Mike Hicks
@mulad.bsky.social
Tech guy into transpo and urbanism, politics to push the needle. Once a streets.mn person. A Swiftie to ease my unhappy singleness
Transit blog: https://hizeph400.blogspot.com/
I get lots of fake followers, so apologies for any errant blocks
Transit blog: https://hizeph400.blogspot.com/
I get lots of fake followers, so apologies for any errant blocks
Not great air quality this morning
February 14, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Not great air quality this morning
(they always fall through, anyway)
February 14, 2026 at 1:50 PM
(they always fall through, anyway)
I didn't get my traditional week-before-Valentine's random 3 matches in the dating apps this year. Partly aging out of the demographic, but I can blame the DHS goons for ruining the mood too
February 14, 2026 at 1:50 PM
I didn't get my traditional week-before-Valentine's random 3 matches in the dating apps this year. Partly aging out of the demographic, but I can blame the DHS goons for ruining the mood too
Reposted by Mike Hicks
I won't say I saw this coming, but—
Ahh, screw it. I totally saw this coming.
Ahh, screw it. I totally saw this coming.
Detroit killed the sedan. We may all live to regret it
GM ending production of the Chevy Malibu underscores that the Big Three are done with sedans. But consumers may not flock to expensive SUVs in response.
www.fastcompany.com
February 14, 2026 at 12:31 PM
I won't say I saw this coming, but—
Ahh, screw it. I totally saw this coming.
Ahh, screw it. I totally saw this coming.
Reposted by Mike Hicks
This framing US carmakers way too much credit.
Detroit's execs killed off *all* their entry level sedans. WHy? Because giant SUVs and trucks are more profitable.
Now they're paying the consequences.
Detroit's execs killed off *all* their entry level sedans. WHy? Because giant SUVs and trucks are more profitable.
Now they're paying the consequences.
America Fell Out of Love With the Sedan. Detroit Wants to Bring It Back.
With drivers looking for more affordable options, U.S. automakers are having second thoughts about abandoning the mass-market sedan.
www.wsj.com
February 14, 2026 at 12:29 PM
This framing US carmakers way too much credit.
Detroit's execs killed off *all* their entry level sedans. WHy? Because giant SUVs and trucks are more profitable.
Now they're paying the consequences.
Detroit's execs killed off *all* their entry level sedans. WHy? Because giant SUVs and trucks are more profitable.
Now they're paying the consequences.
Geoff Marshall posted a video 10 days ago about the GWR 230001 starting passenger operations. It's only running one day a week on Saturdays, though.
youtu.be/Lvb33T3ZJnw
youtu.be/Lvb33T3ZJnw
The GWR Battery Train Is Now In Passenger Service!
YouTube video by Geoff Marshall
youtu.be
February 14, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Geoff Marshall posted a video 10 days ago about the GWR 230001 starting passenger operations. It's only running one day a week on Saturdays, though.
youtu.be/Lvb33T3ZJnw
youtu.be/Lvb33T3ZJnw
Reposted by Mike Hicks
Well this has ruined ugly jewelry for me
Everyone’s talking about Swarovski right now so let’s take a second and dive into the fact that they were NAZI Nazis. Like full-on Seig Heil, prosecuted after the war level Nazis and the modern company has done everything they can to hide all their archives and prevent anyone accessing them.
