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Charles Heck

@charlesheck.bsky.social
35 followers 70 following 56 posts
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Jeff Gilchrist @jeffgilchrist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
What is the #Nuvaxovid COVID vaccine and how is it different? @paulseaman.bsky.social and I have put together a comprehensive document summarizing the available information regarding the main differences between Nuvaxovid and the more common mRNA based #COVID vaccines. 🧪🧵1/ #Novavax #Vaccine
Nuvaxovid protein-based nanoparticles are made of engineered proteins that help trigger an immune response ( https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-021-00330-7 ).
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
NEW: As Trump’s White House and influencers keep touting the unproven benefits of raw milk, hundreds across the country are falling ill from outbreaks. Some people get severe indigestion. And some nearly die. Here's the story of one toddler who drank it. 🧵👇 www.propublica.org/article/cali...
propublica.org
A Girl Nearly Died After Drinking Raw Milk. The State Did Little to Punish the Unlicensed Farmer Who Sold It.
California is teeming with black-market dairies, propped up by consumer demand fueled by misinformation. With evidence against one raw goat milk farm, regulators could have sought punitive action. But...
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Reposted by Charles Heck
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14/09/2026
Hoo boy, this episode of Odd Lots is ... bracing. To do any of the things we want to do -- clean energy, electrification, AI, name it -- we need *shitloads* more copper & right now it takes decades to open a new copper mine, much less produce anything. Same for several other metals/materials.
podcasts.apple.com
Robert Friedland on the World's Monumental Shortage of Copper
Podcast Episode · Odd Lots · September 12 · 1h 10m
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Reposted by Charles Heck
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 11/09/2026
Based on 12,000 survey interviews, low-turnout-likelihood Republicans are comparatively anti-Trump, contrary to most analysis and punditry about the group after the 2024 election. Less engaged voters aren’t MAGA, but anti-status-quo www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-09-11...
gelliottmorris.com
Everyone is wrong about low-turnout voters
They care most about affordability, and disapprove of Trump’s job as president at much higher rate than engaged voters — including among Republicans
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Public Citizen @publiccitizen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Trump: Every American will receive a DOGE dividend. Trump, a few months later: Every American will get a tariff refund. Trump now: If the GOP wins the midterms every American will receive $5,000. Why wouldn’t we believe him! It’s not like he’s ever broken that promise before.
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Jeff Stein @jeffstein.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 Big news: The Washington Sun launches w/: — Huge investment in DC & local reporters — Legend Tom Sietsema — Capital Weather — Newsroom of +100, w/ great reporters (& me) Comes after Bezos's enormous cuts to WaPo To support, sign up for (free!) newsletter: washingtonsun.com/newsletters
washingtonsun.com
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Andrew Freedman @afreedma.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
El Niño is leading to a sudden increase in sea level along the California coast, by up to a foot. This dramatically increases the state's vulnerability to flooding, esp. when winter storms hit. cnn.com/climate/el-n... (Animation shows the Kelvin wave, with the ocean height increase in red.)
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Reposted by Charles Heck
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 25/08/2026
On Thursday, I'm talking with Leah Qusba of GoodPower, an outfit that is working to counter disinformation on clean energy. They claim to have lots of research about what kinds of tactics work. Got questions about fighting anti-clean energy propaganda?
goodpower.org
Leah Qusba
Leah Qusba is the CEO of GoodPower, where she has led more than 10× growth, positioning the organization as a national leader in shaping public opinion and accelerating the renewable energy transition...
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Trump is promising to boost the U.S. economy by making it harder for Americans to trade with the rest of the world. He is also promising to destroy Iran's economy by making it harder for Iranians to trade with the rest of the world.
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Reposted by Charles Heck
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 22/08/2026
I know this site hates AI but this is the direction things are going. My brother has developed an open-source agent harness that is model agnostic (actually it can even pit the models against each other) and is faster and more accurate even the Claude Code on xhigh. This means valuations are fucked
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 21/08/2026
EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s pardons have cost crime victims a staggering $1.7 billion in restitution while wiping away penalties for wealthy fraudsters and political allies, according to a new congressional review. The full findings are damning:
meidasnews.com
EXCLUSIVE: Committee Review Finds Trump Pardons Have Cost Crime Victims $1.7 Billion and Enriched Trump Allies
A Scathing Report from House Judiciary Committee Finds Cost of Trump Pardons Continues to Soar
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 21/08/2026
New at FiftyPlusOne: Rural and suburban voters haven’t looked this Democratic since 2018 blog.fiftyplusone.news/p/rural-and-...
