Alon

Pope Gregory XVI (r. 1831-46) opposed building railways in the Papal State using the expression, "chemins de fer, chemins d'enfer."

The Papal State was subsequently conquered by the more industrialized Piedmont-based Kingdom of Sardinia.

To this day, the peripheral regions of the former Papal State, namely Emilia-Romagna, are left-wing out of historic resentment of the economic and social backwardness of direct papal rule.

Eliezer Yudkowsky is like Jesus, in that neither is a prophet or special in any other way.

The only solution to housing crises all across urban Europe is YIMBYism. In Berlin, in London, in Madrid, in Paris, the solution is to build more housing near the train, replacing lower-density buildings, railyards, factories, and clubs, and pair them with more tall office towers in city center.

It's finally confirmed, I'm visiting London starting Tuesday 6 October, will be there for about a week, if anyone wants to say hi.

What's happening in Oleshky looks like the Holodomor on a smaller scale.

If you scale it up to all of Ukraine, this is going to be something like 3-4 million dead, similar to the 1930s.

More weapons for Ukraine with fewer restraints, and more suppression of Putinist parties and organizations.

I wrote a thread on Bluesky about anti-Arab discrimination in Israel. https://bsky.app/profile/alonlevy.bsky.social/post/3mwykcxhots2x

The Berlin courts just ruled that temporarily renting apartments requires a change of zoning from regular residential, to make it harder for new people to move to the city and seek permanent housing. The Greens in Neukölln are quoted as calling the new rule a good day for Berlin renters. https://www.rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2026/09/berlin-verwaltungsgericht-kurzzeitvermietung.html

Pedestrian Observations: The Origin of Premodern Western Cities https://pedestrianobservations.com/2026/09/27/the-origin-of-premodern-western-cities/

New cost overruns on Nya Tunnelbanan announced, bringing the cost up to $340 million/km in 2025 prices. The later Yellow Line is going to be $390 million/km. https://nyatunnelbanan.se/nyheter/genomlysning-klar-uppdaterad-prognos-for-nya-tunnelbanan/

There will be a Palestinian state. I don't know when, but late 2020s-early 2030s is likely.

And Israel should make the day the agreement is signed a national holiday. For the Palestinians, it's liberation, but for Israelis too it's the start of something new and better.

The German mentality toward neo-Nazis is, if they're 7% of the public then they're too insignificant to ban for anti-constitutional activities, and if they're 27% then they're too popular to ban for same.

Pedestrian Observations: Why Building Metros is Necessary for the Green Transition Away from Cars https://pedestrianobservations.com/2026/03/10/why-building-metros-is-necessary-for-the-green-transition-away-from-cars/

Pedestrian Observations: Why High Speed 2 and Other European Lines Make Fewer Stops than the Shinkansen https://pedestrianobservations.com/2026/04/06/why-high-speed-2-and-other-european-lines-make-fewer-stops-than-the-shinkansen/

About 2.5 years too late, Israel is saying it will finally allow the ICRC to visit its prisons. (Meetings with individual inmates will still be banned.) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-security/2026-05-08/ty-article/.premium/israel-to-let-red-cross-visit-security-prisons-in-first-since-oct-7-attack/0000019e-06cf-d914-ab9e-deeff3110000

Scandinavian road and rail infrastructure projects this century have on average been on-budget. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786325001127#cebibl1

Half of the 15 million people who immigrated to Spain in 2002-2024 have since left the country. Funcas has just released a study on Spain's long-term aging and demographic crisis. https://www.funcas.es/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Estudios-de-la-fundacion-113.pdf

What are some examples of national anthems that for historic reasons are not in the state's main language? There's Majulah Singapura and Jana Gana Mana - anything else?

(Inspired by both understanding why and being mildly annoyed that Ode to Joy is in German and it's hard to find instrumental versions.)

Live now, streaming the game Social Democracy and talking about the history (some rail retro-crayon may be included, no promises). https://www.twitch.tv/alon_levy

Cid is pushing me to stream my playing Social Democracy today (at 19:00) while commentating the game and its politics. A recording will be available of course. @autumn@trilobite.space

TIL new Hungarian minister of transport Dávid Vitézy is a Fidesz nepo baby (his late mother was a Fidesz MEP).

I'm sure he'll do great with Budapest urban rail expansion (which he backs), the lack-of-ETCS scandal on the Budapest-Serbia line, etc.

🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺

in addition to my post two days ago, there's Liam Blank explaining why the RPA piece about Penn Station capacity is wrong. https://liamblank.com/rpa-penn-station-through-running/

Prompt: AI has automated quite a lot of (but not all) math research, but at the same time AI jobs require more advanced math, increasing the demand for math B.Sc.s and B.A.s. How does this change math academia?

Fun facts I discover while looking for Polish city sizes in the 1930s: 20% of the population of the Warsaw Ghetto died of starvation even before the Final Solution deportations to the extermination camps. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw

How many of my followers a) live in or near Berlin and b) are interested in local and national rail issues?

Broke: Abitur is the equivalent of an American bachelor's degree

Woke: a master's degree at a German university is the equivalent of an American bachelor's degree

(Brought to you by my looking at some math lecture notes and course plans for Berlin universities)

I don't know how to even keep the government in Popular Front :(. And people say it's easier than Social Democracy?

Very soon, incoming MIT students will want to study computational biology. #sorry