@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.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

The existence of Norway implies...

me_,
@me_@sueden.social avatar

@dgar Wait... this is the correct NORway flag 😂

BNONews, to random
@BNONews@mastodon.social avatar

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi confirmed dead after helicopter crashes into mountain

BNONews, to random
@BNONews@mastodon.social avatar

BREAKING: Iranian government confirms Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also killed in helicopter crash

w7voa, to random
@w7voa@journa.host avatar

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, who heads the National Unity party, says his group will quit the emergency coalition government if Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't agree to his requests, including a six-point plan for the Gaza conflict that will include post-war governance for the Palestinian territory.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Machine learning is prime for a "what people think I do" vs. "what I actually do" meme, where the public discourse about it is that it's some kind of AI revolution that will change the nature of work, and what it actually does is provide better modeling for predicting public transit ridership.

kechpaja,
@kechpaja@social.kechpaja.com avatar

@Alon Maybe:

I'm a machine learning algorithm!

What society thinks I am: magic wand erasing pile of work

What science fiction writers think I am: picture of Terminator

What rationalists think I am: God

What tech companies think I am: $$$

What people who know me know I can do when used correctly: optimizations such as OP's transit example

What I actually do 99% of the time: take your pick of currently popular funny LLM garbage output

CelloMomOnCars, to thailand
@CelloMomOnCars@mastodon.social avatar

Indonesia is moving its capital to Kalimantan island. And now,

" may have to consider relocating its capital because of rising sea levels.

Bangkok’s city government is exploring measures that include building dikes, along the lines of those used in the Netherlands, he said.

But “we’ve been thinking about moving”, Pavich said, noting that the discussions were still hypothetical and the issue was “very complex”."

https://borneobulletin.com.bn/climate-change-could-force-bangkok-to-move-official-warns/

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@CelloMomOnCars (A third reason to move the capital in some countries is to insulate an authoritarian government from popular pressure; Naypyidaw and the planned new capital for Egypt are both designed for this. The urban planning in such cities is designed to make it hard to protest and easy for the military to repress protesters. Nusantara has the same urban planning, but I don't know if that's part of its purpose or just convergent evolution in bad urban design.)

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@CelloMomOnCars Nusantara needs to be understood not as a reaction to climate change, but as a combination of two different trends, both negative: the Transmigrasi program sending out Javans to the rest of Indonesia to act as, essentially, settlers amidst the local population; and the general hostility of both nationalists and populists to large cities, which violate their sense of rural-national values. "We must decentralize, the capital city is too big" has been a common trope for generations.

Alon,
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

@CelloMomOnCars @DiegoBeghin @Colinvparker Some articles online about Naypyidaw:

https://www.yangongui.de/thematic-essays/naypyidaw-built-by-lonely-kings/
https://disegnojournal.com/newsfeed/naypyidaw-urban-design-myanmar-junta
https://averyreview.com/issues/24/auspicious-urbanisms
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/06/myanmars-military-built-new-capital-haven-power-other-countries-have-tried-that-too/
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/19/burmas-capital-naypyidaw-post-apocalypse-suburbia-highways-wifi

And on Egypt's New Administrative Capital (NAC):

https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/50877/cairos-panopticon-20
https://dawnmena.org/egypts-new-administrative-capital-is-another-desert-folly/
https://www.nyusternedg.org/blog/the-new-administrative-capital-smart-city-vanity-project-or-military-stronghold
https://edition.cnn.com/world/egypt-new-administrative-capital-spc-intl/index.html

alter_kaker, to Israel
@alter_kaker@hachyderm.io avatar

@omdimbeyachad Standing Together is an Jewish/Arab Israeli #solidarity org, they are forming a citizen guard to protect aid trucks going to #Gaza from attacks. Here is where you can donate to fund the guard and legal defense.

Please boost and share widely and donate if you can. If you are in #Israel or have contacts there, see the reply for a link to volunteer.

https://my.israelgives.org/en/fundme/aidprotection

DiegoBeghin, to random
@DiegoBeghin@mastodon.social avatar

Green NIMBYism is a mindset of "let's make our city really pleasant to live in... but let's not share it with anybody else". If you create a nice place but don't build housing, rents rise, excluding the poor. Sure, some of your housing may be public/subsidised but those will get waiting lists if you don't build more of them.

(Sorry about the rant, thoughts triggered by my election thread)

TaliaRinger, to random
@TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Any mathematicians looking for CS partners for the NSF proposal on AI for Math? We are thinking of doing something related to discovering relations as well as automatically formalizing proofs from both natural language and diagrams drawn by hand. We have a few other ideas too.

DiegoBeghin, to random
@DiegoBeghin@mastodon.social avatar

I don't like it that in Belgium, you have to choose which social-green politics to support, because the parties only propose half of the package at best.

Socialists: believe in building housing (especially public housing) and metros. But skeptical about traffic calming and bike lanes.

