Emily Johnston
@enjohnston.bsky.social
Climate, writing, running, beasts. Valve turner. Host: https://sites.libsyn.com/459540/awabw poetry: https://www.hummingbirdpoetry.org/books/her-animals-by-emily-johnston-2nd-ed Making good trouble: troublemakerscommunity.org
It really cannot be overstated the degree to which Trump has not only tanked the international standing and economy of the U.S., but given a huge boost to the regimes of the countries that he most views as competitors/enemies: China, Iran. Who knows who's next? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Human adaptability is so problematic in this moment. 7 or 8 years ago, even 5 years ago, I would have woken to a morning like this with heartache & dread. Today? I woke up, looked at the AQI, & was thrilled because it was low enough that I could run. We've been so very lucky this summer. And yet.
Oh, great. "Risks being taken by private credit companies ultimately transfer to state taxpayers. It’s a familiar story of privatizing the profits & socializing the risks... bring in the fact that private credit is making all these data center loans, this risk-taking is dangerously concentrated."
Private credit companies are key owners of AI-related assets. Many of their parent private equity firms own life insurers that are dumping grounds for bad loans—and subject to state bailouts.
Instead of passing through bankruptcy, insolvent life insurers have all their liabilities—in particular the policyholder claims—paid for by state guaranty funds.
prospect.org
This is ridiculously scary. Yes, we are currently talking about ballrooms and reflecting pools and inflation and Iran and Venezuela and Epstein and crypto grift and the moral rot of the GOP. But all that is going to be forgotten soon. Shit is about to get real, as they say.
Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · 3d agoI'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.
“The hyperscalers are investing heavily in the same companies they are counting on to buy their computing power. It’s what economists call an interlocking liability structure.” I believe there’s a colloquial term for it, too. Something to do with a circle.
Larry Ellison Bet It All on the A.I. Boom. Will He Be the Face of the A.I. Bubble? (Gift Article)
Inside the 81-year-old billionaire’s risky, debt-fueled scramble to transform his data empire into an A.I. juggernaut.
nytimes.com
“The hyperscalers are investing heavily in the same companies they are counting on to buy their computing power. It’s what economists call an interlocking liability structure.” I believe there’s a colloquial term for it, too. Something to do with a circle.
Larry Ellison Bet It All on the A.I. Boom. Will He Be the Face of the A.I. Bubble? (Gift Article)
Inside the 81-year-old billionaire’s risky, debt-fueled scramble to transform his data empire into an A.I. juggernaut.
nytimes.com
“Dayflow’s open-source models also perform all of their processing on each user’s individual computer…appealing to those who don’t want to send their data to the cloud for privacy reasons.” The big AI companies will (& should) be toast. Let’s make sure they don’t toast the planet too.
More of Silicon Valley is building on free Chinese AI
AI startups are seeing record valuations, but many are building on a foundation of cheap, free-to-download Chinese AI models.
nbcnews.com
You know what this ISN'T? An LLM. Once more for the folks in the back: nearly all of the actually useful, genuinely promising things that AI can do for us have nothing to do with LLMs & planet-devouring data centers. Hope, not hype. Serving us, not serving us up to Big Tech. @sciam.bsky.social
AI finds hidden ECG signal that predicts sudden cardiac death risk
A new model uses a routine ECG to flag people at high risk of sudden cardiac death—and reveals a warning sign in the heart’s electrical activity
scientificamerican.com
On my way out the door for a few days and haven't listened yet, but it's @billmckibben.bsky.social, so this will be essential, cogent, and probably even encouraging. If my phone consents, I'll listen to it on my way to the coast!
Bill McKibben@billmckibben.bsky.social · 7d agoSo, I finally did a TED talk, and it got released today. I seem to have been quite intense, but I'm grateful they left in my Trump joke. www.ted.com/talks/bill_m...
You know what this ISN'T? An LLM. Once more for the folks in the back: nearly all of the actually useful, genuinely promising things that AI can do for us have nothing to do with LLMs & planet-devouring data centers. Hope, not hype. Serving us, not serving us up to Big Tech. @sciam.bsky.social
AI finds hidden ECG signal that predicts sudden cardiac death risk
A new model uses a routine ECG to flag people at high risk of sudden cardiac death—and reveals a warning sign in the heart’s electrical activity
scientificamerican.com
Has this made the rounds here yet? This may be the most insane post I've ever read. "I don’t think you understand what ChatGPT Voice unlocks. I went on a 4hr hike yesterday. Through the northern California redwoods. Got more work done in those 4 hours...then I do in 8 hours at my desk."
