Jacob Aron
@jjaron.bsky.social
News editor at New Scientist. I read a lot of books, and recommend the best ones to you
Pinned
Jacob Aron
@jjaron.bsky.social
· Nov 15
I used to share book recommendations on the other place but got out of the habit this year as engagement massively dropped off. Thinking about putting together my top 10 list for this year though, so as a test, like this, and for each like I'll recommend something great I read in the past 5 years
Reposted by Jacob Aron
There is a lot of fuss today over whether chatbots can replace human participants in social sciences research when the solution is obvious: ask chatbots to simulate the views of social scientists and survey them on attitudes towards chatbots as substitutes for human subjects.
November 10, 2025 at 10:45 PM
There is a lot of fuss today over whether chatbots can replace human participants in social sciences research when the solution is obvious: ask chatbots to simulate the views of social scientists and survey them on attitudes towards chatbots as substitutes for human subjects.
Reposted by Jacob Aron
www.bloomberg.com/news/article... it's giving "don't worry they're triple A mortgages"
AI’s $5 Trillion Data-Center Boom Will Dip Into Every Debt Market, JPMorgan Says
The furious push by AI hyperscalers to build out data centers will need about $1.5 trillion of investment-grade bonds over the next five years and extensive funding from every other corner of the mark...
www.bloomberg.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:29 PM
www.bloomberg.com/news/article... it's giving "don't worry they're triple A mortgages"
Reposted by Jacob Aron
The answer to this question is that British people could discuss this question till the end of time and not be done.
Could someone explain to me what is meant when a British person refers to "the middle class" ? Like, in the US, as I hear it, it basically just means a person who makes a certain amount of money, not too far below and not wildly above the median. Seems like a complex concept when UK writers use it?
November 10, 2025 at 10:25 PM
The answer to this question is that British people could discuss this question till the end of time and not be done.
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Filling out a banking form that asks for my occupation, and in what I am choosing to consider as a sign of the times, "journalist" is not a selectable option, but "cryptocurrency" is
November 10, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Filling out a banking form that asks for my occupation, and in what I am choosing to consider as a sign of the times, "journalist" is not a selectable option, but "cryptocurrency" is
Reposted by Jacob Aron
I had to transcribe a translated version of this meme.
April 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I had to transcribe a translated version of this meme.
Oh boy
Could someone explain to me what is meant when a British person refers to "the middle class" ? Like, in the US, as I hear it, it basically just means a person who makes a certain amount of money, not too far below and not wildly above the median. Seems like a complex concept when UK writers use it?
November 10, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Oh boy
But a trillion dollars
Tesla's latest gambit: become a rental car company. As cars pile up in showrooms and storage lots, Elon is trying to rent his way out of a crisis. Good luck, bud. #teslatakedown #MuskMustFall electrek.co/2025/11/10/t...
Tesla can’t sell its cars anymore so it is renting them now
Tesla is launching a new car rental program out of its stores in the US, as sales are crashing due...
electrek.co
November 10, 2025 at 6:01 PM
But a trillion dollars
Just seen a really infuriating press release that I may get cross about later once the embargo lifts, if I remember
November 10, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Just seen a really infuriating press release that I may get cross about later once the embargo lifts, if I remember
AI is essentially incompatible with net zero, in the short term. I know which I'd rather have www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
AI power use forecast finds the industry far off track to net zero
Several large tech firms that are active in AI have set goals to hit net zero by 2030, but a new forecast of the energy and water required to run large data centres shows they’re unlikely to meet thos...
www.newscientist.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:04 AM
AI is essentially incompatible with net zero, in the short term. I know which I'd rather have www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
We are all agreed this is bad, though, right?
November 10, 2025 at 8:11 AM
We are all agreed this is bad, though, right?
Solar will power the world www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
November 10, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Solar will power the world www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
Abundance, of a sort
India’s power grid is struggling to absorb a surge in solar power installations, leading to more curtailment.
India Curtails More Solar Power as Grid Grapples With Oversupply
India’s power grid is struggling to absorb a surge in solar power installations, leading to more curtailment that threatens the build-out of renewables and underscores the need for energy storage.
bloom.bg
November 10, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Abundance, of a sort
Reposted by Jacob Aron
"Far from a peak, China's gasoline demand is estimated to have fallen 9% in October on the year to 12.5 million tons, with average daily use roughly flat with September..."
China's oil demand is entering structural decline.
China's oil demand is entering structural decline.
EVs put an end to China's usual holiday surge in gasoline use
Tianyu Jiang took a 2,000-km (1,200-mile) road trip this month during China's national holiday week, driving in his electric vehicle from the southwestern Sichuan basin to Beijing for the first time.
www.reuters.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:18 PM
"Far from a peak, China's gasoline demand is estimated to have fallen 9% in October on the year to 12.5 million tons, with average daily use roughly flat with September..."
