Nic Moe (he/him)
@nicmoe.bsky.social
I build tools for scientific discovery. I geek data viz, maps, and stats. YIMBY. Empiricist. Driftless. Reluctant cat person. 🇺🇸 🏳️🌈
“Why does San Francisco have so many vacant, trash-strewn storefronts? Truly, it is a mystery.”
Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍@wafoli.bsky.social · 2d agoLmao this is embarrassing, the Clement Street Merchants Association has a petition against a chain store opening on Clement. The chain is a local Bay Area business (Therapy Stores) trying to open its 11th location. Our formula retail ban is so dumb
Like Octavia E. Butler said, “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.” “Do the thing and you will have the power.”
I graduated med school in 2014. I was taught-and saw-how hard melanoma was to treat, like a death sentence Since then, new treatments have made it possible for people w/ the most advanced melanoma, like Jimmy Carter, to live to 100! We are killing ourselves by letting them destroy American science
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 2d agoA cancer vaccine succeeded in a clinical trial in preventing the recurrence of melanoma, a result experts say is a breakthrough for mRNA-based treatments. Trials for lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and other diseases' vaccines are also underway.
Software developers think "if AI automates coding, I will be able to spend less time on producing widgets, and more time on strategy and architecture." Bosses think "if AI automates coding, I can get my devs to produce 100x more widgets."
Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2d agoHistorically, automation tech has commonly made more work for people: the issue is WHICH people. Whether as an excuse for owners to increase the requirements for expectations in a given day, lessen the labor expected of men while raising the expectations for women, etc. "AI" isn't exceptional.
The world’s largest battery-electric aircraft flew for the first time on the 12th of August, a 27-minute test flight over upstate New York that cost about five dollars in electricity. Heart Aerospace’s 30-seat prototype is a big step toward a commercial version. buff.ly/i3f0PhR #ShareGoodNewsToo
The largest all-electric plane ever flew for 27 minutes, on $5 of electricity
Heart's X1 demonstrator flew for 27 minutes from a regional airport in upstate New York, running on battery power the entire time. The aircraft reached 1,100 feet...
techspot.com
Squirrels on suicide missions have knocked out power to Castle Rock, Colorado twice this week. Our investigation has revealed a century of squirrel attacks covered up by the pro-squirrel media.
The housing ladder, explained by Sir David Attenborough and some hermit crabs youtu.be/f1dnocPQXDQ?...
Crabs Trade Shells in the Strangest Way | BBC Earth
YouTube video by BBC Earth
youtu.be
Michael Wiebe@michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d agoNew literature review on housing ladder spillovers: When rich tech workers move in, low-end rents go up. So does it follow that adding high-end homes would reduce them? Yes. Changes at the top of the ladder can propagate down and affect prices at the bottom. 1/
My grandfather, who is 102 and a medical doctor, has told me about the times before polio was cured. Most years, upon returning to school after summer’s break, there would be some children would didn’t make it back to school because of polio.
Kathleen Bachynski@bachynski.bsky.social · 4d ago“On Thursday, Mr. Gorton said that “the success of the polio vaccine was a massive medical fraud” and that widespread vaccination was a “public health disaster.” He received a standing ovation… Mr. Kennedy spoke next, linking arms with the group even as measles cases continue to rise”
Same people who seem to think it’s bad for China to beat us at AI are perfectly fine with China beating us at high speed rail, solar energy, wind energy, shall we go on
rax ‘levon honkers’ king@raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 4d ago'oh so you want china to beat us' bro what the hell do i care leave me to the humble life i am trying to build for myself
So you just learned about the AI cult, huh? Here is the longform explainer you need to make sense of the very, very strange ideas driving tech policy in 2026. Buckle up, it’s a wild ride. www.techpolicy.press/what-policym...
What Policymakers and the Public Need to Know About the Cult of AI
Nathalie Maréchal asks, why are we betting the economy and the future of democracy on cult-like beliefs?
techpolicy.press
When a friend completes their doctoral program, I change their name in my phone to Dr. [friend’s name] and screenshot that to them. Anyway, congrats Dr. [giant tortoise mating behavior expert] 🎉 🐢
‘It’s the best feeling’: how Copenhagen gave cyclists a green wave. “Traffic lights are synchronised so a rush-hour cyclist at 20km/h can catch green lights all the way.” If you want people to choose not to drive, make the non-driving trip better & easier for them. It’s as simple as that, really.
