Alex

During my PhD i kept coming across this number about the maximum grid penetration for renewables.

So, I started to dig. Tracing back what references I could. Never found a single analytical or empirical basis for it. It appeared to have sprung from thin air based on some engineers' intuition.

Australia finally acknowledges environment underpins all else. That’s no small thing | Ken Henry In what are dangerous times for democracies around the world, parliament’s overhaul of nature laws in the EPBC Act shows ambitious reform remains possible

Australia has recognised a fundamental truth: that *everything* depends on healthy wild ecosystems.

Time for the rest of the world to follow suit, and then ACT on it.
search.app/phsEf

“saying they are going to help save the bee by encouraging all the farmers who supply them to keep more hives. This was, he went on, akin to trying to reverse bird declines by keeping more chickens”

How a radical experiment to bring a forest into a preschool transformed children’s health In Finland, kindergartens are exposing children to more mud, wild plants and moss - and finding changes to their health that show how crucial biodiversity is to wellbeing

Biodiversity is *crucial* to our wellbeing.

We need to stop treating it as expendable.
share.google/pKw8odZguEG8...

Habits may change as price of beef mince soars by 18% The average price of a one-kilogram pack of beef mince climbed 18 percent since the start of the year.

Mince is now averaging $23.17 per kilo, meaning it is slightly more expensive than lamb chops, which sat at $22.27.

But hey at least we gave landlords $2.9 billion in tax cuts.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

But some natives are fighting back already...

Dogs 10,000 years ago roamed with bands of humans and came in all shapes and sizes Two new studies suggest the story of dogs and their relationship with humans is older and more complex than once thought.

🧪 #scicomm “…thousands of years ago dogs played an indispensable role in human societies as crucial “biocultural packages” that moved with humans.”

theconversation.com/dogs-10-000-...

-Oct 18, more than 7 million Americans stand up and stand together.

-Nov 4, millions of Dems turn out for landslide wins in VA, NJ, NY, CA, GA, many other places.

-Nov 9, eight "Dems" say "Oh, this nice Mike Johnson and Mr. Trump say they care about health. If they don't, well shame on them..."

Age and gender distortion in online media and large language models - Nature Stereotypes of age-related gender bias are socially distorted, as evidenced by the age gap in the representations of women and men across various media and algorithms, despite no systematic age differ...

When ChatGPT was asked to rate 40,000 résumés, it ranked the older male candidates as better quality than the younger female applicants.

Jamming avoidance response - Wikipedia

Wow this is wild 🤯

🧪🎢⚛️🧬

Even if it all stopped tomorrow, I don't think the damage that's been done can be repaired in my lifetime. But at least we could start. Instead, tomorrow will be worse.

The absurd disregard that @albomp.bsky.social has for environmental protection and a safe climate

nope, sorry it was a misdial

Everything I know about legal formalism I learned from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

It is a pretty accurate depiction of what is happening in US right now

Wow this is beautiful!

Don't miss this new #webinar supported by #GuardIAS.
#bioinvasions #MarineEcology #Conservation #InvasiveSpecies 🌍🌐
@guardias.bsky.social

Drop whatever you’re doing and read the last 15 pages of this 161-page opinion. I’m serious.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Mainstream news gives wall-to-wall coverage to politics, halftime shows & social-media drama, but relegates mass species loss, poisoned water & collapsing ecosystems to an occasional CO₂-emissions story. That’s what passes for “environmental” reporting.

DRC finally moves to protect African gray parrots from unsustainable trade LUBUMBASHI, DRC — African gray parrot populations in the central and northern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo are declining. Data collected by patrols carried out by the Lukuru Foundation…

Over the past decade, thousands of African gray parrots have been exported from the Democratic Republic of Congo despite a ban on their international trade.

The DRC government has finally taken action to prohibit the capture and sale of this iconic species.

How exciting!

@jonathan-watts.bsky.social

喜馬拉雅山放煙花？戶外品牌始祖鳥與蔡國強藝術宣傳遭網民鬧爆 9月19日，戶外品牌始祖鳥以致敬自然為目的，聯手藝術家蔡國強在喜馬拉雅山脈處江孜熱龍開啟藝術項目「升龍」，以三幕煙花在山脊間點燃，呼應龍文化

Arc'teryx teamed up with artist Cai Guoqiang for a fireworks show on the Himalayas, threatening the fragile and sensitive alpine ecosystem there. Due to online backlash, both parties have since pulled their videos of the event.

I haven’t seen non-Chinese media reporting on this!!
#environment

Nitrate contamination of groundwater in the Ashburton-Rakaia plains

SA Hayward, Carl R Hanson

Environment Canterbury, 2004!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Three recent investigations have revealed nitrate contamination in groundwater in the Ashburton-Rakaia plains."

scholar.google.com/scholar?q=ca...

The internet is the greatest single scientific innovation of the 20th century Brought to you by NSF

NSF Funds Supercomputing Facilities Bringing You: Weather Forecasts Heat Advisories

NSF and NASA Maintain GPS Satelites Bringing You: Navigation Apps

NSF Funds Supercomputing Facilities Bringing You: Surf Forecasts Severe Weather Alerts

❤️❤️❤️ these posters in the Geology building at UC Riverside ❤️❤️❤️

Seriously, why aren't we putting messages like these everywhere? I'd happily chip in some pro-NSF and pro-NIH billboards? 🧪

Losing my goddamned mind.

We can condemn political violence without valorizing a destructive, hateful bigot.