Herb (same username on the pachyderm)

I still won't call it "greedflation" though. This is just good, old fashioned capitalism. A crisis has drawn our attention to pricing, which is always dominated by corporate interests. #CapitalAsPower

Bichler & Nitzan (authors of /Capital As Power/) on the contemporary political economy of Israel: “The specific features of Israel – a small country whose capital concentrated very rapidly and was easy to transnationalize;” 1/2 bnarchives.yorku.ca/793/4/20230800…

Did you know that when inequality rises, social mobility tends to decline? The pattern is called the 'Great Gatsby curve', and you can find it everywhere. It turns out that you can even find it among the the über rich — aka the Forbes 400. economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/10/13/the…

If you think capitalists are only interested in growth, think again. Capitalism always operates well below its socio-technological capacity, because excessive growth undermines capitalized power. youtube.com/watch?v=HatQam…

@kylemathews @PhillipsPOBrien Could I have one please if there are any left? I see you found Gatsby, Kyle. Awesome

@PhillipsPOBrien happy to contribute my 7 invite codes as well

I have 5 new access codes for 💙 sky. Will give them out to people who I follow first. If I follow you and you want one, please dm.

@dmrider @alysanmati Love that they both bike to work

Note that Deputy Prime Minister Freeland is carrying a bike helmet (while waiting we were told she was parking her bike outside city hall). Chow, a fellow cyclist, seems to notice the helmet and exclaims. (H/T to @alysanmati for forensic video interpretation)

Deputy Prime Minister/Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland arrives at Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s office to talk about the pandemic-ravaged finances of Canada’s biggest city

@ainsleyambush @DaveLikesBikes If I recall correctly, CAN-Bike has something about this. If the dog gets close, get off the bike and put the bike between you and the dog. Easier said than done I'm sure.

@ainsleyambush @DaveLikesBikes As a kid growing up on a farm we always had a dog that was untrained and unleashed. I regret that now. I used to do lots of biking on roads around the farm but it never occurred to me that it was a problem.

At a cottage. Had a scary run in with 3 big dogs blocking a road while on a ride. I dismounted and slowly walked by the first two. The 3rd growled deeply and followed me. I then tried riding slowly, but it chased. Managed to get away but it was close. What's the right move there?

@Toronto_TODAY5 @jen_keesmaat It's assault. You're trying to see if there's some kind of loophole where it isn't. You can be charged with assault for just slapping someone's car, despite it not being actually someone's body. Pushing someone with a car is so much more obviously assault.

He did not "drive through" her. He drove ahead dead slow and at a safe speed, she walked at the same pace. She had every opportunity to leave the roadway, the car did not have an option to move around her, as she was deliberately blocking it, and she could move faster than the slow pace he kept the car at.

“There is a broad consensus, first that driving a car at a pedestrian can constitute deadly force, second that the use of deadly force is justified in self-defense only when a person reasonably believes that it is necessary to use deadly force in order to protect himself against death or serious bodily injury, or other serious felonies like rape or kidnapping.” If there is a person on the road in front of you, even if they are annoying and your worst enemy, you cannot simply drive through them with your vehicle.

@PatrickWalshPTB @jessicaeaton 20 km/h is probably already the actual average speed on many streets, I bet, given the amount of being stuck behind other cars. So I doubt that a 20 speed limit would make travelling by car worse. The bonus would be more people won't die

@jnyyz @KevinRupasinghe Definitely an improvement but I'm concerned about that bike lane next to two car lanes. We've yet to learn the lessons from the Dutch bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/a-m… that entering and exiting the roundabout creates conflicts so separate bikes out

Really interesting concept to improve one of Toronto's particular messy intersections at Dundas / Dupont / Annette!

@joshuahind I too am afraid of governments regulating my e-cargo bike away, but I also like batteries not exploding

@blair_fix Speaking of hype, I tried to get it to write an essay about differential accumulation and capital as power. For fun. Worse than the Wikipedia articles it mashed together. It won't be replacing students any time soon 😉

The AI hype bubble has become so insane that I felt compelled to comment. When tech pundits claim that AI could conquer the Earth, they completely misunderstand what makes biological life competent. (Hint: it's not intelligence.) #AI #hype economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/06/10/no-…

@PlannerSean @tomgara Only in Ontario. I never knew this existed growing up in Alberta

@tomgara We also have a special little snipper tool.

Feels rude to bring this up on Canada Day, but I only found out this weekend that they get their milk in little plastic bags and you snip off one corner of the bag to open it. They have a special little plastic jug for keeping the snipped bag in the fridge

@jen_keesmaat Black ice has gotten me too. Though now I put a studded tire on the front of our cargo bike and it's much better in winter. I'll put my kids in it but still go slowly. And hope for better infrastructure

I’m the same. I don’t cycle all year round, by a long stretch, although I do cycle now and then in the winter depending on the weather (I crashed badly on black ice once and have life long issues with my wrists as a result, so my hesitancy has some logic). Cycling is my main form of transportation for more than six months of the year, tho’ I think the key is both infrastructure and culture, honestly. Montreal is much colder than Toronto and has a much larger robust year round cycling culture. And, our winter cycling continues to grow. The big difference is that Montreal has exceptional cycling infrastructure. So that is key - especially when it gets dark early. Every year I contemplate getting the right gear but I just haven’t quite got my head there, yet. So, the TTC it is.

@dylan_reid Actually Lethbridge has elected NDPers a few times so it's not uniformly

Climate change is steadily destroying a huge industry in southern Alberta. But there's no mention of it in this article, and the inhabitants of the area continue to massively support climate-skeptical parties and representatives. thestar.com/business/2023/…

@BikeLaneDiary @michalhay Agreed!

@meslin You are forgiven

THREAD: So this fellow asked me what would have happened in Toronto's election last night - if we had a ranked ballot. My ADHD impulses compelled me to drop everything I'm SUPPOSED to be doing this morning, and I spent the last hour calculating a hypothetical runoff...

@DaveLikesBikes Yeah, it's so hard for me to not get into an argument. But the risk is high of getting a driver who is willing to escalate it to violence.

I find it a constant battle between standing up to abuse on the road, and trying to maintain enjoyment of cycling. I envy those who can brush off aggressions from drivers. I'm working on it and getting better - seems more and more likely driver's here won't hesitate to hurt you.

Putting this in the queue. I have a constant inner debate about confronting drivers. A while back a driver exited his vehicle and ran after me on foot screaming "I'm going to f*&king kill you". Not even a confrontation, just mad I took the lane to make a left and slowed him down

@JoshDehaas @jen_keesmaat No one is stopping you from driving downtown. It'll just take you a couple minutes longer. The mayor campaigned on rebuilding it at surface level and people voted for her. That's how it works

@jen_keesmaat A majority of voters last night support the current plan. There is no mandate for your destructive proposal that will make it harder for people to get downtown. It’s easy for people DT to advocate we all cycle or do transit but many of the rest of us need to drive to get places.

Our new Mayor-elect Olivia Chow will be stopping the frivolous and silly rebuilding of a tiny portion of highway that is gobbling up our capital budget. This is a win for people over cars. This is a win for financial prudence over politicking. This is a win for a city looking to the future over a city stuck in the past. The debate is over. Here is a good backgrounder for those wanting to get up to speed on the issue. theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-a…