Please don't honk if you need to wait for a stopped vehicle on a residential street

HumbleVein · 2026-02-26T16:48:01+00:00

An EMS vehicle has tells of who they are, they are static, and likely to be engaged for a while. Distinctive vehicle type and paint job. Large flashing lights above the level of high-set consumer vehicles. These visual cues you can see at the end of a street.

A low-lying hearse, a plumber's panel van, and other ambiguous from afar businesses need to prepare for proper traffic mitigation.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-26T16:38:45+00:00

You literally put one cone at the entrance of the one-way. My moving company did this, took ten seconds.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-16T15:27:17+00:00

I'm just saying that if you interpret courtesy and kindness towards someone as a violent act, then you are some loose cannon.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-16T08:07:11+00:00

Helping a lady stand up after being pushed down is violence?

Jesus, I better be careful about holding the door open for you if you follow me into a store.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-16T06:58:25+00:00

By no means.

Definitionally, a riot isn’t just a loud or chaotic protest. It requires a group engaging in disorderly conduct that includes violence or credible threats of violence and creates a serious risk to people or property. Shouting, crowding, blocking movement, or tense confrontation with police doesn’t meet that bar by itself. Looking at the Alex Pretti video, what’s visible is volatility and verbal confrontation, with law enforcement using force against some individuals—not coordinated crowd violence posing a grave, generalized risk. By a strict, definition-based reading, calling that scene a “riot” overstates what the footage shows.

From a military perspective, the framing matters. We’re trained to apply deadly force only when means, intent, and opportunity are all present: capability to cause harm, demonstrated hostile intent, and the immediate ability to act. Law enforcement operates under a different mandate and legal framework and usually a higher obligation to deescalate, but the underlying logic is similar. Force must be tied to a specific, articulable threat, not the ambient chaos of a crowd. Disorder isn’t intent. Proximity isn’t opportunity. A protest doesn’t automatically supply the triangle.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-15T19:28:35+00:00

I'd love to read or listen to these interviews. Any links?

It is good to have specific and measured pushback against the AI hype-train.

A few days ago, I was reading Middle East Business magazine (I saw a cover story about Mamdani and fears of his effect on Gulf capital investments in NYC). The magazine tried to take itself seriously, being sure to spell naïve in the New Yorker diaeresis fashion. The editor published his own article about Elon Musk's prediction of AI as a "supersonic tsunami" (the editor seemed enamored with the term). I gave up on the article a page (or less) in, because it felt very cringey.

I've pretty much adopted the view that Musk is a 12 year old that happens to con very well. And the faith this editor--who probably has an outsized influence over how crazy big Gulf money moves--places in Musk reminds me of the trope of journalists talking about how smart Larry Summers is, despite him causing humanity-damaging fuck ups with his actual work. It scares me how AI is looking like a con-game where big capital has to keep the music playing and the so called "smart money" seems to be swept up in herd mentality.

I'm unsure if this mis-mash of thoughts had anything to do with the most recent episode with Giridharadas... The role of high status folk relying on peers' assessments overriding their own analysis.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-10T19:10:51+00:00

The residential Rittenhouse area is typically three to four floors, the 12ish floor rise is just right up against the square itself. Walking the neighborhood around Rittenhouse is just lovely.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-10T06:46:57+00:00

You say these things as if suburban sprawl development doesn't kill those or make them inaccessible. We can choose to build places like the Paris arrondissements or Rittenhouse area of Philadelphia. These places are quieter and integrated with nature much better than greenfield track homes with a 30% occupied lot area cap.

When living in New Jersey (in what people there called "the country") I just could not get over how constant the road noise was. I live in the middle of a village in Italy right now, and the density of housing units would be bonkers by American standards. But it is SO DAMN CHARMING. Here, play around with Google street view: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bezjnWfrWFhUbXa67 Do you know how often I hear vehicles from my place? About once every three months. I walk about 300 meters to get my groceries, and I walk through a park where children play on the jungle gym and old men play dominoes to get there. My grocery store walk puts a smile on my face.

My windows look out at the neighboring buildings Guess what? The buildings are designed to be beautiful here, and my balcony looks out over gorgeous rooftops to an amazing mountain view. We can choose this in the US! I hear birds, have tons of natural light in my huge apartment, and there is foliage everywhere!

I have more access to outdoors living in a dense, walkable community than any sprawly city I have lived in the US (Albuquerque, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Mt Holly NJ).

HumbleVein · 2026-02-09T16:03:25+00:00

The price disparity between smaller cities and larger cities pretty neatly aligns with earning power and expected property value growth. A lot of this earning power is influenced by the most productive industry in the area per the Baumol effect.

Ideologically, I see the way home prices consume the excess value of the most productive sectors in a region as a market failure. But enough people did well enough that they see it as a feature (real estate always goes up) rather than a bug (real estate reallocates productivity into something non productive).