‘It’s the best feeling’: how Copenhagen gave cyclists a green wave
Traffic lights are synchronised so a rush-hour cyclist at 20km/h can catch green lights all the way
theguardian.com
Something to cling to and promote the hell out of: leveraging POSITIVE TIPPING POINTS www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Climate solutions most likely to reach ‘positive tipping points’ revealed by scientists
Global shift towards clean electricity could trigger ‘cascade’ of progress, helping reduce air pollution, cut waste and revive oceans
theguardian.com
Chinook salmon have recolonised 88% of their historic range on the Klamath River, with more than 13,000 fish passing the old Iron Gate Dam site in 2025, up from 7,700 the year before. Two years after the dams’ removal, it’s going better than anyone predicted. buff.ly/pToC9gB #ShareGoodNewsToo
Rewilding the upper Klamath River Basin: rapid recolonization of Chinook salmon following the world’s largest dam removal - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Rewilding the upper Klamath River Basin: rapid recolonization of Chinook salmon following the world’s largest dam removal
nature.com
This is a fundamental observation, which explains much of the economic anxiety people feel. It is a key driver of our political and social instability. We need a new way forward, otherwise extremists will continue to exploit a deeply unfair economy for their own purposes.
Mike Konczal@mtkonczal.bsky.social · 3w agoBLS this morning, with revised 2Q data: "The labor share, which is the percentage of output that accrues to workers in the form of compensation, was 52.8 percent in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest level in the series, which begins in the first quarter of 1947."
The number of cases of cervical cancer reported in Scotland among women given the HPV vaccine at 12-13 years of age is now zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. www.bbc.com/news/article...
No cervical cancer cases in fully HPV-vaccinated women in Scotland
A study published by Public Health Scotland finds that the HPV vaccine is "highly effective".
bbc.com
Municipal democracy, as we know it, depends on residents, councillors and staff understanding enough of the same system to question one another meaningfully. But, increasingly, they don’t. Erick Villagomez writes. thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...
Why Don’t We Train People to Run a City? | The Tyee
Baristas seem to receive more on-the-job instruction than incoming city councillors. That’s bad for democracy.
thetyee.ca
Why are Japanese people ~1/6 as likely to die in a crash as Americans? Glad you asked!
How Japan Won its ‘Traffic War’
Until the early 1970s, Japan endured a high rate of road fatalities. Now the nation boasts one of the world’s best traffic safety records. Here's why.
bloomberg.com
This is an interesting effort to build the infrastructure to efficiently combine the VAST amount of data we are getting from telescopes across — and above — the world. www.renaissancephilanthropy.org/insights/the...
The Cross-Survey Decade of Astrophysics – A Q&A with Dr. Gioia Rau — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation
As NASA prepares to launch the Roman Space Telescope, Tom Kalil caught up with Dr. Gioia Rau to discuss the exciting opportunity to integrate observations from multiple telescopes. This interview was ...
renaissancephilanthropy.org
Astrophotographer Adam (AJ) Smadi caught this image a few hours ago from Washington state. A thin crescent Moon, sunlight illuminating the rugged lunar surface. And 2,400 times farther away—and on the other side of the Sun—mighty Jupiter, and its moons Io (left) and Ganymede (right).
Imagine if you just gave mathematicians 22 million dollars
Trevor A. Branch@trevorabranch.bsky.social · 2w agoMillennium math problem solved by OpenAI may have "regurgitated" competitors unpublished work... also they spent more than $22 million in computing power in one week to scoop them. techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/o...
A reminder: during the first two years of the pandemic, the federal government subsidized school meals for every child in the US. The government could do this, and chooses not to.
Mayor Katie B. Wilson@mayor.seattle.gov · 2w agoToday, Seattle's kindergartners took their very first steps into Seattle Public Schools, joining their fellow scholars for a brand new year! This year, every single one of them - from kindergarten through 12th grade - starts the year with something new: free breakfast and lunch for each student.
This is seismic news for fisheries scientists. Northern cod is *the* iconic symbol of total fisheries collapse due to overfishing (and other factors) *and* the iconic symbol of a complete failure to recover for decades afterwards. This is like announcing the complete recovery of bison on land.
UBC Oceans@ubcoceans.bsky.social · 2w agoFor the first time in over 30 years, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Northern cod stock has been deemed “healthy” by Ottawa. www.canadianaffairs.news/2026/09/05/i...
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Unveiling Hidden Exoplanets at the Cosmic Edge ….and how Wind River helped. (My coworkers are SO excited about it!) An explainer about what makes this thing so cool. I did my best to make this worth your time. www.windriver.com/blog/NASA-Na...
"Perhaps more concerningly, the TVs were capable of recording microphone audio when in standby; this continued even after the TV was disconnected from the internet, with audio files stored offline and uploaded once a connection was restored."
Alex Hern@hern.bsky.social · 2w agoIt's finally happened: the improved quality of machine transcription and the greater ability to extract value from unlabelled data means "your tech is eavesdropping on you for marketing purposes" has crossed from "false conspiracy theory" to "true and concerning" www.theverge.com/tech/991190/...
