Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 18h

It was so fun. And so weird. Perfect

Reposted by Bruce Dawson

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 1d

Three newly published books argue that cars are destroying society as well as the planet.

Is the world finally ready to rein in the automobile?

My essay, in @bloomberg.com (gift link below)

‘Car Brain’ Is Making the US Unhealthy and Dangerous. EVs Won’t Fix It.

A trio of new books argue that we need to confront the full range of costs that car-based living has imposed on our cities, our health and our society.

www.bloomberg.com

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Reposted by Bruce Dawson

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 1d

"Though robotaxis have notched up impressive growth, they look ploddingly pedestrian compared with far zippier pedal-powered rivals. [Waymo] proudly proclaims that its cars do around 250k trips a week. Yet in NYC alone that number of trips is made every three days using the city’s bikeshare scheme."

Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport

Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war

www.economist.com

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 1d

A friend forwarded me a link to your article and the mention of the VS Code leak is what got me remembering that I should blog about the VS Code leak that I found. So the reference made sense

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Reposted by Bruce Dawson

Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 1d

Denver, CO (pop 730k) has given 10,000 ebike vouchers.

The state of California (pop 39M) has given out 2,000 ebike vouchers, and the program is likely ending due to mismanagement.

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 2d

since denver launched its e-bike rebate program - the have sold 10,000 e-bikes and reduced an estimated 1,000,000 car trips - replacing millions of VMTs and reducing air pollution

there are no climate silver bullets... but damn - e-bikes and e-cargo bikes are close

denvergov.org/Government/A...

Denver Celebrates 10,000 E-Bike Rebates

Since its inception in April 2022, Denver has distributed over 10,000 electric bikes (e-bikes) to community members through its pioneering e-bike rebate program. As the first U.S. city to implement su...

denvergov.org

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 1d

Yay crowdstrike!

Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 1d

They are less frequent now due to the whole "retired" thing, but they'll come out occasionally

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 1d

Can you share the FindZombieHandles output? I'm curious.

Also, my tutorial will let you get call stacks for handle leaks pretty easily, that will tell you who is to blame

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 1d

Outlook.exe is leaking process handles? That's disappointing. Microsoft should do better than that

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 1d

"75 zombies held by svchost.exe(15236)"

There is something ironic about the Program Compatibility Assistant Service having a handle leak. Physician, heal your compatibility bugs

As always however the majority of process handle leaks on my system are from HP software. They are unresponsive. Sigh...

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 2d

I'll see you tomorrow.

Aside: if anybody else from bsky is in London and wants to see The End of the Universe Friday night, featuring Katie Mack, then reply to me - I may have a spare ticket

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 2d

New blog post:
In 2021 I found an invisible memory leak in a tool (VS Code) that I have never used. Impossible? Easy:
randomascii.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/f...

Finding a VS Code Memory Leak

In 2021 I found a huge memory leak in VS code, totalling around 64 GB when I first saw it, but with no actual limit on how high it could go. I found this leak despite two obstacles that should have…

randomascii.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Bruce Dawson

Stop Skeletons From Fighting | SSFF @stopskeletons.bsky.social · 5d

WE RIDE FOR BUGRER BECKY
www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebec...

Donate to Help Rebecca Ann Heineman Fight Aggressive Cancer, organized by Rebecca Heineman

I’m Rebecca Ann Heineman. The very first video game champion, creat… Rebecca Heineman needs your support for Help Rebecca Ann Heineman Fight Aggressive Cancer

www.gofundme.com

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Reposted by Bruce Dawson

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 6d

A quick TL;DR for those who haven’t been following along over the past few hours.

Yesterday, a Trump-appointed judge blocked the president’s call-up of Oregon’s National Guard.

Trump tried to circumvent that ruling by sending already-federalized California national guard troops to Portland.

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Reposted by Bruce Dawson

Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · Jul 7

Doctors are AMAZED at these 10 ways to BOOST your immune system:

The Tetanus vaccine
The Measles vaccine
The Polio vaccine
The Mumps vaccine
The HPV vaccine
The Pneumonia vaccine
The Hepatitis B vaccine
The Rubella vaccine
The Diphtheria vaccine
The Covid-19 vaccine

- @hislopmd.bsky.social

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 7d

It's basically a sin curve. Which makes sense because it would be weird if the day length did a hard turn from getting longer to getting shorter. Instead the lengthening gradually slows, reverses, accelerates, etc. It makes sense, actually

Reposted by Bruce Dawson

T. Greg "Antifa General Counsel (Retired)" Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 7d

Cops are great

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 8d

Federal officer blasts chemical spray into vocal but nonviolent Portland protester, video shows

The interaction illustrates how federal law enforcement officers do use aggressive tactics against protesters who yell and needle officers but don’t appear to present clear physical threats.

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 8d

And it's a ton of paperwork for a situation where almost nobody ever pays tax (the exclusion is currently over $13 million), so it's just stress for nothing.

I don't mind paying taxes. I just hate excessive paperwork.

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 8d

I'll bet a lot of people pay accountants to do this just because form 709 is so inscrutable.

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 8d

I fired up Excel to do the math, and then found some online examples to make sure I was doing it right, but it really shouldn't be that hard. Four tax brackets, plus some examples, plus a spreadsheet you can download to do the math should be the minimum.

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 8d

If a US citizen gives a gift of more than $19,000 USD to a person in one year then they need to file form 709. This includes calculating how much tax they owe and I do not understand why they need twelve tax brackets!
www.irs.gov/instructions...

Instructions for Form 709 (2024) | Internal Revenue Service

www.irs.gov

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Reposted by Bruce Dawson

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 9d

so a $750k subsidy in 100 small electric SUVs would still result in an increase in CO2 emissions of 3,500 tons...

or it could have funded 400 e-bikes that displace 250 cares and result in avoiding over 14,000 tons of CO2. a 17,500 ton delta.

EV subsidies are not about climate action

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Reposted by Bruce Dawson

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 9d

'To put it bluntly, a path to zero emissions that relies on electrifying individual cars is not only the most resource-intensive route to zero emissions, but also the slowest route to that urgent goal'

jaja

1 model y battery requires as much Li+ as 160 e-bikes

www.commondreams.org/opinion/gree...

Can We Design a Green Transition That Doesn't Turbocharge Extraction? | Common Dreams

Policies that promote alternatives to car use, reduce sprawl, encourage more compact batteries, and require recycling would all reduce the scale of mining needed for carbon-free transportation.

www.commondreams.org

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Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 9d

It is also impressive how many of the links in the official Perforce instructions are to non-existent pages. Big "404" became my constant companion.

But, it's working now. Migrated and upgraded. Phew.

Bruce Dawson @randomascii.bsky.social · 9d

Which is more annoying? Uninstalling software (Omen) that leaves entries in Task Scheduler pointing to absent executables, or uninstalling software (OneDrive) that leaves executables installed and running from Task Scheduler?

Either way, I do not want!

A list of scheduled tasks on Windows 11 including four for Omen and three for OneDrive

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