I’m convinced by Scott Galloway that coordinated economic activity is the best and most direct way to communicate frustration with the current political and business regimes. I’ve unsubscribed or paused doing business with 11 companies for the month of February. Learn how you can do the same: Resist and Unsubscribe
This is legitimately chilling. tldr: US financial accounts are guarded like nuclear codes. Our adversaries would sell their souls to know, say, who’s on the CIA payroll and who all we do business with. That info is now likely to be compromised. (via Kottke) DOGE’s Cyberattack Against America
This episode of the Ezra Klein Show podcast is the most reasonable and intelligent political conversation I’ve heard in a long time. Sharp questions and really smart answers, along with some good takes on basic civics. If you want to make a bit of sense of the current moment, have a listen.
This is a really nice profile of Tommie Burton, the anthem singer at the Kraken hockey games. The fans genuinely appreciate him, and it seems the feeling is mutual. www.seattletimes.com/sports/kr…
A perfect fall evening on the University of Washington campus, looking south from Red Square at Mt. Rainier in the distance.
This is sad: the Living Computer Museum is closing for good . This was such a great place, filled with everything from old mainframes to Apple IIs to NeXT boxes to C64s… just about anything you could think of. And most of them you could actually touch and use! Losing this museum is a real bummer.
or: I, For One, Welcome Our New Robot Overlords This is the fourth in a four-part series of posts on IA and AI, mainly inspired by talks at IAC24 . Read Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 . “As artificial intelligence proliferates, users who intimately understand the nuances, limitations, and abilities of AI tools are uniquely positioned to unlock AI’s full innovative potential.” -Ethan Mollick,…
The Onion, natch: Biden Signs Executive Order To Deport All 340 Million Americans And Start From Scratch
(Image by DALL-E. Prompt: An impressionistic image representing ‘the problems of generative AI.’ The colors are dark and muted, creating a moody and foreboding atmosphere. The scene is a dark alley in a gritty, noir-style city. A shadowy figure with a hat and trench coat lurks as if waiting for his next victim.) This is the third in a four-part series of posts on IA and AI, mainly inspired by…
(Image by DALL-E. Prompt: Create an image representing the concept “the benefits of generative AI.” The style should be semi-realistic. Colors should be bright. Include happy humans and robots working together, unicorns, rainbows, just an explosion of positive energy. The image should embrace positive aspects of AI. No text is necessary. The setting is a lush hillside.) This is the second in a…
(Image by DALL-E) I’m not sure where I am in the race to be the last person to write about IAC24 , but I have to be pretty close to leading the pack of procrastinators. The annual information architecture conference was held in my home city of Seattle this year, and despite not having to travel for it, it’s taken me a while to consolidate my thoughts. No matter. It’s not about being first or last,…
I wonder if Generative AIs are like Ouija boards. Every time I hear someone get freaked out about something that an AI wrote, they ascribe human characteristics to it. They anthropomorphize the computer program and act as if there’s a thinking being expressing human-like desires and feelings. But what the AI produces exists in dialog with the humans who read it. It both comes from human thought…
Just bought my first carbon removal offsets on nori.com/. It was super easy, and I wish I had done it sooner.
Well, I’ve done it: I finished my Sustainability Certificate from UCLA Extension. I enrolled in it because the climate crisis felt so huge that I couldn’t begin to think about it. I’m far from an expert now, but I at least I can understand the big picture. Now to figure out how to apply what I know…
Ecological tipping points could occur much sooner than expected, study finds “More than a fifth of ecosystems worldwide, including the Amazon rainforest, are at risk of a catastrophic breakdown within a human lifetime.”
♻️ A promising development in plastic recycling: Scientists convert everyday plastics into fully recyclable and potentially biodegradable materials If it’s scalable, plastic waste could become raw material for plastic with the same qualities as that created from virgin petroleum. No new oil needed.
Just getting the word out there: A lot of us support climate change policies… “Research published in 2022 in Nature Communications showed that although 66 to 80 percent of Americans support climate change policies, they think only 37 to 43 percent of the population does.” – Scientific American
Boy… losing Mrs. Maisel, Barry, and Ted Lasso in the same week has me a bit emotional. Three great shows with crackerjack writing and exceptional ensembles. I’ll miss them all.
A factoid I read tonight and can’t get out of my head: In 1978, there were 4 billion people on earth. Today there are over 8 billion. By 2100, there will be 10.1 billion.
Congratulations to the Toronto Maple Leafs for getting their first Round One playoff win in nearly 20 years. And big cheers to my Tampa Bay Lightning, who have had a hell of a few years of playoff hockey. Three Cup finals in three years, winning two… that’s a hell of a run.
And that’s it for the climate quiz. Hope you enjoyed it. Remember: climate change is real and scary, but it’s not hopeless. Lots of people are working on ways to keep the worst of global warming at bay, so educate yourself, and do what you can to help. 4/4
Microscopic fossil shells can reveal climatic conditions by the amount and type of calcium carbonate in their shells. CarbonBrief.org has a great primer on “ How ‘proxy’ data reveals the climate of the Earth’s distant past ” 3/4
You’re familiar with paleoproxies if you’ve ever heard of studying tree rings to understand historic periods of drought, pests, or fire. Evidence of chemical changes in air and water can also be found trapped in layers of ice drilled out of ancient glaciers. 2/4
Today’s answer: By studying “paleoproxies” such as ocean sediments and sedimentary rocks, we can study ocean and atmospheric temperature from as many as tens of millions of years ago. 1/4
Sooo… How far back can we measure ocean and atmospheric temperatures? a) Hundreds of years b) Thousands of years c) Hundreds of thousands of years d) Millions of years