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Mikell Taylor

@mikell.bsky.social

Boston-based robotics nerd whose strong opinions do not reflect those of her employer. Come for the robots, stay for the gay pirates, Star Wars, and sarcasm. It’s pronounced “Michael”. I am cringe and I am free.

2,024 Followers  |  763 Following  |  9,422 Posts  |  Joined: 01.05.2023  |  2.1996

Latest posts by mikell.bsky.social on Bluesky

Americans love technology and absolutely hate science and that’ll always be fucking confusing to me

05.08.2025 22:13 — 👍 1527    🔁 256    💬 57    📌 27
A yellow background and a meter indicating moderate wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2. The text reads: After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics. While the South and West Coast continue to report the highest disease levels, increases are happening across the country.

Wastewater data from the CDC, WastewaterSCAN, and Biobot Analytics report SARS-CoV-2 levels going up in all regions. The CDC reported a jump of 35% in its national wastewater viral activity level between July 19 and July 26, the biggest change in this metric since last winter (though note, these are preliminary data).

Showing a similar national trend, the CDC’s disease forecasting center estimates that COVID-19 cases are “growing or likely growing” in 40 states as of July 29. Cases are not declining in any states, per the center. And it’s important to remember that, since the most recent available data are from late July, disease levels are likely higher now.

Some commentators continue to note that this summer’s COVID-19 levels are lower than last year’s. But it’s difficult to predict what will happen over the next few weeks, especially as surveillance for variants continues to be minimal."

A yellow background and a meter indicating moderate wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2. The text reads: After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics. While the South and West Coast continue to report the highest disease levels, increases are happening across the country. Wastewater data from the CDC, WastewaterSCAN, and Biobot Analytics report SARS-CoV-2 levels going up in all regions. The CDC reported a jump of 35% in its national wastewater viral activity level between July 19 and July 26, the biggest change in this metric since last winter (though note, these are preliminary data). Showing a similar national trend, the CDC’s disease forecasting center estimates that COVID-19 cases are “growing or likely growing” in 40 states as of July 29. Cases are not declining in any states, per the center. And it’s important to remember that, since the most recent available data are from late July, disease levels are likely higher now. Some commentators continue to note that this summer’s COVID-19 levels are lower than last year’s. But it’s difficult to predict what will happen over the next few weeks, especially as surveillance for variants continues to be minimal."

A yellow background and a meter indicating moderate wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2. The text reads: After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics. While the South and West Coast continue to report the highest disease levels, increases are happening across the country.

Wastewater data from the CDC, WastewaterSCAN, and Biobot Analytics report SARS-CoV-2 levels going up in all regions. The CDC reported a jump of 35% in its national wastewater viral activity level between July 19 and July 26, the biggest change in this metric since last winter (though note, these are preliminary data).

Showing a similar national trend, the CDC’s disease forecasting center estimates that COVID-19 cases are “growing or likely growing” in 40 states as of July 29. Cases are not declining in any states, per the center. And it’s important to remember that, since the most recent available data are from late July, disease levels are likely higher now.

Some commentators continue to note that this summer’s COVID-19 levels are lower than last year’s. But it’s difficult to predict what will happen over the next few weeks, especially as surveillance for variants continues to be minimal."

A yellow background and a meter indicating moderate wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2. The text reads: After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics. While the South and West Coast continue to report the highest disease levels, increases are happening across the country. Wastewater data from the CDC, WastewaterSCAN, and Biobot Analytics report SARS-CoV-2 levels going up in all regions. The CDC reported a jump of 35% in its national wastewater viral activity level between July 19 and July 26, the biggest change in this metric since last winter (though note, these are preliminary data). Showing a similar national trend, the CDC’s disease forecasting center estimates that COVID-19 cases are “growing or likely growing” in 40 states as of July 29. Cases are not declining in any states, per the center. And it’s important to remember that, since the most recent available data are from late July, disease levels are likely higher now. Some commentators continue to note that this summer’s COVID-19 levels are lower than last year’s. But it’s difficult to predict what will happen over the next few weeks, especially as surveillance for variants continues to be minimal."

