screenshot of a resignation letter expressing sadness at leaving NASA

My resignation letter

And my top fiction are:
▶ Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

▶ Starter Villain by John Scalzi @scalzi.com

If anyone’s looking for something to new to read this year, I’d highly recommend any of these seven.

▶ Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social

▶ Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It by Cory Doctorow @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy
...

▶ More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity by Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social

▶ One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
...

Covers of 57 books read this year.

Total of 57 books read in 2025, 18 fiction and 39 non-fiction (11 fewer than last year!).
My top non-fiction recommendations are:

▶ When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World by Jordan Thomas
...
#LibFaves25

🚨 December 2025 #Arctic sea ice extent was the *lowest* on record for the month...

This was 1,620,000 km² below the 1981-2010 average. December ice extent is decreasing at about 3.5% per decade. Data: @nsidc.bsky.social at nsidc.org/data/seaice_...

Minsky said 'intelligence' is a suitcase word, in that we've stuffed lots of different meanings into it, logic, reason, emotional awareness, memory, creativity, self-awareness etc.

No, there is not agreed definition of intelligence. Also note crazy phenomenon where as soon as a machine solves a task (like playing chess or recognising faces), we decide that task no longer requires "true" intelligence. It's the ultimate shifting goalposts problem.

Yeah okay, so maybe a non-trivial proportion of those influenza admissions are 'with' flu, but not actually admitted because of the flu. Where pre-COVID their incidental flu would go undocumented. Is there data on a cause of admission, to filter that out?

I expect the actual hospital admissions data is fairly consistent, not just an artifact of improving testing - you have to actually be very unwell to be admitted. And yes, this year may be no worse than the last couple of years, just a couple weeks earlier, we'll find out soon.

Why is the media not highlighting how the last few years are not 'normal' but much more impactful than the few years before COVID. That seems like a bigger story.

I think it's important to highlight the 2022/23 and 2024/25 were not normal! They are exceptional. Look back at 2016-17, 17-18 and 18-19 and the question becomes why have recent years been so much worse than last decade?

The media coverage is all about how this year is worse than the last couple of years, it is. But look further back. The last three years have been much much worse than 2016-17, 17-18 and 18-19. That's the bigger story IMO. Why is flu much more impactful these days compared to last decade?

The media coverage is all about how this year is worse than the last couple of years, it is. But look further back. The last three years have been much much worse than 2016-17, 17-18 and 18-19. That's the bigger story IMO. Why is flu much more impactful these days compared to last decade?

The media coverage is all about how this year is worse than the last couple of years,it is. But look further back. The last three years have been much much worse than 2016-17, 17-18 and 18-19. That's the bigger story IMO. Why is flu much more impactful these days compared to last decade?

The media coverage is all about how this year is worse than the last couple of years,it is. But look further back. The last three years have been much much worse than 2016-17, 17-18 and 18-19. That's the bigger story IMO. Why is flu much more impactful these days compared to last decade?

Annual global surface air temperature anomalies (°C) relative to the 1850–1900 pre-industrial reference from 1967 to 2025. The value for 2025 is based on data for January to November. Data source: ERA5. Credit: C3S/ECMWF.

Monthly global surface air temperature anomalies (°C) relative to the 1850–1900 pre-industrial reference period from January 1940 to November 2025, plotted as time series for each year. The year 2025 as well as the two warmest calendar years are shown in colour: 2025 in dark red, 2024 in orange, and 2023 in yellow. All other years are shown with thin grey lines. Data source: ERA5. Credit: C3S /ECMWF.

The latest #climate update from Copernicus shows that 2025 is on course to be:

- joint 2nd warmest year, tied with 2023 and behind 2024 (warmest year)

- November 2025 was the 3rd warmest November globally

For more: climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2...

🌏🌡️⚒️🧪🌊

Once you're a multimillionaire let alone a multibillionaire you already have more money than you and your family can hope to spend/consume (can only have so many cars, houses, holidays etc). Then what? It becomes all about power and influence, hence the interest in the media.

Well, the cost to prepare the food, to serve the food, heat the building, pay the rent, wash the dishes etc is basically the same, so 80% the calories probably cost close to 100% the price of the man's portion.

Paramount Skydance launches rival bid for Warner Brothers Discovery Paramount says its proposal is a "superior alternative" for shareholders than the rival offer from Netflix.

Why would Paramount chose to spend $108bn on buying Warner Brothers instead of using that $108bn to make *new*, *original* content? Are they seriously that out of ideas?

BBC News - Paramount launches rival bid for Warner Brothers Discovery
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Record lows in the winter don't have much of an albedo impact - as it's dark.

This is shockingly common.

Am I right in thinking SMRs produce more nuclear waste per MWh than conventional reactors? Their smaller size leading to more neutron leakage and their spent fuel having more radiotoxicity? From a security aspect, SMRs create much larger attack surface.

Record wildfire smoke kills more people each year than car crashes. It’s about to get worse. The past six summers have been the smokiest on record. New research shows that smoke could become the costliest consequence of climate change for Americans.

It's not your imagination: Wildfire smoke in the U.S. has dramatically worsened since 2019. According to a new study, it's already killing 41,000 people a year - and it's poised to get much worse.

new from me @johnmuyskens.bsky.social and @sadbumblebee.buzz

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

3/4 though Graff's latest - it's great. I read the one above, When it all Burns a few weeks ago, a really remarkable book.

A graph showing the link between temperature and specific humidity

The BAMS State of the Global Climate report 2024 reveals the year was record-breaking for both atmospheric water vapour levels and global temperature.

Find out more in our press release:
www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

I'm 1/3 way though his book, great companion to yours, really fascinating. Just wish there was more acknowledgement of uncertainty. Too much stuff is presented as fact, where really there is significant uncertainty over what actually happened thousands of years ago. Archaeology isn't time machine!

Yeah, I'm 1/3 the way thought, it's really fascinating. I just wish there was more acknowledgement of the uncertainty. Too much stuff is presented as fact, where really, there is significant uncertainty over what actually happened thousands of years ago. Archaeology isn't a time machine!

Yeah, I'm 1/3 the way thought, it's really fascinating. I just wish there was more acknowledgement of the uncertainty. Too much stuff is presented as fact, where really, there is significant uncertainty over what actually happened thousands of years ago. Archaeology isn't a time machine!

Or you could grab Luke Kemp's new book, Goliath's Curse. Some fascinating stuff might be right up your street.