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Tim De Chant @dechant.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
In months, home batteries have gone from pricey additions to solar installations to relatively inexpensive alternatives to backup generators. Here's how that happened. techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/h...
techcrunch.com
Home batteries are suddenly cheap and everywhere. Here’s why. | TechCrunch
Companies including Tesla and Base Power are vying for a piece of the rapidly growing market for home batteries. One technology has made it all possible.
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Reposted by Charles Heck
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 19/08/2026
Today on Volts: in 2008, physics professor Ramón Méndez Galain was made energy minister of Uruguay. Over the next 7 years, he led the country to a 98% carbon-free electricity system. With his nonprofit, Ivy, he's now attempting to export the model to other countries in the global South. We discuss.
volts.wtf
He helped Uruguay decarbonize. Can he help other countries do the same?
A conversation with Ramón Méndez Galain.
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
IMO this is the slow-moving disaster that most epitomizes the nightmare that is the Modern Information Environment
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
This “people are mad about the high costs of electricity so we should cancel a bunch of key electricity infrastructure projects” idea from the Trump administration is probably one of the more obvious blow-up-in-your-face strategies from them, which says a lot www.energy.gov/articles/ene...
energy.gov
Energy Secretary Announces Cancellation of Three Proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy will not move forward with designating the three proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors previous...
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Reposted by Charles Heck
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 08/08/2026
They think this appeals to "ordinary people" because every asshole believes, deep down, that everyone else is an asshole too and only reason everyone doesn't act like an asshole all the time is fear or political correctness or whatever. Asshole behavior makes more sense once you understand this.
nytimes.com
Insults, Expletives and Fat-Shaming: Vance Trolls Critics on the Right and Left
The vice president has dispensed with the decorum and restraint of his predecessors to directly take on opponents and journalists on social media with sometimes profane and often personal jabs.
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Kolina Koltai @koltai.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The second-largest city in Washington, Spokane, is currently on fire. Fires broke out over the weekend, leading to the Level 3 evacuation of thousands of people. Homes have been lost. These fires are still ongoing.
satelite image of spokane washington. image shows three red blobs representing heat data (fire) in the area, with two sections over populated city areas
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 30/07/2026
++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Pornainen, Finland (pop 5,000) is now heated by a silo of crushed soapstone. I spoke to CNBC about it. 100 MWh, charged when power is cheap, emissions down ~70%. Days to weeks of storage, no critical minerals. www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/f...
cnbc.com
Finland’s radical answer to renewable energy’s biggest headache: The world’s largest sand battery
A small Finnish town has turned to the world's largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency.
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
🚨BREAKING: President Donald Trump Thursday dismissed all remaining commissioners on the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), a bipartisan federal agency created to help states administer elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
In sweeping attack on elections, Trump fires leadership of key federal voting assistance commission
The dismissals leave the elections assistance agency without leadership just months before the upcoming 2026 midterms.
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Bruce Little @brucedlittle.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Countries across Asia and Africa are speeding up the adoption of solar, batteries and electric vehicles in a deliberate strategy to decrease their dependence on imported natural gas and oil.
npr.org
The Iran war has pushed some countries away from oil and toward clean energy
The new round of bombing in the Middle East has underscored the precarity of relying on fossil fuels. The war is speeding up the global transition to EVs, solar and batteries, experts say.
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John Hanger @jrfhanger.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
"First US sodium-ion plant to produce 4 GWh of grid storage to power 4 million homes." Peak’s sodium-ion battery systems, "which reduce the cost of energy storage by 20% and have a 99% guaranteed uptime, begin shipments in Q1 2027." interestingengineering.com/energy/us-so... #energysky
interestingengineering.com
First US sodium-ion grid storage factory will power 4 million homes
Peak Energy has recently announced a 183,000-sq-ft facility in Sacramento to manufacture sodium-ion batteries.
