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I've done enough this weekend. You've done enough this weekend. Time to wind down and get ready for sleep.

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Another wetland I'm very taken with is Yell, the middle island of Shetland. Few people seem to stop there en route from the main island up to Unst the northermost. But it's one great magnificent peat bog, mostly un-named. As a climate guy, something that puzzles me is why peat started to

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Why are The Guardian sports pages covering the Ireland vs Israel Genocide United match as if it were just some other match? It's almost like the sports editors don't talk to the politics editors. There's just a nodding comment that the match almost didn't take place and one player refused.

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In a thread about wetlands I recently mentioned Iso Molosjänkkä. The parsing is Molos + jänkkä. A "jänkkä" is, I infer, a technical name for a kind of wetland, but I am not sure exactly how it translates into the English taxonomy of bogs, swamps, peat bogs, etc. But it is a magical place, in

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Reposted by ClimateBook

The techbros don't want you to see this trailer. Pass it on.

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The impostor site with the handle NASASpaceflight.com says "initials used with permission, " but permission from whom? Did the real NASA actually give permission for them to speak in their name (largely promoting SpaceX?) Why would NASA do that? Who at NASA gave them permission?

nasaspaceflight.com

As has been pointed out to me, I was duped into thinking that @nasaspaceflight.com was an actual NASA feed. That feed is clearly deceptive. I have reported them as a decepive and impostor site. They shouldn't be allowed to use NASA in their handle, but I doubt Bluesky moderators will do anything

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Completely true. And now that Lib Dems have been so cowardly to come out for Jackdaw and Rosebank, it's Labour's chance to pick up a lot of votes they lost to LibDems.

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Oxford lets OpenAI train its AI models on Bodleian Library

Who are these "staff" speaking up in defense of Oxford allowing OpenAI to train its models on Bodleian content? www.theguardian.com/technology/2... Oxford is supposed to be run by the Congregation on important academic matters. I am a member of Congregation as are all permanent faculty members

theguardian.com

University staff voice concerns over reputational risk of partnering with company behind ChatGPT

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Reposted by ClimateBook

Union of Concerned Scientists @ucs.org · 25/09/2026

UCS is proud to endorse Michigan's Proposal 2 to get money out of state politics. Campaign contributions from utilities like DTE & Consumers make it harder to pass strong policies to ensure a just transition to clean energy. Please vote YES on prop 2 this November! mopupmichigan.org

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Iceland is getting a lot of love on Bluesky, weather and all. I could enumerate what makes Iceland awesome, but that would be a long thread indeed! In a thread of replies, I have been extolling the wonders of Icelandic weather, but I do want to emphasize that Icelandic weather is no joke.

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

US Expats: Absentee ballots are becoming available now. Make sure to send in your ballot ASAP! It doesn't take long, and it will make a big difference.

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

US Expats, make send in your absentee vote! The Midterms will largely determine the future of democracy in the USA, and probably elsewhere. I just sent in my Illinois absentee ballot. I don't think there are any particularly close races where I vote, but it's always good

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Reposted by ClimateBook

Earth and Planetary Sciences at ETH Zurich @eth-eaps.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at ETH Zurich invites applications for the position of Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) of Earth and Planetary Evolution. ethz.ch/en/the-eth-z... Please apply online. The closing date for applications is 15 December 2026.

ethz.ch

Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) of Earth and Planetary Evolution

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (www.eaps.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich invites applications for the above-mentioned position.

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is very good framing, and a good counterpoint to doomism. "Overshooting 1.5C is not a reason to give up"

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yes, Make Sunsets is just a joke. A sad, twisted joke, but a joke. Insofar as they have gotten any venture capital for their stunts, it just goes to show how untethered from reality venture capital has become.

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Reposted by ClimateBook

Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"At a total process efficiency of around 8%, we would need more than doubled all electricity generation in a year,to pull 1yrs worth of CO2 out of the atmosphere. Direct air capture is not efficient enough, nor will it ever be efficient enough that we can just keep emitting CO2 like we have been"

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#exoplanets New lava planet paper from a collaboration I am involved in. This paper makes predictions of what kind of atmospheres we should see in our lava planet survey (P.I. Lisa Dang). Paper led by Mariana Sastre arxiv.org/abs/2609.20155 . Advised by Oxford PCDgroup alum Tim Lichtenberg.

arxiv.org

Thermal Evolution of Lava Planets Across System Ages: Predictions for Hell of a Survey

Ultra-short-period (USP) rocky exoplanets can have dayside temperatures high enough to maintain permanent magma oceans, sitting at the intersection of interior geophysics and atmospheric chemistry. Co...

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Reposted by ClimateBook

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

my brilliant colleague @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on the threat from Elon Musk’s X platform www.ft.com/content/f270...

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Reposted by ClimateBook

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

Article on the coming damage that will be done by Reflect Orbital. Starts off strong with a quote from @planet4589.bsky.social "It's an insane project". MANY astronomer quotes, including @JohnBarentine @merrdiff.bsky.social […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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What a fine language Swedish is, deriving most of their technical terms from ordinary Swedish. So "Noshörning" is just "nose horn" No need to go to Rhinoceros, which is "nose horn" by another name. (The article says that wooly rhinoceroses survived warmet temperatures than previously thought.)

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I'm not vegetarian, let along vegan, but acknowledging that meat (and dairy) has a number of deleterious effects on the environment, I do try to minimize the amount of meat in out diet. So, I want to extol the virtues of red lentils. The texture works really well in all sorts of red sauces. I used

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Tellus is back! They were never really gone, but are now making a big push to regain the prominence the journal had in the pioneering days of climate science and dynamic meteorology. Please follow them, and send them your interesting papers.

