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Jerry Beilinson

@jbeilinson.bsky.social
396 followers 380 following 434 posts

Climate, the arctic, technology. Consumer Reports editor (but what I say isn't CR's fault). Formerly Pop Mechanics, National Geographic Adventure, plus scattered writing for many (New Yorker, NYT, etc.)

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Reposted by Jerry Beilinson
Randi Mayem Singer @rmayemsinger.bsky.social · 18h
Americans, please don’t worry about your child coming home from school a different sex. Worry about your child not coming home from school because they were shot to death.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 19h
whoa... the current map of "No Kings: Vote Early" events planned for tomorrow, sat oct 17: www.nokings.org
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Yeah, that jumps out at you, right? It's astonishing that anyone could make that statement and not think of slavery. And it's one more datum about the nature of tech executives.
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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Hen Mazzig @henmazzig.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Oh no, they found out P!nk is Jewish. I didn’t realize they’re capable of learning new things…
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
You'd think the Trump Administration would know the Fairness Doctrine was killed under Reagan bc conservatives hated it. That gave rise to Rush Limbaugh, Fox, etc. Now they've dusted off and mangled the "news distortion" policy to apply here. But not to, say, Newsmax. Which is rich, no?
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think we knew, those of us living in Manhattan. We pretended not to, but we knew.
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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
WaPo graph: cumulative measles cases in the US by year, 2018-present. The slope of this year's line is now almost vertical.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 05/09/2026
Hi 👋 I’m a climate scientist. When extreme heat hits, I see the usual troll comments: “It’s just summer.” “It’s been hotter before.” I take on these climate myths & more while having some fun along the way. Watch the free preview or upgrade to watch the full video at www.talkingclimate.ca
Image of Katharine Hayhoe. Text that reads: "Cold Facts, Hot Takes" and "preview "Summer is supposed to be this hot!""
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
People who oppose data centers don't care about national GDP. They care about their own spiking electric bills, local air pollution and noise, huge industrial facilities that bring nearly no permanent local jobs. All for a product—AI—that many people detest.
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serena666.bsky.social @serena666.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Meta's $18B settlement, 2hr daily limits for teens, 12-6 am blocks? That's a PR spin. The core problem of algorithmic exploitation remains untouched. This won't change user behavior significantly.
facebook.com
Meta Reaches Landmark $18 Billion Settlement Over Addictive Platforms for Teens
Meta has agreed to a historic settlement of up to $18 billion with dozens of U.S. states, resolving claims that its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, were intentionally designed to be addictive for c
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Ten to 20 years ago I was pitching editors on the looming crisis with Himalayan glaciers: devastating GLOFs and other floods, then drought for 25% of the world population. I wasn't successful. It's so disheartening that the tragedies of today were foreseen by so many, but got so little attention
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Well, like I said, tech journalists can be gullible. But there's a lot of sourcing from AI researchers and concerned employees that confirm that AIs are doing unexpected things. Both things are true: AI execs are trying to boost investment and buzz; advanced AI models are doing weird shit.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I'm familiar with deals between tech giants and journalism outfits. There is no way in the world such a clause exists. It would be an enormous public scandal.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
That doesn't mean journalists can't be gullible, of course—tech execs have often overstated the dangers in order to make their technology seem more advanced. Though, tbh, I think this shit is getting seriously harmful. Especially, though not solely, when it's doing what companies tell it to.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I've known Guardian reporters, and work in journalism myself. I don't know about this article, but I've never known anyone there, at the NYT, etc., who would report or write a story for the reasons you're giving. They'd quit if they were told to. (Tucker Carlson and Fox people, sure.)
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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Journalists need to stop describing these incidents in terms implying software has agency and intent. It does not. The people who created a faulty and dangerous product are the ones responsible for whatever happens, and must be held to account, with punitive financial penalties for damage done.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Yes, but....fines and lawsuit settlements never, ever, ever keep up with profits in the tech industry. The laws actually need to make some advances in AI illegal or highly regulated.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Also, the casual, incidental racism of some nonfiction books I'd love to love. Desert Solitaire is one, The Tree Where Man Was Born is another.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Do you know if that kind of friction has been a factor? We watch this space @consumerreports, and data centers seem to get their own way, or successful kick all kinds of cans down the road.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The motivation is pure racism, as is revealed among other things by the photos of Black men in chains that DHS is gleefully posting on social media.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
AI data center use tons of polluting fossil-fuel generators, without permits. This is just the latest example, in a Microsoft-backed facility. Tech giants live in a consequence-free legal world. floodlightnews.org/new-jersey-d...
floodlightnews.org
One of East Coast’s largest data centers accused of ‘violating federal law'
Thermal drone footage shows DataOne — the Microsoft-backed AI data center in Vineland — is powering its operations with dozens of unpermitted generators
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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Yikes, “News reports say that “dozens” of villages have been severely impacted. When you read “village” you may think of relatively small communities of dozens households, but in reality some of these places likely have thousands or even tens of thousands of people.”
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
But you also need to care about others’ rich inner life. I don’t know whether Thiel believes the lowly masses have feelings. I know he believes they should be stripped of any pretensions to political and economic decision-making.