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Reposted by Charles Heck
Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 07/07/2026
The affordability struggle crosses party lines: about half of all Democrats, Republicans and independents say they are having trouble affording everyday necessities like gas and groceries according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian.
theguardian.com
Half of Americans struggle to afford groceries and gas, exclusive poll finds
About 57% of polled Americans also believe economy is worsening in grim portrait of cost of living crisis, according to Harris survey for the Guardian
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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Salt batteries are about to shake up EVs and grid storage www.newscientist.com/article/2532...
newscientist.com
Salt batteries are about to shake up EVs and grid storage
Today, most rechargeable batteries are made from lithium ions, but sodium-ion alternatives could make battery tech much cheaper and offer other advantages
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
New US trade data came in today, and even though I know the tariff exemption for data centers is gigantic, I'm still in awe of just how massive it's getting A record $58B in computers came in tariff-free last month, nearly as big as the next 3 largest tariff carveouts combined
a graph of the largest tariff exemptions
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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
newatlas.com/energy/elect... Dang, getting 95% restoration on electrodes just by taking them out, giving them a chemical bath, and inserting in a new battery. And repeating again for 90% restoration! Massive cost reduction for delivering second (and third) life batteries.
newatlas.com
Dead lithium batteries revived to 95% capacity via electrochemical bath
You know how rejuvenating a bath feels after a long day of work? Almost like you're renewed. Turns out that's not exclusive to humans. Scientists at Cornell University have developed an electrochemica...
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Reposted by Charles Heck
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 30/06/2026
Interesting tool that breaks down electricity bills, shows you what the various charges are, what you're actually paying for, and which direction your total bill is going.
joinarbor.com
The Arbor Index
See what's actually driving your electric bill.
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ACLU @aclu.org · 29/06/2026
BREAKING: The Supreme Court just ruled that the Fourth Amendment applies to police use of overbroad "geofence warrants" to search for and locate unknown numbers of people in a large geographical area. This win reinforces that we don't lose our right to privacy simply because we use a cell phone.
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Charles Keener @charleskeener.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
motherjones.com
Why GM is betting on a future with sodium-ion battery storage
The automaker and Peak Energy are developing a safer alternative to lithium-ion tech.
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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
seia.org/news/solar-a...
seia.org
REPORT: Solar and Storage Provide Over 90% of All New Power Added to the U.S. Grid in Q1, Despite Headwinds in Washington – SEIA
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is leading the transformation to a clean energy economy. Learn more at seia.org
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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Must-read story by @drilledmedia.bsky.social and @propublica.org. Beyond Denial: How Oil Execs Shaped a Landmark Climate Study @themadstone.bsky.social @amywestervelt.bsky.social @katieworth.bsky.social
propublica.org
Beyond Denial: How Oil Execs Shaped a Landmark Climate Study
BP sponsored an elite Princeton research center to address the climate problem without getting off fossil fuels. Its key work, a paper known as “Wedges,” guided climate discourse for a generation.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 24/06/2026
For the first time on record, solar generated more electricity than coal across the entire U.S. - despite active federal policy pushing the other direction. Read more at the link below!
patreon.com
The great solar-coal flip | Talking Climate with Katharine Hayhoe
Solar passes coal, super El Niño looms, and show your warming stripes Coal built the Industrial Revolution - now wind and solar are beating
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Climate Tracker @climate.skyfleet.blue · 25/06/2026
Analysis: UK sales of electric vehicles just overtook petrol cars for the first time #Climate
carbonbrief.org
Analysis: UK sales of electric vehicles just overtook petrol cars for the first time - Carbon Brief
For the first time in the UK, more new electric vehicles (EVs) have been sold over a 12-month period than petrol cars, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 25/06/2026
UnitedHealth is the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate. ProPublica obtained what is effectively the company’s internal playbook for limiting and cutting therapy costs. Here’s what we found. (Published Nov. 2024)
propublica.org
How UnitedHealth’s Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Countless Americans’ Treatment at Risk
United used an algorithm system to identify patients who it determined were getting too much therapy and then limited coverage. It was deemed illegal in three states, but similar practices persist due...
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John Hanger @jrfhanger.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
"Solar is moving fast. Really fast. Batteries are moving faster." "Solar is already creating the fastest shift in electricity generation..." reneweconomy.com.au/solar-is-alr... #energysky
reneweconomy.com.au
Solar is already creating the fastest shift in electricity generation in history - and it is still accelerating
Solar is moving fast. Really fast. Batteries are moving faster. And there is no evidence in either prices or deployment that the system is about to tap the brakes.
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Scott Dworkin @dworkin.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
2020 FAKE ELECTORS CASE MOVES FORWARD: Three Trump allies in Wisconsin face eleven felony counts each, carrying up to six years apiece. Trump pardoned them federally—but he can’t pardon them for the state charges. They now head to trial. Full story here: www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/raskin-exp...
