But people love their cars
But people love their cars MTAIRA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Hope you didn’t have any Vancouver plans. Vancouver is cut off from the rest of Canada after a “storm of the century” — a term that used to mean “a storm that only occurs once every hundred years” but now means “a storm that increasingly typifies this century’s normal weather.” Vancouver is home to one of the biggest ports on the west coast; hope you’ve been enjoying the supply chain disruption, because things are about to get even more disrupted. Also cut off: Washington’s Makah and Lummi reservations.

Words, words, words. Jay Inslee said at an event in British Columbia this week that he’s committed to implementing an “ultra-high-speed transportation” rail network in the Pacific Northwest. That sure is a nice thing to say! Now here he is talking out of the highway side of his mouth.

The Seattle school board wants mandatory vaccines. The board voted unanimously in favor of urging the state to require COVID vaccines for public school students. (Update: Actually they're urging the state to review vaccine requirements, not to immediately add COVID to the list.) There were nearly 200 COVID outbreaks in August and September, and nearly a thousand cases reported in Seattle schools since then.

So much for the tolerant Earth. The moon will vanish for three hours tonight. They’re calling it an “eclipse,” but isn’t that just another way of saying that the moon has been cancelled by the largest woke mob in history, the entire Earth?

Have you read the SECB’s vote-no-on-the-recall explainer yet? Read it now. Or just read this tweet. (Oh and also remember to vote.)

Harvard grads aren’t smart, just rich. Almost half of Harvard’s white students are there for reasons other than academic performance — their families either bought their way in, or had the right connections.

Vancouver’s new electric fire truck is đŸ”„đŸ”„đŸ”„. Toot toot! Look at how cute this thing is. So much more maneuverable than the big trucks. Why doesn’t Seattle have one? (To be fair, SFD does have some hybrid vehicles.)

Apple will let you fix your phone starting next year. For years, Apple has resisted providing any tools or information that would allow users to repair broken phones and computers — but starting in 2022, they’ll launch a self-repair program that will hopefully make it a little cheaper and easier to deal with shattered glass and dead hard drives. And not just for Apple products, either.

Here’s the future of touch. Facebook/Meta is tinkering around with gloves that provide a bit of tactile feedback for VR users. It’s not quite as real as the holodeck, where objects feel convincingly solid; but when wearing one of their experimental gloves, putting your hand through a table feels “like jello.” Petting a dog doesn’t quite feel like touching real fur, but “emotionally, experientially — it feels real.” Tech company Qualcomm says that metaverse-enabled devices will someday be as ubiquitous as phones.

Major bike and walking upgrades are coming on a route between downtown and West Seattle. Seattle’s getting $20 million to fix East Marginal Way, where bikes and peds must currently travel perilously close to cars and trucks. The street will get two-way protected bike lanes, better sidewalks, and trees. Trees! Imagine that. You can thank Rep. Jayapal for ensuring that the project was funded. Nice — now fix Aurora, please.

Can we get the “pretzels are making me thirsty” scene next?