Michael Tobis (mt)
@mtobis.bsky.social
PhD atmospheric/oceanic sciences 1996 but a bit rusty.
Opinionated.
Main topics: climate, sustainability, Canada, AI and ML, journalism.
Also: roots music, art, healthy plant-based food.
Please think like a planet!
https://initforthegold.blogspot.com
Opinionated.
Main topics: climate, sustainability, Canada, AI and ML, journalism.
Also: roots music, art, healthy plant-based food.
Please think like a planet!
https://initforthegold.blogspot.com
Pinned
Michael Tobis (mt)
@mtobis.bsky.social
· May 24
Climate change summarized.
"Carbon is Forever"
🧵 0/6
"Carbon is Forever"
🧵 0/6
Social media can’t rely on centralized for-profit systems.
Let’s bring back the actual
peer-to-peer internet, okay?
Let’s bring back the actual
peer-to-peer internet, okay?
November 11, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Social media can’t rely on centralized for-profit systems.
Let’s bring back the actual
peer-to-peer internet, okay?
Let’s bring back the actual
peer-to-peer internet, okay?
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Bluesky suspended Sarah Kendzior today for no reason whatsoever. She just shared excerpts of her articles, which were as always incisive and not offensive at all. Hey @pfrazee.com this is super not OK. I know her- we've interacted a fair bit via chats and her work is essential.
November 11, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Bluesky suspended Sarah Kendzior today for no reason whatsoever. She just shared excerpts of her articles, which were as always incisive and not offensive at all. Hey @pfrazee.com this is super not OK. I know her- we've interacted a fair bit via chats and her work is essential.
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Cars might work fine in California or Florida, but they’re not practical here in Canada. We have winter.
More than 300 collisions reported as early season snow slams parts of Ontario
YouTube video by CTV News
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Cars might work fine in California or Florida, but they’re not practical here in Canada. We have winter.
It's like a bad science fiction novel. Like a Philip K Dick story but not one of his best.
November 10, 2025 at 11:56 PM
It's like a bad science fiction novel. Like a Philip K Dick story but not one of his best.
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
November 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
"we investigate how often five basic #climate facts are conveyed in @nytimes.com news articles covering climate change from 1980 to 2018. With only one exception, the frequencies with which these facts appear in news articles today are vanishingly small"
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
November 8, 2025 at 5:07 AM
"we investigate how often five basic #climate facts are conveyed in @nytimes.com news articles covering climate change from 1980 to 2018. With only one exception, the frequencies with which these facts appear in news articles today are vanishingly small"
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
The world has seen faster climate change than expected since the Paris Agreement a decade ago.
Landmark Paris Agreement set a path to slow warming. The world hasn't stayed on it
The world has seen faster climate change than expected since the Paris Agreement a decade ago. Scientists say Earth's warming has outpaced efforts to reduce fossil fuel pollution that came out of the 2015 accord.
bit.ly
November 9, 2025 at 9:00 PM
The world has seen faster climate change than expected since the Paris Agreement a decade ago.
Climate denialism isn’t going away. It’s morphed into a massive conspiracy theory that without exception every country that funds science is stuffing all its relevant academic groups with charlatans so as to conspire to create a sinister world government that would weaken those very countries.
November 9, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Climate denialism isn’t going away. It’s morphed into a massive conspiracy theory that without exception every country that funds science is stuffing all its relevant academic groups with charlatans so as to conspire to create a sinister world government that would weaken those very countries.
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
"The expectation is for the lake effect snow bands to be unusually intense with peak snow rates of 3 to locally 5 inches per hour, frequent lightning and thunder, and pockets of hail... Travel may become impossible with the potential for stranded cars during the morning commute"
November 9, 2025 at 4:46 PM
"The expectation is for the lake effect snow bands to be unusually intense with peak snow rates of 3 to locally 5 inches per hour, frequent lightning and thunder, and pockets of hail... Travel may become impossible with the potential for stranded cars during the morning commute"
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Scrawled by me on an index card
probably ca. 1975-1980, just rediscovered
===
WORDS OF EMPTY
the most hopeless thing in the world
- and that's saying a lot -
is sitting down to write a poem
it's not by accident that ink is blue
probably ca. 1975-1980, just rediscovered
===
WORDS OF EMPTY
the most hopeless thing in the world
- and that's saying a lot -
is sitting down to write a poem
it's not by accident that ink is blue
November 9, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Scrawled by me on an index card
probably ca. 1975-1980, just rediscovered
===
WORDS OF EMPTY
the most hopeless thing in the world
- and that's saying a lot -
is sitting down to write a poem
it's not by accident that ink is blue
probably ca. 1975-1980, just rediscovered
===
WORDS OF EMPTY
the most hopeless thing in the world
- and that's saying a lot -
is sitting down to write a poem
it's not by accident that ink is blue
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
I just noticed that “rehearses” contains “rehearse”, “rehears”, “rehear”, “eh”, “hearses”, “hearse”, “hears”, “hear”, “he”, “ears”, “ear”, “arses”, “arse”, “ars”, “ar” and “a”.
