LALegault But then two snags happened. First, the system did not extend to Siberia well - the ethnic groups were in far too small for the nationalist model, and they either were already swamped by Russians or would be as soon as there was industrialization.

And second, Stalin happened; authoritarianism tends toward racism and genocide, and Stalin casually engaged in extermination through mass starvation. Among other things, he revived traditional Russian anti-Semitism. Hence, the JAO.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@WGH @LALegault Mass deportation didn't happen, but a lot of anti-Semitic tropes got codified under Stalin after the war:

  1. The "rootless cosmopolitan" slur.
  2. Forced de-Hebracization, to the point that learning Hebrew was treated as a sign of Zionism and anti-Soviet agitation and could land one in the gulag.
  3. Soft Holocaust denial - the USSR didn't deny Nazi crimes but denied the victims were Jews, to avoid creating public sympathy for Jews.
  4. Discrimination, e.g. quotas at universities.
Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@WGH @LALegault Nothing that's good as an intro. It's constantly mentioned in various places, like the Jewish math problems: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Wikipedia's article on this isn't bad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Soviet_mathematics

Some (some) of this is in Werner Cohn, e.g. http://web.archive.org/web/20101210093146/http://www.wernercohn.com/Trotsky.html.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

I think people who want to know where the Israeli left is at these days should be looking at @GangstaYid's feed on Birdsite. Of note, he was born in the US and is very familiar with US discourse, so if he's RTing the Babylon Bee on left-wing anti-Semitism, in between complaining about settler racism, Likud corruption, etc., he knows exactly what it means.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Live now, talking about transportation for isolated cities. https://www.twitch.tv/alon_levy

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Debating streaming now vs. on Saturday, either way at 19:00. Topic is going to be isolated cities (think Denver, or Australian cities, or kind of sort of the Pacific Northwest). @cidney has an RPG at 20:15 so there's a hard stop if it's today. Opinions?

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

I went to the Kasse with @cidney today and we were told that she can't get public insurance in Germany because she immigrated from a non-European country; the Kasse only takes in people who get it as a job benefit or people who have continuity of coverage with same or another European country's health care. She has to get private insurance, which discriminates based on preexisting conditions (e.g. she was seriously injured in a car accident).

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Pedestrian Observations: Quick Note: New Neighborhoods are Residential https://pedestrianobservations.com/2023/12/03/quick-note-new-neighborhoods-are-residential/

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Question to Slavic language speakers: how does your language handle adjectives and nouns? I'm asking because Romance languages and also Hebrew and Arabic treat adjectives almost identically to nouns, so that it's easy to nominalize adjectives. But I don't know if Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Serbian, etc. do that.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

This is weird: Amtrak says it will surpass pre-corona rail ridership next year. But here and in France, it already happened last year. The US has lagged us in post-corona public transport recovery, but the main mechanism for it is greater working from home there than here and this shouldn't depress intercity rail (which is how DB and SNCF surpassed 2019 ridership last year while urban rail ridership didn't). What's going on there?

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/amtrak-officials-outline-new-goals-initiatives-at-public-board-meeting/

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Good piece about why small modular reactors don't work and yet American VCs keep plugging them, with a mention of the ideology of Michael Shellenberger and Breakthrough: https://cleantechnica.com/2023/11/30/what-drives-this-madness-on-small-modular-nuclear-reactors/

Alon, (edited ) to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

There is worse racism in,

Alon, (edited ) to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

It's ridiculous how Ukraine and Belarus have, between them, 40% of the total rail ton-km of freight of Europe (defined inclusive of Turkey and exclusive of Russia). Billions of t-km by continental macroregion:

Europe: 500
US: 2,200 (Class I only, total is probably around 2,400); with Canada, add 600
Russia: 2,600
China: 2,600
India: 900

This is not about good passenger rail - Russia has about the same p-km/route-km as Europe, and China and India both have a lot more.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

I'm worried that even though Tarush Reddy is portrayed as fighting office politics against the Indian military protags in @ww3real, I still portrayed the Research and Analysis Wing as far more competent than it actually is.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Remote work is on net an increase in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions rather than a decrease.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Hebrew linguistic point:

In Hebrew, the coverterm for any populated place is "yishuv." A yishuv can be a city ("ir"), a village ("kfar"), a small town ("ayara"), a kibbutz, etc. The root YShB means "to sit." In English the best translation is "settlement," though in US Census-speak it's "place."

However, in an Israeli context, the Jewish settlements in the West Bank are not called yishuvim. The Hebrew word for one of them is "hitnakhalut," the root NḤL connoting a squat or seizure by force.

Alon, (edited ) to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Across:

  1. Depression a long way away
  2. End of message after high school breaths of relief
  3. Fruit I objectively lend with no mark of excellence
  4. English brew flipped and curtailed Helen in Slavic lands
  5. Ocean urinated to the left

Down:

  1. Arab name like mother
  2. Confused felid farm plot
  3. Wrong gray general below agriculture
  4. European river element X after P
  5. Break cooking utensils up
Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

The released hostages and their families tell stories of abuse not just by Hamas operatives but also by an UNRWA teacher and a doctor who kept hostages in their own homes. It raises the question of how many of the non-combatants killed in IDF strikes were actually non-combatants, vs. members of civil society engaging in casual war crimes.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Berlin and Brandenburg are expanding the Deutschlandticket to a handful of intercity routes within the area, such as to Cottbus. https://www.themayor.eu/en/a/view/germany-s-49-euro-ticket-will-grant-access-to-some-long-distance-routes-12217

