"I feel smarter for having read that" only applies to Douthat's work in the sense that people feel relieved that they wouldn't write anything quite so asinine.

It’s one thing to have different environmental/health priorities for your foundation, it’s quite another to have been bankrolling one of the primary sources of bullshit on the topic.

I love the "interesting times" header. I suppose it's interesting in the train wreck sense? Douthat is proof that affirmative action for white conservative guys is real. No way anybody that clueless gets a prestige job otherwise.

I'm beginning to think of political punditry as a close relative of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories help give people a sense of control and narrative in a world that's often driven by random events. Punditry performs a similar function.

If they get rid of the filibuster like Trump wants, making those two states will get far, far easier.

Proving once again that Staten Island is NYC's Florida: much further south than the rest of it, and oddly conservative given its behavior.

This is written like it came from someone completely unaware that the Democrats ran as the moderate party in the last election, and the Republicans (arguably successfully) portrayed them as radical leftists regardless.

Ever wonder why tech companies seem to have an infatuation with cutting deals with nuclear reactor designers that have never built an actual reactor? It is so much worse than I'd imagine, and I cover US energy issues.

A little editing story, riffing off this. A number of years back, I got pitched an op-ed on a non-climate topic. Didn't know the author so, as one naturally does, I did a search on their name. Top hit that came up is their time spent at a leading climate-disinformation-producing think tank.

Manufacturing factory construction investment DOUBLED from 2021-2024. The IRA made clean energy cheaper to make, cheaper to use, and cheaper to build in America. Much of it now rolled back, energy will be more expensive for everyone for the next 10 years. It’s a crisis.

This is exactly right. If anything, the problem was the name of the bill, which focused on a temporary worry and obscured all the long term positives present in the law.

I will never not be amazed at the confidence these shlubs have in voicing opinions that they've never even considered fact checking.

I had "aunts" and "uncles" I wasn't even related to at all, and three of my four grandparents were born in Europe.

To quote my friend @drkatemarvel.bsky.social, climate change won't make humanity extinct but we can do better than "not extinct". Raise your standards people!

I managed to typo "suffering" so badly that autocorrect suggested "subfreezing" as a possible fix.

Westinghouse is saying it's made a deal with the US government to build $80B in new nuclear reactors. The Dept. of Energy, however, has nothing on its website about it. And, while $80B sounds like a lot, it's only about 5 full sized reactors total.

There are jokes to be made here about guys being assholes, so have at it: "Our results suggest that the bilaterian anus shares a deep evolutionary relationship with the xenacoelomorph male gonopore."

2025 year to date increase in solar production: 55 TW-hr 2025 year to date decrease in natural gas use: 52 TW-hr So far at least, it looks like solar is largely displacing flexible generating sources. Unfortunately, rising demand is being met by coal. (numbers are US only)

Can't decide whether I'm more annoyed at the fact that our democracy is being severely eroded, or that the people doing the eroding are such complete and utter tools.

One thing that’s become very clear is that corporations understand the Trump administration’s willingness to vindictively punish noncompliance, and view capitulation as pure upside. Which means consumers need to be very, very aggressive about punishing compliance to balance that.

This was being used regarding LLMs, but it applies just as well to politics these days.

MEMO To: all drivers From: all cyclists Please be aware that every time you edge your car out into the intersection because you think the bike that has the right of way doesn't need the whole lane, I'm going to slow down because I worry that you're completely unaware of my existence.

Humans of Bluesky! I want your questions, please. Let me explain. I like writing explainers about things like: What colors do bees see? Do bugs fart? How long can viruses survive in a dead body? What's the difference between hemp and marijuana? But my brain is wrung dry. I need questions! 🧪🧵

🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 Many things are changing before our eyes. Others are harder to see Like the US economy Americans are spending more 💲 recovering from disasters and preparing for the next one. 36% of US GDP growth since 2000 is related to climate disasters. Welcome to the Disaster Industrial Complex 🎁🔗

One of the reasons the big lie worked after the 2020 election is that lots of people in rural were completely unaware of the spontaneous celebrations that went on in cities after the election was called. These protests need to get big enough and pervasive enough that everybody knows about them.

The war on science is going to turn getting a PhD into something only the wealthy can do. Which I suspect is something the administration is perfectly comfortable with.

Given that the college educated have abandoned the Republican Party during the Trump era, I'm wonder where they're going to scrounge up the qualified people to ensure this diversity they crave. Because god knows they obsess about qualifications in diversity programs.

Just for context, the number of people who came out to protest today was roughly three times the total population of the 13 colonies on the eve of the American Revolution.

With alt text. This is AMAZING! Solidarity is everything.

Not just No Kings! No violence No disparaging the US No praise of Hamas Everything the Republicans said about it was a lie.

Standing up for science at #nokingsday in Decatur, GA.

Connecticut obviously has the menacing antifa LOBSTER #nokings

A special thanks to the Portland protesters for reclaiming frogs from the alt-right's Pepe gifs.

Science rally tomorrow in DC!

Last time around, they chose not to acknowledge these protests. I assume the obsessing about this iteration has to do with an awareness of their own plummeting popularity.

I much preferred it when Hannah Arendt's writing was only useful for understanding the past.

Student journalism is some of the best journalism being done right now. You should read this story.

Actually, credit to the author of the critique, Jonathan Howard! The image shows up because he used it in his piece!

It strikes me as more than a little ironic that the new atheists spent years itching for a fight between science and folks like the Christian Right because they assumed science would win. Well, we're now having that fight and we're all talking about generational damage to science.

Yet another sign that the investor class just really isn’t all that sharp.

Here we go, folks, nothing but Gold Standard Science™ as far as the eyes can see.

Whether it’s Joe Biden attending weekly mass or Donald Trump’s ICE agents shooting a priest in the face with a pepper ball, presidents of both sides have directly engaged with the Catholic faith.

Add another unpaid cost that using fossil fuels imposes on us. Odds the folks who are worried about birth rates will care? Zero.

There are a lot of potentially promising uses of AI that don't involve LLMs and all the problematic behavior that comes with them. But I suspect that when the LLM bubble pops, everybody will view it as an AI bubble, and all the promising stuff will be set back years.

A nice reminder that good photographers can be fantastic journalists.

I can't bring myself to read the column and find out what the supposed nuances of Hesgeth's "our military exists to kill people" are. I'll just highlight once again that opinion page editors have broad discretion to decide what opinions are worth publishing—they reject things all the time.

Kind of odd that today's Nobel in physics is for work that was fundamental to the development of the transmon, and two of the people receiving it have headed Google's quantum computing efforts, but a lot of the coverage seems to be "it's about quantum tunneling".

Some of the provisions of the Compact work at cross purposes and/or are contrary to some of the Administration's other policies. So, even if you assume they are genuine about some of the provisions, you'd be left guessing as to which ones are serious.

So, a nepobaby has decided that "executive leadership" requires that he gaslight the news staff.

The US is pursuing "energy dominance" and forcing allies to buy US oil and gas. And, yet, China is beating the US on energy exports. Surprised? Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...