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I've been having an exchange witn @andyscollick.bsky.social on biomethane, where I express my view that biomethane from anaerobic digesters can have a role, depending on the feedstock. But I want to emphasize that it is clear that growing dedicated biofuel crops, whether for biomethane or anything

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YouTube video by YouTube Movies

Also, queue up the Ealing Studios classic, "Passport to Pimlico" www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvbe...

youtube.com

Passport to Pimlico

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OK, Sophie Germain, why is she on my mind this evening? Well, to make a short story long (my specialty, I guess), I'll say my main ways of winding down are folk music and reading. Regarding reading, I do read some seriously hard stuff. I made it through Thomas Mann's epic Joseph and his Brothers

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mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk

Sophie Germain, French mathematician 1776-1831. In a later post I'll mention the (somewhat frivolous) reason she's been on my mind. Theres a good brief bio of her here mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/...

Sophie Germain - Biography

Sophie Germain made a major contributions to number theory (in particular, the theory of primes), acoustics and elasticity.

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#exoplanets An exoplanet terminology question: How do people feel about the term "synodic day"? I'm cleaning up the terminology in my planetary climate book for the second edition, eliminating Solar-System specific terminology

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This update is consistent with what my colleagues at the Oxford Livestock, Environment and People project found, esp. in their "Grazed and Confused" report. New data consolidates those findings. Regenerative grazing may make happier cows (up to the point of slaughter) but doesn't help climate

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Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 15/09/2026

The story of blue ice continues. I'm not the edge of my seat. (No joke). CO2 and other data from blue ice is an important development, though the story is still evolving.

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Reposted by ClimateBook

In case you have missed it, we are hosting a super cool workshop on #exoplanets studies in Garching, Vitacura and Nice (YES, 3 places at the same time!!!) in November. Bridging Horizons: Harnessing ESO's current facilities for the dawn of exoplanet population studies Dates: **2-6 November 2026**

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Heathrow wants to build a climate-killing third runway, but their IT is so broken they can't even really run the runways they already have. I think they need to get their act together before there is even any thought of a third runway. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

theguardian.com

‘Baggage reclaim was pandemonium’: passengers hit by airport IT chaos in UK recount their ordeals

From hours stuck on planes awaiting takeoff, to sleeping the night on the floor at Heathrow. Here are some travellers’ experiences

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MoD revealed to be funding research into ‘sun-dimming’ te...

Why is the U.K. MOD relying on a commercial consulting firm to assess the risks of solar geoengineering? observer.co.uk/news/science... This firm deals mainly with developing commericial enterprise strategy, not science. This kind of assessment should be done by teams of qualified academics

observer.co.uk

New documents show the UK government has paid consultants to investigate the controversial field of solar geoengineering amid security concerns over global heating

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Under emission trading using GWP20 accounting, Turkmenistan could claim an absolutely huge (and absolutely unjustified) emission credit for burning off the methane, allowing them to offset vast amounts of national CO2 emissions that in the end would do more, and more permanent, climate harm.

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More alarming news on the solar radiation modification (SRM, solar geoengineering) front. And by the way, solar radiation can't be "managed." That's just a propaganda term designed to be soothing and distract from the natural alarm at the technology. It's preferable to let the "M" stand for the

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

David sums up the situation with CDR very well. And he's one that knows. An alternative summary is from the Rolling Stones "You can't always get what you want." (But in this case you probably can't even "get what you need," with regard to CDR.)

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When I first came to Bluesky, it was my go-to place for news about exoplanet discovery. It's what filled my feed. Now, it seems less common to get news of breaking deveopments this way. I think it's not so much that the paper announcements have faded, but that as I've subscribed to more people

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

In a recent reply I mentioned being at a Janis Ian gig in the 1970s when I was an undergraduate in Cambridge, MA. I didn’t mention that the venue was a wonderful place called The Performance Center, which was in The Garage on Boyleston Street. They got really great folk acts. Other performers

This is a really outstanding sign-on letter,which states the problem with A.I.'s misalignment with intellectual endeavour very clearly. I don't know what filter they have for who can sign, but the letter will probably be most effective if people self-filter to those whose work significantly makes

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So Open AI, with 10,000 agents and $15 million, has managed to build on the work of human mathematicians and get over the line on constructing a counter-example to global regularity of 3D Navier Stokes (and Euler). Another recent highly touted accomplishment was also in the nature of a

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The new Swiss Genesis project I just posted on also serves as a model of how to design a national scientific effort. Notably, unlike most big-money projects in the U.K. or U.S., this is not dominated by A.I. It is instead designed around the scientific questions to be addrssed. If researchers in

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NCCR Genesis – Exploring the Emergence of Life in the Universe

At the Origins Federation meeting which just ended, a major new Swiss National initiative -- Genesis -- embracing virtually all aspects of planetary physics and origins of life was announced. nccr-genesis.ch This is a very powerful effort and will move the field forward worldwide.

nccr-genesis.ch

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This paper addresses a really important problem.

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Much agreed with this post by Katie.

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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I am at the annual meeting of the Origins Federation this week, in Flueli-Ranft, CH. It is a mix of planetary habitability research and origins of life biogeochemistry. Very stimulating, but I have a long way to go before the biochemistry part starts making sense to me (but I've been through a