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Harriet Weber

@harri.bsky.social
2.4K followers 304 following 75 posts

Journalist covering Data Centers Breaking Things, Electrification, Oil Demand Destruction, and more for Investors.com. Hear something interesting? Tip me on Signal: hew.04 or email harri@harri.fm

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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Experts don't see the fuel crisis igniting a refinery boom tomorrow, especially not in the U.S. Why? Long-term demand for gas & diesel *isn't* really growing. But forecasts *do* show oil sticking around past 2050 (see also: shrinking U.S. EV forecasts)
'Modestly' Less Oil Demand?

U.S. gasoline demand flattened in 2005, and inched to its record level, just above nine million barrels per day, in 2018. Demand ran roughly 880,000 barrels per day below that record level in June. The Energy Information Administration projects U.S. daily demand will gradually decrease to between six million and seven million barrels per day by 2050.

S&P Global sees renewables stealing from fossil fuels' share of the global energy mix in the coming decades. However, the firm doesn't see a full oil phaseout.

Instead, it expects oil demand to fall "modestly," per its 2026 report, "from 101 million barrels per day in 2025 to 93 million barrels per day in 2060, including feedstocks."
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Don't drive a supersized diesel pickup? You still won't dodge the gnarliest diesel prices the U.S. has ever seen.
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Finally a look behind the curtain at Google's data center push in Arkansas — and the special rate it got from a local power company that's charging residents more — in accidentally disclosed documents: bsky.app/profile/matt...
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
In 2015, Google paid outside engineers and designers to prototype a living Tamagotchi-like game. It starred real(!) micro-animals you'd feed and observe via a digital microscope. No AI. In 2017, I profiled it — one of Google's last-ditch attempts to leapfrog the iPhone with Lego-like upgrades. 🧪
venturebeat.com
Complicated. Weird. Beautiful! The secret Google project to put an aquarium full of tiny, wiggly water bears inside your phone
What is the most far-out, insane thing a smartphone could do?
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Data center rules are cropping up around the U.S. and some mandate research into environmental and humanitarian impact. But governors aren't really locking in big changes or key research. Here's what they're doing 🧪
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Smartphones seem to act like a drain on effort and certainty in financial literacy tests. This study digs into what that means for U.S. adults' falling scores. TL;DR: a "smartphone penalty" explains some of the drop off recorded in the last 15 years, but not all. 🧪 www.investors.com/news/financi...
U.S. financial literacy scores are falling and researchers think they've pinpointed an overlooked factor in the plunge — the "smartphone penalty." Research suggests smartphones lead to less engaged survey participants, and are therefore partly to blame for declining financial literacy scores on surveys conducted over the past 15 years.

