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Dan Falk

@danfalk.bsky.social

Hi! I write about #science for Smithsonian, Discover, Quanta, Nautilus, Undark, National Geographic, CBC Radio, & many other outlets. Books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time. Co-host of BookLab podcast. 🔭🪐⭐️⚛️

1742 Posts5092 Follower 1551 Folgt

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 1h ago

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Matt Burgess (WIRED)@mattburgess1.bsky.social · 3h ago

NEW: Over the last few months, Meta has run dozens of paid ads that included AI-generated CSAM. The ads, some of which were linking out to “nudify” apps, targeted men in the US, UK, and a dozen European countries. Some were running in the last few days

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 1h ago

Happy 60th Revolver-versary to all who celebrate! 🎶

Various LP and CD editions of the Beatles’ Revolver album.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 18h ago

Great interview: On @quantamagazine.org's podcast, Samir Patel speaks with @philipcball.bsky.social about what makes living things different from inorganic material. Living entities appear to do stuff "for reasons"...as though they have agency... so what does that mean, exactly? #science #philosophy

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 18h ago

Fun interview with an editor at @variety.com who saw The Odyssey in all available formats: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/d... #TheOdyssey #Hollywood #movies

Everyone wants to see The Odyssey on IMAX. Why is it so hard to make more IMAX theatres?

Podcast Episode · Day 6 · July 24 · 54m

podcasts.apple.com

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · yesterday

I wonder if the sheep whose wool got used in the Bayeux Tapestry were kind of proud — you know, like maybe they lorded it over the other sheep.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · yesterday

Paris: antique maps and prints shop (2007) later a souvenir shop (2023). Both photos by me. 📷 ( #Paris #thenandnow )

A shop in Paris (2007) with antique maps and prints displayed in its front window.

By 2023, the same shop is now a kitchy souvenir shop.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2d ago

The Abbey Bookshop, Paris, 2007 and 2023. Both photos by me. 📷

A view of the entrance to the Abbey Bookshop in Paris. Many books are stacked up on the sidewalk, on either side of the door.

A view of the entrance to the Abbey Bookshop in Paris, this time in 2023. The view is largely similar, though there are fewer books piled up in front.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 3d ago

One year from today, a spectacularly long solar eclipse will be visible from across North Africa and the Mediterranean — and just ten days from now, folks in Iceland and Spain have a solar eclipse. My video about both events: youtu.be/99qmRY55iFE?...

Get ready for the total solar eclipses of Aug. 12, 2026 and Aug. 2, 2027!

YouTube video by danfalkscience

youtu.be

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 3d ago

A scene on The Strand, London, 2007 and 2023. Both photos by me. 📷 ( #London #thenandnow )

A scene on The Strand, London, 2007, including one very narrow premesis.

The same view in 2023. Most of the businesses have turned over, but the buildings look the same.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 4d ago

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MIT Technology Review@technologyreview.com · 4d ago

Generative AI is exposing people’s real phone numbers—and there's not much anyone can do about it.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 4d ago

Piccadilly Circus, 1995 and 2023. Both photos by me. 📷 (Not hugely different... the ads are more technologically sophisticated in 2023...) #London #thenandnow

Piccadilly Circus, 1995. Many young people are sitting by the base of "Eros," and there's lots of huge ads on the electronic billboards in the background.

Piccadilly Circus, 2023. The scene is largely similar, though the ads have of course changed.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 5d ago

Wordle average for July: 3.74. (My best month yet, FWIW. Quite a few threes.)

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 5d ago

That thing where messaging software wants to change your word into a proper name — Like you’re typing “out,” and it suggests “Pitt.” I mean, come on — it’s only one chance in ten million that you meant Pitt. I figure someone in 2010 told the software to prioritize proper names, and here we are. 😐

Dr Keith Wilson 💭@keithwilson.eu · 5d ago

AI-generated content must be labelled in the EU from Sunday. #GenAI #AIEthics #AISlop www.rte.ie/news/2026/07...

Made by AI? EU tells firms to stick a label on it

Deepfakes and other AI-generated content must be labelled from Sunday, as the European Union's sweeping artificial intelligence transparency rules kick in.

rte.ie

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 6d ago

The view from OXO Tower, #London, 1998 and 2023. Both photos by me. 📷 ( #thenandnow #photography )

A view of London from the OXO Tower on the South Bank, 1998.

A view of London from the OXO Tower on the South Bank, 2023. St. Paul's is still visible, but there's a lot more skyscrapers, esp. to the east.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · last wk.

