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andlane.bsky.social
@andlane.bsky.social
120 followers 290 following 0 posts
Science/Nature/California stuff. Photography/bikes/hikes.
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rodger.bsky.social
It’s unbelievable that butterflies do this! they are too small! What do you mean you flew from Canada to Mexico you are one inch tall!
13pt.com Jonathan Corum @13pt.com · Nov 20
Monarch butterfly tracks in today’s NYT.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/s...
November 21, 2025 at 10:49 PM
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jahorne.bsky.social
"Humans aren’t very efficient movers—until you put us on a bicycle, when we become some of the most energy-efficient land travelers in the animal kingdom."

www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...
The Most Efficient Traveler Isn’t a Bird or a Fish—It’s You on a Bike
A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom
www.scientificamerican.com
October 15, 2025 at 4:31 PM
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matthewterrill.bsky.social
I was already a hard AI-skeptic but this cements my long suspicion that there is no feasible path to anything close to return on invested capital for these data centers. Tech would need 15 to 25 times current AI revenues within the next 2-3 years just to break even. Not financially viable.
"I clearly hit a nerve in the industry, when judging by the number of individuals who reached out to chat," he wrote in an followup blog post. "In total, l've spoken with over two-dozen rather senior people in the datacenter universe, and there was an interesting and overriding theme to our conversations: no one understands how the financial math is supposed to work. They are as baffled as I am, and they do this for a living." Kupperman's original skepticism was built on a guess that the components in an average Al data center would take ten years to depreciate, requiring costly replacements. That was bad enough: "I don't see how there can ever be any return on investment given the current math," he wrote at the time. But ten years, he now understands, is way too generous. " had previously assumed a 10-year depreciation curve, which I now recognize as quite unrealistic based upon the speed with which Al datacenter technology is advancing," Kupperman wrote. "Based on my conversations over the past month, the physical data centers last for three to ten years, at most." In his previous analysis, Kupperman assumed it would take the tech industry $160 billion of revenue to break even on data center spending in 2025 alone. And that's assuming an incredibly generous 25 percent gross margin - not to mention the fact that the industry's actual Al revenue is closer to $20 billion annually, as the investment manager noted in his previous blog. "In reality, the industry probably needs a revenue range that is closer to the $320 billion to $480 billion range, just to break even on the capex to be spent this year," Kupperman posited in his updated essay. "No wonder my new contacts in the industry shoulder a heavy burden - heavier than I could ever imagine. They know the truth." Kupperman called that gulf between tech industry spending and actual revenue in 2025 "astonishing." However, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. For example, how does it all shake out when we account for 2026, when hundreds of new data centers are expected to pop up? "Adding the two years together, and using the math from my prior post, you'd need approximately $1 trillion in revenue to hit break even, and many trillions more to earn an acceptable return on this spend," he writes. "If the economics don't work, doing it at massive scale doesn't make the economics work any better - it just takes an industry crisis and makes it into a national economic crisis," he concludes. Overall, the pessimists broadly agree: it's no longer a matter of if Al is massively overhyped, but when the whole thing comes crashing down. More on Al hype: Data Shows That Al Use Is Now Declining at Large Companies
October 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
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audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage
October 10, 2025 at 10:31 PM
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anjalienjeti.bsky.social
My god.

“Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”
Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'
The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 2, 2025 at 10:06 AM
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gravelinfluencer.bsky.social
It would be cool if the journalists doing these kinds of stories would take 5 minutes and look up one of the many studies on the benefits of bike infrastructure and then include that in the story. But no, we get vibes and a one-sided story.
August 28, 2025 at 2:11 PM
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gravelinfluencer.bsky.social
Every time there is a mass shooting, I can't help but think of the parallels between gun violence and traffic violence. Two things that kill a similar number of Americans each year (including many children), and two issues with obvious solutions that we, as a country, have chosen to ignore.
August 27, 2025 at 11:01 PM
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cwarzel.bsky.social
Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it
AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event
Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.
www.theatlantic.com
August 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM
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niedermeyer.online
no, for sure, just go ahead and get rid of everything that makes me give a damn about this country
June 18, 2025 at 5:10 PM
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gabrielledrolet.bsky.social
Cartoon with caption by my buddy @jackhauen.bsky.social
Two people riding bikes in Amsterdam. One says “if anyone proposed this in my town I’d kill them”
April 29, 2025 at 5:57 PM
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twlldun.bsky.social
Why does this echidna look like he’s about to drop the hottest jazz piano album OF THE YEAR
April 17, 2025 at 1:56 PM
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rebeccaplevin.bsky.social
Following a loud public outcry about job cuts at the National Parks Service — and a relentless media campaign from outdoors enthusiasts across the country — it looks like the Trump administration has blinked.

via @jackdolan.bsky.social
Trump administration backtracks on eliminating thousands of national parks employees
Following a loud public outcry, and relentless media campaign from outdoors enthusiasts, the Trump administration has reversed course on a plan to eliminate thousands of seasonal workers at the Nation...
www.latimes.com
February 21, 2025 at 5:21 PM