@wrudisill.bsky.social
very annoying that some tech is so capable (generating AI videos with text prompts) whereas other things that are around forever are still terrible — e.g., properly categorizing spending categories from CC companies or on financial planning apps — looking at you, @quicken.bsky.social Simplifi
October 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
very annoying that some tech is so capable (generating AI videos with text prompts) whereas other things that are around forever are still terrible — e.g., properly categorizing spending categories from CC companies or on financial planning apps — looking at you, @quicken.bsky.social Simplifi
Just checked to see if the SNOTEL network data page is online— this is the website header 🫠
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/da...
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/da...
www.nrcs.usda.gov
October 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Just checked to see if the SNOTEL network data page is online— this is the website header 🫠
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/da...
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/da...
Growing up in the bush years I felt well aware of right wing “attacks on science” which mostly took the form of (ongoing) climate change denial and creationism in schools. Feels absolutely quaint in comparison to what’s going on now.
Those mRNA vaccine programs that RFK Jr. is killing because he claims they don't work?
The people who invented them got the f***ing Nobel Prize.
And they've saved literally millions of lives already.
www.pbs.org/newshour/hea...
The people who invented them got the f***ing Nobel Prize.
And they've saved literally millions of lives already.
www.pbs.org/newshour/hea...
RFK Jr. pulls funding for vaccines being developed to fight respiratory viruses
The projects — 22 of them — are being led by some of the nation’s leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna to prevent flu, COVID-19 and H5N1 infections.
www.pbs.org
August 6, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Growing up in the bush years I felt well aware of right wing “attacks on science” which mostly took the form of (ongoing) climate change denial and creationism in schools. Feels absolutely quaint in comparison to what’s going on now.
A reminder that this is the person in charge of FEMA amidst the current Texas flooding disaster:
www.reuters.com/world/us/fem....
www.reuters.com/world/us/fem....
FEMA staff baffled after head said he was unaware of US hurricane season, sources say
The remark was made during a briefing by David Richardson, who has led the Federal Emergency Management Agency since early May.
www.reuters.com
July 8, 2025 at 1:23 AM
A reminder that this is the person in charge of FEMA amidst the current Texas flooding disaster:
www.reuters.com/world/us/fem....
www.reuters.com/world/us/fem....
Ai like it or not is going to impact our lives (even if what’s quoted is true), so it’s probably better to keep an open curious mind than make declarative statements about a very rapidly evolving field
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
July 1, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Ai like it or not is going to impact our lives (even if what’s quoted is true), so it’s probably better to keep an open curious mind than make declarative statements about a very rapidly evolving field
New challenge — the “be Peter Thiel and don’t mention Greta Thunberg during the course of a 1hr conversation”. Difficulty level: infinite
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
Should the human species survive? Peter Thiel really had to think about it. On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat and the tech right power player discuss immortality, whether Elon Musk really wants to go to Mars and the Antichrist.
Should the human species survive? Peter Thiel really had to think about it. On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat and the tech right power player discuss immortality, whether Elon Musk really wants to go to Mars and the Antichrist.
Opinion | Peter Thiel and the Antichrist
The original tech right power player on A.I., Mars and immortality.
trib.al
June 26, 2025 at 11:21 PM
New challenge — the “be Peter Thiel and don’t mention Greta Thunberg during the course of a 1hr conversation”. Difficulty level: infinite
unfortunately there is an element of a.i. denialism here — a.i. does work. case in point, it writes code that compiles and runs. it's impossible to argue that a.i is not already producing things of value. lots of bullshit yes, but also useful things.
If I created an investment fund and promised 300% returns but instead spent your money buying yachts, I'd go to jail.
Yet there are so many dudebros telling me that when ChatGPT spouts total bullshit the problem isn't OpenAI marketing it as a knowledge engine, it's the users who believe it.
Yet there are so many dudebros telling me that when ChatGPT spouts total bullshit the problem isn't OpenAI marketing it as a knowledge engine, it's the users who believe it.
June 4, 2025 at 6:35 AM
unfortunately there is an element of a.i. denialism here — a.i. does work. case in point, it writes code that compiles and runs. it's impossible to argue that a.i is not already producing things of value. lots of bullshit yes, but also useful things.
a.i. can, in principle, democratize the labor and resource intensive parts of journalism — combing through dense public records, translating sources in other languages, gathering data, etc. this is a real way it can be really useful! A.i. for opinion pieces is about the worst possible use case
The Washington Post will sharply expand its opinion offerings, including with articles from other publications, according to people familiar with the plan. A final phase, allowing nonprofessionals to submit columns with help from an A.I. writing coach called Ember, could begin testing this fall.