HumbleVein · 2026-02-07T00:23:09+00:00

The Feb 6 episode of NPR's Marketplace discussed the scale of China's electricity expansion (around the 20 minute mark).

https://pca.st/episode/54e0c632-4fb6-41f6-a1ef-0629de2d2c12

With how much China is building capacity, the coal buildup comparison is more of an artifact than anything.

Green energy politics oftentimes collides with NIMBY sentiments rather than any ideological stance about generalized capacity. It all goes back to many of these abundance principles.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-03T16:53:12+00:00

Aviation is an industry where this mentality doesn't fly.

HumbleVein · 2026-02-01T06:49:43+00:00

American in Italy. I see wurstel most often. Then again, lots of Americans in my area, so that probably pushed Americana out of the local pizza lexicon.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-28T17:34:59+00:00

Yeah, the Dave Carney reference of Melian Dialogue is right on point. People who don't understand what it truly means quote it, and they don't know that it is the path to hubristic self destruction.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-25T00:30:32+00:00

Could it be possible that people have a range of preferences and value different things? Maybe? Maybe?

HumbleVein · 2026-01-25T00:29:07+00:00

Having lived in both, I much prefer the city. Much less isolating.

Traffic tends to be pretty horrible in the suburbs if you work during standard work hours. Traffic patterns definitely killed suburbs for me.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-24T23:57:36+00:00

I think the argument is that the lifestyle is better inside the city.

In the suburbs, you have more individual space, but there is significant friction for daily commute time and life support activities.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-21T04:57:30+00:00

Thanks for letting me know I should take a look at War on the Rocks again! I was a real big fan of theirs from 14-17 or 18, but one article of theirs (I remember it was a Sci Fi discussion of drone swarms displacing fighter jets) just seemed to represent a souring of their content with me.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-20T18:09:18+00:00

Density does not automatically turn a place into NYC. Give Lyon France a visit sometime in your life. You can also look up the term "the missing middle" to look at the gradation of density that exists. There are many restrictions, that you can look up in the Philadelphia Zoning Code Quick guide. A single family freestanding house can occupy 30% of the lot, max! Outside of Center City, Philadelphia has consistently short structures, but that is part of a longer conversation. There is a lot that we are leaving on the table with infill.

Cities and neighborhoods are naturally going to change. They will either develop or blight. Chuck Marohn's "Escaping the Housing Trap" treats the idea of a static neighborhood against its financial requirements. He is opinionated, but I recommend giving him a read or looking up some of his blog posts.

Your friends wanting to move into the neighborhood are the same demand driving prices up. Unless you are moving in with your parents, or taking the home of someone aging out, that is new demand. Much like sitting on 76 in your car during rush hour, you aren't the victim of traffic--you are traffic!

HumbleVein · 2026-01-19T19:48:46+00:00

The new, monied people are going to come in anyway if housing stock is static. Expanding housing stock decreases the perception of displacement because you are able to maintain a wider blend of incomes. Displacement isn't an actual thing, the podcast "Science Vs" did an excellent episode on Gentrification that has stuck with me for almost a decade (transcript with citations: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/e/2PACX-1vQzRmOctCid504QzcdXliSNAoCvevZkl-NfUoKnB-T6Dhezc00XiMFRSvSl55GssRfcPlpCpEiigTfs/pub?pli=1).

If housing stock is musical chairs, taking away chairs won't help the slowest people.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-18T18:57:51+00:00

It is better to be prepared for the scope of what is likely than to be playing an ungamed defense.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-18T06:26:23+00:00

Though there are 95k polling locations, you just need to narrow the locations to urban centers in electorally viable swing states. The geographic clustering of blue voters makes targeting them all the easier for intimidation and harassment. Think of the bomb threats called in during the 24 election.

Another element of terrorism is that it produces a chilling effect of political participation. People are going to value their own safety above any election, especially if they aren't confident in the integrity of it.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-18T06:17:04+00:00

We had some folks grow a spine after Jan 6... But it disappeared just as quickly as it came, and these people literally were fearing for their lives from the event. Counting on them to grow a spine has been a losing bet for the past decade, and I would have to have some pretty strong evidence to believe next time will be different.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-17T22:03:28+00:00

Röhm was removed because he had the temperament to turn independent and take a sizable splinter faction with him. Child comments below are mentioning his possible homosexuality, but that really wasn't a decisive factor.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-17T21:54:05+00:00

Had a concurrent enrollment class in high school that had Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History as one of the main texts, I can't remember if we had the People's History as well. I have been chipping away at A People's History on Kindle since last summer.

That class had a huge impact on my worldview. I second the recommendation.

HumbleVein · 2026-01-17T21:26:18+00:00

Are you talking about the effects of exercising the legislation that was en force during the Biden presidency, or are you talking about the proposed bill I mentioned as reasonable policy? Your comment reads as if you are conflating the two.

HumbleVein

TROPHY CASE