Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
Novel reader, 🐈 lover, amateur 📸, gamer 🎮, slow 🚲, coattail-rider, rare blogger & ocean 🌊 biogeochemistry modeller (in that order). Views=own, RTs≠endorsement.
Environmental science
47%
Geology
23%
A nice "tradition" that's sprung up in #Southampton in recent years is hanging Christmas decorations in trees in the old cemetery in the city's Common. Living close to this, we've started joining in and here's some snaps of our yews plus a few other decorated trees.
I expect they just want your social media handles so they can send an AI to do the work of reading these and answering the question "dislikes #OrangeTyrant?".
👍 To be honest, I haven't read any papers about this. I just know from a general immersion in science (I'm a marine biogeochemist; so I guess I do read unrelated papers) that this headline can't meaningfully be true. There'd have been so much more ahead of such a breakthrough.
More navel-gazing, self-indulgent, faux-philosophical, clickbaity horseshit. This time from @newscientist.com who should know better.
Has even #PopularMechanics completely lost its way in these clickbaity times?
I'd not noticed what that looked like before! 🧟 It comes to something when we can't tell whether someone is trolling or sucking up to the #OrangeTyrant.
Trump awarded inaugural Fifa peace prize at World Cup draw in Washington
US president receives new Fifa honour as scrutiny grows over Infantino’s political alliances and Trump’s disputed record on global conflicts
www.theguardian.com
What kind of sad sack of human garbage is so craving of praise that he can be bought off by a fake-ass "peace prize" from a brazenly corrupt sports organisation brown-nosing to the absolute hilt? How does someone get to have so little self-respect?
Of course, UK governments don't have to succumb to this pressure, but ...
Top UK scientist says research visa restrictions endanger economy
Prof Sir Paul Nurse says the UK is "shooting itself in the foot" with its visa system for researchers.
www.bbc.com
Don't forget @royalsociety.org that one of the reasons we have visa restrictions is that one of *your fellows* is driving racist narratives that pressurise UK governments into imposing them!
Quite. I'm afraid I was being a bit sarcastic, however. #BigOil isn't trying to make a sensible point about CO2 - it's merely another of their many sciencey-sounding misdirections to sow false doubt about climate science and keep the money pouring in. Standard denialist horseshit.
Counterpoint: Perhaps the vastly more numerous humans, whose numbers / spread around the world are responsible for the unfortunate occurrence of domestic cats (and wildlife loss more widely), could perhaps be kept inside the house? Cats are the proximate cause - the ultimate cause is closer to home.
But, but ... isn't CO2 plant food like the denialists at #BigOil periodically remind us?!?
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 25
ChatGPT - CO2 emission cost comparison
Shared via ChatGPT
chatgpt.com
(*) "very approximately" because petrol, natural gas, etc., have highly variable prices across the board. Between countries, between types of end-user, between fuel chemistries, etc. Here's some back-of-the-envelope that #ChatGPT did for me ...
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 25
... Let alone the cost of the climate damage caused by the CO2 added to the atmosphere in the period between burning the fuel and DAC-ing that CO2. All not paid for by the #BigOil companies (and consumers).
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 25
Cost of direct air carbon capture to remain higher than hoped
The cost of removing large quantities of CO2 from the air will fall in the medium term, but not as much as previously hoped. This is the conclusion reached by ETH researchers on the basis of new calcu...
ethz.ch
And, for reference, the cost of #DirectAirCapture is very approximately (*) the same as the consumer cost of putting that #CO2 in the atmosphere in the first place. So, when you hear about expensive renewables and cheap #FossilFuels, remember the latter's price-doubling #Externality cost.
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 20
Holy fuck - @aiannucci.bsky.social's #StrongMessageHere today is all about my favourite undiscussed environmental concept: #Externalities. I'm never going to get any work done today if #BBCRadio4 keeps this up ... or, of course, I turn off the radio.
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 20
Anyhow, glad to have that cleared up. Suck on that Newton! Well, actually, Johann Georg von Soldner (1776–1833).
And thanks to #Elbow's #GuyGarvey for picking this episode to mark #MelvinBragg's retirement. (4/4)
And thanks to #Elbow's #GuyGarvey for picking this episode to mark #MelvinBragg's retirement. (4/4)
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 20
(Immediate caveat: I asked #ChatGPT)
Anyhow, it suggested that, rather than Newton's theories predicting this effect, it's *evolutions* of these theories by later scientists that predicted this effect. Further, that these amendments are actually incorrect (compared to #GeneralRelativity). (3/4)
Anyhow, it suggested that, rather than Newton's theories predicting this effect, it's *evolutions* of these theories by later scientists that predicted this effect. Further, that these amendments are actually incorrect (compared to #GeneralRelativity). (3/4)
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 20
I'm no physicist, but that claim (which I've heard before) doesn't align with what (little) I know about the foundations of Newton's theories. However, being a modeller, and thus instinctively not averse to armchair solutions to science problems, I thought I'd ask #ChatGPT ... (2/4)
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 20
Today's return to an #InOurTime recording on #BBCRadio4 is about #Eclipses. Brilliant as ever, but it just made a point that niggled me. Namely that, though Einstein's #GeneralRelativity famously predicted deflection of light by the Sun's gravity, Newton's earlier work also did this. (1/4)
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Given (a) they installed Musk as one of their Fellows in a fit of fanboi excitement, and (b) have completely failed to dislodge him even after he went full Nazi on them, I no longer think they can be humiliated.
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Why most Indians blame global warming for extreme weather events
Over 70% of Indians in all districts say that global warming is causing severe heat waves. To better understand this, we conducted phone interviews with over 19,000 people between 2022 and 2025. Here ...
www.indiatoday.in
Hot take: Because it probably is responsible for these?
(I also wonder what the sales of 2020's #TheMinistryForTheFuture are like in India?)
(I also wonder what the sales of 2020's #TheMinistryForTheFuture are like in India?)
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Astronomy Picture of the Day
A different astronomy and space science
related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
apod.nasa.gov
If, like me, you've missed your daily dose of glorious #Astronomy from @apod.shinyakato.dev because of an #OrangeTyrant, you may be delighted to hear that you can click the "previous day" link back across all the days you missed. Now *that's* public service for you ...
apod.nasa.gov/apod/
apod.nasa.gov/apod/
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 14
It's cute that we think this is them becoming our pets - as (SPOILER ALERT!) @unlikelyworlds.bsky.social has already written ("Beyond The Burn Line"), this is just them prepping to become our successors.
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Do we know if this is just "bad luck" (i.e. caused by natural variability in avian flu occurrence) or is it something that's amplified by climate change, perhaps because warmer temperatures increase bird abundance on the islands, increasing the risk of infection?
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 14
We just needed a reputable source to do this first. Got that now.
Andrew Yool
@dryool.bsky.social
· Nov 13
Coincidence I'm sure, but it's difficult *not* to make the #JurassicPark connection between #Radio4 reports of the discovery of Hitler's DNA on the #TodayProgramme earlier, with the #InOurTime on #Dinosaurs right now. It suggests some sort of #BoysFromBrazil remake to capture our fascist zeitgeist.