China's oil demand is entering structural decline.
China's oil demand is entering structural decline.
This seems like a total non-story to me? Pretty much any internet connected device can be hijacked by the manufacturer, because they designed it www.ft.com/content/07ec...
UK investigates whether buses made in China can be turned off from afar
Investigation comes after Norway found Yutong vehicles could be ‘stopped or rendered inoperable’ by Chinese company
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:46 AM
This seems like a total non-story to me? Pretty much any internet connected device can be hijacked by the manufacturer, because they designed it www.ft.com/content/07ec...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
I've summarized the truth about Loeb's 10 "anomalies" about 3I/ATLAS in one post.
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Loeb’s 3I/ATLAS “Anomalies” Explained
Avi Loeb continues to claim that 3I/ATLAS has many anomalous behaviors that lead to the conclusion that it “might” be an alien spacecraft. He carefully hedges the probability that it is a spacecraft ...
sites.psu.edu
November 10, 2025 at 12:22 AM
I've summarized the truth about Loeb's 10 "anomalies" about 3I/ATLAS in one post.
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Was this giant, mysterious collection of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru the world's first spreadsheet?
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Mysterious holes in Andean mountain may be an Inca spreadsheet
Thousands of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru could have been a monumental accounting device for trade and tax
www.newscientist.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Was this giant, mysterious collection of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru the world's first spreadsheet?
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
HE'S A BOY DETECTIVE?! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Who is ‘fedora man’? Dapper French teenager in viral Louvre heist photo unmasked
Fifteen-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux was captured looking suave in a picture outside the Paris museum on the day of a crown jewels heist
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:01 AM
HE'S A BOY DETECTIVE?! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
I just read Lena by qntm again and damn if it isn't just perfect, as I've said before
November 9, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I just read Lena by qntm again and damn if it isn't just perfect, as I've said before
In another era this would be at least a half-century's worth of prime minister
November 9, 2025 at 12:21 PM
In another era this would be at least a half-century's worth of prime minister
This should not be revelatory!! www.ft.com/content/a27b...
November 9, 2025 at 11:48 AM
This should not be revelatory!! www.ft.com/content/a27b...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
How did "ufo spotting" become a VC funded thing?
November 9, 2025 at 11:33 AM
How did "ufo spotting" become a VC funded thing?
We're going to need to invent a whole new branch of quantum physics to explain how it can be 20 years since the launch of Guitar Hero www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Guitar Hero at 20 – how a plastic axe bridged the gap between rock generations
Guitar Hero’s controllers let anyone become a star in their own living room – and made the bands featured in the game household names again
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:29 AM
We're going to need to invent a whole new branch of quantum physics to explain how it can be 20 years since the launch of Guitar Hero www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Drax received logs from cutblocks in BC containing 90% old growth forest, a Canadian investigation found.
So it’s receiving £2m a day in UK green energy subsidies to burn old growth forest 🤔 www.theguardian.com/business/202...
So it’s receiving £2m a day in UK green energy subsidies to burn old growth forest 🤔 www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say
Exclusive: report by Stand.earth says subsidiary of power plant received truckloads of whole logs at biomass pellet sites
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Drax received logs from cutblocks in BC containing 90% old growth forest, a Canadian investigation found.
So it’s receiving £2m a day in UK green energy subsidies to burn old growth forest 🤔 www.theguardian.com/business/202...
So it’s receiving £2m a day in UK green energy subsidies to burn old growth forest 🤔 www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Can we just stop please? Just let it go. We are not anywhere close to “conscious” machines.
We’re going to look back on hot takes like this in 20 years and wonder how people fell for such clear fairytales.
We’re going to look back on hot takes like this in 20 years and wonder how people fell for such clear fairytales.
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“A.I. is no less a form of intelligence than digital photography is a form of photography,” the philosopher Barbara Gail Montero writes in a guest essay. “And now A.I. is on its way to doing something even more remarkable: becoming conscious.”
“A.I. is no less a form of intelligence than digital photography is a form of photography,” the philosopher Barbara Gail Montero writes in a guest essay. “And now A.I. is on its way to doing something even more remarkable: becoming conscious.”
Opinion | A.I. Is Already Intelligent. This Is How It Becomes Conscious.
Skeptics overlook how our concepts change.
nyti.ms
November 9, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Can we just stop please? Just let it go. We are not anywhere close to “conscious” machines.
We’re going to look back on hot takes like this in 20 years and wonder how people fell for such clear fairytales.
We’re going to look back on hot takes like this in 20 years and wonder how people fell for such clear fairytales.