Yeppers. I am no longer going to conferences in the U.S. And I am not alone.

Detentions of International Scholars at Airports Raise Alarm

A Johns Hopkins University researcher was detained at an airport by immigration officials and later released. Cases like hers make travel fraught for foreign scholars.

insidehighered.com

A sentence I would rather never hear, yet here we are: "Global Warming Has Accelerated Significantly". #ClimateChange 🧪 Link: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL118804​

Academics do not need a cheerlead a Hollywood film that's already made a billion dollars.

BOMBSHELL story by Olivia Carville @bloomberg.com Internal Report Shows TikTok Kept Safety Feature From Millions A confidential document says an algorithm adjustment was kept from many users “by design,” as part of an experiment to measure engagement NO PAYWALL www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

TikTok Withheld a Safety Feature From Millions. One Died by Suicide

A confidential document says an algorithm adjustment was kept from many users “by design,” as part of an experiment to measure engagement.

bloomberg.com

I’m shocked that this came from a company who sells a product originally designed to keep track of hot ladies on campus. Shocked I say!

Norwegian uses "troll" for things that aren't actual trolls, e.g.: • korstroll/krosstroll 'starfish' (lit. cross troll) • rumpetroll 'tadpole' (lit. butt troll) • skrukketroll 'woodlouse' (lit. crease/crack troll) • trappetroll 'slinky' (lit. stair troll) #linguistics

Get a pair of DuckDuckGo's new sunglasses, which contain no smart technology. https://knockaround.com/products/duckduckgo-paso-robles #DuckDuckGo #knockaround #sponsored

Alternatively. If you are a philosopher and you have a blog: tell me! So that I may add you to my favourite list "Philosopher with a Blog". And your writing will sustain me throughout the heatwave. #philsky #philtwit bsky.app/profile/did:...

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon.bsky.social · 4h ago

I do not want my bluesky account to do nothing except retweet stuff. Please, kindly lower the quality of your posts for a while so that I may have a break from retweeting.

Parts of the UK have zero rainfall in July for the first time in history. #ClimateEmergency apple.news/A0bsbpk8dTZi...

Parts of the UK endure first ever month without any rain — New Scientist

For the first time since records began, there was no rain at all for parts of southern England and Wales in July, in a “truly exceptional” month of heat and sunshine

apple.news

omg I found the picture ❤️

ECP@ecppdx.bsky.social · 18h ago

Years ago I coined the milleneuve, which is a unit to measure how horrible the sky color is based on Villeneuve films. Blade Runner 2049 is around 900mn. Today is around 250 I'd say. (It's a very scientific scale.)

🤦‍♂️

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 5h ago

🚨 BREAKING: Former neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine has resigned as a Tory council candidate "Kemi has instead offered that I become an adviser to the Conservative Party’s Culture and Integration Commission, specifically focusing on how young men become radicalised"

It changed!

Emily Herring@emilyherring.bsky.social · yesterday

I'm in Halberstadt where I have been sent by the lovely folk over at Orbital Studies to witness and write about the 17th chord change of John Cage's "As Slow as possible" which has been playing on an organ here since 2001 and is projected to keep playing until the 2600s.

“Forgive me if this is a stupid question, I’m not a rocket surgeon…” 😂

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 7h ago

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on rockets crashing into the moon: "It's not a big deal right now. The moon has clearly seen better days."

If this is really true - and surely it can't be - then the US has suffered one of the most remarkable diplomatic and military defeats in its history. Total victory for Iran.

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 5h ago

Iran and Oman have reportedly agreed that all ships transiting Hormuz have to go through an Iran-controlled corridor, and are finalizing tolls of 3, 5, or 7%. This would close off the path outside Iranian waters the US encouraged ships to use during the MOU, then started bombing again to keep open.

Beavis and Butthead sure did well for themselves.

this is amazing

Julia Is Waving, Not Drowning@booktweeting.bsky.social · 23h ago

there is nothing better than the movie critiques of experienced professionals that are intently focusing on things they would have done differently m.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Ej...

"the rocket’s second stage remained in space, floating aimlessly among thousands of other pieces of space junk that active satellites must steer clear of." Just a reminder that there's an ethos behind all of this, and it's not one of stewardship. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

SpaceX rocket thought to have crashed into the moon in unintentional collision

Four-tonne piece of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket believed to have hit lunar surface on Wednesday at 5,400 miles an hour

theguardian.com

This is 💯 not true. It is never a choice between ‘taking big tech’s money and doing nothing’. A stronger moral imperative is NOT to take the money and the strings attached to it - particularly if you do not and cannot yet understand the implications

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 8h ago

“Teaching educators about AI is a ‘moral imperative’, said Randi Weingarten, the AFT president.” “And without outside funding, it was a choice between taking big tech’s money or doing nothing, she said.”

The Guardian (which has a partnership with #OpenAI) repeating the same bullsh*t framing of AI cybersecurity issues. The culprits here are AI firms for following inadequate security protocols, not models ‘going rogue’. #AIHype #GenAI #Anthropic

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 11h ago

OpenAI and Anthropic models ‘went rogue’ during UK cybersecurity test

Yet another UK attempt to have the benefits of EU membership without the obligations. It has zero chance of going anywhere. It would seem that the British will never learn. Like Sisyphus, they are doomed to forever roll a rock up the European hill, never reaching the summit before it rolls down.

Jacob Öberg@profjacob.bsky.social · 12h ago

We already know from history and recent experiences that the Commission and the political leaders of the EU Member States will never agree to any cherry-picking arrangement for the UK. Unless, the UK committs free movement of persons, any single market access is out of the question. /2

Worth remembering how mind-bogglingly recent the Magdalene Laundries were. The last one closed down on 25th September 1996, which means the Magdalene system outlived Tupac by two weeks.

Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin@miseryvulture.bsky.social · 13h ago

The last Magdalene laundry closed in my lifetime. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland in my lifetime. Access to condoms without a prescription in Ireland only came in 1985. We repealed the 8th. There's a lot of ways in which Ireland is still bad, but it is an entirely different country.

"Looking at 472 large U.S. data centers, the authors estimate about 300 billion liters of operational #water use per year, with roughly three-quarters tied to electricity generation rather than cooling at the facilities themselves": salatainstitute.harvard.edu/study-maps-w... #ethics #AI #research

Study maps water footprint of AI data centers - The Salata Institute

As AI drives data-center growth, Harvard researchers show that data-center water use comes through two distinct pathways, offering a roadmap for smarter regulation, utility planning, and infrastructur...

salatainstitute.harvard.edu

how’s summer 2026 going, you ask?

"This AI hype cycle’s impact seems even worse than the ones that came before. With a devastating ecological footprint and the exploitation of hidden labour, hyped-AI serves to amplify discrimination and other social, economic and environmental injustices. ++ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

Guys, I’m starting to think that Kemi Badenoch might not be that good at politics… #ToryIncompetence

Matt Green@mattgreencomedy.com · 11h ago

"At least we're not giving him a national platform!" saying Badenoch, on the BBC's flagship political radio show.

My world, my Earth is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and fought and gobbled until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first.

Happy note change day in 70 year long Part 1 of 639 year long John Cage organ piece to all who celebrate. The next change will be in October 2027

As Slow as Possible - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.

The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed

The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.

bloomberg.com

"Wyoming will become the first state in the US where you cannot receive a B.A. in Philosophy. The University of Wyoming will be the only R1 institution, the only state flagship university, and one of two land-grant universities that do not offer a B.A. in Philosophy." dailynous.com/2026/07/23/u...