Alex Finn (@AlexFinn) on X
I don’t think you understand what ChatGPT Voice unlocks I went on a 4 hour hike yesterday. Through the northern California redwoods. Got more work done in those 4 hours talking to Voice through my AirPods then I do in 8 hours at my desk Work can be done ANYWHERE now 45 minute
x.com
Just went to The Odyssey, and enjoyed it...but I may never go to the theater again: there was a full half hour of ads beforehand (about half regular ads, then previews). After $27 tickets, and before a 3-hour movie? Are they TRYING to alienate folks?
100% this: "Real intelligence is inextricable from organic embodiment, from being a feeling organism passing through time and space shaped in every moment by its needs, fears, desires...“Artificial intelligence” is a highly consequential misnomer."
Why this philosopher turned down Anthropic
The AI industry is courting the humanities — but it is asking the wrong questions
giftarticle.ft.com
100% this: "Real intelligence is inextricable from organic embodiment, from being a feeling organism passing through time and space shaped in every moment by its needs, fears, desires...“Artificial intelligence” is a highly consequential misnomer."
Why this philosopher turned down Anthropic
The AI industry is courting the humanities — but it is asking the wrong questions
giftarticle.ft.com
A depressing reality as a journalist is that often the most valuable stories are the ones the social media algorithm/people care the least about. One of my worst performing videos for Mother Jones is about a family of asylum seekers who had a father deported by ICE. It is likely my best work.
ICE Took Him. Now His Family Lives in Fear.
YouTube video by Mother Jones
youtu.be
It's not possible to keep track of climate catastrophes anymore—they slide over our awareness (if we see them at all) & disappear. They used to be sporadic & local, now they're constant & often much larger. The network effects on food supply, migration, etc. will be terrifying, within years.
Robin Boardman@robinboardman.com · 3w agoTen days of water. That is what is left in northern Italy. Salt from the Adriatic pushing upstream into soil that fed generations. Emergency meetings next week. Crops already turning. We bear witness to a land dying on a timeline measured in days, not decades. phys.org/news/2026-07...
The wild eyed radical communist continues to destroy capitalism www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘I’m over the moon’: New York’s small business owners rejoice as Mamdani cuts red tape
Initiatives including cutting permits just to serve ice-cream amount to a sweeping program of deregulation
theguardian.com
Seriously, @nytimes.com? You think an experimental psychologist is the person to listen to on data centers & the environment? Someone who considers the impacts of a person asking AI a question, rather than the impacts of massive new gas infrastructure for a dumb, inefficient, water-guzzling tech?
Holiday in the climate emergency. No that’s not AI or edited, just a snapshot I just took with my phone on Lacanau beach in France. What future will this boy grow up in? It is in our hands, but time is running out.
no amnesty
tony romm@tonyromm.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
"The lack of sanitation in the camps is in part due to the recent foreign aid cuts under President Trump." Nuremberg is the moderate option.
‘We Will All Die From Ebola Here’: Virus Stalks Crowded Camps in Congo (Gift Article)
There are a million people displaced by violence in the epicenter. They live in dangerous conditions and are fighting the virus with very little clean water.
nytimes.com
Well this is a real shock. I mean, he seems like such a solid businessperson.
Lora Kolodny@lorak.bsky.social · 2w agoSo uhhh - the numbers are out and they're not pretty. Margins down, capex up, so despite a revenue beat... shares continue to slide. Updates at CNBC - we'll listen to the call so you don't have to! www.cnbc.com/2026/07/22/t...
I cannot wait till this absolutely BOMBS (and then Elon lies about it).
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w agoElon Musk says Grok Imagine will make ‘historically accurate’ AI adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey
Listening to @edzitron.com's newest pod, and it's very clear that we need to instill some loss aversion into banks, because if they feared loss more than they relished gains....we wouldn't be here now. Sadly, we live in an age when Pangloss has beaten up Cassandra and hidden her in the basement.
