It remains notable that The Onion — The Onion! — has had a stronger moral compass and more clear set of values in this moment than nearly every powerful and well-funded institution in American life.
CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism. olivia.science/ai
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Created by Project Drawdown and backed up with the latest science, Carbon in Context converts raw emissions data into comparisons that actually resonate with audiences.
Clear the air and start using Carbon in Context today: drawdown.org/carbon-in-context
#climateaction
All federal wind power R&D at the Department of Energy is $0.137 billion. So the government is paying 7x the amount it spends on all wind power R&D just for a fee to kill one wind project. Seems bad.
The US government paid $1 billion to kill a wind farm just because. Just absolute idiocy in every direction heatmap.news/energy/total...
Fun fact: there are space ships in this book named after both @dnlee5.bsky.social and me! We exist canonically in this universe!
"The effort comes in response to longstanding criticism that Harvard’s faculty leans overwhelmingly liberal."
Golly, I wonder why faculties tend to be overwhelmingly liberal? Are liberals more drawn to teaching? Have conservatives been engaged in a long war on science and knowledge? WHO KNOWS?
Enlisted service members: you have a choice. You do not have to die for Donald Trump.
girightshotline.org
I’m delighted to share some news: my new book "You Don’t Know What You’re M ss ng" is coming out in the UK on 4th June.
It’s about something that lies hidden in the background of almost everything we do, yet rarely gets named: Missingness.
uk.bookshop.org/p/bo...
1/9
👇🎯 Your regular reminder that <no one> knows the right amount viewpoint diversity on college campuses, & there are <exactly zero> societal institutions in America with more respect for viewpoint diversity than universities. It's not even close.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
I think this is part of what's driving me potty at the moment. Seeing ostensibly intelligent people exercising zero critical thinking and falling for what is clearly a scam because they've not taken time to do the reading (ha, literally in many cases)
A black and white photo of Einstein’s desk, blackboard, and bookshelves after he passed away. Journals, magazine, and papers are strewn over the desk and shelves. A few of the shelves are organized, but mostly they contain haphazard, listing stacks that seem like they could fall over at any moment. The desk is a beautiful disaster, with papers and journals covering every inch. A pot for tobacco, a small glass jar, and Einstein’s pipe sit near the middle. The dark leather chair is pushed back slightly from the desk. The blackboard is sectioned off into several different regions, each of which contains one or more boxed formulas from whatever Einstein was working on when he fell ill.
Albert Einstein passed away #OTD in 1955 due to complications from a ruptured abdominal aneurysm.
Doctors recommended surgical intervention but Einstein declined, saying “I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."
Here is his office as he left it. 🧪 ⚛️
Image: R. Morse/LIFE
Tell the truth and get fired.
My latest.
I’ve been watching the media coverage of the murders of Dr. Cerina Fairfax and Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer.
One way media can fight back against male violence:
If you kill your wife, you don’t get to be called a “husband” any more.
You’re her killer.
open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...
Forest Service plan to close research stations stokes fear as wildfire season approaches
michiganadvance.com/2026/04/18/r...
From @stateline.org
Incredible level of grift here. Even compared to all the other grift from this regime
It shocks me how many businesses still don’t seem to get that Trump’s cultural revolution did not actually happen
Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey, Bill Roorbach
How about you take it down? As someone who claims to care about climate change, sharing AI slop is a bad look.
Such an important piece from @drhigginsmd.bsky.social. I had similar conclusions when I looked at the Politico poll in question, but Dr. Higgins expressed it more eloquently than I ever could.
Vaccine hesitancy is not mainstream and we should not present it as such.
“Maybe vibe-coding isn’t actually working as well as people think it is,” she thought absently, staring out the window at the rain while waiting for Bluesky to actually work.
“Maybe we need more than vibes. Maybe we actually need…each other.”
I left off all K-Pg extinctions for exactly this reason, haha.
It’s my first time, so we’ll see! Fingers crossed!
Part of what I like about this assignment is that they have to define what success looks like! There's a lot of structure, but a few places where they have to make a case, argue it, and commit despite uncertainty. It's been fun to see them grapple with that.
They have to create a recovery plan for the species in its original time, as though they were a time-traveling conservation biologist tasked with saving the species from extinction (so, not "de-extinction"). They only have access to modern technology and approaches (plus time travel, roll with it).
Taxa include: Spinosaurus aegypticus, Gigantopithetcus blackii, the giant beaver, dire wolves, Calamites, Critchfield's spruce, sabertooth cats, Tatanis walleri, Acanthostega, Meganeura monyi, dodos, moas, Allosaurus fragilis, woolly mammoths...
This semester, my paleoecology students are working on species recovery plans for extinct species from the fossil record (I gave them a list to choose from), and my approach of "only assign things you'll actually enjoy grading" continues to be paying dividends.
It’s also AI. Ugh.
