When I was a kid in the 70s people use to worry a lot about quicksand and spontaneous human combustion seriously, this stuff came up media and, like, *everyday conversations* what the hell was up with that? the quicksand stuff -- it came up in movies a lot -- was, as I've read, kind of a sublimated colonialist thing; the terror of far-off savage lands, etc but: spontaneous human combustion?

Terrific in-depth piece in the Economist arguing that the transition to lower-carbon energy sources is likely to be a lot less expensive than many estimates predict The tl;dr is that most models of the cost of shifting to renewables tend to underestimate just how damn cheap renewables get, and how fast ... ... while overestimating economic growth ... ... and, they don't compare a baseline: i.e. the cost of maintaining/expanding *existing* fossil-fuel sources https://archive.is/ztYC5

Cycling home from a dinner party last night in NYC The west end bike path is gorgeous at that hour

Over at @404 Media, Jason Koebler writes about the flood of Elon Musk-focused AI slop ... ... images showing an AI version of Musk unveiling UFOs, $7,000 tiny homes, a "water engine", etc ... ... that appear to have, as far as Jason can tell, massive numbers of likes and comments and shares from real, live Facebook users

404 Media

AI-Generated Elon Musk Inspiration Porn Is Viral on Facebook

Some of the most popular content on Facebook leading up to the election was AI-generated Elon Musk inspiration porn made by people in other countri...

For dealing with climate-change-related coastal flooding, one idea has been gaining currency ... ... which is, don't resist the water, build high, or build dams. Instead, build canals that give the sea-swell a place to flow inland ... ... so it can flow in, then flow out Somerset, UK has done this with great success The canals have prevented flooding that used to strand villages ... ... and it has rebooted the area's "salt marshes" Item #10 in my latest "Linkfest":

Linkfest #26: “Cryptophasia”, Wigner Crystals, and How van Gogh Mastered Turbulence

Hello hello! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — or, "the opposite of doomscrolling”, crammed full of the finest items of science, cultu...

Rooftop solar may be growing even faster than we think ... ... because in many cases globally it's (relatively) permissionless: Local governments don't need to approve it ... ... so their stats are off: They're unaware of tons of cases of people putting panels up When analysts used satellite imagery to measure how much solar existed in South Africa, it was nearly 2X what the government thought existed Item #12 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here:

Linkfest #26: “Cryptophasia”, Wigner Crystals, and How van Gogh Mastered Turbulence

Hello hello! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — or, "the opposite of doomscrolling”, crammed full of the finest items of science, cultu...

Man, maybe I’m just old school but I am really not digging the now-unfortunately-well-established trend of people on Instagram putting music behind their photo posts I just wanna look at some, like, pictures but scrolling down my feed is now like sitting in an old car where someone won’t stop spinning the tuner and all I hear is 0.75 seconds of like ninety songs it is such a hilariously wretched UI experience

Here, @Cory Doctorow neatly distills the real problem with Bluesky ... ... which is that, because they don't offer a way to quickly leave *and take all your followers with you*, as Mastodon does ... ... it risks becoming a trap. You spend months, years, building up connections to tons of cool people ... ... and then Bluesky enshittifies, not because of any individual terrible decision, but because of a ton of small forced-hand ones The essay:

Pluralistic: Bluesky and enshittification (02 Nov 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow