Let's start with an article I wrote about what we consider political statements. In short, I think that most people consider something "political" if they don't love the idea. It's not political if it's an idea they are comfortable with because "that's just how things are".
When we feel like something is "political" we should ask ourselves if it's just something we don't like? Will opposing the idea and calling it "political" have the potential to cause harm to minority groups?
If so, maybe we should spend time working on ourselves.
Everybody was Following the Law
This is a good article, built on tragic circumstances, about a traffic accident that killed a girl and gravely injured her father. The hard part is that everyone involved, including the driver, was following traffic laws. The issue is the design of the intersection that sets drivers up for failure. Not only is the father injured, and a family grieving the loss of a child, but the driver will suffer mental consequences for the rest of her life.
This type of issue happens regularly, and yet we continue to design streets in the same ways learning nothing. The traffic engineer should be on the hook for a bad design.
But there is some hope in sight if we're allowed to add art to existing crosswalks. The linked study showed that some paint on crosswalks can decrease the crash rates involving pedestrians by 50% and the total crash rate by 17%. The biggest hurdle is that some traffic planners don't feel that the coloured materials used conform to the current Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices published in 2009.
So, if you want safer pedestrian crossings, it could be as simple as lobbying your local government to allow art in the crosswalks. Use the study above as a way to help move them along.
It's Expensive to Watch a Kitten Meme
Yes data centers cost money, but have you ever thought about how much water they use? Turns out, they use a lot of water and this is an issue. BC is in the midst of it's worst wildfire season in history with the amount of land burned being orders of magnitude larger than any previous year.
Then go to places like Spain, referenced in the leading article, where drought is going to mean loosing 80-90% of the grain crop in the country because it can't be watered, yet data centers are gulping down water so we can watch YouTube videos and funny things on social media sites.
On a personal level "the cloud" always seems like some magical thing holding the internet. It's really just a computer someone else owns. This has implications for the personal data you store on other people's computers, and on the environmental impact of all the data being stored.
Star Trek Fun
Finally, here is a fun guide to field stripping your Voyager tricorder. Yup I'm a Star Trek fan, currently re-watching STNG as I have time and this is just pure fun. There is even a 2.5 hour video showing how it all works.