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• Post #4348568

  “Recipes instruct us to preheat our ovens even though it’s unnecessary and a waste of energy.” Instead: “Depending on your oven, add six to eight minutes to the stated cooking time.” • Minor benefit of preheating: cooking times that work for all ovens • Only food that requires preheating: home-made pizza • “[…] you can save a bit more energy by switching off the oven five to ten minutes before time’s up, and letting food finish cooking in residual heat.” https://www.orlandomurrin.com/post/why-...

• Post #3305942

  Mamdani shows that politics can work *for* the people (all the people). He shows that politicians can care. https://youtube.com/watch?v=2ZAnLjiSCrI

• Post #3305941

  What Ukraine’s cities are teaching us about collective care and planning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZXQKDr2QHo A few random points: 1/ • When it comes to a city recovering after a war, it makes sense to plan ahead because there is so much you need to prepare. • Decentralized infrastructures make cities more robust—in war and in peace. • For good city planning, people have to talk to each other that previously didn’t have to—e.g., the department of safety and the department of energy.

• Post #3305940

  Munich: temporary tiny house above parking lots. Article in German: https://isarblog.de/event/reallabor-zuhaus-haidhausen-muenchen/ My take: It’s not really that good a use of space: In that particular location, I’d rather have trees—there’s room for apartments elsewhere. But it shows how much public space is taken up by parking lots.

• Post #3292478

  Finland’s longest and highest bridge (*) is only for pedestrians, bikes and trams – but not for cars: https://zagdaily.com/urban/helsinki-opens-one-of-the-worlds-longest-car-free-bridges/ “[Henk Swarttouw, President of the European Cyclists’ Federation] said the project reflects a broader shift in European transport policy and ‘gives a clear message as to which modes are being prioritised.’ By visibly favouring walking, cycling and public transport, he said, it signals a long-term commitment to...

• Post #3292477

  *Really* changing one’s world view (when you find out things are different than you thought they were) is a profound, deeply unsettling experience. I’ve had that a few times in the last few years and it wasn’t fun. Anyone who goes through that has my sympathies—no matter what they thought before. (Note that that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be held responsible for what they did before.)

• Post #3292476

  Burkina Faso: “Yacouba Sawadogo (1946-2023) was known as ‘the man who stopped the desert’. Starting around 1980 during a phase of severe drought, he successfully created an almost 40-hectare forest on formerly barren and abandoned land.” “Sawadogo’s remarkable success builds on experimenting with traditional planting pits for soil, water and biomass retention, called ‘zaï’ in the local language.” https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/yacouba-sawadogo/

• Post #3292475

  Something being either true or false is a core element of western culture. However, it also limits our thinking (scientifically etc.). Buddhist philosophy goes beyond that dichotomy: https://aeon.co/essays/the-logic-of-buddhist-philosophy-goes-beyond-simple-truth

• Post #3292474

  The UN has published a new approach for measuring how well a country is doing. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is still a frequently used metric, but: “GDP ignores inequality and poverty. It does not capture environmental degradation. It misses non-monetary dimensions of well-being, like health, education and peace.” The report explains how to fix that: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2026/05/press-release-united-nations-proposes-new-global-dashboard-to-measure-progress-beyond-gdp/

• Post #3292473

  If you live in Munich, you can take a look at the Baumentscheid initiative which tries to get more trees planted in Munich (which ranks near the bottom in Germany when it comes to how much area is covered by greenery): https://www.baumentscheid-muenchen.de #München #Munich

• Post #3292472

  Currently, many trees in cities are planted in pits that are too small for them (normally roots extend as far out as the canopy). Therefore, they never reach their full sizes or die young. Which is bad for two reasons (in addition to being unnecessarily cruel): • Those trees only operate at a fraction of their full potential when it comes to cooling and cleaning air. • It costs more because the trees have to be replaced more often. Solution: Stockholm tree pits. https://www.paysalia.com/en/new...

• Post #3292471

  Underrated and important: “Active Listening Skills” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra6L83XwLko

• Post #2470684

  With protected bike lanes: • 4.3 times more bicycle commuters than with no bike lanes • 1.8 times more bicycle commuters than with standard bike lanes https://news.unm.edu/news/study-shows-protected-bike-lanes-increase-bicycle-commuting #Cycling

• Post #2035999

  1/ “How Ethiopia Is Embracing the EV Revolution and Ditching Fossil Fuel Cars” https://www.energyconnects.com/news/renewables/2026/february/electric-vehicle-sales-boom-as-ethiopia-bans-fossil-fuel-car-imports/ “In 2024, the Ethiopian government banned the import of fossil fuel-powered vehicles and slashed tariffs on their electric equivalents. It was a policy driven less by the country’s climate ambitions and more by fiscal pressures. For years, subsidizing gasoline for consumers has been a maj...