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 22/08/2026
It’s worse than this. Having been in the room with many of them (long ago, before I knew they were psychopaths), the tycoons who are left running the industry have an active contempt for ordinary people, including their own workers. They actively want to oppress, control and punish them.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
AI is more than a smartboard-like tool, in a bad way. But no one needs to learn how to use it....which is dead-easy. Actually, we have to try to preserve people's ability to think and create in a world drowning in AI.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Do the Right Thing...1989
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Currently consuming...and will be consuming for a couple of hundred years, I imagine. Plus Siberia's boreal forests. (Still rare: tundra fires.)
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Dr Gerald Kutney | Climate Politics @geraldkutney.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
When America is hit with devastating wildfires, Canada sent our firefighters to help globalnews.ca/news/1196981... When Canada is hit with devastating wildfires, U.S. politicians make threats against us. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... #ClimateBrawl
globalnews.ca
How Canada helped in past U.S. wildfires as Ford says some are ‘chirping’ - National | Globalnews.ca
As wildfires continue to burn across Canada, American politicians have been vocal about their displeasure surrounding smoke that has made its way to American skies.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 29/06/2026
need to start thinking now about a full package of judicial reforms: new justices, new circuits, new district courts, ethics reforms, docket reforms, and transparency reforms.
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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
So grateful to @unsrapporteurfoaa.bsky.social for raising the erosion of people's willingness to assemble and form connections. In addition to surveillance, I fear gen AI is interrupting cooperation & that fear of social media harms also cut people off from our collective capacity as humans.
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Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
bsky.app/profile/weat...
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This amount would fund the US National Science Foundation for a decade. 🧪
apnews.com
Pentagon seeks $80 billion from Congress for Iran war
The Pentagon has told lawmakers it needs roughly $80 billion, mostly to cover the cost of the war in Iran.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Note to legislators: There's no reason this has to be legal. (In some cases, it's not legal...but the U.S. stopped enforcing its own fair pricing laws decades ago.)
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Uber and Lyft charge different prices (really different prices) for identical trips booked at the exact same time. This isn't even surge pricing, it's just totally unexplainable. www.consumerreports.org/money/questi...
consumerreports.org
Different Prices for the Same Ride: How Uber and Lyft Use AI to Get More Money Out of You - Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports found Uber and Lyft use algorithmic pricing to give different consumers very different prices for the same rides.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The WSJ hed is misleading; the article doesn't say the investigators on the case were surprised, but that they thought it was a bad decision, and didn't even get a chance to submit their report. (They'd have to be pretty damned naive to believe it might not get ok'd by their bosses.)
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Note the 5 million gallons is a small slice of the H2O used. It goes to cooling. Much more water is used in generating the electricity used to power the data centers, but that water is usually overlooked.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The NSF was always this awesome, efficient little agency punching above its weight. News like this always makes me worry about the future the Greenland Summit Station, a humble crown jewel of climate data since 1989.
Main building of Greenland Summit Station, located atop the Greenland ice sheet, and site of an early ice core that was drilled to gather ancient climate data.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
When we have to severely devalue the dollar to service that debt, or are forced into a partial default, we'll all pay—and that might be 10 years away or less.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
And hyperscale data centers use as much electricity as a city. 40% of all electricity usage in Va. goes to data centers. (I edited the following piece for @consumerreports.org.) www.consumerreports.org/data-centers...
consumerreports.org
AI Data Centers: Big Tech's Impact on Electric Bills, Water, and More - Consumer Reports
Massive data centers are gobbling up resources across the United States. The boom has just begun—and you may be paying for it.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Yes, people seek the platforms they like. It's not hard to find good, accurate information, especially on major news stories.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Lincoln did. In a bad way, Nixon and Trump both did.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I'm going to disagree. Press coverage of Trump was often infuriating. But the people who voted for Trump didn't read or listen to "the press." Joe Rogan has a bigger circ than the NYTimes, and has for a long time. Rightwing influencers and Fox News hosts replaced the press for those voters.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Ha! But @edidin.bsky.social has other contenders. bsky.app/profile/edid...
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Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
so, this is deeply, deeply horrifying thedreydossier.substack.com/p/i-found-a-...
thedreydossier.substack.com
I found a second vote.gov — and it's registered to the White House
There is a moment in every investigation where the thing you have been looking for finds you instead.
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I wonder if the @thedailynu.bsky.social is on this story? I see it covered part of this in a piece last fall.
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Craig Newmark @craignewmark.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Good news from Google, seriously blog.google/security/new...
blog.google
New AI-Powered Scam Detection Features to Help Protect You on Android
Google has been at the forefront of protecting users from the ever-growing threat of scams and fraud with cutting-edge technologies and security expertise for years. In …
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Noah Shachtman @noahshachtman.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
my friend @ejeancarroll.bsky.social is tougher than all of these goons put together
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Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
This really is fun....go try it
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