Gov subsidized oil? That Trump is a true socialist. Some would even say... a communist.

We all managed to agree that both academia and industry need to abide gov oversight, regulation, get permits and pass committees to do animal and human experiments. That their results cannot be commercialized before rigorous review by gov appointed/employed expert review. So, about AI...

German retailers have upped heat pump prices by up to 270% (Mediamarkt),

Trump 250 is looking more and more like a late-era Robert Moses project (i.e. 1964 World Fair)

My Bluetooth headset app, which I use for EQ and firmware upgrades now has an AI assistant. Why?? Trust me app, by stealing my personal data humanity will not cure cancer.

Postdoc in Canada. Now, I don't know Dan, and I'm not in a habit of recommending people I don't know, so I asked for a referral from someone I trust wholeheartedly. Their reply was "Dan? oh yea, he's dope!" (etc etc). So, dope postdoc opportunity in Canada y'all!

Not a football fan, never was, but I passionately watch the world cup - it was a family thing, as I'm sure it is for most (fans or otherwise). This year I've decided not to watch the cup (and thusly support FIFA) and I want to thank FIFA for proving me right, repeatedly. www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

I would also remove niceties from human conversation. It consumes a lot of my energy and I'm pretty sure most people neither mean it nor need it.

Old dog, doing old dog things by the lake.

The clouds above Berlin today put on their Sunday best.

This is exactly how I feel about social media.

ההספד של עינב שיף לאביב רק מדגים כמה יובל אראל התדרדר לתהומות הצ'ט. עדיף שלא היה טורח.

אביב מארק ואני מעולם לא היינו חברים, למרות שהסתובבנו באותם מעגלים, ויש לנו מיליון חברים משותפים... אבל אני כן יודע דבר אחד - הוא חסיד אומות הרוקנרול. והנה הסיפור שלי על אביב:

In the list of things I feared a 2nd Trump term will cause I never considered "termination of the Westphalian system"... What's next? the reassertion of papal imperial authority? www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/the-pentag...

Long long ago, before I left Israel, we had a debate in one of my Environmental Science classes which, as it usually happens, turned political. I argued that one way to "win" in the Middle East could be to fund a Manhattan project for alternative energy, not the next interceptor system or F35 jet.

Nice! Apologies if someone already posted on this, but taking hot sauce to space follows the same logic as those tiny tabasco bottles you take on flights: the dry pressurized air dulls your taste buds and hot sauce is the one way to get flavor. Also, in micrograv your sinuses get congested.

ניתאי מעלה משהו חשוב ולמעשה, *ה*ביקורת שלי על הממשל. עזבו להתפטר, ישראל וכל המערכות שלה מעולם לא נבנו למלחמות עד. אין לנו את ה"עורף" לזה, אין לנו לאן להעביר חיילים או אזרחים "להרגע ולעכל". ולכן, הסיבה לא לנצח את חמאס, להתחיל עם חיזבאללה או אירן היא לא חולשה או חוזק או הזדמנות - היא השרדמות המדינה

תוהה עד כמה אני ג'ף אלברטסון מלגעור באנשים שיצפו בכל מה שרונלד ד. מור הפיק לפני שיבואו לדסקס את הסדרת אפל טיוי שיצא להם לראות.

Quality in, Garbage out. Even if that's only 5-10% of the time, it still means that so called AI is not a product that would have been released into a regulated market.

בדקתי בכל מיני ארכיונים מקוונים ו, להבדיל אלפי הבדלות, אין תיעוד של אנשים עם שפמניה בועידת וואנזה, למעשה אין תיעוד שלהם מחייכים. אז אני מזהה מגמות, אבל אלו לא אותן מגמות.

ברלינאים אוהבי הופעות וניינטיז - למרות שאין לו תחליף אני מחפש תחליף ל @johnnybkutt.bsky.social הערב, הופעה של דאוס במטרופול. מישהו? ביולר?

Found an old mix-tape on an old hard drive. No song list. Designed for waking up and starting a day on a thru-hike, that much I know. Any takes? DM for link.

For 250 years Washington gave states multiple reasons to object, secede or fight against the union. Trump has given them 250 reasons in the last year alone. They only ever did it over the right to own humans.

It was fun while it lasted.