• Post #1947006

  “Nox Mobility has raised €2 million in pre-seed funding to develop a new generation of overnight trains.” “Unlike traditional night trains, where passengers share compartments, it is developing trains that provide each traveller with a fully private space.” https://tech.eu/2026/04/22/nox-mobility-raises-eur2m-pre-seed-to-rethink-europes-night-trains/

• Post #1947004

  [2025-08-02] “Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year”. How? • Most important factor: speed limits: “the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed of impact from 40 to 30 km/h” • Traffic calming measures (narrower roads, trees, etc.) slowed down drivers. • Improvements to the pedestrian and cycling infrastructure helped “reduce car use and, with it, the number of serious accidents.” https://www.politico.eu/article/helsinki-no-tra...

• Post #1947003

  1/ We are now seeing “pedal-by-wire” (PBW) bikes where pedaling charges a battery which drives a motor. https://electrek.co/2026/04/23/this-new-pedal-by-wire-e-bike-motor-wants-to-revolutionize-electric-bikes/

• Post #1947002

  Old-school bikers try out an electric bike: “I thought to do the test, I need a mate. And I need a mate who is the most set in the ways person I know.” Spoiler: They both enjoyed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcb5WOLjsDk

• Post #1947000

  Interesting eraser: When its corners become round after use, you can heat it and reshape them to restore their sharpness. (Probably not any more sustainable than other erasers, but it always feeling like new has other benefits.) https://bungu.store/products/kadoloop-eraser-seed

• Post #1946998

  “[…] a new project from the City of Yokohama is aiming to tackle the issue of food waste through a new type of locker-style vending machine installed in key places throughout the city that serves leftover, unsold food at a discount.” “All of the bread in the Kannai Station locker regularly sold out within a few hours every day.” • Employees of bakeries can go home earlier. • Bakeries get new customers as more people discover their goods. https://businessyokohama.com/blog/2025/01/08/japan-sdgs...

• Post #1946997

  It should be relatively easy to make bike theft so risky that virtually no one would do it anymore: The police could plant a ton of “bait bikes” in order to catch thieves. I wish that were a higher priority. #Cycling

• Post #1946996

  The response time for Paris firefighters has shortened because of bike lanes https://cyclingmagazine.ca/advocacy/paris-firefighters-response-time-has-shortened-because-of-bike-lanes/ • “Bike lanes help traffic flow” • “Lanes can be used for [first responder] vehicles” #Cycling

• Post #1946995

  “Tree City USA is an annual national recognition program designed to raise awareness of the value of community trees, set foundational standards for communities of all sizes, and celebrate community improvement.” https://www.arborday.org/our-work/tree-city-usa #USA

• Post #1902866

  The annual UN COP climate summits aren’t working—due to sabotage by petrostates and fossil fuel lobbyists. Therefore, Colombia and the Netherlands proposed to “create a place for a ‘coalition of the willing’ to come together to work out the practical steps of a true global energy transition. Including a timeline for phasing out fossil fuels and a financing plan to make it fair.” https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/santa-marta-conference-fossil-fuel-transition-can-be-turning-point 24–29 A...

• Post #1800932

  “Ebike ambulance hits the streets of Paris” “According to their designers, Emergency Bikes can reach urban Paris locations approximately twice as fast as traditional ambulances.” https://newatlas.com/bicycles/ebike-ambulance-emergency-bike/

• Post #1622849

  1/ Solving the pigeon problem in cities: Pigeons in cities: • City pigeons are not wild animals, they are descendants of pets (similar to wild dogs or cats in cities). • Pigeons actually eat grains, but in cities they mostly find bread. However, that doesn’t fill them up – which is why they constantly walk around and search for more food. Satiated pigeons don’t do that; you won’t see them.

• Post #1167792

  Our political system is democratic (to a degree). Our economy isn’t: Employees have remarkably little say. Similarly: customers (if there is a monopoly or an oligopoly). A goal for our future should be to make companies more democratic—e.g.: • Flat hierarchies • Worker cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, etc. • More consumer protection

• Post #1167791

  Seattle: “World’s first light rail on a floating bridge: For I-90, Sound Transit had to invent ‘a brilliant solution’” https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/light-rail-track-floating-bridge-i-90-sound-transit/ It’s now April 2026 and the new light rail line is finished: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD-D1z3g-Pc #PublicTransit

• Post #1167789

  1/ Repairability of e-bike batteries: • Most e-bike battery packs are filled with cylindrical cells. The standard is the “18650 cell” which has a diameter of 18mm and a height of 65mm. • Alas, these cells are welded into the pack. That means repairing and repurposing is nearly impossible and recycling is difficult.

• Post #1167788

  In Cambodia, Southern giant pouched rats are used to detect landmines: • Rats have a sharper sense of smell than dogs. • Due to their light weight of 1 kg, a rat does not set off mines and can therefore move freely and quickly. Speed – checking 200 m² (about 14.14m × 14.14m): • Humans: 5 days • Rats: 15–20 minutes Material: • Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kgb2-KXzFE • The rat Magawa even got a statue for his services: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magawa