Greens: Very enthusiastic about traffic calming and new tram lines. Skeptical about new housing and the metro.

The regional/federal/EU elections are approaching and I still don't know which way I'm voting.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

TIL the Israeli ambassador showed up at Putin's sham election victory celebration two months ago. For shame. No wonder Ukraine and Poland aren't bothering to vote with Israel at the UN.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon This web page has an excellent compilation of Bibi & the Likud's pattern of preference for autocrats over Israel's democratic allies. https://www.conception2023.co.il/concept-3/

cidney, to random
@cidney@social.city-of-glass.net avatar

Solarpunk and game dev: some thoughts coming back from .

https://cidney.org/2024/05/11/21-42-solarpunk-and-game-dev

cidney, to random
@cidney@social.city-of-glass.net avatar

Hey, do I know any 2D artist/animators looking for freelance work making game assets for a adventure game? Have a couple projects I could use help with in the near future.

Transportist, to random
@Transportist@mastodon.social avatar

‘The cheap option’?: why the Gold Coast may be on track to build the most expensive light rail in the world | Australia news | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/11/the-cheap-option-why-the-gold-coast-may-be-on-track-to-build-the-most-expensive-light-rail-in-the-world

serge, to random
@serge@babka.social avatar

I usually love the podcast Unorthodox, but I was shocked at Liel Leibovitz's monologue about the campus protests.

I was shocked because he moved the issue from antisemitism, demonstrating the issues of discrimination and hatred clearly to what I can only describe as right wing nut-jobbery, praising hate-filled people like Ron DeSantis.

I was even more shocked, and dismayed, that this monologue seemed to be not only allowed, but tied directly to Tablet's membership campaign.

For Jews like me who are absolutely appalled at the hatred coming from these campus protests and left-leaning movements, it might seem attractive to give in to the most base elements of our psyche and "jump ship", but doing so ignores not only our own struggle, but that of others we care about, Queer folks, Black folks, and other marginalized people.

1/

DreadShips, to random
@DreadShips@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Tech bros love to boast about moving fast and breaking things, so it comes as some relief to find an instance where they've moved at a more stately 17 knots and yet still utterly fucked it.

In this case the "it" being carpool vehicles. Programmed to treat movement without the engine being switched on as either theft or witchcraft, they instantly bricked themselves in response.

What happened when these vehicles travelled by ferry was perhaps predictable...

DiegoBeghin, to random
@DiegoBeghin@mastodon.social avatar

Every debate about reducing the use of polluting modes of transport (driving, flying, etc.) goes like this:

  • Driving is harmful to the environment, let's reduce it.
  • But what about this POOR RURAL PERSON who needs to drive all the time?
  • Well, we're not banning it, just making it more expensive.
  • Isn't it unfair that the rich can buy their way out of being green?
  • We'll improve transport alternatives with the tax money.
  • But what about this poor person living in a REALLY remote area?
Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

On the one hand, Hamas turns out to have offered to deliver dead bodies to Israel in lieu of living hostages, and that's why Israel is restarting talks but not accepting its offer.

On the other hand, in Barak Ravid's reporting at least, the biggest concerns that Israeli negotiators have are not about the dead hostages but about Hamas's demand for a stage-two withdrawal from Gaza.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon Either Bibi's speeches & leaks have blown up a genuine opportunity for cease-fire & hostage return, or Hamas had no intention of ever agreeing to the cease-fire terms & Bibi's speeches & leaks have helped Hamas shift the blame onto Israel. I really don't know which it is, but either way Bibi once again is a disaster for Israel.

18+ gavi, to random

this will be a thread talking about the holocaust and antisemitism, specifically things i wish more non-jewish people knew about the holocaust and contemporary jewish views on the holocaust as a whole. this thread will contain some deeply upsetting topics, so just a heads up. i will provide education material as i can.

18+ gavi,

The victims of the Holocaust were not just Jews. A big group that's often overlooked is the Romani people that were also victims of the Holocaust as well. Antiziganism is still a big thing across modern Europe, and the way Roma are treated at times exists in tandem to how Jews are treated. Our trauma is unique, but we seem to exist in union with one another in the way people hate each of us. In the modern day it seems that when hatred of one rises, the other follows shortly after as well.

And unfortunately with antisemitism on the rise worldwide, this remains the case.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/updates/roma-persecution-antiziganism-intensifies-in-europe/
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/genocide-of-european-roma-gypsies-1939-1945

claasgefroi, to random German
@claasgefroi@mastodon.social avatar

Für ihre Titel muss man die taz lieben.

derpostillon, to random German
@derpostillon@mastodon.social avatar

Razzia bei Krah in Brüssel: Das fanden die Ermittler https://www.der-postillon.com/2024/05/krahzzia.html

pony, to random
@pony@blovice.bahnhof.cz avatar

imagine being a prime minister and they don't even get you first class

interfluidity, to random
@interfluidity@zirk.us avatar

rare photograph of and together.

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