Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox I want to add this to the good news: the ban on greyhound racing in New Zealand just went into effect at the beginning of the month
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
Oh and mRNA vaccines are the quintessence of vaccine technology - barely any side effects, surprisingly effective and flexible, and can be ramped up from development to production in record time - which is great for seasonal infections like the flu, or quickly-developing ones like ebola -
@YinYinFalcon @aburka @Elizafox Thank you! I knew I couldn't be the only one who thought weather forecasts have become terribly unreliable (and I'm also in the EU)! Could it be that they haven't updated their models for climate change yet?
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox seems like housing access pressures might actually slow down or even reverse in a lot of areas as the population ages (which will have it's own problems but can be addressed) and governments are increasingly pressured via a younger voter block to address the housing crisis. As we're starting to experience in Aus where I live with new tax policies to punish investors speculating and wealth storing whilst encouraging new homes to be built.
There's also efforts to densify and de-car-ify cities with increasing in teaching kids how to ride bikes (which might install long term habit changes). Because cities need to and because there's more public awareness for good transit infrastructure.
Internet infrastructure looks like it will continue to get expedentially faster relative to other technologies and cheaper.
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@Elizafox seems like housing access pressures might actually slow down or even reverse in a lot of areas as the population ages (which will have it's own problems but can be addressed) and governments are increasingly pressured via a younger voter block to address the housing crisis. As we're starting to experience in Aus where I live with new tax policies to punish investors speculating and wealth storing whilst encouraging new homes to be built.
There's also efforts to densify and de-car-ify cities with increasing in teaching kids how to ride bikes (which might install long term habit changes). Because cities need to and because there's more public awareness for good transit infrastructure.
Internet infrastructure looks like it will continue to get expedentially faster relative to other technologies and cheaper.
@Elizafox Electrification is actually going pretty well when one considers the inherent efficiency of it, even if renewable electricity produced is a fraction compared to total energy usage, the gap is much smaller when considering how much energy is lost under legacy methods.
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@aburka EU weather forecasting is good!
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Some apps give a diff but I don't know if anyone has a list of which ones do that.
Tusky (android only) https://tusky.app/ does, for example
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox Improvements in medicine in recent decades have been staggering. I wish they were covered more.
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@YinYinFalcon @aburka @Elizafox part of the reason for that is climate change, makes weather much more changeable and unpredictable.
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox Yes thanks for reminding, some things got better. As Max Roser puts it: "The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.
It is wrong to think these three statements contradict each other. We need to see that they are all true to see that a better world is possible."
https://ourworldindata.org/much-better-awful-can-be-better
#owid #ourworldindata -
Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox “All they do is doomscroll.“ Should Internet access be counted as a win then?
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@Elizafox China is also leading the way in electric vehicles and sodium batteries!
@codeofamor @Elizafox And yet, at the same time, somehow increasing production of coal power plants

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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox Maybe weather forecasting is better than ever SOMEWHERE, but where I live it has become noticeable worse in the last year or so. I use 3 weather apps and they used to be accurate in 1-2 days range, but currently you cannot be sure that it will not rain in 6-8 hours.
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@Elizafox Maybe weather forecasting is better than ever SOMEWHERE, but where I live it has become noticeable worse in the last year or so. I use 3 weather apps and they used to be accurate in 1-2 days range, but currently you cannot be sure that it will not rain in 6-8 hours.
@Paija2021 @Elizafox Yes, weather forecasting will show different things for me, mum, colleagues, my other app and the reports on radio, but all of these will also change randomly every hour or so, to the effect of even ten C difference for the next day. 100% rain - 0% rain.
And then something eventually happens from all of that forecasting and since by then they cycle through every possible scenario, one of those will be right

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@Elizafox lmao weather forecasting is a wild way to start off this list, ever since the defunding of NOAA the forecasts are absolutely worthless and a barrage of tornado watch notification fatigue, I agree with you on the rest of the items though
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox Thanks for this!
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox Weather forecasting in Tokyo was astonishingly good a couple of years ago. More recently, climate change has made it more unpredictable. Still surprisingly good compared to the bad ol' days.
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox
In many countries, life has become much better for women in some ways.I'm not saying it's perfect, or problem solved. But I am heartily glad I was born in the 20th C and not in the 15th.
If all we do is say that everything has gotten worse, then there is no response but to shrug our shoulders and suffer.
When we recognize where things have gotten better, we can point to that and say I'll have more of that please.
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@Elizafox
Flash storage is more expensive than ever and only improving in quality because it supports the AI bubble. When the bubble pops, the storage will briefly become near-worthless and manufacturers will stop making it, which will only make the crisis worse in the long run.I straight-up do not believe you about Amtrak. You're telling me more people are riding it now than in any of its first 10 years? And the per-capita statistics have got to be very different.
The unions we have are useless. Everyone in my store is unhappy with their job, the company keeps cutting our hours and taking it as a sign to keep doing it when it doesn't immediately kill the store. Yet nobody seriously believes we have the power to stop or reverse it.
Murder rates may be falling but have you considered that people being murdered by stochastic terrorism are generally not being counted? We're caught in the middle of several genocides brought on by public figures who affect societal behaviors in such a way that it makes their targets suicidal. Not to mention, victims of bombings during wars (and "illegal military operations") are also counted separately. The crime isn't going away, it's just centralizing to those with power.
We may have to create entirely new infrastructure to escape the corporate internet, access to it today is much less useful than it was 10-15 years ago thanks to corporate meddling like ads, generated content (AI), social media algorithms (AI), and age verification (AI). So long, and thanks for all the technological progress!
@halotroop2288 @Elizafox
Many more people take Amtrak than fly between NY and Washington, DC; and between NY and BostonObviously this has been the case before, up to some time in the 20th century, but it's been a while
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Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse
Here’s some things that actually haven’t:
- Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever (outside of the US)
- Solar: cheaper than natural gas
- Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
- Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
- Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
- Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
- Union membership in the US: rising
- Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
- CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
- Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
- Electrical access: still rising worldwide
- Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
- China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
- You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster
And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.
@Elizafox A couple of years ago I'd have agreed with you about the flash, but it costs 3x what it did then.
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