A yellow background and a meter indicating moderate wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2. Map of the U.S. by state, with states color-coded according to their recent COVID-19 trends. 28 states are colored in dark red for "growing" and 13 are in bright orange for "likely growing." 8 are in gray for "not changing" and two are in yellow for "not estimated." The map is titled, "COVID-19 trends by state, July 29." Data are sourced from the CDC's Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.

A yellow background and a meter indicating moderate wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2. Map of the U.S. by state, with states color-coded according to their recent COVID-19 trends. 28 states are colored in dark red for "growing" and 13 are in bright orange for "likely growing." 8 are in gray for "not changing" and two are in yellow for "not estimated." The map is titled, "COVID-19 trends by state, July 29." Data are sourced from the CDC's Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.

After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics.

Read this week's full COVID-19 trends report from @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social: bit.ly/4lj3sCC

05.08.2025 19:23 — 👍 88    🔁 52    💬 4    📌 19
Screen grab of a section of the HHS press release which is black text on white background. 

The wind-down affects a range of programs including:Termination of contracts with Emory University and Tiba Biotech.De-scoping of mRNA-related work in existing contracts with Luminary Labs, ModeX, and Seqirus.Rejection or cancellation of multiple pre-award solicitations, including proposals from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, CSL Seqirus, Gritstone, and others, as part of BARDA’s Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) and VITAL Hub.Restructuring of collaborations with DoD-JPEO, affecting nucleic acid-based vaccine projects with AAHI, AstraZeneca, HDT Bio, and Moderna/UTMB.

Screen grab of a section of the HHS press release which is black text on white background. The wind-down affects a range of programs including:Termination of contracts with Emory University and Tiba Biotech.De-scoping of mRNA-related work in existing contracts with Luminary Labs, ModeX, and Seqirus.Rejection or cancellation of multiple pre-award solicitations, including proposals from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, CSL Seqirus, Gritstone, and others, as part of BARDA’s Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) and VITAL Hub.Restructuring of collaborations with DoD-JPEO, affecting nucleic acid-based vaccine projects with AAHI, AstraZeneca, HDT Bio, and Moderna/UTMB.

I'm seeing a lot of big accounts missing the mark on this story. HHS through BARDA is cancelling contracts for mRNA vaccine research related to viral respiratory illnesses. This does not affect mRNA cancer research by NIH and Moderna.

It's still bad news but let's try to keep our facts straight.

06.08.2025 01:09 — 👍 321    🔁 129    💬 17    📌 19

A frivolous privilege, but also only something you do if you have no other choice. Something only smug rich middle-aged white men do, but also, just the behavior of poor people or kids. Truly, few things live in a paradoxical state quite like not driving, bicycling especially.

06.08.2025 04:26 — 👍 28    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0

same

this was the biggest and fastest win against a pathogen in medical history

also it was a brand new pandemic pathogen

simply awe-inspiring, if you understand anything about the promise of clear thinking and hard work to do good and achieve great things

05.08.2025 22:22 — 👍 356    🔁 134    💬 5    📌 2

Anyway I RTed this not to pretend there’s no difference between someone making median salary and a millionaire, but to point out how RIDICULOUSLY SO MUCH MORE MONEY the actual wealthy have.

05.08.2025 22:16 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025

05.08.2025 21:58 — 👍 6071    🔁 2547    💬 156    📌 74

Seems bad

05.08.2025 21:51 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

unfortunately for Americans we aren’t keeping up with the latest COVID strains as well as the rest of the world anymore. Just saw a guy on TikTok lamenting that the “cold” he has that “jacked up his voice”…: friends, that’s Covid. Nimbus is throat knives, stratus is laryngitis.

