Rorie Gilligan
@roriegilligan.bsky.social
PhD. in hydrometallurgy. Research metallurgist based in Western Australia mostly working with raw materials for batteries. I've published papers on the metallurgy of vanadium, lithium, and uranium.
now i'm a broken man on an ithaca pier the last of agamemnon's privateers
'Police were told of unspecified threats before the 26 January rally but did not meet with organisers until after, parliamentary inquiry into racism told.' www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
‘We should be dead’: Perth’s Indigenous community felt ignored after alleged Invasion Day bombing attempt, inquiry told
Police were told of unspecified threats before the 26 January rally but did not meet with organisers until after, parliamentary inquiry into racism told
theguardian.com
This makes a lot of sense! Data centres and CCS both serve the same function for the fossil fuel industry: a time extension for their inevitable decline, no matter the immediate cost to environment and communities. www.politico.com/newsletters/...
![CARBON COWBOY: California’s biggest oil producer is trying to become a carbon storage company. And maybe a data center company, too.
California Resources Corporation, an energy company with its headquarters in Long Beach, is branching out as the state pushes toward a future that uses less oil. In May, CRC began injecting carbon dioxide underground in Kern County’s Elk Hills. Its goal is to store carbon dioxide emissions from its nearby natural gas power plant in a depleted oil reservoir called Carbon TerraVault One.
“We’re putting the carbon right back where it came from,” said Chris Gould, CRC’s chief sustainability officer and executive vice president. The project is “first of a kind in the state in terms of storing, permanently and safely, carbon dioxide in the [earth’s] subsurface. It’s also the first [to store it] in a depleted oil and gas reservoir, which I think is pretty cool.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:66lbtw2porscqpmair6mir37/bafkreibclhq66lbuyivvspr2fsp2s6tzptpl2uc54kjxmg5bbtmjz2sjly)
I think this might be one of the most incredible, unsettling and symbolic photos of today’s America I’ve ever seen. I can’t stop looking at it. From Reuters, published on the Guardian website.
Hi hello I was going to do a full thread on the Great American State Fair later but it seems I'm starting early: why in the fuck are PragerU, Patriot Academy, and other far right groups the ENTIRETY of the Department of Education booth
312 according to Google Scholar, but still a nice milestone regardless. It was published in January 2020.
"He’s bypassing barricades, crushing fences, lying on roads and bashing into at least one parked car." “He’s broken fences, he’s harassing people’s cars ....” There is a 1-tonne seal, named Neil, that is the deliverer of chaos and destruction to Tasmania. An excellent character.
A 1,000kg mammal is wreaking havoc in Tasmania – and Neil the seal is loved for it
The elephant seal has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviour
theguardian.com
Not a great economy alert! Wall Street Bets users think Palantir spiked today because The Onion story titled “Palantir Acquires Pentagon for $800 Billion” hit their front page. They’re guessing trading bots indexed the top post on the subreddit reddit not understanding source.
I do love that AI inadvertently confirms that our brains work like a muscle, too — use it or lose it. In this way relying on AI is like using a robot to lift weights, like running a marathon in a Honda Civic. You get nothing out of it.
Michael Nabert@sustainablesong.bsky.social · 2mo agoResearch confirms that the more skilled professionals like doctors and software engineers rely on AI, the more their skills degrade. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
guy has a trillion dollars, 0 friends, and has never landed a joke. I know a pact with the devil when I see one.
If he dyed his hair red he could get a fair bit of work as a Pauline Hanson impersonator
Two days after seeing this post, I saw my first example of a hallucinated citation in a materials science article.
Dr. Holly Walters@manigarm.bsky.social · 3mo agoI'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?
I've seen a lot on here lately about hallucinated citations in academic articles written by AI, and I think I've found one myself. A non-existent article from the 70s cited only twice, by the same researcher in 2025/26. I was able to find two related articles that were legitimate.
In the Yarra Ranges LGA there are 1,088 listings on the Airbnb platform alone but only 90 long term rentals. Most of these places are empty for almost the entire year. Fuck short-stay accomodation off x
this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.
We should all spend less time bickering about our differences and more time celebrating our agreements, for example we all agree The Day Today and Brass Eye are the funniest shows and you can watch them on YouTube youtu.be/eTGE9153VFE?...
The Day Today Episode 1: Main News Attack
YouTube video by zry-xen
youtu.be
One of the problems with hayfever (pollen allergy) is that when you yell at plants, people tend to stare and call the police. So I have provided this handy thread of pollen grains under high magnification (electron microscopy) for my fellow-sufferers to channel their rage at.
It remains very weird to me that in a world of actually useful technology -- photovoltaic power generation, mRNA vaccines, maglev trains, smart phones, etc -- the tech sector has gone so all-in on bullshit generators and plagiarism machines.
In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis. Paywall bypass: archive.is/6RdK9
If you're thinking about using gen-AI to "write" books, this 🧵 is for you. I’m a highly experienced editor who’s been in the biz a long time. Recently I’ve had manuscripts come to me where the author has used gen-AI – not for writing, I’ve been assured, but for “structuring” or "organising"
What an evil piece of shit. I cannot wait to take over.
Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 3mo agoA visibly toasted Alex Jones, surrounded by his crew, says "they" are going to turn off the power at midnight at the Infowars studio. "Until then we're going to air hours of Sandy Hook documentation."
1) There's no reason an administrator at NASA should care how a Solar System body is categorized. 2) NASA isn't the org that makes classification determinations for Solar System objects. 3) If Isaacman wants Pluto reclassified again, he can lobby the International Astronomical Union on his own time.
Jeff Foust@jfoust.bsky.social · 3mo agoIsaacman: very much in the camp of making Pluto a planet again. Working on some papers right now to escalate through the scientific community to revisit this. And that's it.
An excellent video. Very relatable as another person with a PhD in a chemistry adjacent topic from an Australian university. Started mine six years before Tom here did. youtu.be/4CbdVkcr-Nw?...
Academia is strange .
YouTube video by Explosions&Fire
youtu.be
i’ve worked in tech more than 20 years. it has never been more ridiculous.
