@alan@subdued.social avatar

alan

@alan@subdued.social

Admin of subdued.social in #BellinghamWA. Lead Cartographer at https://vis.social/@stamen. Social media for https://social.ridetrans.it/@CascadiaRail. 15 minutes of fame: https://subdued.social/@pop_vs_soda

Was https://subdued.social/@mappingmashups on Twitter.
#cartography, #dataviz, #urbanism, #RankedChoiceVoting, #ElectoralReform, #ProportionalRepresentation, #HighSpeedRail, #OpenStreetMap, #TheExpanse

Don't want local content? Just mute the #BellinghamWA hashtag.

pronoun.is/he

Older posts: https://mastodon.social/@mappingmashups

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

alan, to maps
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Cool map showing the date of the most recent total eclipse for every point in Indiana. Made by the Holcomb Observatory & Planetarium at Butler University.

Great concept, and I'm wondering if anyone has seen a similar map for a larger area, ideally an interactive map for the entire world where you can see the year of the last eclipse wherever you are. The data is available, so surely someone has made such a map?

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@akkana @fraser @Wijfi regarding annular eclipses, I think I’m in the camp with @awoodruff which says that only total eclipses are worth counting.

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@not2b I think it’s right? Here’s that 1869 eclipse. The paths do vary in width from eclipse to eclipse. https://nationaleclipse.com/newspapers/images/map_08071869.png

alan, to Astro
@alan@subdued.social avatar

A reminder that there is no inherent reason that the apparent size of the moon happens to be the same as the sun creating perfectly aligned solar eclipses (except when it isn't, in the case of annular eclipses).

But how much of a coincidence is it? According to some random person's calculations on Quora:

"Given all the assumptions made let us say the probability of earth having a moon that would cause a total eclipse is between 1% and 4%."

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/548841/how-big-a-coincidence-is-the-sun-and-moon-having-almost-equal-apparent-sizes/806645

#astrodon #eclipse #moon

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@harry_wood Due to the elliptical nature of the moon's orbit we do get some variation in terms of how much of the sun is covered by the moon. This is called the Magnitude of the eclipse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitude_of_eclipse

And this varies even over the course of each eclipse. There are some "hybrid" eclipses that begin as annular eclipses then become total as the shadow moves across the earth.

An example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_20,_2023

(I'm just learning all this stuff today!)

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@harry_wood So in a hybrid eclipse, if you were standing at the transition point (where the eclipse magnitude is exactly 1) you'd get an incredibly short moment of totality. And the path of totality would be incredibly narrow at that point. So yes that would be somewhat less exciting.

However! You'd see more of the corona right up to the sun's edge, which is probably exciting for astronomers but maybe not a general viewer. You might also get more exciting "Baily's beads" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baily%27s_beads

alan, to AirBNB
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Ooh, here's a much better version of that Airbnb eclipse map that's been going around, by Alex Fitzpatrick and Erin Davis at Axios:

https://www.axios.com/2024/04/05/airbnb-bookings-eclipse-april-8-map

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@kristinHenry sure the aesthetics are better, and also (not to dunk on the original map too much) the color ramp in the axios map is more informative than the diverging scheme in the original, and the proportional circles are also much more effective in the new map too. Plus the map projection.

The original:

alan, to maps
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Apparently it's now a race to see how quick you can get a Blender map to render with new data after a news event? ;)

Well done James Farrell (eastofnowhere.co) via: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5Yv2b7utDq/

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Saw this going around on Tiktok: some interesting maps of baby name similarity between US states over time:

More maps and animations in the published research paper from the University of Rome: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1507143112

Via this tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cirruslyyesterday/video/7350814314753821983

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240403-dark-star-at-50-how-a-micro-budget-student-film-changed-sci-fi-forever

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@nyrath I haven’t seen this movie in decades, but I still remember most of it vividly. I have to thank my parents (who were also big fans) for turning me on to it at a very young age. This was certainly my first understanding of what a “cult movie” was. Highly recommended.

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

[T]hey were not explicitly told that the army’s goal was “revenge,” but expressed that “as soon as every target connected to Hamas becomes legitimate, and with almost any collateral damage being approved, it is clear to you that thousands of people are going to be killed. Even if officially every target is connected to Hamas, when the policy is so permissive, it loses all meaning.”

https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Another aid organization, Anera, is pausing operations in Gaza because Israel is killing too many aid workers.

https://www.anera.org/blog/anera-is-pausing-gaza-operations-amid-rising-threats-and-attack-on-wck/

alan, to trustandsafety
@alan@subdued.social avatar

We just expanded the section in our #SubduedSocial server rules to conform to the #IFTAS guidelines against targeted misgendering and deadnaming in the fediverse.