05.08.2025 19:52 — 👍 142    🔁 67    💬 3    📌 3
Preview
Australia Admits All Those Animals Made Up SYDNEY—Saying the ruse began as a harmless prank about the continent’s mammals having pouches, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admitted Tuesday that all those animals like wallabies, numbat...

I fuckin knew it theonion.com/australia-ad...

05.08.2025 20:41 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Preview
Trump EPA plans to claw back $7 billion in rooftop solar grants The administration seeks to rescind awards under Solar for All, including grants to 49 states for lower- and middle-income households to install solar.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to rescind $7 billion in awards under the Solar for All program, including grants to 49 states for lower- and middle-income households to install solar.

05.08.2025 20:00 — 👍 54    🔁 47    💬 16    📌 11
A military drone in the sky. I'm prob going to die now.

A military drone in the sky. I'm prob going to die now.

wtf a military drone just flew over me??

05.08.2025 19:46 — 👍 3602    🔁 88    💬 73    📌 20
The DoD Rapid Response team on Twitter writes: "The Secretary of Defense has great jeans." The attached photo shows Sec. Pete Hegseth wearing a blue sport coat, white button-up shirt, blue jeans, and a big buckle Western belt.

The DoD Rapid Response team on Twitter writes: "The Secretary of Defense has great jeans." The attached photo shows Sec. Pete Hegseth wearing a blue sport coat, white button-up shirt, blue jeans, and a big buckle Western belt.

I disagree. I will tell you what's wrong with his jeans. 🧵

05.08.2025 19:46 — 👍 6008    🔁 730    💬 215    📌 131

the same people who complain about taxes and government waste all the time actually like living in places where there are a lot of well-funded government services

05.08.2025 15:59 — 👍 446    🔁 75    💬 11    📌 1

Every rich person is going to tell *you* how great AI teaching is while sending *their* kids to the kind of schooling the Ancient Greeks would recognize. I just wish everyone would think about why that is.

05.08.2025 16:46 — 👍 2005    🔁 697    💬 32    📌 20

A house is not 40k anymore FYI. Typical houses run 200k-1 mil. So a millionaire MAY just own a house in a high cost of living area.

It's so easy to get stuck in whatever era you made big purchases and forget that money is constantly changing value. When inflation slows, it doesn't revert.

05.08.2025 17:54 — 👍 17    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1

There is a huge difference between "Having 1 million" and "making 1 million" Someone who make over a million in a year is wealthy, or will be soon. It's odd how often these two concepts get conflated.

05.08.2025 17:52 — 👍 22    🔁 4    💬 3    📌 1

A millionaire is not rich. The 1% are not just millionaires. A small farm starts at ~2 million for land. A million is minimal for retirement (4% gives 40k, 20k each). Losing medicaid, insurance is ~10k a person, so that's 20k off the top, raising minimal retirement to ~1.5 million.

05.08.2025 17:48 — 👍 15    🔁 6    💬 3    📌 1

people are bad at naming things, episode XX

this is a tax on people *making* over $1M a year, not people with over $1M of wealth. it does not impact a dentist making $200k a year who has saved up $1M over a lifetime of work.

messaging really matters for what people imagine they might be subject to

05.08.2025 17:04 — 👍 212    🔁 57    💬 5    📌 1

The Cryptid Factor show was great, my daughter adored it, and Buttons, Dan, and Rhys were all SO NICE to her and kind about signing things for her. I just love that they are genuinely kind people.

05.08.2025 17:55 — 👍 24    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Yup. The other thing that people don't get is that at a certain financial point you're not making "income" anymore, you're using your wealth as collateral for loans not counted as income, and occasionally cashing out stock which is taxed at a lower rate. It doesn't matter where you live then.

05.08.2025 15:21 — 👍 593    🔁 80    💬 12    📌 1
Left-Wing Group Too Disorganized For FBI Agents To Infiltrate

Left-Wing Group Too Disorganized For FBI Agents To Infiltrate

Left-Wing Group Too Disorganized For FBI Agents To Infiltrate theonion.com/left-wi...

