Something that amuses me is that the Apple Watch fitness tracker cares about active time, exercise time, and hours per day spent standing/walking. The first two are easy to knock off with one big exercise binge, but you keep having to be upright to get all 3 and get virtual fireworks as congrats.

The lies we tell ourselves to preserve our conception of self can be pretty extensive.

In the building but facing difficulties already

When the Great Defunding started in 2025, the European Union introduced a "bold" program to attract top scientists from the US, funded at the tune of about ~$500 million spread over 3-5 years. In 2024, the NIH allocated almost twice as that per week.

The best way to handle this is "Do you accept the evidence of climate change?" because if they don't, there are a world of follow up options, depending on precisely how stupid you want to make them look.

What is the term for government of, by, and for the assholes?

Once again, The NY Times finds it's compelled to avoid reality when discussing political figures.

While obviously this is false, I think probably Roberts and some of the others sincerely believe it. There’s a certain kind of doublethink that kicks in with certain spheres of ideological work where people understand the partisan assignment at one level, but conceal their motives from themselves.

The American public has done some awfully stupid shit of late, but I think they've got a better grasp on this k e than Roberts does. Which does not say very good things about his ability to reason around his self interests.

In line at a coffee shop. Mom is responding to kid asking what’s in a bag of coffee beans: “that’s coffee concentrate honey.”

absolutely incredible thing for bret stephens to say out loud

For those of you surprised that Giuliani seemed to go delusional during the Trump years, please be aware that this is a guy who, during his mayor days, thought he could stop NYers from jaywalking.

The “person falls for conman and loses the family business” narrative is a bit of a cliche, and the con in this case was not at all sophisticated. Is this really NYT material?

Having watched it again last night, I remain convinced that Jason Isaacs' performance as Zhukov in Death of Stalin is the one I've enjoyed most in recent years. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNbv...

Imagine having a grid where you have to curtail wind during peak solar production hours.

I don’t wish this on French because it would upset him, but I think he would have benefited from one of his teens trying to go through high school as an atheist.

I always expected peak oil to pass by without notice and only to be recognized in retrospect. But I’d be perfectly happy if I’m wrong about that.

@dereklowe.bsky.social asking a simple question and bringing the heat! www.science.org/content/blog...

Trump Claims Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Reinforces Need To End Journalism

Republican love of coal is vice signaling to reinforce their identity and to delineate that anyone with environmental concerns is an outsider. They will then dismiss evidence it kills people as coming from outsiders who can’t be trusted.

I did not realize that Québécois microtonal, live-looping math rock was what I needed to power through 1,700 words on shrinking the genetic code, but it turns out to be the case. The costumes are just a bonus.

Life goals! I'm at 7 bikes in the garage at the moment. (Most of those are review units, though, and the organization really sucks).

The idea that Hegseth is demanding other people be judged on merit, as he says here, is quite the display of an absence of self-awareness.

Oddly, they are not prosecuting the Dept. of Energy's own in house climate group, where discovery in a lawsuit revealed that its members had discussed the need to send emails to non-governmental addresses to avoid public disclosure laws.

I resigned from the National Science Board in May when meaningful oversight became untenable. I respect colleagues who stayed to serve the NSB's mission. Today's news clarifies that was an erosion of oversight and function has become open elimination of the Board itself. 🧵 time.com/7285045/resi...

Vaccines weren't partisan pre-COVID. There is no predicting what area of science will be caught in the maelstrom next. It's clear that this is just a recipe for perpetual retreat that will eventually leave the NAS talking about little more than gravity's existence.

You'd think, given his history of casinos bankrupting him, that he'd be a bit more concerned about the world turning into one.

I have become aware that the District of Columbia has appointed some other John Timmer to their Judicial Nomination Commission. As a result of this, he has displaced me as the top result if you google "John Timmer". This means war.

How it started / how it’s going — Jay Bhattacharya edition. 2025: “We will never use this agency to censor scientists who disagree" 2026 : Bhattacharya “has canceled the publication of a study that found that the Covid vaccine sharply cut the odds of hospitalizations and emergency visits”.

Yesterday, Ars published its formal policy on AI use in our writing/editorial process.

I'd extend the argument to small, modular nuclear reactor (SMR). A lot of its advocates say that we'll make enough of them that it'll bring costs down. But a lot of the learning that brings costs down takes place at the factory, manufacturing equipment, and supply chain levels.

In the past week, I've gotten PR emails addressed to "JohnJohn" and to the name of the person sending the email. Is everything ok out there?

The whole thread is worth reading, but this passage in particular is terrifying. It is literally saying that, on topics of the court's choice, judges aren't constrained by facts when making rulings.

Anybody still a subscriber who can ask them to defend this? Email addresses are right here: helpcenter.washingtonpost.com/hc/en-us/art...

The Roman Telescope is pretty much ready for space, apparently on time and under budget.

I'd imagine any federal employee union would have standing to sue here. Surprised I've not heard anything about it happening.

The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, in this Hubble image, is an emission nebula located about 8,000 light-years away.

In 2025, the world started construction of nuclear power plants that would generate 12 GW of power if completed. In the same year, it installed 108 GW of batteries and 600 GW of solar capacity.

I like how the Palantir guy says "Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible" at the same time his compatriots have utter conniptions if they're ever asked to pay more taxes.

I covered a paper analyzing the potential of this back in 2021. Amazing to see things go from academia to real world implementation so quickly. Key thing is that, once the panels get cheap enough, you can spend more on related infrastructure and still have favorable economics.

This thread elaborates on what I said in a very compressed form earlier. Definitely worth reading, because it drives home exactly how far off base Roberts is about the electrical power industry, a fact that seems to have bothered him not at all.

The one thing I'll say right now is that Roberts seems unconstrained by things he clearly knows nothing about. His reasoning boils down to "we must act immediately to stop this thing _that ended up happening anyway_". (meaning the collapse of the coal industry in the US)

Ride of the Valkyries in Apocalypse now. If you don't consider that a song, The End by The Doors, same movie.

I notice he's not gone as far as considering "maybe I was wrong about the experts". Still, solid first steps.

I still struggle to understand the reality that cyclists in the real world are nice, generous people who want everybody out of cars, and cyclists on internet discussions are nasty gatekeepers who only want people on the right _kind_ of bike.

“Explaining theology to the pope” is the logical endgame of “debate me bro” culture

Happy to have had @sjonearth.bsky.social provide a little perspective on what it's like to try to teach college students in the age of AI.

Please tell me that the argument is that the Republicans aren't self aware enough to care, so the only people it would register with are the Dems. Because if not....

I've not responded with vitriol, but I do know that "productive conversations across divides" requires that the participants be willing to re-evaluate their positions. And going back to at least COVID, Bhattacharya has not given even the slightest hint that it's something he's capable of.

I'd add to this that my (probably limited) understanding is that Magyar had to assemble a very broad coalition that in previous elections would have been represented by several independent political parties. If people demanded purity tests, it wouldn't have worked. If people demanded...