![Members of the Swarovski family were early, active and enthusiastic champions of Nazism, and at least six of its members maintained membership in the illegal party prior to Austria's annexation to Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.!23] Three weeks earlier, 500 marchers in the Tyrolean town of Wattens held a torchlight procession that ended with chants of "Sieg Heil" and "Heil Hitler". The majority of the participants, police determined, were Swarovski plant employees, among them Swarovski family heirs Alfred, Wilhelm and Friedrich. 124]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nvfznp5ls3wcf6aktlfkfkp3/bafkreicscf6waklhijry6fblsvr4psk7yku2jauu5hqsn4n765i4gkl2pe@jpeg)
![In its report to the state police on 14 February 1947, the Innsbruck district administrator called company head Alfred Swarovski "an enthusiastic member of the NSDAP." [25] Alfred Swarovski praised Hitler at business gatherings and took actions as a regional business leader to ensure that "Tyrolean industry could be integrated as smoothly as possible into the enormous gears of the economy of Greater Germany and into the National Socialist economic order." He sent
"grateful loyalty greetings" to Adolf Hitler on his 49th birthday and arranged a donation of 100,000 shillings for Hitler to establish a holiday home in Tyrol.!26]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nvfznp5ls3wcf6aktlfkfkp3/bafkreifou66ng5baxhiicmm6d3zntcqosn7pqwzafclwf2qs7xtq7wvqku@jpeg)
![In 1994, historian Horst Schreiber wrote about Swarovski's past but was not granted access to company archives. (27]
The contemporary Swarovski company commissioned historian Dieter Stiefel as "a step towards dealing with our history in a serious and very pro-active manner," board spokesman Markus Langes-Swarovski said in
2018; however, the study was not published because, Langes-Swarovski said, "Swarovski is a company that generally tries to keep the owners' personal stories largely out of the public eye because it does nothing for the business." (28]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nvfznp5ls3wcf6aktlfkfkp3/bafkreift4wajp6nsrzdrumb2cnyv7s5nvswakab7h62jnjqua4i7tf2qeq@jpeg)
February 14, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Well this has ruined ugly jewelry for me
A good interview with Jeremy Raskin
youtu.be/iNGZXXowIvY
youtu.be/iNGZXXowIvY
The guy who made Pam Bondi Lose her Mind ft. Rep. Jamie Raskin
YouTube video by LegalEagle
youtu.be
February 14, 2026 at 9:36 AM
A good interview with Jeremy Raskin
youtu.be/iNGZXXowIvY
youtu.be/iNGZXXowIvY
Reposted by Mike Hicks
They say to dream the world you want to live in or whatever, and I want to inhabit a world with hourly trains from Chicago to St. Paul!! I mean well and truly, ideally we'd have hourly trains 6 am to 6 p.m. [& also on a greenfield high speed rail line that stops in Rochester! Sigh, one day]
The bill calls for state-/local-level planning (not funding) for eventual hourly trains from Chicago to:
🚆 Milwaukee
🚆 Madison and St Paul
🚆 Rockford
🚆 St Louis
🚆 Champaign
🚆 Louisville
🚆 Cincinnati
🚆 Columbus
🚆 Detroit
🚆 Moline (every 2 hours)
🚆 Peoria (every 2 hours)
🚆 Galesburg (every 4 hours)
🚆 Milwaukee
🚆 Madison and St Paul
🚆 Rockford
🚆 St Louis
🚆 Champaign
🚆 Louisville
🚆 Cincinnati
🚆 Columbus
🚆 Detroit
🚆 Moline (every 2 hours)
🚆 Peoria (every 2 hours)
🚆 Galesburg (every 4 hours)
February 14, 2026 at 5:40 AM
They say to dream the world you want to live in or whatever, and I want to inhabit a world with hourly trains from Chicago to St. Paul!! I mean well and truly, ideally we'd have hourly trains 6 am to 6 p.m. [& also on a greenfield high speed rail line that stops in Rochester! Sigh, one day]
Reposted by Mike Hicks
Another v v good piece of analysis from @onlyfacts.io here - showing how the shift to uts and SUVs in Australia is a major component of rising transport emissions
Remarkable how unassailable this deadly trend is, in Aus
onlyfacts.io/newsletters/...
Remarkable how unassailable this deadly trend is, in Aus
onlyfacts.io/newsletters/...
February 14, 2026 at 7:08 AM
Another v v good piece of analysis from @onlyfacts.io here - showing how the shift to uts and SUVs in Australia is a major component of rising transport emissions
Remarkable how unassailable this deadly trend is, in Aus
onlyfacts.io/newsletters/...
Remarkable how unassailable this deadly trend is, in Aus
onlyfacts.io/newsletters/...
Reposted by Mike Hicks
We should repeal this law I think
Paul please start the conversation to repeal this law
February 14, 2026 at 3:02 AM
We should repeal this law I think
Reposted by Mike Hicks
Calling the requirement for a judicial warrant before entering a person’s home one of the Democrats’ “new restrictions on federal immigration agents” crosses the line into outright falsehood. It’s in the Bill of Rights! A rule as old as the republic.
February 14, 2026 at 4:29 AM
Calling the requirement for a judicial warrant before entering a person’s home one of the Democrats’ “new restrictions on federal immigration agents” crosses the line into outright falsehood. It’s in the Bill of Rights! A rule as old as the republic.