Seventeen words in nine characters. Felt like I should tell someone.
Seventeen words in nine characters. Felt like I should tell someone.
November 9, 2025 at 4:07 AM
I just noticed that “rehearses” contains “rehearse”, “rehears”, “rehear”, “eh”, “hearses”, “hearse”, “hears”, “hear”, “he”, “ears”, “ear”, “arses”, “arse”, “ars”, “ar” and “a”.
Seventeen words in nine characters. Felt like I should tell someone.
Seventeen words in nine characters. Felt like I should tell someone.
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
40 years ago we’d have congressional hearings falsely accusing metal bands of putting backwards messages in their songs that told kids to kill themselves & now we have a planet-killing chatbot that’s all like “bet you won’t commit suicide chickenshit bitch” & the government is like here’s $5 billion
November 8, 2025 at 4:23 AM
40 years ago we’d have congressional hearings falsely accusing metal bands of putting backwards messages in their songs that told kids to kill themselves & now we have a planet-killing chatbot that’s all like “bet you won’t commit suicide chickenshit bitch” & the government is like here’s $5 billion
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
THINGS ARE PRETTY GOOD HERE 🇨🇦
PeaceLoveCanada.ca
PeaceLoveCanada.ca
November 7, 2025 at 9:12 PM
THINGS ARE PRETTY GOOD HERE 🇨🇦
PeaceLoveCanada.ca
PeaceLoveCanada.ca
The cynicism of the AI industry just guts me. Unasked for in my Facebook feed:
November 8, 2025 at 1:12 PM
The cynicism of the AI industry just guts me. Unasked for in my Facebook feed:
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Panera’s moderately caffeinated lemonade was loosely associated with 2 deaths before it was taken off market.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
I fully believe in the corporate death penalty and believe we would be a better world if OpenAI lost its corporate charter and was forcibly dissolved.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Panera’s moderately caffeinated lemonade was loosely associated with 2 deaths before it was taken off market.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Identifying flaws in GenAI unfortunately offers a pretext for claims that perfecting the product is just a matter of time & money. So pointing to chatbots’ role in,say, suicides can only go so far if we don’t also identify the systemic, irresolvable lack of Gen AI’s human commitment bc math has none
November 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Identifying flaws in GenAI unfortunately offers a pretext for claims that perfecting the product is just a matter of time & money. So pointing to chatbots’ role in,say, suicides can only go so far if we don’t also identify the systemic, irresolvable lack of Gen AI’s human commitment bc math has none
“Linear algebraic sociopathy”
Flaws and glitches are minor concerns easily dismissed. Being “mid” is fine because someone can promise this will get less mid and plenty of people are willing to believe. GenAI isn’t mid. It’s linear algebraic sociopathy.
November 8, 2025 at 12:07 PM
“Linear algebraic sociopathy”
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Look, Exxon isn't stupid. Malevolent, sure, but not stupid. If they could make the type of money they could off of renewables they would jump, but they can't and they know it and we need to be honest about this.
November 6, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Look, Exxon isn't stupid. Malevolent, sure, but not stupid. If they could make the type of money they could off of renewables they would jump, but they can't and they know it and we need to be honest about this.
Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)
Cities often are a refuge. That's positive. I live in a capital. With the same advantages and disadvantages as NY. But upposing cities to the country side is a mistake. Both need each other.
November 5, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Cities often are a refuge. That's positive. I live in a capital. With the same advantages and disadvantages as NY. But upposing cities to the country side is a mistake. Both need each other.