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Mediaite @mediaite.com · 18/06/2026
Trump Warns He Will ‘Be the Last Republican President’ If His Voter ID Bill Doesn’t Pass
dlvr.it
Trump Warns He Will ‘Be the Last Republican President’ If His Voter ID Bill Doesn’t Pass
Donald Trump called on Senate Republicans to do away with the filibuster and pass his SAVE America Act, or he'll be the 'last Republican president'. The post Trump Warns He Will ‘Be the Last Republican President’ If His Voter ID Bill Doesn’t Pass first appeared on Mediaite.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 18/06/2026
Among the first agencies President Donald Trump gutted after taking office for his second term was a Department of Homeland Security team that had repeatedly disproved his stolen election claims.
propublica.org
8 Things You Should Know About Trump’s Effort to “Take Over” the Midterm Elections
From dismantling guardrails that upheld the integrity of past elections to gutting federal agencies and installing allies who supported Trump’s claim that the 2020 vote was stolen, here are the key ta...
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
This might be one of the funniest chart about energy scenarios I’ve seen. You can hardly see “actual” for gas
Winners and Losers
The IEA overestimated gas growth in Asia and underestimated solar

Gas
• Forecast 547 TWh
• Actual 17 TWh

Solar
• Forecast 465 TWh
• Actual 1,333 TWh

Note: Shows expected growth in Asian power generation between 2018 and 2025, based on actual 2018 generation, actual 2025 generation, and the 2018 World Energy Outlook's Current Policies Scenario estimates for 2025. Actual 2025 generation figures are from Ember.
Source: International Energy Agency, Ember, Bloomberg Opinion calculations
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The Verge @theverge.com · 18/06/2026
The Midjourney Scanner is an ultrasound-based full-body scanner that uses a ring of sensors to capture vertical slices of the inside of your body, looking at the composition of your muscle, fat, bone, and organs. CEO David Holz says it “aims for image quality comparable to MRI in many ways.”
theverge.com
Midjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scans
Midjourney is making what?
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Such good news. Human beings are capable of magical and wonderful things. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Cervical cancer deaths fall to zero in young women given HPV vaccine
A new study finds that hundreds of lives have been saved since school-age girls were offered the HPV jab in 2008.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Spain’s electricity bills have decreased due to its commitment to renewable energy, reducing the influence of fossil fuels on electricity prices.
euronews.com
Why Spain’s electricity bills have fallen during an energy crisis
Homes and business are benefitting from Spain's commitment to clean energy.
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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
'Today, following the withdrawal of the US funding for disease surveillance and severe funding shortfalls, contact tracing is reaching fewer than *half* of the contacts'. This is a dire and very dangerous situation. Control is collapsing. *my emphasis. news.sky.com/story/ebola-...
news.sky.com
Ebola: Largest ever outbreak of rare strain 'likely even greater' – and the 'first line of defence' has collapsed
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the DRC's Bundibugyo outbreak is the largest on record. Oxfam warns the number of cases is likely higher than official figures, as conta...
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/06/2026
Today on Volts: I talk with Tim Sahay (@70sbachchan.bsky.social) & Kate Mackenzie (@katemac.bsky.social), who run @thepolycrisis.bsky.social newsletter & podcast, about the current oil crisis & the need for US energy wonks to grapple more with international finance & politics. Fun!
volts.wtf
This oil shock won't be like the others
Kate Mackenzie and Tim Sahay break down why global inflation and Chinese manufacturing mean the old fossil fuel playbook no longer works.
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 29/05/2026
Here's why so much election analysis is basically useless: A race decided by a point and a half can be blamed on almost anything. Most party autopsies don't stand the test of time, and the narratives that get pushed are mainly exercises in confirmation bias www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-05-29...
gelliottmorris.com
Why so much election analysis is basically useless
A race decided by a point and a half can be blamed on almost anything — and that severely limits what we can lean for the future
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 28/05/2026
"If data centres were a country, they would be the second-largest destination for gas turbines ordered from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026" New IEA report confirms this isn't a normal industry. It is a fossil-fuelled, high-polluting heavy industry producing socially corrosive products at massive climate cost.
a chart shwoing data centre growth
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NBC News @nbcnews.com · 26/05/2026
A network of fake academic journals masquerading as legitimate publications has published more than a hundred AI-generated papers in recent months, in some cases using the names of real professors at top universities without their knowledge.
nbcnews.to
Fake academic journals are publishing AI-generated papers under real professors’ names
Online academic journals falsely attributed articles, likely written by AI, to several professors, who say the fiasco is a warning about the future of scientific knowledge.
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