Trying out the features in Claude for education. Join me as I see how it "helps" me write a research paper. My chosen topic: "AI and education". /1
Scott K. Johnson
@sjon.earth
sci comm person writing at https://www.sjon.earth
New from 404 Media: Google Earth has introduced an AI feature that lets anyone fabricate completely bullshit satellite images. In our own tests, we added a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles. This is a misinformation time bomb, will 100% be abused www.404media.co/google-earth...
ICYMI I wrote about what we can and can't say about one possible environmental consequence of the orbital AI data center megaconstellation concept—ozone depletion. www.sjon.earth/elon-musks-o...
Elon Musk’s orbital data centers could be an environmental catastrophe
Tens of thousands of satellites burning up on reentry might not be the best thing for the ozone layer.
sjon.earth
How are ocean waves and earthquakes linked? A new study combines buoy wave height measurements with NSF NGF seismic data to examine how winter ocean swells impact seismicity at California’s offshore Mendocino Triple Junction. Read it here: doi.org/10.1785/0220250447
Hello! It's true, I've made a huge mistake and started a newsletter. These things happen. www.sjon.earth
on Earth
It's a pretty cool planet. We should keep it that way.
sjon.earth
New video about primary sedimentary structures exposed in an intensely glaciated landscape youtu.be/aTnj12CpXE4 ⚒️
Geology exposed along the spine of an arête, Glacier National Park, Montana
YouTube video by Callan Bentley
youtu.be
NISAR surface displacement map of Venezuela is the NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day today. Map shows earthquake displacement on land is largest north of Caracas, so fault slip at depth on offshore fault greater. Fault went through Catia La Mar next to airport. science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-...
A three-year-old profile of the reported new director of the US Global Change Research Program
Spreading climate misinformation is fast becoming a shortcut to popularity across right-wing media. This man’s rise proves it.
mediamatters.org
Notable also that Meta did the disgusting thing where you can disable this, but on a toggle shared with a bunch of normal things you might not want to disable. (Despite Meta's meta of turning preferences into a disorienting labyrinth of dip switch banks that stretch to the horizon.)
Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 4w agoThis is just so rage-inducing. www.wired.com/story/meta-n...
The White House has reconstituted the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which tracks climate change and produces the National Climate Assessment. The Trump version will focus on "positive" climate effects and be used to protect fossil fuel companies from lawsuits. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...
The administration has a new climate change office. It’s headed by a climate critic.
The office that produces the National Climate Assessment has been reconstituted, after the administration gutted it last year.
politico.com
ChatGPT posters and flyers are polluting real life and driving me insane. Please respond to this with the worst ones you've seen irl. I'll post some in the thread www.404media.co/we-are-livin...
We Are Living in a ‘ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic’
"Hey if this is your flyer, I’m not going, I’m not donating, I’m not sharing. Don’t ask me."
404media.co
I'm so good at rooting against the US in international competitions that Belgium's unis didn't even faze me.
Just casually adding "adhesion" to the physics they deny.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.BASH: But it peeled off. Why did that happen? BURGUM: It didn't peel off. There was vandalism. There was box cutters. There have been 7 arrests. BASH: There are photographs of people cutting a 350 foot gash in the reflecting pool? BURGUM: Dana, I'm not sure why you keep questioning it
Update: A new report from the United Nations has updated the estimated direct economic damage cost for the June 24 Venezuelan earthquakes to a staggering $37 billion. This represents more than 30% of the country's GDP. www.undrr.org/media/118988...
undrr.org
"United States data centers generating their own power could emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as the nation of Australia, according to a new analysis by an environmental watchdog group looking at proposed projects."
US data center power plants' emissions could rival Australia's, report says
The Environmental Integrity Project looked at announced data center projects that include on-site power generation from burning natural gas, estimating the
eenews.net
Reminder that this is exactly what they've falsey accused environmentalists of for the past couple decades. apnews.com/article/wild...
Trump administration seeks to stomp out all fires quickly, reviving policy that has been discredited
The deaths of three firefighters in Colorado are casting a spotlight on the Trump administration’s creation of a new federal fire agency and its revival of a previously discredited policy to stomp out...
apnews.com
I've seen papery bits of ash from fires many times, but this morning I'm sweeping full-on charcoal flakes that carried 10 miles... #PocketFire
Michael Cembalest is out with his annual energy report for JP Morgan and it's full of fascinating stuff, but this graph jumps out: Trump is succeeding in stifling America's clean energy boom. Absolutely ceding the field to China.
Employees at Scientific American were told today that the magazine has been sold to LabX Media Group, the outfit that runs Discover Magazine and IFLScience. And that means -- of course! -- editorial layoffs. The media mass extinction rolls ever onward.
A 1-of-1 substances table in the remediation site report apps.dnr.wi.gov/rrbotw/botw-...
depths of wikipedia@depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · last mo.if anyone in madison, wisconsin is in the mood for a side quest you should take photos of the area where butter once melted into a river and flowed through the city!!!! and add it to the page captioned "the site of the disaster" or something like that!!!!
Shared on behalf of the USGS: YVO Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles for June 22, 2026 #volcano #earthscience #geology #science "Oops, it did it again: Another small hydrothermal explosion at Biscuit Basin" www.usgs.gov/observatorie...
Oops, it did it again: Another small hydrothermal explosion at Biscuit Basin
Early on the morning of Saturday, June 13, 2026, a small hydrothermal explosion occurred at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park. Although smaller than the explosion that occurred in the same area in 2024, it emphasizes the dynamic and hazardous nature of hydrothermal activity in the region.
usgs.gov
Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm
Exclusive: NSF slashes research programs to support new tech initiative, insiders say
Unexpected shift in funds has meant sharp drop in grants this fiscal year
science.org
If you think chatbots can have feelings and can be sentient, let us take you through the work of a Microsoft AI researcher who used the real time strategy game Age of Empires II to build a basic neural network using digital goats to prove that "we anthropomorphise too readily."
If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’
“The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily."
404media.co