I presume at least a few people don't want to be sharing a hotel with the government thugs. Some of the reporters who visited mentioned very tense atmospheres in them
February 14, 2026 at 8:40 AM
I presume at least a few people don't want to be sharing a hotel with the government thugs. Some of the reporters who visited mentioned very tense atmospheres in them
Reposted by Mike Hicks
we still doing these?
February 14, 2026 at 2:10 AM
we still doing these?
Reposted by Mike Hicks
if you see a glowing orb in Chinatown in DC, go down the alley to it
February 14, 2026 at 1:27 AM
if you see a glowing orb in Chinatown in DC, go down the alley to it
Reposted by Mike Hicks
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it.
February 14, 2026 at 12:36 AM
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it.
Reposted by Mike Hicks
Ugh men in dresses? When did everything becomes so woke?
Bryn Mawr School PTA Talent Show (1949)
Source: Hennepin County Library
Members of the Bryn Mawr Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association rehearse in drag for a talent show to raise money for new shower equipment in the school gymnasium. L to R: Alderman Leonard Ramberg, Howard Cartier, ...
Source: Hennepin County Library
Members of the Bryn Mawr Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association rehearse in drag for a talent show to raise money for new shower equipment in the school gymnasium. L to R: Alderman Leonard Ramberg, Howard Cartier, ...
February 14, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Ugh men in dresses? When did everything becomes so woke?
Reposted by Mike Hicks
Jacob Frey on TV: “We just approved rental assistance that is targeted towards the people who hopefully need it most.”
Jacob Frey to Minneapolis City Council:
Jacob Frey to Minneapolis City Council:
February 13, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Jacob Frey on TV: “We just approved rental assistance that is targeted towards the people who hopefully need it most.”
Jacob Frey to Minneapolis City Council:
Jacob Frey to Minneapolis City Council:
Hah! Weird. Yeah, your posts are all jammed at the top of my view, although fresh posts start afterwards
February 14, 2026 at 12:38 AM
Hah! Weird. Yeah, your posts are all jammed at the top of my view, although fresh posts start afterwards
Reposted by Mike Hicks
Let’s vibe-regulate US transport with Gemini!
‘We’re flooding the zone’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BOj... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260213-let... - podcast
time: 6 min 13 sec
‘We’re flooding the zone’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BOj... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260213-let... - podcast
time: 6 min 13 sec
February 13, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Let’s vibe-regulate US transport with Gemini!
‘We’re flooding the zone’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BOj... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260213-let... - podcast
time: 6 min 13 sec
‘We’re flooding the zone’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BOj... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260213-let... - podcast
time: 6 min 13 sec
My screen time remains a disaster
February 13, 2026 at 11:47 PM
My screen time remains a disaster
I also wouldn't be surprised if numbers shifted noticeably just since '24, as a lot of people got them after the election
February 13, 2026 at 11:45 PM
I also wouldn't be surprised if numbers shifted noticeably just since '24, as a lot of people got them after the election
I thought Minnesota used to be higher. I wonder if it's gone down since Delta took over Northwest (though you might expect Georgia to do better)
I saw this on Reddit this morning. A map of passport ownership. Looks pretty familiar, (minus Utah and its missionaries.)
February 13, 2026 at 11:41 PM
I thought Minnesota used to be higher. I wonder if it's gone down since Delta took over Northwest (though you might expect Georgia to do better)
Reposted by Mike Hicks
I’d really like the world to stop speed running toward maximum chaos.
Like I enjoy little a chaos, as a treat, but based on my analysis of the data, global chaos trends right now are rising at an unsustainable rate for both my blood pressure and modern medicine.
Like I enjoy little a chaos, as a treat, but based on my analysis of the data, global chaos trends right now are rising at an unsustainable rate for both my blood pressure and modern medicine.
February 13, 2026 at 9:56 PM
I’d really like the world to stop speed running toward maximum chaos.
Like I enjoy little a chaos, as a treat, but based on my analysis of the data, global chaos trends right now are rising at an unsustainable rate for both my blood pressure and modern medicine.
Like I enjoy little a chaos, as a treat, but based on my analysis of the data, global chaos trends right now are rising at an unsustainable rate for both my blood pressure and modern medicine.