California's Teakettle Experimental Forest, with ~500 year old Jeffrey pine and sugar pine trees, effectively was completely wiped out by the Garnet Fire. www.sfchronicle.com/climate/arti...

Trump’s order to deploy Texas National Guard troops to Chicago is illegal, immoral, and must be stopped by the courts. ICE is already wreaking havoc in our communities. Let’s call this what it is: an invasion by out-of-state troops coming here only with the purpose of tormenting Chicagoans.

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

The Koyukuk River near Huslia, Alaska. Final version for today.

Delighted that Cory is having a moment with "Enshittification," because it's an accurate word for what's happening in tech and he's the right person to describe it. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/b...

I already really liked Cory Doctorow but I am especially appreciative of him for validating my "Google searches aren't working so well anymore" complaints 6-8 years ago, when almost everyone I knew was telling me I was imagining things or doing it wrong. I knew I wasn't imagining it.

LOL ROFLMAO pivot-to-ai.com/2025/08/29/v...

Stop calling it “vibe coding”, the expression is “clown coding”. In fact, all of this “vibe” bullshit is a nonstop loop of yakety sax clown cars chasing each other.

frog from Chrono Trigger arriving at exactly the historical moment we need him I see

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984

The Koyukuk River near Huslia, Alaska, again. (Last one for the moment.)

BleepingComputer: Microsoft: Running multiple Office apps causes Copilot issues https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-running-multiple-office-apps-causes-copilot-issues/

I knew there was a reason I got this thing translated. Gonna fold a couple hundred of these on the plane. Gonna attempt to distribute when I'm traveling around 😈

This is all bad, IMHO. EFF:Flock’s Gunshot Detection Microphones Will Start Listening for Human Voices #flock #privacy #alpr https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flocks-gunshot-detection-microphones-will-start-listening-human-voices

Americans literally fought a revolution to get rid of soldiers "guarding them" in their streets.

The Koyukuk River near Huslia, Alaska, again.

The Koyukuk River near Huslia, Alaska, again.

OpenAI's Sora gambit is somehow even more reckless and arrogant than we've grown accustomed to with the company. OpenAI is betting that it can spit in the face of creatives, workers, and the largest media companies on the planet—and bend copyright law to its whims.

Scream us a song, you're the Piano Man A song from the darkness beneath With your piano wire hair and your soul-chilling stare And your eighty-eight black and white teeth

As with so many other things, here is AI leading to the enshittification of peer review

I’ve been called “intense” my whole life, so being labeled this right now is not new. Something I think about often is that one day, when this nightmare—which will get worse before it gets better—is over, I’ll rest knowing my “intensity” was well spent in the moments that mattered the most.

The new Wiley journal review system is an absolute nightmare. Editorial assistants have been replaced by a clunky, AI-enabled website that makes it harder to find and invite reviewers. Associate editor workloads have increased. I'm not convinced the invitations to reviewers are even going through.

Listen, I'm not an expert, but this looks and sounds a lot like the President ordering one state to invade another state?

Day 6 of repubs shutdown. When will hubs be paid again? When will any federal workers be paid again? #BillsToPay

Students using AI is definitely the thing that is going to break me. Not even failing grades work as a deterrent.

Pretty clear Stephen Miller, Noem, Hegseth and Trump are trying to provoke a Civil War at this point. What's interesting is they want to do it now, because even though they're unpopular, they seem to believe this is the most popular they'll be ever again. We can't let them win.

No.

My message to Kristi Noem is clear: Get out of Chicago.

I suppose I’m too literal-minded, but I really don’t get these Google Cloud commercials where Google AI finds what are obviously spurious correlations in Major League Baseball stats. Like isn’t this the whole reason why ML dressed up as AI is bullshit?

It’s a strange thing to sit awake at night, watching the clock tick, waiting for missiles you know were launched to arrive. You don’t know where they’ll land, or who they’ll kill. But they will land. And someone will lose this deadly lottery we are forced to play.

Tell me how ICE is different from the Gestapo?

Just posting this. Everyone knows why.

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.” Diary of Anne Frank January 13, 1943

When I first heard of @katmabu.bsky.social, I wasn't sure about voting for a 26 year old who just moved here. I'm not joking when I say I seriously considered running for IL 9th myself But after listening to her for months, I trust and admire Kat. What a clear communicator. This is how you lead

Today I was informed about this ESRI blog post about the river Ob, Russia, and its landform features: www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/... @watershedlab.bsky.social kindly pointed me to the files that were not accessible via the usual procedures.

THE 21st CENTURY: HUMANITY: Hmm, climate change is a real problem but we're starting to reach the point where most of us acknowledge that something needs to be done. A.I. DEVS: HEY WE INVENTED THIS GREAT THING THAT EATS FORESTS AND CRAPS OUT GARBAGE, IT ALSO STOPS YOUR BRAIN WORKING

Just discovered the {gm} package, which lets you programmatically create sheet music (and audio!) with #rstats (with MuseScore as the backend) flujoo.github.io/gm/index.html

guitarists/musicians, this is your regular reminder that you don't need to keep using enshittified guitar tab websites - freetar.de exists instead!

>A russian diplomat is now under-GenSec of the UN counter terrorism office

The U.S. is probably going to lose our elimination status for measles in 2026. Anyone tired of so much “winning”? MAHA is a toxic infection of the brain that spreads via social media and results in the rejection of scientific fact, followed by disease and death.

Weaponized gratitude is a key tool in the abuser's toolkit. The goal is to convince the victim that they owe the abuser so much, they should feel guilty for wanting to complain.

Welcome and thanks for listening to us. 🌿

They literally just did a double tap on a train station full of people in broad daylight. But hey since the western man is tired of news about the war, let’s just call it another Saturday in Ukraine

ChatGPT is annoying enough, but a new level of annoying is people giving you "advice" by asking ChatGPT something and then pasting their comments to you If i wanted to get statistically generated text i would do it myself, why do you think this is helping? 😭

Also - contrast b/w the response when I advocate teaching R instead of SPSS -- "No hurry, let's not rush into it" (still waiting) -- & others re: use of LLMs -- "It's inevitable, we're behind; need it implement it ASAP!" -- is telling. Learning to code is freeing. Overhyped LLMs create dependency.

…The last time?! I learned so much in that class. I still keep the BIF and the ventifact I found on one of your field trips in my office (next to the tillite I brought back from the Falklands).

Working on slides for my soil geomorphology course, the last time it will be offered. Putting way too much time into it. Thinking about what I should have published more of, but more about what these very bright, motivated students will be able to with this do in a new, scary world.