The rise in Niño 3.4 region sea surface temperatures over the past few weeks has been nothing short of astonishing. We are now hotter than any days during the 1997/1998 super El Niño event, and we are still many months from the peak.

News corp is very calm about AI.

How can we crowd fund this?!

Dr swift parrot@teamswiftparrot.bsky.social · 2d ago

Huge property for sale in Tasmania in core swift parrot breeding habitat if there’s any philanthropists out there seeking to protect some birds and bush! Lake Leake is an important site for parrots but the broader landscape is being savagely logged www.realestate.com.au/property-lif...

We've known about the "millions of drones" problem over at PoSR.org since 2013 posr.org/wiki/Amazon_... I wrote a book chapter about it in 2016: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... And in May 2026, I WARNED EVERYONE ABOUT ALL OF THIS: www.fastcompany.com/91546429/ama...

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d ago

“Millions and millions of people use Amazon every single day, and that would suggest that, at some point, there's going to be thousands and thousands of drones in the sky in the future.”

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

Google Earth, a tool often used as a source of satellite imagery to verify photos and videos, has added a feature that allows you to alter satellite imagery with AI, for reasons. blog.google/products-and...

@alexahagerty.bsky.social: Europe is having a summer of record-breaking heat. Forests are burning and hospitals and schools are overheating. But one place is staying cool: data centers. A new...essay on AI, climate, and the 30-trillion-tons of human-made stuff that geologists call the technosphere.

What Weighs More Than All Life on Earth?

This summer, while hospitals and schools overheat, data centers stay cool. A dispatch on AI, climate, and the technosphere.

alexahagerty.substack.com

The 3RRR Spin Cycle kids are having a week off so they’ve roped me in to fill for them. I’m talking to Swinburne’s Damon Alexander about Victorian politics (not much going on). Tune in from 7pm on @3rrrfm.bsky.social

Dear Australian National University, I am seeking all documents held by the University for Nous invoices. The date range is 1 July 2025 to present.

This article estimated global APC spend in 2023 to be around $2.5 billion, which was THREE TIMES the amount just four years earlier in 2019, at around $910 million.

Estimating global article processing charges paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023

This study presents estimates of the global expenditure on article processing charges (APCs) paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023. APCs are fees charged for publishing in some ...

arxiv.org

Reading articles on the amounts HE has spent in APCs over the last 5-10 years, and slowly watching my blood pressure rise. Millions upon millions, on something WE CAN ABSOLUTELY DO OURSELVES FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST - what universities couldn't do with that kind of money now... 😠 And breathe...

What the fuck is this, ABC on YouTube? As an Indigenous person who is proud that Victoria has a Treaty, signed by the Labor government, no, it's absolutely not a good time for Labor to lose the Victorian election. They and the Greens support Treaty, the Liberals, Nationals, and One Nation don't.

Don’t read this, but if you do, substitute “imaginary little buddy” for every instance of the word “superintelligence” and it will make more sense .

Opinion | The AI Future Is for Everyone

The history of democracy and economics has proved that centralized power stifles human potential.

wsj.com

When AI escapes containment: rethinking data protection in the agentic era #cybersecurity #aigovernance #datagovernance katecarruthers.com/when-ai-escape…

This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b

An exceptionally thought provoking and generative take on how contemporary higher education came to this. Worth a read. And then a re-read. arena.org.au/tertiary-rac...

Tertiary Rackets: Deakin.bot v Einstein.ai—the sad finale of this model of higher education? – Arena

Critical * Radical * Australia * Earth

arena.org.au

I hate to see a dying building & tend to avoid posting them, but there's a weird sort of beauty in the inexorable encroachment of nature as it reclaims spaces we thought were ours The New Majestic Theatre Architects: Boller Bros, 1928 East St Louis, Illinois

One of the biggest challenges to teaching right now is trust, which has been eroded by gen AI — for professors AND students. Copware isn’t the way to get it back.

Eileen Clancy 🧿@clancyny.bsky.social · 2w ago

Universities drop AI detection tools over fears about accuracy Some institutions are overhauling assessment and trying to move away from the emphasis on surveillance By Ima Jackson-Obot

Beautiful self reflection from a former tech industry worker. disjunctionsmag.com/articles/why...

Why I'm Leaving Big Tech

A tech worker's reflections

disjunctionsmag.com

We wrote a book about AI, Class, and Capitalism! *Why We Fear AI* argues that, fundamentally, AI is a tool of class war from above, a tool for surveillance, labor control, and wage depression. Get it from your local bookstore if you can! A quick 🧵1/4

Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares

On the Interpretation of Nightmares

bookshop.org

🤣🤣🤣👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Josh Bornstein@joshbornstein.bsky.social · 2w ago

To all you organisations seeking advice on best practice in managing whistleblower complaints, you’re in luck. KPMG is here to help:

“… and the companies insist future earnings will more than cover the bills.” thenextweb.com/news/tech-gi...

Really good trolling would be to go see Picnic at Hanging Rock with some friends and then 35 minutes in get up and leave the theater and disappear and never be seen again by anyone in their entire life

The use of AI in automated decision-making by government departments and agencies will be subject to tough rules under a new national plan, expected to extend to consumer protections, workplace safety and privacy www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Government use of automated AI decision-making to be curbed under new Australian rules

New national plan accompanied by Labor push for digital duty of care legislation

theguardian.com

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...

If you prefer to read, we have also published a few pieces together: www.emerald.com/books/edited...

The Archival Paradox: DNA-Based Data Storage and the Data Hoarding Crisis

Abstract. Awareness of the environmental impact of big tech, and in particular of massive, energy-intensive data centres worldwide, is growing rapidly. Giv

emerald.com

Released this morning: thebackupplan.net

The Backup Plan

Documentary Podcast · The Backup Plan is a podcast series that traces an emerging technology that promises to store infinitely more data at minimal environmental cost. It’s a technology as mysterious ...

thebackupplan.net

A common comment on my videos about LLM "hallucinations" is that this isn't as much of a problem because LLMs "cite their sources" now. This is a category error. Citing a source implies it was consulted. LLMs do not consult, even with RAG. A citation might be *included* but it's not *consulted*.

Please listen/re-post/engage with our new podcast on DNA data storage. I was so happy to be invited to participate with @melhogan.bsky.social on this project. We had both independently been researching the socio-tech implications of DNA storage when a chance encounter lead to a dream collaboration.🧵

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix@melhogan.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Backup Plan, a new podcast series exploring the use of DNA to store data (instead of tape or hard drives etc).