Ken Caldeira

@kencaldeira.com

Mostly mentoring a group of postdocs at Stanford. Senior Scientist at Gates Ventures. climate / energy / etc https://sustainablesolutions.stanford.edu/people/ken-caldeira Posts imperfectly represent the views of my former self and not my employer.

They have shown themselves to be concerned only about money and power. They view statements as instrumental: "Will saying this give me more money or power?" The truth-value of the statement is irrelevant.

This New York Times article, which ran a week before Christmas last year, didn’t get the attention it deserved. It detailed Trump and Epstein's predatory behavior toward women – “a game of ego and dominance” in which “female bodies were currency.” Here’s a gift link and a thread. 1/6🧵

‘Don’s Best Friend’: How Epstein and Trump Bonded Over the Pursuit of Women (Gift Article)

The president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were cur...

nytimes.com

Much of the motivation for reducing greenhouse gas emissions comes not from cost-benefit optimization, but from the understanding that we are doing something that harms others and that we therefore have a responsibility to stop doing that. 1/2

Photo out of an airplane window on the way to Heathrow, with some land, clouds, and sky.

Capital expenditure on data centers is projected to be about $750 billion this year. US GDP is expected to be about $30 trillion, so data center investment is about 2.5% of total US GDP right now. Data center investment may be about 2/3 of total AI cost. accuristech.com/blog/ai-data...

How AI Data Centers Are Reshaping Electronic Component Supply in 2026

AI data center spending will exceed $600B in 2026, consuming 70% of global memory production and driving component shortages across every electronics sector. Learn how OEMs can prepare.

accuristech.com

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

Bild

New: We found 50 cops who misused Flock cameras and other license-plate readers for personal purposes, often to spy on their girlfriends or ex-wives. He "watched every single move I made. ... Who do you turn the chief of police in to?" wapo.st/3S6rTuo

She left her ex. He secretly tracked her through a network of policing cameras.

Flock’s array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other systems.

wapo.st

Another example of what happens when criminals run the justice system. These people must be brought to justice, and if not justice, at least a "truth and reconciliation" commission. It is not just the leadership, it is also the facilitators and foot soldiers. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Inside the New York court where children face deportation without access to attorneys

About 20,000 unaccompanied minors will lose legal representation if the federal government ends a longstanding contract on Friday, kicking current problems into overdrive across US

theguardian.com

Heritage Foundation government relations director Wingate arrested at Senate office buulding for firearms violation and possession of cocaine and fentanyl. The New York Times thinks this news is not fit to print. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Heritage Foundation exec faces drug charge after bringing ammo into Senate office

Chris Wingate, 45, of Alexandria, Virginia, was stopped after an X-ray screening revealed pistol magazine, affadavit says

independent.co.uk

If the main barrier to implementing good policy is not an information deficit, but rather that individual incentives are not aligned with global well-being, what are appropriate roles for academic researchers? How can information provision help to align individual incentives with global well-being?

Maurizio Cattelan

SKY 2025

Glass, cork, and metal handcuffs

Sometimes too much is made of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. If a Condorcet (pairwise ranked choice) voting system results in a unique winner, which in practice it usually does, then all of Arrow's criteria are satisfied. It is only the tie-break procedure that violates Arrow's criteria. 1/2

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet#/media/File:Marquis_de_Condorcet.jpg

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794), French philosopher, mathematician, and political scientist.