Climate solutions, information technology, critical thinking skills. Born at 318 ppm. https://www.koomey.com
3,685 followers 9,019 following 2,277 posts
view profile on Bluesky 
Once again, of the laws creating aircraft carrier-sized loopholes for the president to utter the magic words "national emergency" or "national security" & then rule like a King must go. We can have nuanced discussion about re-delegation later but not now. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
If you listen to anything he’s said in the past couple of months it’s clear he’s deteriorated significantly. Absolutely bonkers. What he says makes even less sense than 8 months ago.
if getting infected gave you any protection, why would people be on their 6th and 7th covid infection? #MaskUp, #CovidIsntOver, and every single infection leaves you with cumulative damage. an ounce of prevention (masking) truly is worth a pound of cure (we don’t have any cures yet).
A case study in how Cowen's uncritical use of GPT/o3 is causing him to spread misinformation on Marginal Revolution, from @pappubahry.com pappubahry.substack.com/p/misinforma...
This non-answer from @semaforben.bsky.social should be disqualifying for anyone remotely interested in reporting the truth. It is a panicked, evasive, bizarre response. It reeks of someone desperate to not offend the powerful. It’s servile.
Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social was curious; so he asked Ben Smith — co-founder of Semafor, and former media columnist at the New York Times — if Smith thought democracy is under threat in the U.S. Good question.
It’s word salad.
honestly insane how reporters have kept going "well but crime down so isn't this a good thing" about the take over of DC, dawg the reason why crime has collapsed is the same reason why restaurants are in freefall, because no one is outside because of all the goddamn goons
"Blueskyism" helped make The Onion one of the largest newspapers in the world in less than a year. If we had spent all of our time on Twitter, we'd be poorer, dumber and terminally ill with internet poisoning. He's just angry he's wasting away over there in a nazi agnostic lane that doesn't exist.
ditto with The Handbasket. without “blueskyism” i would not have a successful independent journalism outlet. turns out you don’t need to battle nazis to reach people.
Everyone really needs to read Autocracy, Inc by @anneapplebaum.bsky.social
The thing that often blows by is not only is crime the lowest its been for any non-senior citizen's life, it has been roughly that safe for *fifteen years*. We have had fifteen years of steady, low crime while the irrational freakout over crime has relentlessly grown to a fevered, disordered pitch.
I feel like, while every new generation of earnest lefties discovers this anew, the dynamic itself has been true for many decades now. Remember, eg, Joe Klein? "I was a progressive until activists yelled at me" is an old, old game. Contemptible, yes! But old.
senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, former chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) & director of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign👇🏽
This is a country living in terror of a non-existent crime wave, getting rid of vaccines which saved millions of lives, and indulging in economic policies which we saw fail 100 years ago. It's a deeply disordered place.
Talking one on one rarely helps. Right Wing media tells them 1000 lies for every truth you say to them. Mass media is the way. upine.medium.com/time-to-solv...
Reminder that there are multiple vaccines already out there that reduce your kids' chances of multiple types of cancers (and some people want you to believe this is bad!) www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/6-vaccines...
The long term data on hepatitis B vaccination shows it reduces the incidence of liver cancer by 84% and death from liver disease by 70%. This comes from a large cluster RCT in which entire towns were randomly selected to give the hepatitis B vaccine to all newborns.
Think about it. "Dems were too zealous in trying to prevent the spread of the virus" is, in US politics, a greater disadvantage, a bigger problem, than "Republican lies got hundreds of thousands of Americans killed for no reason." Just a pathetic fucking country. Pathetic.
This about sums it up.
His own words.
"you'll just displace the air pollution to other roads" look on here, even the air quality on the Boulevard Peripherique is vastly improved
But it's always like this. Democrats try to do the right thing. They fall short, like humans do. Everyone teams up to shit on them. Republicans don't even bother pretending. They lie, they smear, they destroy lives, they get people killed, & they face NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT.
... even if you buy it all, surely the party that worked desperately to save lives & end the pandemic deserves more credit, a higher grade, than the party that worked desperately to spread lies & get people killed! Surely they're not the ones that should be apologizing!