A little over 10 years ago, before Trump, before several wars, and before one global pandemic - my sister adopted Charlie (officially Kara's older brother). Here he is on the ol' twitter, sleeping. He loved sleeping so much it's only apt that's how he went. Not with a bang, but a nap.

Good, straightforward, long-form, explanation why you should solar and the future is RENEWABLE! I'm not going to add a quote from it since the vid is so in-cite-full! But the *chefs' kiss* was the (emotional) manifesto by @techconnectify.bsky.social at the very end (1h03m). youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM?...

Hey continental proxy people! Our unconventional session is back at #EGU26! Featuring great science and the best Austrian fair-trade chocolate! Do not miss abstract submission deadline on the 15th of January! www.egu26.eu/session/56342 @egu.eu @egu-cl.bsky.social

Kara summarizes her first New Years Eve in Berlin...

Join this team! you won't regret it! (requirements - geek out on redox, but seriously, who doesn't?)

Time to leave Win11. What's your idea of the best distro for productivity? I'm not afraid from CLI, but would rather spend my day working rather than IT-ing. Hit me!

To my very few followers - I'm in Berlin! No longer in California, nor presently in academia (though I'm still thinking science all the time). It has been, if to use American speak, an interesting year for me in the USA since Trump got elected, but I'm happy to be in Europe and hope for the best.

Please, fuck with Mickey. That'll be a court battle for the ages.

האם מדינה יכולה, כישות שלטונית מדינית, להשאר עם הזין ביד? לא יודע, אבל סומך על ישראל שתנסה.

Bumping it for those of you in the USA who want some light reading for your weekend.

New paper alert: do you crave caves? are you hot for wildfire? Well, Jon Smolen (Harvard, née UConn), myself (UC Davis) and the Stalfire Consortium members just released this little ditty exploring pyrogenic biomarkers in a stalagmite from California! 🧪⚒️ pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...

Iran has for years made Israelis into a more conservative, right wing, warring people. By arming proxy militia Iran fueled Netanyahu and suppressed the Israeli left- It's hard to push for peace, if you're in survival mode. So why the f$#k does anyone think you can bomb Iran into progressiveness?

I'm not a foreign policy guy but... Nope, that's it. Got no take other than war is hell - any war - that I know from experience. The end.

In 2012 I was wrapping up my masters, recording a podcast, making a bitter mistake about my choice of PhD and promising to never bomb Iran on fb. So much has changed since, but I'm still opposed to bombing countries. www.newyorker.com/culture/cult...

For those of you watching from home, you're going to need one of these, and a years' supply of kernels.

The OIST Graduate School has opened a Special PhD Admissions Portal for students currently enrolled in, or accepted to, universities in the U.S. #PhDProgram www.oist.jp/admissions/s...

Three years ago I published a paper in GEOLOGY journal. It was a nice little ditty on reconnecting paleohydrology and soil dynamics using environmental magnetism in speleothems. Today, for some reason, GSA posted it on their Instagram. Good omen? Maybe. www.instagram.com/share/BAEEBu...

Important. But also, if I may argue for LLM use - I never pasted a manuscript in, but I have once taken my comments, written on the fly, and while I was a bit annoyed (bc data was awesome and manuscript was so terrible it shouldn't have passed the PI), and asked the LLM to tone it down.

If you want to know where we're heading, or what is the ultimate goal of p25 - read "the power broker".

All these Amtrak employees will easily find many lucrative jobs in the private national rail sector.

To generalize and extrapolate - imagine a future, 10 years from now, in which the USA has half of everything. This will destroy American but will also destabilize the globe. Ok, I'm probably exaggerating, the USA will have 80% of everything it needs (traumatic still), nah... 90% (crippling).

Little did we know that Lisa Simpson gif was referring to the second Trump term.

@99pi.org Happening just now is the crowd vote for the Geological Society of America club t-shirt competition, Cordilleran Section Tournament geosociety.co/CD25 It should vex any vexillologist and designer, a testament to our addiction to public opinion over merit, professionalism and judgement.

FFS, all we need now is a little bit of stability. Democracies crumbling, financial systems being demolished, norms obliterated, we could do without the laws of physics being unraveled...

Someone on an internal mailing list "do they expect us to refund grant money?" Me, typing a reply and not hitting send "no Mr. Bond, they expect you to die" It's funny because it's true.

Another shitshow day in shitshowshistan.