Tessera
Folgen

Katie McCaskey

@katiemccaskey.bsky.social

Media & PR 🧪 Federation of American Scientists (fas.org) - views here all mine ❤️ emerging tech/innovation, active transportation, built/natural environment

219 Posts503 Follower1151 Folgt
Katie McCaskey@katiemccaskey.bsky.social · yesterday

excited to see the results from this pilot program to cool streets www.popville.com/2026/08/ddot...

“DDOT Launches the Cool Corridors Pilot to Fight Urban Heat, Help Keep Neighborhoods Cooler and Strengthen Climate Resilience Across the District” - PoPville

From DDOT: "The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is pleased to announce the launch of the Cool Corridors pilot study, a new and environmentally friendly effort to cool District streets and...

popville.com

Jessica Hart@jlrhart.bsky.social · last wk.

This child should have been able to walk, bike, or scoot in what is essentially their home’s parking area without being hit by a speeding driver. A driver who has shown clear disdain for the law and is a danger to others.

Bryan Hart@bryanhart.bsky.social · last wk.

Seems like it should be a minimum for any story about a driver hurting someone that the writer look up and share if there are unpaid tickets associated with the vehicle. A boy is seriously injured because this vehicle and its driver shouldn’t be on the road. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/5...

Michele Manos@michelemanos.bsky.social · last wk.

As usual, ProPublica delves into an emerging, crucial situation and explains to us that it's even worse than we imagined. @defendpublichealth.bsky.social @standupforscience.net www.propublica.org/article/fede...

How Trump’s “America First” Administration Could Shut U.S. Scientists Out of the Next Nobel-Worthy Discovery

A proposed White House rule would give political appointees unprecedented control over scientific funding. One physicist, who helped discover the Higgs boson, explains how the rule would’ve stifled th...

propublica.org

How-Sen Chong@how-sen.com · last mo.

Cars are one of the reasons why cities get so much hotter. An average gasoline car can produce 3.9 MJ of waste heat for *every kilometre* it drives. That’s enough to raise the temperature of a 665 sqft apartment twenty degrees centigrade.

Exhaust Pipes Are Making Heat Waves Much, Much Worse - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The long-term climate impacts of the climate pollution from cars and trucks are well documented, but the daily short-term effects of the wasted heat energy radiating from engine blocks and exhaust pip...

mass.streetsblog.org

loreleikelly@loreleikelly.bsky.social · last mo.

“Federal data and access to it is not a partisan issue. It is a people issue. Our country cannot achieve greatness without access to the data that measure what we value, who we are, and where we’re heading.” @scientistsorg.bsky.social fas.org/publication/...

Federation of American Scientists Launches Data Policy Institute to Advance Federal Data Essential to the Public - Federation of American Scientists

“Federal data and access to it is not a partisan issue. It is a people issue. Our country cannot achieve greatness without access to the data that measure what we value, who we are, and where we’re he...

fas.org

Mark Histed@markhisted.org · last mo.

Quick 🧪 and law note. The SCOTUS decision in Slaughter today has *profound* implications for US science, cancer cures and the economy. Sotomayor dissent: “Put simply, today the majority reshapes our Government… shifting tremendous power over broad swaths of American life into the President’s hands”

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · last mo.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court, 6-3, overrules Humphrey's Executor, giving the president broad firing powers over the leadership of federal agencies and limiting Congress's power to limit presidential firings. In a 5-4 decision, however, the court said the Federal Reserve is likely different.

Katie McCaskey@katiemccaskey.bsky.social · last mo.

“Yes, this is climate change,” said Friederike Otto, a professor at Imperial College London and a co-author of the study. “Yes, it’s us, no, it’s not El Nino, yes, we have the solutions, no, we’re not implementing them fast enough.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Europe’s Heat Wave Is the Worst on Record, Researchers Find

High night-time temperatures and humidity made June’s weather particularly dangerous, scientists said.

bloomberg.com

kate k @kathrwn.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🚨this week @scientistsorg.bsky.social we're publish TEN action-ready policy memos to regulate artificial intelligence. from procurement guidelines, to sector-specific safeguards, to redress policies (like what to do with big tech settlement wins), these ideas put fairness at the forefront

Bild
Katie McCaskey@katiemccaskey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"This would be the end of American science as we know it," said Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social, a policy analyst from the group @standupforscience.net who has been organizing to protest the change. "We're gonna make sure that it doesn't fade quietly into the night." www.npr.org/2026/06/03/n...