When Covid popped up, the parties' reactions were extremely on brand. Dems, America's A students, scrambled to do the responsible thing. Strained, *sweated* to do the responsible thing, to be *seen* doing the responsible thing, to get the gold star from the (imaginary) teacher.
And then afterward -- this is the part that makes me feel crazy -- all the retrospective analysis & discussion *shit on Democrats*. They've been on the defense ever since, criticized from all quarters for this or that decision. Much of that criticism is fact-free bullshit, but ...
A pre-dog-walk 🧵 on the pandemic. To me, the lesson of the pandemic is a very familiar one, although as far as I can tell, no one is talking about it or learning it (which is also familiar). It's about the contrast between America's two political parties.
"The people who think I'm annoying are a threat to our electoral success" is really quite the take. 😂
Remember when people used the term "false equivalency"?
Susan Collins tripled down on her support for RFK Jr as recently as three days ago. It's disqualifying. tinyurl.com/2s4a4j7t #MEpolitics
NPR is among the news organizations that has signed an appeal calling for Israel to stop attacks on journalists in Gaza, and demanding foreign journalists' access to Gaza. www.npr.org/2025/09/01/n...
Speaking as someone who used to spend time in their chats, SO much of US contemporary fascism is a function of men assuming that the way adulthood worked was, you got a job and in exchange you got a woman to be your mom plus your sex toy. They are ENRAGED that they have a job but no sex mommy.
Pay Democratic content creators:
It's kind of funny how the most obvious explanation for why Ashkenazi Jews are successful is "be very educated for milennia and have a lot of networking opportunities"
It's mostly "the biggest victim of COVID was me" combined with "I can't get mad at a virus, it doesn't react in a way that gives me emotional satisfaction." Obviously COVID policy wasn't perfect. But to think it was political persecution, and pretend Trump wasn't president then, is really something.
This is "the one big trick" that the right has mastered. They present their movement as just "the authentic voice of the volk outraged by Democratic overreach," when really what they're doing is just old fashioned political mobilization. Organize a passle of pissed off people & call it a movement.
What these Schatz posts say to me is that Dem elected officials like him seem incapable of perceiving the right as a *political movement.* The response to Covid mitigation and the Floyd protests was not a spontaneous reaction...it was a right wing backlash organized by a reactionary movement.
climate scientists are some of the most heroic people I know. truly.
My dive into right wing piss pants baby culture Why are conservatives such cowards? www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
I've never seen such a disconnect between Dem elected/staff/consultants and actual Dem voters. The latter understand what's going on. The former are awash in right-wing brainrot, hence @schatz.bsky.social blaming COVID mitigation and BLM marches for the GOP's wanton destruction of public health.
![@EsotericCD It was in this moment that many of us hanging on to a thin sliver of trust in our institutions irrevocably lost faith in them. One of the most poisonous blows to public trust in living memory - worse than the effect of the Iraq War in many ways. RFK Jr is a direct result of this. Quote Steve Guest @SteveGuest · Aug 31 Politico 5 years ago: [screenshot of article falsely claiming public health officials lied about COVID measures then abandoned them for BLM protests] Views](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ddvus7otnqtlh7fdooxm6qat/bafkreihsypwydo5rcis7mc54cwct6h33l5co477nvh7g7hs7na2fz4jl3q@jpeg "Click to view full size")
Aptera Motors Corp. Files for Proposed Direct Listing on Nasdaq → aptera.us/proposed-dir...
When unions are strong, our communities and our country are strong. Every person in our nation has benefited from the labor movement. This Labor Day, we celebrate the workers and unions who have fought for fair wages, safe workplaces, and sick leave for all of us.
When they say "skeptic" they mean "denialist". Same as with climate change. Call them what they are, dammit! A skeptic has informed criticism & willingness to hear counter-arguments. These folks are the last thing in the world from being skeptics. It's a slander against actual skeptics everywhere.
How European, American, Canadian and Australian politicians see climate change.