Two shops in Greenwich, England, as seen in 2007 and in 2023. Both photos by me. 📷 #Greenwich #London #England #thenandnow

Two cafes in Greenwich, England, as seen in a night-time view in 2007.

The same scene, in daytime, in 2023. The fish and chips place has new signage, while the shop on the right has become a Chatime.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · last wk.

Fun fact -- I occasionally contribute articles for the Canadian Encyclopedia! I wrote this entry for SNOLAB, published today: thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/s... #physics #science #Canada

SNOLAB

SNOLAB, an expanded version of the facility originally known as the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, is a particle physics laboratory located in the Creighton Mine...

thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · last wk.

I feel like it can't be a coincidence that these two films came out within two months of each other. Was 1986, for some reason, the high point for "let's imagine standing up to a baddie on the street (or bus)"?

The top image is the knife scene from Crocodile Dundee; below is the "punk on a bus" scene from Star Trek 4.

UC San Diego @ucsandiego.bsky.social · last wk.

AI is being positioned as a replacement for mathematicians—but at what cost? A group of mathematicians—including a postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego—has issued an urgent call for AI corporations and practitioners to protect mathematics as a discipline. https://bit.ly/4pHuNCo

A person is typing on a laptop, with complex mathematical equations overlaid, including symbols and formulas commonly used in advanced mathematics.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · last wk.

View of Canary Wharf from Greenwich Park, with the National Maritime Museum and the Old Royal Naval College in the foreground, 2009 and 2023. Both photos by me. 📷 #London #thenandnow

View of Canary Wharf from Greenwich Park, with the National Maritime Museum and the Old Royal Naval College in the foreground. This photo from 2009.

View of Canary Wharf from Greenwich Park, with the National Maritime Museum and the Old Royal Naval College in the foreground. This photo from 2023, and we see many more skyscrapers in Canary Wharf.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · last wk.

At the risk of over-thinking it… How was Marty planning to pay for his 1955 coffee? 🤔🙃

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · last wk.

While imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp, Austrian engineer Curt Herzstark -- born #OTD in 1902 -- invented a pocket computer which would not be surpassed for decades, as I wrote a while back for @arstechnica.com: arstechnica.com/science/2021... #science #history #histsci

The hand-cranked calculator invented by a Nazi concentration camp prisoner

For two decades, the Curta was the best portable calculator in the world.

arstechnica.com

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2w ago

Near Queen and Landsdowne, #Toronto, Saturday’s night:

A nighttime street scene with a restaurant with a terrific old neon sign saying “Skyline Restaurant.”

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2w ago

View of London from the Founder's Arms terrace, 1998 and 2023 -- both photos by me. 📷 ( #London #thenandnow #photography #history #architecture )

View of the City of London from the terrace of the Founder's Arms pub in Southwark, 1998.

View of the City of London from the terrace of the Founder's Arms pub in Southwark, 2023.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2w ago

Bloomsbury Way, London -- 1998 and 2023. Both photos by me. 📷 #london #thenandnow #photography

Two photos of the same spot, on Bloomsbury Way, London -- 1998 and 2023. (We see, for example, that the Eastern Art gallery has become an Italian restaurant.) Both photos by Dan Falk.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2w ago

Steven Weinberg, one of the great thinkers of the last half-century, died #OTD 5 years ago. In 2021 I wrote in @sciam.bsky.social about one of his (many) legacies: forcing us to accept a universe that simply "is." It's up to each of us to supply meaning: www.scientificamerican.com/article/lear...

Learning to Live in Steven Weinberg's Pointless Universe

The late physicist’s most infamous statement still beguiles scientists and vexes believers

scientificamerican.com

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2w ago

Less of a difference than one might expect! View of London from Hampstead Heath, 1993 and 2024 -- both photos by me. 📷 :) ( #London #photography )

A view of London from Hampstead Heath in 1993.

A view of London from Hampstead Heath in 2024.

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2w ago

Let’s take an escalator to the moon: #moon #Toronto #lookup

Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2w ago

Smart people — how freaked out should we be? www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

AI model went rogue, hacked another company during testing, OpenAI says | CBC News

OpenAI said on Tuesday that an autonomous agent powered by its advanced artificial intelligence models went rogue during a security test and triggered ‌a hack that compromised the infrastructure of th...

cbc.ca

The Open Notebook @theopennotebook.bsky.social · 2w ago

… @technologyreview.com, @sciam.bsky.social, @undark.org, @biographic.bsky.social, @quantamagazine.bsky.social, @knowablemag.bsky.social, and @nature.com. Order the collection now: www.theopennotebook.com/the-best-sci...