The librarians I know are adamant about keeping private the records of what patrons have checked out or searched. I don’t know the history you refer to, where library records were used to identify certain sections of society. Where can I read more about that?

Here’s some entrypoint: https://www.onb.ac.at/en/more/about-us/timeline/1938-politic...

It seems annoying to search for, so I don’t blame you for not finding anything.

It's not just librarians, but many states have laws protecting patron privacy around what they have read.

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/statelaws

The first sentence tells you what to look for

I lived and worked in Oregon in the early 90s, and this is huge news. I’ll admit I’d gradually let cynicism overtake hope this outcome was possible. Now on East Coast, interesting to me that I’m first reading about this from BBC News and not US east coast media, which I believe has never appreciated the scale or importance of these land use decisions.

Last month while cleaning out a relative’s house, I made my first trip to a metal scrap yard. I had fishing weights (lead), old copper pipes, rolls of electrical wire, broken aluminum chairs - and street signs. I assumed the scrap yard would reject the street sign since, if they would accept it, why wouldn’t people steal them routinely? To my surprise they accepted everything, asked no questions nor asked for ID, and paid cash. The incentives here are clear. Maybe it’s the point of sale that needs closer scrutiny since police can’t guard all the light poles 24/7.

Most scrap yards are run by shady goons who don't care enough to enforce the rules.

If tugboats had been attending Dali, would they have had enough thrust to correct Dali’s course when it lost power?

Probably! Their engines are quite powerful.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service could use his skills immediately and his peers there would appreciate and enjoy his skills.

I hope the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service hires Surdy asap.

I believe that is the wrong approach.

Why is an individual after 3 years becoming the go to expert when the government employees many individuals for this very reason.

I don't mean this in a demeaning manner, but the government needs to raise the standard of expectations of their workers.

There is nowhere else I know of that has this sense of absolute job security and yet expectations on individuals never rise.

Why does government staff continue to grow at incredible numbers with the access to technology, and yet services don't leap forward?

How much plastic in the ocean gyres might be our supposedly recycled plastic?

Has anyone audited this by putting a few GPS-tracked plastic bottles into the recycling stream to see how many went to landfills or incinerators vs. being dumped in the ocean on the way to alleged recycling?

A cartography professor of mine once advised me to take another career path because cartography was dying; he added, “Google Maps has terrible maps- but no one seems to care.” It heartens me to see in HN comments that some are noticing. A pet peeve of mine is when water bodies go unlabeled. An old-fashioned paper map like the kind inserted in National Geographic mags when I was wee included a breathtaking amount of information, but that requires careful design so element labels don’t overlap etc.

It's still very much in the early stages, but https://zelonewolf.github.io/openstreetmap-americana/ is a project to build a rendering system that handles details better. It's using OpenStreetMap data in the OpenMapTiles schema, but giving lots of feedback to OMT when something won't work.

(There's some attempt to make things look nice, but the focis is still on capabilities)

Google and most other digital maps are indeed terrible maps. They are fine for a certain kind of navigation task, and great for looking up where the Starbucks nearest your current location is located, but for most other map uses, and certainly for actually getting a picture in your head of where you are or want to go, and how that relates to other things that you know or may want to know, or for thinking about an itinerary or even route that might be other than the shortest or fastest, they are terrible.

OsmAnd is a good option for this. I use it where Google Maps fails, namely layering multiple things, and going hiking.

If something is missing, you can slowly improve the map yourself. I've contributed hundreds of places to OSM in more distant places.

At least in the US, folks seem extremely sensitive to direct prices and are consequently penny-wise and pound-foolish (not in a Vimes's Boots way), where they could've spent an extra 5% or 10% on a better product or service and been happier for it, perhaps even saving more in short-term indirect costs. Even against a "free" product or service, spending $30 or $50 might save multiples in time -- but IME folks are really bad at pricing indirect costs.

A municipality is run by a group of individuals elected by other individuals, whereas you have framed your housing policy proposal as if pitching to a dictator.

Imagining how we might govern unfettered by frustrating negotiations with others is fun but dangerous.

How? Say more please!