Read more here: https://about.iftas.org/2024/01/30/targeted-misgendering-and-deadnaming-in-the-fediverse/

#BetterSocialMedia #moderation #FediMod #MastoMods

cc @jaz

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Seems like this was the weekend where everyone learned about the asterisk in "trans*".

I didn't realize it had been in the OED since 2018: https://time.com/5211799/what-does-trans-asterisk-star-mean-dictionary/

motoridersd, to TheExpanse
@motoridersd@pug.ninja avatar

Finished S4 of . Most of it was a bit of a slog, 8 episode seasons would probably be best for these shows.

The last two episodes were great. Filip looks like Naomi and Marco's kid OMG

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@motoridersd S4 (and book 4) are divisive: For most people it’s a slog but some people love it. I did appreciate it a lot more on my second viewing and second reading, but it remains probably my least favorite. If it’s any consolation, they cut a lot from the book in order to add more content to keep Avasarala and Drummer’s characters active for that season of TV. There’s probably only like 5 episodes worth of content if you look only at the parts that came from the book. #theexpanse

openstreetmap, to trans
@openstreetmap@en.osm.town avatar

Happy Trans* Day of Visibility!

Trans people are mappers, and hackers, and cartographers, and have always been a part of the OpenStreetMap community.

The OpenStreetMap project is creating a freely licenced map of the world, based on how things actually are, based on how they act, and appear, not based on what some government says. OSM is trans positive.


https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/images/thumb/2/2f/2019_v1_OSM_Logo_trans.svg/480px-2019_v1_OSM_Logo_trans.svg.png

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@openstreetmap @sanfierro here you go https://time.com/5211799/what-does-trans-asterisk-star-mean-dictionary/

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

“My politics are whatever this is”, but as a whole thread:

https://urbanists.social/@straphanger/112168979067387415

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

"California Shows the U.S. Is Too Polarized for Top-Two Primaries"

https://www.governing.com/politics/california-shows-the-u-s-is-too-polarized-for-top-two-primaries

Frustrating article that makes good points about the flaws in the nonpartisan top-two primary system, but doesn't mention reforms that would fix it. In passing it says "Alaska has its own variation" of a non-partisan primary, but that variation () fixes all the problems listed in this article!

@FrancisWilkinson please take a look at Alaska's system more closely next time!

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@FrancisWilkinson Well, a large part of your article is (rightly) concerned about Democrats like Schiff effectively funding Republicans who they think will be weaker candidates in the general election. There would be zero incentive to do that in a ranked choice general election among the top four.

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@FrancisWilkinson Also, if the concern is that the “wrong” Democrat won (that is, assuming that Porter or Lee could have beaten Schiff in the general if they had made it through the primary) then RCV in the general would give that a chance to happen. I’m not saying top four on is own does anything at all. It’s the ranked choice top four that makes all the difference.

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@FrancisWilkinson Of course this election isn’t a good example if your premise is that top two elections are meant to produce moderates and that they’re failing to do that. (As an aside I’m not sure if I agree that moderation is the main goal of top two, vs preventing third party spoilers)

In this case Schiff was the moderate and Porter and Lee split the progressive lane. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/barbara-lee-katie-porter-california-senate-primary_n_65e50f3fe4b013678e15bf92/amp

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@FrancisWilkinson Had Schiff not juiced Garvey’s result and instead Schiff was facing off against a progressive in the general, the progressive vote would consolidate but the Garvey voters could vote for Schiff and help him win if they were worried about that. The top two system still would have worked fine as designed. The more moderate candidate will win in any case in this example.

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Yesterday the Fair Representation Act was re-introduced in Congress! This reform will stop gerrymandering and make the House of Representatives more competitive and more responsive to voters.

Learn more from here: https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/fair-representation-act/

And contact your representatives and ask them to support the !

https://p2a.co/ZraNU5n

alan,
@alan@subdued.social avatar

@InkySchwartz What valley are you in? This proposal would roll you up with some adjacent areas and give you more than one rep.

Simply increasing the number of reps but maintaining single-member districts is underwhelming. Just look at the smaller districts in state legislatures and you can see that they're just as easily gerrymandered, just as often stuck with unresponsive incumbents who can't be defeated, and still completely locks out third parties. A bigger house solves basically nothing.

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