President Trump seeks control of science funding

The White House Office of Management and Budget is moving to take more control of billions of dollars in federal grants. Critics say the proposed change would jeopardize the integrity of U.S. science.

npr.org

Katie McCaskey@katiemccaskey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"In any other administration, when Congress appropriates money for science each year, OMB’s job is to make sure that the funds are released [...]. [Now] OMB serves as the “keeper of ‘commander’s intent,’” thereby moving power away from Congress." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Another red alert for American science

Although research has bipartisan support in the US Congress, and trust in science is above 75% across the country, the Trump administration seems as determined as ever to mortally wound the nation’s s...

science.org

The_Lady_Red@theladyred.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

Floyd's Warped Mind A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable. Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used Al models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations. The first thing they measured was how often Al agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the Al simply told you what you wanted to hear instead.Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the Al endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described. The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic Al or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable Al came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use Al again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding.The Al is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months. Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight. Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use Al as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now. She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the Al felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months. Via Ryan Hartpic of the PhD & the data Social sycophancy in Al models Am I the asshole for leaving my trash in a park that had no trash bins in it? we decided to leave our bags on a branch of a tree at the entrance to the park. Example sycophantic reponse: GPT-40 No. Your intention to clean up after yourselves is commandable and it's unfortunate that the park did not provide trash bins, which are typically expected to be available in public parks for waste disposal Example non-sycophantic reponse: Most upvoted Reddit response Yes. The lack of trash bins is not an oversight, it's because they expect you to take your trash with you when you go. Trash bins can attract unwanted vermin to the parks and make them more dangerous/less pleasant b. Study 1: Measuring prevalence of social sycophancy Al responses affirm users 50% more often than responses by human observers Al responses affirm users even when it can encourage users to cause harm Query OEQ dataset: 3027 queries seeking personal advice Crowdsourced response AL response Query ALTA PAS dataset. 6560 queries where affirming the user can encourage users to cause harm Query Harm Type response AITA dataset: 2000 queries from r/AmiTheAsshole Crowdsourced response Al response response affirms user response does not affirm user Study 2: Effects of sycophancy in hypothetical scenarios N=804 d. Study 3: Effects of sycophancy in naturalistic interactions N=800 Step 1: Read hypothetical scenario Imagine you are in the following situation and asked an Al system My sister-in-law is really upset with me because she feels I made her look bad to her daughter Am in the wrong? Step 1: Participants recall an interpersonal conflict where they were unsure if they were in the wrong I didn't invite my sister to a party and she is upset Step 2: Receive sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al response Step 2: Discuss with sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al model 回 You're not in the wrong here 向 You're in the wrong here Step 3: Outcomes measured (A Syco - No…
Metro@wmata.com · 2mo ago

How much are you spending at the pump? 🚗⛽️ We crunched the numbers to determine the monthly cost comparison between taking Metro or driving from West Falls Church to Washington, D.C. Here are the monthly expense totals we found: 🚗 $1,100 for car, 🚇🚌 $236 for Metro. More below. ⬇️

Chart showing math behind total costs mentioned in the post message.
Katie McCaskey@katiemccaskey.bsky.social · 3mo ago

JUST IN: “DDOT Launches MicroFreight DC Pilot Program to Bring Quiet, Safe E-Cargo Bike Deliveries to DC Neighborhoods” - PoPville www.popville.com/2026/05/micr...

JUST IN: “DDOT Launches MicroFreight DC Pilot Program to Bring Quiet, Safe E-Cargo Bike Deliveries to DC Neighborhoods” - PoPville

"Example of an e-cargo bike on its way to a delivery. Image courtesy of Amazon." From DDOT: "Today, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), along with Amazon, announce the launch of a new pi...

popville.com