Douglas O'Reagan

@ericfoster I hope someone writes a book (or three) on that company! Fascinating history.

@ericfoster It doesn't go into a lot of detail, but that plant has a fascinating history. I know it was hotly contested, with many employees fleeing west (or in some cases, east) voluntarily as well as Osoaviakhim. I've also seen passing references to the plant as a hotbed of Cold War spying

@D_OReagan Does your book contains information regarding the absorption of the Carl Zeiss Optical Factory in Jena, Germany? I can't find much about what and who were taken and when. It was part of Osoavakhim correct? Thanks!

Board of Zoning Appeals delenda est cambridgeday.com/2023/03/10/boa… #Cambma

1/ Taking Nazi Technology is an essential read for understanding why innovation is hard, even when you can steal another country’s work. @D_OReagan goes well beyond Operation Paperclip & von Braun to cover US/France/UK/USSR efforts to seize tech for the whole industrial base

Academic timeline: 2007: Start PhD 2010: Start dissertation (basis of book) 2014: Finish PhD; postdocs & temp jobs start 2015: 1st meeting w/ book editor 2017: Book contract 2018: Give up on academia, enter private sector 2021: Book released 2023: Reviews of book out

@jbouie But how could be know what life is like without the FDA, since it's definitely been around since the origins of the country and there's no very clear historical record of the constant tragedies that led to its creation???

states have demonstrated again and again that they struggle to deliver basic social services (see: the recent debacles over unemployment insurance) and safeguard the basic liberties of citizens within their borders

Hope people can give it a read and take the survey! surveymonkey.com/r/ParkingDraft… @MassBike @cambbikesafety @cambikelanes @StreetsblogMASS @bikepedantic

From the #CambMA parking study ... sigh "I drive and it's awesome. What would be better is if we got rid of them bike lanes because it's so difficult to navigate around them. ... They get all this space in street. ... The city is so geared just to biking."

@gomezdanp @PieroDelecto @qzondervan Yep, and on principle I dislike that cars are the only ones catered to for this. If we were doing reminders of trash day, that would at least be a universal issue.

@PieroDelecto @qzondervan Point well taken, but there could be a less invasive solution for everyone. Maybe parking permit owners would get automatically enrolled to reminder phone calls and messages instead? Still think less noise disturbance is better for all - awake and asleep.

Feel-good story of the day: Maryland couple fights HOA, wins, gets to keep natural lawn instead of turf grass nytimes.com/2022/12/14/cli…

ChatGPT? Back in my day, we called it Ask Jeeves

@wombatofevil And all so we can gut the one nice thing to come out of Covid, and have more car traffic on main streets! Just awful

@D_OReagan Ignoring a 9-0 council vote is a very bad sign

@bradleyrsimpson @nils_gilman Can you see grad student unionization happening at Berkeley, you mean? uaw2865.org/about-our-unio…

@nils_gilman Maybe in some fields where individual faculty members apply for external grants that they use to hire post docs or to pay for individual PhD’s. And then again, probably only at elite private institutions where grad students don’t teach. Can you see this happening at Berkeley?

This is a very nice house, but if I'm paying $7.2m for a house, it sure isn't going to look like this zillow.com/homedetails/8-…

I was just emailing the #CambMA city council a few weeks ago asking for exactly this! There are so many places like this where it's completely impossible to get around with even a stroller, much less a wheelchair.

Pretty unfair that when your baby gets sick, you can get sick too, and have to deal with a sick baby that way. There ought to be a law

Pandemic Inman, with outdoor dining and reduced lanes, could have won this. I was shocked we just let it go back to being a (redesigned) car sewer. Restaurants there have lost so many meals I would have eaten outside there. #cambma

No really though I wanted to go because I have a baby and every day needs 1+ outings, but the Fluff Festival mostly seemed to consist of a series of extremely long lines. Glad it's successful! Hope it can scale bigger in the future so it's more fun

No one goes to #flufffestival, it's too crowded #cambma

Some days it's your turn to get the baby up, so you feed him, play with all of his toys till he's bored, read his books 100 times, go on a long walk, accompany him as he explores the house a few times, and then you've made it to 6am