05.08.2025 14:00 — 👍 4285    🔁 700    💬 70    📌 81

I used to work on subsea robotics and literally every single person I know in the industry has felt visceral pain with every revelation of an ignored best practice. This 100% was preventable. So fucking infuriating.

05.08.2025 14:21 — 👍 9    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

One thing I would like more people, and I mostly mean my fellow men, to understand is that no matter how smart you are, other people are also smart and some of them have tried to work on the same problems you’re working on. If a simple solution hasn’t been found yet, there probably isn’t one.

05.08.2025 13:03 — 👍 504    🔁 109    💬 22    📌 18
r/ChatGPTPro 
u/vurto • 28d
If ChatGPT is not consistently dependable, how are we suppose to use it for actual work?
Discussion
It's behavior and results can randomly change due to some OpenAl tweaking that's opaque.
On some days it can't even keep track of a fresh chat, it can't do calculations, it can't sort through a chat to extract relevant information, and when it's suppose to refer to source material in a PDF, it doesn't.
All because OpenAl trained it for fluency and basically to simulate whatever it can for user satisfaction.
I can use it for general chats, philosophical stuff, therapy, but nothing serious. I'm pro Al, but I approach it with skepticism knowing it's undependable (as I do with anything I read).
And prompts can be interpreted/executed differently across users' own interaction with their Als so it's not truly scalable.
How does the business world / leaders expect staff to adopt Al if it's not consistently dependable? It doesn't even calculate like a calculator. If the internet start claiming 2+2=5, that's what it'll answer with.
I'd use it for hobbies and pet projects but I can't imagine using it for anything "mission critical".

r/ChatGPTPro u/vurto • 28d If ChatGPT is not consistently dependable, how are we suppose to use it for actual work? Discussion It's behavior and results can randomly change due to some OpenAl tweaking that's opaque. On some days it can't even keep track of a fresh chat, it can't do calculations, it can't sort through a chat to extract relevant information, and when it's suppose to refer to source material in a PDF, it doesn't. All because OpenAl trained it for fluency and basically to simulate whatever it can for user satisfaction. I can use it for general chats, philosophical stuff, therapy, but nothing serious. I'm pro Al, but I approach it with skepticism knowing it's undependable (as I do with anything I read). And prompts can be interpreted/executed differently across users' own interaction with their Als so it's not truly scalable. How does the business world / leaders expect staff to adopt Al if it's not consistently dependable? It doesn't even calculate like a calculator. If the internet start claiming 2+2=5, that's what it'll answer with. I'd use it for hobbies and pet projects but I can't imagine using it for anything "mission critical".

You're so close

05.08.2025 04:36 — 👍 9251    🔁 1877    💬 186    📌 225

🙋🏻‍♀️

05.08.2025 11:02 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
QUIZ: Are You Even Good Enough to Have Imposter Syndrome?

QUIZ: Are You Even Good Enough to Have Imposter Syndrome?

05.08.2025 09:49 — 👍 500    🔁 97    💬 14    📌 15

I know who this roomba belongs to

05.08.2025 09:47 — 👍 35    🔁 6    💬 2    📌 1

Contemplating Rhys’s set last night (which for the uninitiated is entirely devoted to mocking AI, humanoid robots, and Elon Musk) and the degree to which he displayed so much more than a superficial “mob mocking AI” understanding - 👩‍🍳💋 The man did his research and I appreciate it so much 😭

05.08.2025 08:55 — 👍 22    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Mary Shelley doesn't get enough credit for not only anticipating the silver-spooned narcissist techbro who recklessly creates technology without thinking through the consequences, but also for knowing that said techbro would be an absolutely terrible father.

17.05.2024 18:09 — 👍 5882    🔁 2173    💬 37    📌 39

@mikell is following 20 prominent accounts