These tools can mimic (to some extent, with many faults) the outputs of human consciousness: language, images, etc. But they do not have the actual consciousness that created those things. They do this by stealing the work of conscious beings and pastiching it.
Companies name their LLMs Claude or whatever because they want you to think of them as things with consciousness. They do not have consciousness. They are sophisticated, energy-gobbling, programs. They’re tools.
If you are, like me, generally opposed to how Large Language Models are being positioned and used (and not regulated currently) one very simple thing you could do is to stop using the term “AI” to describe them. When you do, you’re buying into the linguistic and conceptual framework of your enemies.
The bot-driven feeding frenzy in the replies is really something.
Honestly who cares. The right wing has been funding propaganda since rush limbaugh. And boy has it worked out for them. The only thing that beats propaganda is propaganda. Enough purity bs.
Hey everyone - are you / do you know a budding or early career *freelance journalist*?? I'm offering 8 *free* calls with folks during Sept / Oct to share my experiences and advice on how to make freelance journalism work professionally. Contact me if you're interested. First come, first served.
On this Labor Day, let's remember that today isn't likely to offer a respite for those--disproportionately women, and especially women of color, immigrant women, and low-income women--who do the unpaid and underpaid labor of care. In fact, that labor may even be greater on days "off" like today. 1/🧵
Every once in a while you encounter someone and ask yourself "how am I just now discovering this person?!" That's how I feel about @carlotaperez.bsky.social on reading her seminal 2002 book, "Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital"
Apple’s stance on strong encryption gets the support of the FTC in US privacy U-turn
Leaving aside the typical histrionics, this seems to be Trump beginning to distance himself from Kennedy (who’s “ripping apart” CDC), and inviting mainstream physicians and scientists to defend the vaccines, so Trump can then say, I got them to explain it better and vaccines are OK.
Melanie O’Brien, the IAGS president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, said the resolution was “a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide”.
An idea worth sharing to help the international community understand processes occurring in the United States. Every bookstore at international airports with flights to the U.S. should have a selection like this one.
I was listening to the recent @volts.wtf podcast on solar plus batteries and 24 hour solar plus batteries cost $100/MWh last year, before the 40% drop in battery prices over the past 12 months.
As battery energy densities improve it’s not likely to be very much oil that’s needed for a long, long time.
They aren't getting paid by Russia unlike rightwing "influencers." I don't have a problem with folks on the left finally getting some support so they can fight back. This shit isn't free when you commit to it as more than a full time job.
This week, this video keeps coming to mind. One IS too many. But, so are the excuses from MAGA. Stop saying: - illegals are violent when you ignore mass shootings - you’re pro-life - it’s mental health after cutting a trillion from Medicaid Do. Better. #VoteBlue youtube.com/shorts/V4B5P...
I hope people read these stories and are encouraged to take their own action: wagingnonviolence.org/2025/08/la-u...
Direct Hit! Region 4199 fires an M2.7-class flare & launches a #solarstorm in the Earth-strike zone! NASA models predict storm impact late September 1. Another, slower storm ahead may cause early effects. #Aurora possible to mid-latitudes. Expect HF communications & GPS issues on Earth's nightside.
The NOAA model run includes the two Earth-directed #solarstorm launches. The larger one catches up with the smaller one just ahead of Earth so a precursor disturbance may indeed ramp up before the larger storm hits. Impact is expected by late September 1. G2+ conditions are possible.
#KeepItInTheGround
The fossil fuel companies really do intend to keep on extracting and burning until they're forced to stop — no matter how much damage they do along the way. Their executives literally Do Not Care. The very definition of evil. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/b...
Fifty-one of the 85 Federalist papers were written by a guy born in Nevis.
"Author Fran Lebowitz said in 2018: “You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”" www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
Periods of geomagnetic storms are expected through Tuesday, forecasters said.
@governor.ca.gov Can you do something like this? My family and I would like to be vaccinated against COVID (and the flu)
Illinois is currently exploring the possibility of purchasing Covid-19 vaccines in bulk straight from manufacturers to make sure everyone will still have access.