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Question to the gallery: what do we think the best day in Pinochet's life was? Was it 11.3.1990 (when he left office) or 10.12.2006 (when he finally died)? It's not like with Franco, with just a single day to celebrate on 20.11.1975.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

A released Filipino hostage says that they were so starved that he would save toilet paper, soak it in water, and eat it to stave off hunger.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Something that @TaliaRinger posted on Birdsite about Lyapunov times reminded me of what I wrote a couple years back calculating how chaotic bus timetables are. https://pedestrianobservations.com/2018/08/18/the-dynamics-of-bus-bunching/

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Pedestrian Observations: Quick Note: Anti-Green Identity Politics https://pedestrianobservations.com/2023/11/29/quick-note-anti-green-identity-politics/

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Israeli urbanist hivemind: what are the rules in Israel on elevators in new buildings? Are they required even in three- and four-floor buildings? (I know they weren't in the 1940s, but maybe it's changed since?)

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Hamas is claiming some of the next hostages to be freed were killed in an Israeli bombing; Israel is checking the claim. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-due-release-more-people-amid-efforts-extend-truce-2023-11-28/

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Anti-Ra'anana Aktion. https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001463624

(Due to NIMBYism in Ra'anana and other rich suburbs in the area, the metro line there may be canceled, which means the entire project has to be redesigned as the depot is supposed to be there.)

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

It hasn't hit Fedi yet, but there are extensive reports of abuse from hostages released by Hamas, including a 12-year-old who was forced to watch atrocity videos, and beatings.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

What's the argument against renaming streets with Turkish embassies after Soghomon Tehlirian?

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

"Hamas is not popular, but Israel's tactics ensure their survival." Very interesting analysis of the dilemma of the Israel-Gaza war.
Says Israel should have undertaken "a targeted, low-intensity, long-term operation that could sustainably reduce Hamas’ military capabilities and create conditions to introduce a new administration in Gaza."
Easier said than done, even were Bibi not in power, like every other idea I've read.
https://forward.com/opinion/571232/hamas-unpopular-in-gaza-before-2023-israel-war/

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@BenRossTransit "Targeted, low-intensity" is what Israel had been doing in the previous years. In contrast, now that the IDF is in Gaza on the ground (fuck the air war), Hamas's inability to fight symmetrically is clear. In general, every time there's a war in Gaza, Hamas's popularity tanks in Gaza and rises in the West Bank.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Right then

The serious planning for South East Europe has to start with what rail borders do I want to investigate

These are all now as pins in the map
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-south-east-europe_991708#7/43.619/20.660

The emphasis: ALL the places where lines exist between non-EU countries in SE Europe, external borders of the EU, and a couple of Croatian borders I am missing

Dark blue: must visit
Light blue: either have visited before and don't need re-checking, or are insignificant but could be added

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@jon How long do the border controls take at the non-Schengen crossings? Is it a short testimonial stop as at the border with Denmark or Poland, or do they check everyone as at the US-Canada border?

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

In Europe, we don't really have an inequality problem. We have a growth problem. Most required fixes are inequality-neutral:

  • Improving cross-border infrastructure, labor mobility, and corporate ownership to increase scale
  • Liberalizing labor migration
  • Increasing Anglophony

Some fixes are inequality-reducing, like combating Italian economic dwarfism. Some are inequality-increasing: reducing place-based subsidies to declining regions. But on net, what we need is growth, keeping ~0.3 Gini.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@PGLux @DiegoBeghin India outproduced the EU in 2022. Its GDP per capita is $9,000 in PPP terms. Think about how to get to $100,000, not what made $10,000 back in the day.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@PGLux @DiegoBeghin Yeah, if you're thinking in terms of the economy of 1950, you need all of that. But we're richer now than then and it's more important to invest in the economy of 2050 - biotech, AI, green tech (think aluminum, not steel), etc.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@PGLux @DiegoBeghin South Korea has the per-hour GDP of Poland or Portugal. It has a lot of heavy industry, but its office work productivity is really bad due to the brutal salaryman system.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@PGLux @DiegoBeghin It is, but this is with brutal working hours. Japan and Korea are best characterized as earning Italian incomes (aspirationally French) for American working hours. I think Taiwan is doing better, but it specifically doesn't have the rigid salaryman culture (and has similar gender gaps to the US and Western Europe, not the much wider Korean or Japanese levels), and is also most famous for semiconductors and non-pharmaceutical interventions rather than steel.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@PGLux @DiegoBeghin Yeah, Japanese working hours have been reduced to be roughly American, rather than worse than American. But Japan also has the GDP per capita of Italy. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD?locations=JP-IT-FR-DE-US

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@PGLux @DiegoBeghin It's in PPP terms.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@YomSen More Anglophone European countries have lower inequality but that's just because they're likelier to be in Northern Europe.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@bilginveperk @PGLux @DiegoBeghin >Also the DPRK is very impressing for me- unlike other socialist countries they managed not to collapse in 1990s

You know they literally had famine in that timeframe, right?

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@bilginveperk @PGLux @DiegoBeghin Sounds like collapse to me if they had famine. (For context, 1996-8 was also the worst period for Russia under Yeltsin, but still, no famine.)

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@PGLux @bilginveperk @DiegoBeghin American and Northern European pharma reduced corona from a killer to a bad cold. Cuban pharma has done what exactly - taken Cuba from having slightly better health outcomes than Southern Europe before the revolution to having slightly worse ones now?

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