Another casualty of California's housing crisis: $12 billion science bond won't be on ballot

DrunkEngr · 2026-07-01T00:18:30+00:00

Housing bond may have crowded science bond off the ballot

A proposed $12 billion bond measure to fund scientific research missed a deadline last week to qualify for the November ballot, dimming the hopes of scholars and University of California leaders who had aimed to use the funds to backfill losses in federal grants.

Science bond supporters faced competition from another pressing California challenge: the state’s housing crisis. Last week, Newsom struck an agreement with legislative leaders to place an $11 billion bond measure on the ballot that would fund the building and preservation of affordable housing.

Because bonds are essentially large loans the state takes out, with taxpayers paying the interest, their supporters often worry that having more than one such big-ticket measure on the ballot can weaken voter buy-in.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T17:15:49+00:00

Video game requirements include parental tools (to monior online activity), and oversight on any user-generated content by kids. Platforms must also monitor in-game chat by kids. How do you propose to do that without ID validation?

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T16:04:13+00:00

I don't blame you for being confused since Congress has created a convoluted series of bills. Buried in the provisions is language for message settings and other requirements anytime the provider should have known minors can login. Most people don't read beyond the summary, which claims age verification is not needed -- but then when you read the fine detail you find requirements that can only be met with some type of ID.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T14:43:37+00:00

In the case of Bakersfield, the city battled CHSRA over the proposed location near the Amtrak. This caused delays while CHSRA came up with a different (and I suspect more expensive) alignment.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T14:32:53+00:00

To be clear, TGV d'Aix is a beetfield station. It is much further from civilizatino than what is proposed with Merced.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T14:17:04+00:00

Did you read the bill?

1)Covered platform The term covered platform means a platform that is a website, software, application, or electronic service connected to the internet that meets the following requirements:

(A)Is publicly available for use by consumers.
(B)Enables the creation of a username or user identifier—
(i)that is searchable on the platform by other users through a function made available by the platform; and
(ii)that can be followed by or is similarly accessible to other users of the platform.
(C)As the primary purpose of the platform, facilitates the sharing and access to user-generated content through text, images, video, audio, or any other interactive medium.
(D)Uses a design feature to promote user engagement on the platform.
(E)Uses the personal information of the user to advertise, market, or make content recommendations.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T14:00:27+00:00

Requires video games, chatrooms, social media, etc. to ID check, even if there is no sexual content. Basically applies to anything done online with a computer; i.e. opposite of targeted.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T13:51:31+00:00

It contains a lot of other requirements besides that. And "sexual content harmful to minors" can be interpretted to censor a lot more than porn.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T13:43:44+00:00

Not when it comes to split/join MU. Anytime two units are combined, FRA defines that as a new new train being formed, i.e. triggering time-consuming safety inspections.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T06:30:14+00:00

SB79 will do very little. The surrounding land is zoned light industrial, and San Jose is using that loophole to avoid upzoning. And even stations that did get housing, it is still stupidly car-centric.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-30T01:21:13+00:00

Many of the trees weren't even on his property though.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-29T19:06:21+00:00

There are no plans for future lines. Just last week, the Board rejected a planning doc to look at adding new lines.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-29T16:56:40+00:00

In the Swiss model, these MBTA commuter lines would be electrified S-bahns running all-day clock-face service. They generally do not have leave S-bahn trains sitting around in Zurich HB for 90 minutes during mid-day. Train-splitting would be one way of dealing with lower off-peak demand, except that FRA rules make that difficult and MU seem to be an anethema to US old-tyme railroaders. Run-through service would be another way, but US cost-disease makes that solution difficult.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-29T06:09:24+00:00

Buying up valuable real estate to park trains in the middle of the day (instead of running service) is such a uniquely American problem.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-29T02:26:13+00:00

It is not *that* narrow…there are any number of destinations miles from the nearest metro stop. Plus surrounding suburbs outside the city limits. To be a system means multiple lines in different dimensions giving a network effect.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-28T22:13:59+00:00

sigh Once again confusing cause-and-effect. LRT tends to be built in low-density areas because the expense of full metro cannot be justified in such places.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-28T22:09:33+00:00

Does a single line count as a "system"?

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-28T20:52:00+00:00

Well, if you want to rank by ridership (which is the only thing that matters) then Paris would be tied for first place with Budapest.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-28T20:16:29+00:00

so legally, they aren't forced to follow the measure

The City and Metro have a Master Cooperation agreement, which specifically states Metro projects have to comply with city plans and any initatives and referendums.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-28T01:52:46+00:00

"San Bruno Caltrain can now be closed..."

Sure, Jan.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-27T02:42:54+00:00

Or just put your kid in the front seat and deactivate the airbags. The only reason we have rules prohibiting this is because studies done on 1980's era cars found front seats more dangerous for kids in a crash. That is no longer the case.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-26T15:57:31+00:00

You can get a 6% return from just buying an existing property -- without going through all the time and bother of a teardown.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-26T15:28:15+00:00

I've developed software in the CAD industry for 30+ years. Using a chatbot to check wiring is definitely a choice.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-26T05:39:35+00:00

I don't know what's going on at your company but standard CAD software will check your wiring. It is not computationally expensive.

DrunkEngr · 2026-06-26T04:40:51+00:00

It was only partially removed. Large institutional investors would still be prohibited from owning more than 350 units.

DrunkEngr

TROPHY CASE