#BayStars up 3-2 after one inning.

Despite my general long-term optimism about AI, I'm deeply concerned about the way the technology and market for AI today are developing and how it is affecting society (and education). But I am cautiously dipping my toe into trying it out, to learn a little about the current state. 1/

So-called "zero knowledge proofs" of age verification are just as flawed: the statistics on biometric age estimation's success rate are *abysmal*, and racially/ethnically biased to boot. NIST does ongoing validation: pages.nist.gov/frvt/html/fr...

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) is planning to expropriate money from its core science programmes to fund an initiative from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The move would strain budgets that are already tight and force the agency... TAT: [Attacking science]

If you are drafting your public comment to submit on the OMB rule change - this thread is for you. And if you haven’t started yet, that’s ok! This thread is also for you. Do you appreciate innovation in health, transportation, energy, and a wide range of other disciplines? It’s time to speak up.

More than 98,900 comments have been submitted on the OMB’s proposed rule to the federal grantmaking process. Here’s a look at some of the comments. eos.org/research-and...

Holy cow, it's muggy and still hot in Tokyo tonight.

BepiColombo mission is about to arrive at Mercury! It's a pretty nifty design: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio) are travelling to #Mercury as a compostive spacecraft, stacked on top of a transfer module […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

NK Jemisin Ann Leckie Martha Wells David Brin Larry Niven Youngest to oldest. Leckie and I were born a month apart.

who else had the spiral bound thomas guides under their car seat because they did not fit in the glove compartment

What, in your opinion, is the strongest anti-computationalist argument out there?

For reasons, I've spent a bunch of time in the last few weeks diving into ✨ quantum error correction ✨ which is a shockingly fascinating bit of theoretical physics that will be absolutely essential for getting quantum computers to actually achieve all the amazing breakthroughs they're expected to

Always interesting to see how Japanese media handles Trump's remarks. On Iran, he said "I don't want to deal with them anymore, they're scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people." Yomiuri translation: 「これ以上彼らとはディール（取引）したくない。彼らはくずだ。病んでいる」

Trump: "We had 11 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan"

absolutely insane story, and yeah, just looking at this chart... with the exception of maybe two people, this entire class was cheating like motherfuckers

So, technically, we have a colorblind creature pulling off some of the best color camouflage in nature, that is likely combining a lens "flaw" most systems try to eliminate, with skin that quite literally sees without eyes 🪄 ✨ 🌈

In the well-over 100,000 documents written by founders included in the Founders Online database from the National Archives, no one uses the phrase "God's noble experiment." No one.

Great week-end for small bodies ! Hayabusa 2# flyby of asteroid Torifune (www.jaxa.jp/press/2026/0...) and Tianwen-2 images of asteroid Kamo'oalewa (www.xinhuanet.com/20260706/eb8...) ! #PlanetaryScience

I think this might be one of the most incredible, unsettling and symbolic photos of today’s America I’ve ever seen. I can’t stop looking at it. From Reuters, published on the Guardian website.

In Starbucks listening to Ella exclaim "If I were a salad, I'd be splashing my dressing"

“In London cyclists now outnumber cars in the City by 2 to 1. Paris, where they now outnumber motorists across the whole city, is catching up with Europe’s traditional bike capitals, Amsterdam & Copenhagen…In Copenhagen, bikes account for almost half of commuter trips to work/school.” @economist.com

"writing" here is an adjective, not a verb. This is a good thread on how bad word processors are, though it's framed a little more optimistically than that. For technical writing, Overleaf is about as good as it gets today, IMO. For non-technical writing but with advanced features, no opinion.

Captain America #130 Written by Stan Lee Pencils by Gene Colan Inks by Dick Ayers Letters by Artie Simek #Happy4th

The “why?” stage of toddlerhood when your mom’s an astrophysics professor: “Why is it the end of the day?” “Because the sun is setting.” “Why is the sun setting?” “Because the earth is a ball that turns.” “Why does the earth turn?” “Conservation of angular momentum.” “…oh.” 🔭🧪

45 years ago today. Buried on page 20 on a holiday Friday just like this one, news that changed the world. www.nytimes.com/1981/07/03/u...

💪 The Lancet comes out swinging on how the MAGA/MAHA Administration is destroying US science Trump’s new OMB rule will “silence independent experts, codify ideological censorship, prioritise politics over data, & erect new barriers to international collaboration” www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

China’s main research funding agency will increase its number of prestigious grants for early-career scientists by 50% go.nature.com/4wiXF5O

There's a YouTube feed starting at 3pm JST on Sunday, so you can watch it unfold live if you want 😂 For a proper announcement + images, the spacecraft will probably first need to reorientate for the high-gain antenna to point at the Earth to send images. My guess is next day?

On Sunday at 18:30 JST, Hayabusa2 will attempt flyby observations of asteroid Torifune on an Extended Mission after delivering the samples from asteroid Ryugu to Earth 🛰️. Hayabusa2 was designed for rendezvous observations, so must get pretty close to the asteroid for good data 🔭. Cross everything 🤞

Pigeon on the train!

The human mind cannot comprehend this: “And if the launches were spaced perfectly evenly, the firing rate would no longer be in the realm of countable rhythm; it would be in the realm of pitch. The F above middle C vibrates at about 349 cycles per second. The show averages 354 events per second.“

Your reminder that Joshua Chamberlain thought it was a moral imperative to fight the Confederacy but he didn't have any background as an Army officer, so he was like, "Hmm, I should study Casey's Infantry Tactics and Duparcq's Elements of Military Art and History", and that's how he beat Longstreet.

The Sumida River fireworks show in Tokyo use about 20,000 fireworks and lasts 90 minutes. It seems impossible to do this many in one city in one night unless they are counting sparklers given out to every kid.

This is a good time to watch Matewan. It’s one of my favorite labor films of all time — a John Sayles classic. My late friend Haskell Wexler received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography for his camera work in this film.

NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...

As always - all data are shared for your use here, along with a bunch of graphics, all CC. It is very nice to credit me if you do use it though, because everything on my blog I just do in my own time (am not paid for these posts at all, unless it's part of a disclosed project)

Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.

Japan weighs state ownership of defense plants to boost arms supply www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/07...

On May 20, the BayStars were 20-21. Now we are 27-42.

sometimes you only learn the truth about homemade ketchup after the fact, because heinz-sight is 20/20

I swear we lead the league in hitting into double plays.

Do it for the 256th and call it the nerd anniversary

"Michael" has been out here for a couple of weeks and is still selling out at least some IMAX showings. "Supergirl" opened on Friday and I had my choice of seats three hours before showtime. Maybe ten tickets sold for IMAX.

Geumble. Discovered after the doors closed that I'm on an express train that will skip my station. Fortunately I have time to double back.

Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance.

I have a cousin who has spent the last 25 years working for the Peace Corps, USAID, and USAID consulting firms in sub-Saharan Africa. I asked him, "Is it credible that Musk's USAID cuts resulted in 750,000 deaths?" He said, "Yes. More."

I always like thinking about: what is the oldest object you regularly use, the oldest thing you're using in your normal everyday life

....aaaand this is why in some ways I prefer NRT to HND. Stuck standing on the Keikyu line, probably for the first half hour of this one hour plus trip home.