The Washington Post Plans an Influx of Outside Opinion Writers
A new program, known internally as Ripple, would open The Post to journalists at other publications and influential writers on Substack.
trib.al
June 4, 2025 at 4:59 AM
a.i. can, in principle, democratize the labor and resource intensive parts of journalism — combing through dense public records, translating sources in other languages, gathering data, etc. this is a real way it can be really useful! A.i. for opinion pieces is about the worst possible use case
Reposted
26g. DOE budget slashes Biological & Environmental Research by almost 60%, focused particularly on “environmental system sciences, atmospheric system research, earth system modeling, data management, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement”
May 31, 2025 at 11:18 PM
26g. DOE budget slashes Biological & Environmental Research by almost 60%, focused particularly on “environmental system sciences, atmospheric system research, earth system modeling, data management, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement”
This is my concern— were people just willing to provide evidence now that he’s “out”? Or the concrete evidence has been there all along but no one was willing to report it. Seems like the latter
I can’t believe the media covered up the fact that a clear mental incompetent was running the government while out of his mind on drugs, despite it being widely known in DC circles, to preserve their access to the White House. There should be huge recriminations for this.
May 30, 2025 at 9:20 PM
This is my concern— were people just willing to provide evidence now that he’s “out”? Or the concrete evidence has been there all along but no one was willing to report it. Seems like the latter
maybe a better idea is simply to attempt to sway a formerly liberal and famously easy-to-convince-of-anything person to back more liberal causes
Agree.
We do NOT need a "Left-Wing Joe Rogan". We need less lies.
www.thedailybeast.com/why-dems-que... @michaelianblack.bsky.social
"It’s like saying we need an intellectual version of Jackass. We do not. Unless what you want is a leftie broadcaster with a confident disregard of the truth."
We do NOT need a "Left-Wing Joe Rogan". We need less lies.
www.thedailybeast.com/why-dems-que... @michaelianblack.bsky.social
"It’s like saying we need an intellectual version of Jackass. We do not. Unless what you want is a leftie broadcaster with a confident disregard of the truth."
Why Dems’ Quest to Create a ‘Left-Wing Joe Rogan’ Is Destined to Fail
The idea is a contradiction in terms, like saying we need an intellectual version of “Jackass.”
www.thedailybeast.com
May 23, 2025 at 4:44 PM
maybe a better idea is simply to attempt to sway a formerly liberal and famously easy-to-convince-of-anything person to back more liberal causes
nat'l park example encapsulates the regression-to-the-mean dynamic of online recs (which was underway pre-AI). if you want to have a C-grade experience, then sure, do the exact thing the AI (or top page google results) tells you
May 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
nat'l park example encapsulates the regression-to-the-mean dynamic of online recs (which was underway pre-AI). if you want to have a C-grade experience, then sure, do the exact thing the AI (or top page google results) tells you
Reposted
Without Unidata, the company I co-founded, Weather Underground, would never have come to be.
May 9, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Without Unidata, the company I co-founded, Weather Underground, would never have come to be.
SNODAS certainly had it's issues, but it remains one of the only only operational snow water equivalent products across CONUS. Not good.
This is horrible. I don't even know what to say. Some of our most key polar data.
"As a result, the level of services for affected products below will be reduced to Basic—meaning they will remain accessible but may not be actively maintained, updated, or fully supported."
nsidc.org/data/user-re...
"As a result, the level of services for affected products below will be reduced to Basic—meaning they will remain accessible but may not be actively maintained, updated, or fully supported."
nsidc.org/data/user-re...
May 6, 2025 at 10:14 PM
SNODAS certainly had it's issues, but it remains one of the only only operational snow water equivalent products across CONUS. Not good.
Horrible interview with a horrible racist and sexist. Douthat + @nytimes.com may as well interview David Duke or the guy who founded the stormfront forums.
i think this interview with a pretty much open fascist and white nationalist is www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/o...
Opinion | The New Culture of the Right: Vital, Masculine and Intentionally Offensive (Gift Article)
The left has dictated culture for decades. Jonathan Keeperman is trying to change that.
www.nytimes.com
May 5, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Horrible interview with a horrible racist and sexist. Douthat + @nytimes.com may as well interview David Duke or the guy who founded the stormfront forums.
Reposted
At this point, it's going to be difficult to keep track of what radiosonde sites are launching consistently or not.
You can always check the SDM Administrative Messages to see which radiosondes made it into the models or not:
www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/status/messa...
You can always check the SDM Administrative Messages to see which radiosondes made it into the models or not:
www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/status/messa...
April 17, 2025 at 2:54 PM
At this point, it's going to be difficult to keep track of what radiosonde sites are launching consistently or not.
You can always check the SDM Administrative Messages to see which radiosondes made it into the models or not:
www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/status/messa...
You can always check the SDM Administrative Messages to see which radiosondes made it into the models or not:
www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/status/messa...
