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Jordan Carlson

@jordantcarlson.bsky.social

Canadian postdoc in Japan. Energy, sustainability, unrelated ramblings.

22833 Posts13829 Follower2541 Folgt
Dan Hon@danhon.com · 12h ago

Yeah sure the tv is bigger and cheaper and lighter and the picture is better great and also somehow it snitches on me now, I mean there are many different axes of "better"

ae@aelkus.bsky.social · yesterday

The tech industry needs to have its impunity taken away. it behaves the way it does, including its mystification of LLM-AIs, because it doesn’t have trial lawyers looking at it like a hungry Oguri Cap

Aarne Granlund@aarnegranlund.eurosky.social · yesterday

"While the sector experienced a modest post-COVID bump in activity (...) data show that the country's domestic aviation emissions have declined in each of the past three years, descending 22% during the period 2023 through 2025." #Sufficiency works, if we dare. climatetrace.org/news/austria...

Austria and France banned short-haul flights to boost train travel and reduce emissions. Did it work?

Climate TRACE data point to encouraging outcomes, with much greater emissions reduction opportunity if such a shift were widely adopted globally.

climatetrace.org

Dan Orlowitz@aishiterutokyo.bsky.social · yesterday

Sumo's infusion of popular western rikishi in the last couple years is really interesting to study against the backdrop of Japan's current rise in anti-foreigner sentiment. Especially in a "national sport" where fans and critics have often Felt a Certain Way about the roles foreigners occupy.

Patriciajaydee@patriciajaydee.bsky.social · yesterday

There could never be too many, but there seems a profusion of cuties and downright dashing sumo recruits lately. Minato-beya's heartthrob is 17-year-old Eisei (Nicholas Tarasensko) from Hull, United Kingdom, the first British-born rikishi in 36 years (since Hidenokuni whose highest rank...

Jenny Chase@solarchase.bsky.social · yesterday

Not to dunk on this but it isn't really true that the Hormuz oil crisis is driving a solar boom. Here's this chart updated to June of China solar exports, showing that the March spike in exports has subsided and was therefore mostly just export tax rebate effects.

Chart from BloombergNEF and SinoImex showing monthly dollar-value exports of solar cells and modules from China, by market, from November 2024 to June 2026. They spiked to $4.5bn in March 2026 because a key China export tax rebate was removed, fell to $3.1bn in April - still high but possibly due to some spillover effects and deadline missing - and then are back to a normal-ish level of $2.2bn in May and $2.5bn in June.
Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d ago

Absolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West

Chart showing solar panel exports from China (the main solar panel maker by a long shot) growing steadily & mightily from 2018 through 2026, then spiking by almost 2x in March 2026.
Karen K. Ho@karenho.bsky.social · 2d ago

If you are an expert on air quality and have 10-15 minutes to talk to me today or tomorrow about important things journalists should know while reporting on wildfires and smoke, my DMs are open, or you can email me at karen at OpenNews dot org.

Jordan Carlson@jordantcarlson.bsky.social · 3d ago

I think there's a triple (or more) bind in this particular cause-effect problem. 1. Essentials (rent, healthcare, food) have gotten more expensive with inflation. 2. Wages in most countries have not kept pace with inflation even as household wealth has increased. 3. <Sam Vines Boots analogy>

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈@maxdubler.com · 3d ago

I think my most genuinely unpopular take is that a widely held and genuine consumer preference for cheaper, lower-quality goods, not private equity, is driving the decline in quality of consumer goods like clothing and housewares.

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦@danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d ago

If you think of yourself as someone who “can’t draw,” you could probably learn to draw much better than you imagine. Talent’s a real thing, or rather a few things—not all even relevant! Like, not everyone can win the Boston marathon, but who cares? Ordinary talent is mostly just a drive to practice

Brooke@brooklynmarie.bsky.social · 3d ago

Yes!!!! I learn best by reading and doing so if you are like me these three books might be very helpful: The Art of Drawing: The Complete Course (no author listed, but the publisher is listed as Sterling) Rendering in Pen and Ink (by Arthur L. Guptill) What It Is (by Lynda Barry)

Jordan Carlson@jordantcarlson.bsky.social · 3d ago

This is in general a very bad idea, but it's a particularly bad idea in British Columbia, where ~80-90% of the wilderness completely lacks cell signal. Once you're off the highway (and frequently, even on it), you aren't getting any maps from Google.

Kathleen Bachynski@bachynski.bsky.social · 3d ago

“We’re so used to using Google Maps in our everyday life that I think when people are starting to get into hiking, they think that probably Google Maps will work for backcountry use as well, and that’s just not the case,” said John Blown, of North Shore Rescue, a team based in British Columbia.”

vortex_egg@vortexegg.com · 4d ago

For me, LLMs are clearly powerful machines, but everything about their construction and deployment in society by the people constructing them appears oriented around achieving a political project that deeply conflicts with my values or a vision of a future I want to live in and dont have a choice in

NERV IRB Coordinator@professormusgrave.bsky.social · 4d ago

This is what is driving me nuts. So many posters around here keep haw-hawing about R’s in strawberry and clearly have NO idea that these are extremely powerful machines *already* that we have not yet figured out how to utilize fully. If we stopped development today, they’d still be astonishing

Jordan Carlson@jordantcarlson.bsky.social · 4d ago

Growing up ~800 km from the nearest large city is the source of many many stories I am not posting on social media.

dannyodwyer@dannyodwyer.bsky.social · 4d ago

growing up in a remote city is months and years of utter banality, pierced with the most nutso, random shit you will ever hear about. I didn't realize until I moved away. like the time I found a man and woman stuck inside of one of those clothes donation bins. funniest 999 call I ever made.

Cat Manning@catacalypto.bsky.social · 5d ago

I do kind think the “hungry ghost in a jar” approach to LLMs is the most useful metric—that’s how much you should trust them, but there are a handful of things they can do if you actually know how to use them, which is like .1% of the people they’re being pushed at, and also—

Unseen Japan@unseenjapan.com · 5d ago

In reality (as reported by NHK, Nippon TV, and even right-leaning Sankei Shimbun), five Vietnamese agricultural workers teamed w/ Japanese residents to rescue a 90yo woman from her collapsed home. Rescuer Le Huy heard the woman's cries from under the rubble.

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Unseen Japan@unseenjapan.com · 5d ago

After NHK showed Vietnamese residents helping rescue a woman in Yatsushiro after this week's Kumamoto earthquake, far-right nativists in Japan launched a denialist campaign, claiming only Japanese people helped her while the Vietnamese residents "panicked."

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Daniel Kaihatsu (開発 妥仁得)@kaihat.su · 6d ago

This story has now made it into English publications. (Which shows you its importance) mainichi.jp/english/arti...

Hokkaido Univ. apologizes over past research on indigenous Ainu remains - The Mainichi

SAPPORO -- Hokkaido University issued a presidential statement on July 27 apologizing for past research on the indigenous Ainu people, including the i

mainichi.jp

Daniel Kaihatsu (開発 妥仁得)@kaihat.su · last wk.

Hokkaido University has acknowledged that its past Ainu research was rooted in discrimination and prejudice, issuing a long-awaited apology after pressure from Ainu groups and apologies from other academic bodies. While many welcome the move, issues such as stolen remains are still unresolved.