You can get much earlier versions that have recipes for opossum and raccoon!
A very suggestive graph. Union membership isn’t the only thing going on, but our politics nowadays is in part a function of inequality we haven’t seen since the 1920s.
Used books are great!
This is a good reminder that if you genuinely enjoy cookery, you need a physical copy of "The Joy of Cooking" (I favor the 2006 edition, myself.)
Look at this graph. The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened. This is why we must build back union power.
New Mexico has issued a public health order that removes federal restrictions to COVID-19 vaccine access so that pharmacies in New Mexico can vaccinate people of all ages and risk profiles. Every state need to do this!
Trump/RFK are decapitating our public health system, a pillar of American greatness. So Dem Govs should scour every corner of the law for creative new ways to defend their people from this madness. Dems should polarize this debate to the max. Thoughts on this here: newrepublic.com/article/1998...
my bluesky
The COVID vaccine saved millions of lives.
With electricity costs in the news lately, it's worth remembering that wholesale energy supply costs - for example, generating electricity from wind/solar vs. coal/gas - make up just 7% of residential utility bills, and less than 1% of overall housing-related costs for typical American households.
They’ve gotten so used to saying anything they can think of in his cabinet meetings to flatter his ego that they’ve lost all ability to not make up the wildest lies in public. Getting back to normalcy in any sense will require social and professional sanctions for this kind of brazen lying.
Many mainstream commentators are getting very close to acknowledging the systemic issues at the roots of the far-right resurgence and the role played by the mainstream media and politicians through their agenda setting power And yet, they still fail to take the logical leap and call it out
Here is the actual quote from Michael Palin’s interview in The Telegraph, which is much more nuanced than the out-of-context quote:
You can always rely on McArdle to find a kernel of truth and turn it into a popcorn bowl of the worst takes you can come up with
REP. BUDDY CARTER: What eroded confidence in the CDC was the covid vaccine BEDINGFIELD: Who was president in 2020?
This is fuckin terrifying www.theguardian.com/environment/...
This definitely helped me with my course statement on AI and large language models!
New Mexico is overriding the federal government on the topic of COVID19 vaccines to ensure their residents can access them. States hold a tremendous amount of public health power. They should use it.
We have the same issue in New Mexico, with a D governor and D legislature (in particular certain key committees) who are far too cozy with O&G to ever take a strong stand on climate. I would love to be proven wrong.
I’ve heard from a couple of messaging strategists now that people shouldn’t post so much about COVID19 vaccines because it’s “divisive”. I am here to say that I do not give a damn what is popular. I will never ignore scientific evidence for the sake of expediency, and neither should anyone else.
"As much as I love [gas], I’m never going back to it." Head chef Jeremy Chan discusses why Ikoyi, a London restaurant with two Michelin stars, uses induction cooking instead of gas burners.
What’s happening is a lot of people who thought a little fascism just meant clearing out some undesirables and making the trains run on time are realizing that actually yes they too will be effected and it’s making them slightly nervous.
The story of how this happened and who was involved is told in great detail in this book...
Oil has been at the center of global political economy for a century. There's no mystery to why they are able rig the system: they are the system. In some ways, the real mystery is that they haven't just banned solar panels, wind farms and EVs outright. Break their power, and progress is possible.
not just that he has no constitutional authority, there isn't even any particular legal or institutional mechanism by which the president can make anyone treat this as anything other than a weird advisory opinion.
average nitrogen dioxide levels have fallen 50 percent in Paris thanks to regulation and public policy shows what can be achieved by political actors that are brave enough to challenge vested interests and prioritize public health and wellbeing
she doesn’t post on here (thus proving she’s smarter than I am) but a very happy birthday to my beautiful, brilliant wife marrying her is the best decision I ever made and expect I ever will make and I am thankful every day I get to spend my life with her
i always treat people working in/on my home like a guest and offer them an espresso or water. or if we have something snacky, food. i do it bc it’s my nature but it’s also one weird trick to keeping hold of good Guys. SOME people won’t even let workers in their homes use their toilet!