"We found that using a smartphone to answer survey questions leads to lower measured financial knowledge and more 'don't know' responses," said economists at the University of Southern California, Montana State University, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's FINRA Foundation in an August 2026 report.
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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
NEW: Flock has said for years that its cameras "cannot track individuals." We found the code for its new AI tool. It's preloaded w/ prompts like "Find me witness" & "find relatives." One tracks visitors of multiple hotels, another if you visit banks after midnight. www.wired.com/story/flock-...
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
How much energy does solar produce? 🧪
How much energy does solar produce?
For the first time ever, solar beat wind and nearly topped nuclear as a global
electricity source in 2025 (source: Statistical Review of World Energy).
Solar accounted for 8.7% of global power generation last year, up 30% (from 2024) to 2,811 terawatt-hours (TWh), per the energy report. Let's put that in
context: Total U.S. electricity consumption was ~4,000 TWh last year, ElA says. Solar beat wind power's global share (8.4%) and approached nuclear's (8.8%). But it's still behind hydropower's not-really-growing share of global
generation (13.9%). 2026 is bringing more milestones. Despite some hyperscalers' preference for fossil fuels in the Al data-center boom, U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows that more utility-scale solar projects came online in the first half of 2026, at 207. Batteries came next, at 95, then gas turbines, at 22, per Inside
Climate News. Most energy people use still comes from fossil fuels. Renewables posted
huge gains, but they didn't outpace growth in global electricity demand. How much energy does the sun produce? NASA says it generates about 38,460 septillion Watts per second. And how much of it hits us? UMich: "On average, 173,000 TW of solar radiation continuously strike the Earth, while global
electricity demand averages 3.1 TW." Energy Institute / KPMG / Kearney publish the global energy report. BP used to
do it.
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Dan Jagger @auditorynerves.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
When you kill it, it doesn’t die: the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immortality. Turritopsis dohrnii has the ability to turn back into a baby jellyfish & grow up all over again. 🧪🪼 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘When you kill it, it doesn’t die’: the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immortality
Turritopsis dohrnii has the ability to turn back into a baby jellyfish and grow up all over again
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
No, computer, it's the Strait of Hormuz. Strait. Of. Hormuz. This is the upshot of widespread, automatic audio transcribers.
an automated transcription says "straight of hormones" rather than "Strait of Hormuz," the busiest sea lane for oil.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 29/07/2026
Really interesting story here. You know how the hyperscaler cowboys are powering their data centers with gas turbines? It turns out the demands of AI are not very friendly to those turbines. They're supposed to last 5+ years & instead they're wearing out in under 12 months!
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Here's the deal with the pre-review study Tesla funded on turbine carnage. This is my first piece on the Data Centers Breaking Things beat. TLDR; AI training is wearing out, even breaking, a critical source of energy for AI training www.investors.com/news/turbine...
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Posting my blue sky on bluesky
Blue, early-morning sky with lots of fluffy clouds speckled about and some silhouettes of trees barely in frame.
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I'm covering oil. A lot! Believe me when I say this goop is everywhere. I'm doing this unironically across the street from the La Brea "Tar" Pits. That's where my office is. This name is doubly wrong, as it translates to "the the tar tar pits." 🧪
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404 Media @404media.co · 22/07/2026
Here's how your personal address travels from your credit card provider, through middlemen companies, and ends up with ICE.
404media.co
You Opened a Credit Card. ICE Now Knows Where You Live
Here's how your personal address travels from your credit card provider, through middlemen companies, and ends up with ICE.
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
When someone has my dead name I'm like, all yours babe!
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Gizmodo @gizmodo.com · 02/07/2026
Dude, Where's My Founder? Ashton Kutcher Leaves VC Firm and Shows Which Way the Wind Is Blowing gizmodo.com/dude-wheres-my-founder-…
gizmodo.com
Dude, Where's My Founder? Ashton Kutcher Leaves VC Firm and Shows Which Way the Wind Is Blowing
The actor is starting a new firm focused on 'infrastructure, energy and deep tech.'
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Oil prices hit their lowest level since Feb. 27, just before the onset of the recent round of U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. www.investors.com/news/wti-fut...
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
the fullest, biggest love to all the trans people
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
"Walking slowly / I feel I don't exist / There's no old me / Hiding in the mist" love this Lula Fortune jam music.apple.com/us/album/pre...
music.apple.com
Prescribe The Symptom by Lula Fortune on Apple Music
Album · 2026 · 8 Songs
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
why is it "database" (one word) but not "datacenter"
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Reintroducing myself. Hi! I write about $, tech, science, energy, and data centers. Hear something interesting? I'll honor your privacy. DMs open. Or, message me on Signal: hew.04 🧪
Close-up on a newspaper that includes an article on a lesser-known player in the AI hype machine, Advanced EnergyA selfie of the reporter at her desk with a laptop and flower tattoos.
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Parag @parag.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Six months-long exposure taken using a pinhole camera containing photographic paper. It tracked the Sun’s movement in the sky from winter to summer solstice. Each curve shows one day and stretches of cloudy days can be seen as dark patches. #solarcan 🔭🧪
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
instead of a verification code they should make it a validation code, so instead of "######" you check your texts for a message like "im beautiful" and go and type it in
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Some personal news! I'm thrilled to share that I'm reporting full-time on energy, AI infrastructure, finance, and more for Investors.com / Investor's Business Daily. I aspire to bring my ceaselessly curious, inner science-museum kid along for the ride.
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
2017: iced tea company pivots to blockchain 2021: iced tea insider trading charges filed 2026: shoe company pivots to AI infra 2030: ? www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
theverge.com
Allbirds became NewBird AI. Now it’s Smartbird.
What’s left of the shoe company after its pivot to AI (which is mostly its stock listing) has a new name and CEO, Nadia Carlsten. Smartbird also completed the sale of the Allbirds brand as it shifts i...
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Scripps Institution of Oceanography @scrippsocean.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
If you're feeling down, just know there are BILLIONS of marine phytoplankton working super hard to produce oxygen so we can all breathe, and we think that's really beautiful 💙🌊
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
To the man who walked into LA Public Library branch with an entire iMac: I salute you.
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Long before humans smacked “delete” to obliterate typos, before AI "wrote" for us, we fixed mistakes the old-fashioned way: by rubbing errors clean off the page. 🧪 But how do erasers erase? Here's my piece on their chemistry and evolution, for @popsci.com: www.popsci.com/science/how-...
popsci.com
How do erasers actually work? It's surprisingly interesting.
To err(ase) is human.
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Joanna Thompson @jojofoshosho.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Another piece up today! Here’s a first-of-its-kind study quantifying the impacts of insect pollinator loss on human health. 🧪🪲🌏
livescience.com
'Insect apocalypse' is already fueling malnutrition in some regions, first-of-its-kind study reveals
In a first, researchers quantify how pollinator declines contribute to food insecurity.
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
After nuking my Insta, I spoke to Stanford, UMelbourne, UKansas, and UChicago researchers to understand the benefits of deleting social media—and how to cushion the blow if you do—for @popsci.com 🧪 www.popsci.com/science/is-s...
popsci.com
Does deleting social media make you happier or lonelier? Short answer: It depends.
The research isn’t one-size-fits-all.
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
what about a bar called capacity, and if someone calls or texts while you're there you can say "im at capacity rn"
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
www.popsci.com/science/will... 🧪
popsci.com
Will prebiotics and probiotics really help you poop? What gut experts say.
Americans want relief. Are supplements really the solution?
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Harriet Weber @harri.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
ok I just want to harp on this one more time. we are made of waves. everything is. and how am i supposed to feel grounded while knowing this??? www.popsci.com/science/why-... 🧪
popsci.com
Why don’t molecules ever stop moving?
This ‘deceptively simple’ question demands a dip into the murky waters of quantum physics.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
very good move here: www.404media.co/public-libra...
404media.co
Public Library Ebook Service to Cull AI Slop After 404 Media Investigation
Hoopla has emailed librarians saying it’s removing AI-generated books from the platform people use to borrow ebooks from public libraries.
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