Reposted
NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research’s main contract for its websites was not approved for renewal, so I’m told we should expect some of them to start to go down.
“Lutnick's position on every contract is ‘no’ and agency reps have roughly a minute and a half to convince him otherwise.”
“Lutnick's position on every contract is ‘no’ and agency reps have roughly a minute and a half to convince him otherwise.”
April 3, 2025 at 10:17 PM
NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research’s main contract for its websites was not approved for renewal, so I’m told we should expect some of them to start to go down.
“Lutnick's position on every contract is ‘no’ and agency reps have roughly a minute and a half to convince him otherwise.”
“Lutnick's position on every contract is ‘no’ and agency reps have roughly a minute and a half to convince him otherwise.”
Reposted
AGU has joined a lawsuit challenging the firing of probationary employees at federal agencies.
These actions weaken science, harm public health & the environment, and threaten national security. 🧵 #StandWithScience
These actions weaken science, harm public health & the environment, and threaten national security. 🧵 #StandWithScience
March 5, 2025 at 11:25 PM
AGU has joined a lawsuit challenging the firing of probationary employees at federal agencies.
These actions weaken science, harm public health & the environment, and threaten national security. 🧵 #StandWithScience
These actions weaken science, harm public health & the environment, and threaten national security. 🧵 #StandWithScience
Reposted
NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes
NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes
SILVER SPRING, MD—As mass firings of career experts and scientists continued to roil the federal government, officials confirmed Friday that cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
theonion.com
February 28, 2025 at 8:01 PM
NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes
The google/apple maps 'Gulf of America' thing is so disappointing. I really hope that publishers do not cave — continue to let researchers use the correct name for the Gulf of Mexico. @elsevierconnect.bsky.social @natureportfolio.nature.com @agu.org
February 14, 2025 at 4:17 AM
The google/apple maps 'Gulf of America' thing is so disappointing. I really hope that publishers do not cave — continue to let researchers use the correct name for the Gulf of Mexico. @elsevierconnect.bsky.social @natureportfolio.nature.com @agu.org
Reposted
Trump administration orders NOAA scientists to halt all international work. Staff were told to stop meetings, discussions, emails with foreign colleagues. Freeze affects travel, virtual meetings, and collaborations until political appointees review them. 🐢🌍🧪🦑
www.opb.org/article/2025...
www.opb.org/article/2025...
February 9, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Trump administration orders NOAA scientists to halt all international work. Staff were told to stop meetings, discussions, emails with foreign colleagues. Freeze affects travel, virtual meetings, and collaborations until political appointees review them. 🐢🌍🧪🦑
www.opb.org/article/2025...
www.opb.org/article/2025...
One more example: About 6-7 (?) years ago, google earth got rid if it's integration with 'Picasa' photos — there was a time when you could zoom into a random river canyon in the Altai and find photos that were geotagged at that location. It was really useful geographical information, now gone
it’s bad and it’s gotten exponentially worse in the past 6 months. if you write anything involving deep research/old books/forgotten periodicals you’re probably noticing “wiki creep,” because it’s one of the few resources left standing. the internet as an archive is disappearing, has disappeared.
Ha ha ha so Google Books’s time-restricted search is just not working any more; it’ll return stuff from this century no matter what you specify as the time frame.
Thanks, enshittification! I hate it here!
Thanks, enshittification! I hate it here!
January 17, 2025 at 3:09 AM
One more example: About 6-7 (?) years ago, google earth got rid if it's integration with 'Picasa' photos — there was a time when you could zoom into a random river canyon in the Altai and find photos that were geotagged at that location. It was really useful geographical information, now gone
Webcam view from Crested Butte, Colorado. In the distance are radiometers measuring shortwave radiation (solar radiation) and longwave (terrestrial radiation) near the surface. You can watch the effects of overhead clouds on the radiation flux.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkHk...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkHk...
February 14, 2024 at 5:06 AM
Webcam view from Crested Butte, Colorado. In the distance are radiometers measuring shortwave radiation (solar radiation) and longwave (terrestrial radiation) near the surface. You can watch the effects of overhead clouds on the radiation flux.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkHk...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkHk...
I recently needed to download some data from the NOAA GML laboratory's sondes in Boulder, CO . The data go all of the way back to the 1960s, so I went ahead and plotted the warming trend. What we see is very clear: warming in the lower atmosphere (1.5C) and cooling in the upper atmosphere.
February 10, 2024 at 5:51 PM
I recently needed to download some data from the NOAA GML laboratory's sondes in Boulder, CO . The data go all of the way back to the 1960s, so I went ahead and plotted the warming trend. What we see is very clear: warming in the lower atmosphere (1.5C) and cooling in the upper atmosphere.