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Neil Brown

@neilbrown.bsky.social
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Games, Graphics, Tech.

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Emily Lakdawalla 🏳️‍⚧️ Uranus Expert @elakdawalla.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Holy shit you guys there are so many things to see in this video. My favorite detail is one I recognize from studying Curiosity’s landing sequence. The vehicle rolls alternately left and right to control its lift as it enters the atmosphere in order to target its landing range
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 02/10/2026
This will never stop blowing my mind. A 12-year sequence of real telescope images of a star 133 lightyears away. And around it, four planets slowly orbiting. Four real exoplanets, each more massive than Jupiter, imaged as they move around their host star.
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Emily @emilydawn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
@hockeyviz.com I found some beautiful data viz for you
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Many years ago, when I first started writing for The Dark Side (Britain's oldest horror mag) we had a bit of a friendly pub quiz rivalry with Empire magazine for a while. We kept losing though. Until one week we discovered a secret weapon. /1
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Nicolas Lopez @nicolas-lopez.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
For anyone curious about the rendering technology behind #AssassinsCreedBlackFlagResynced, here are a few details in this PlayStation Blog post (PSSR, RTGI, Micropoly, Atmos, ..), which I had the chance to write with Jussi. #AssassinsCreed blog.playstation.com/2026/06/29/a...
blog.playstation.com
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced: PS5 Pro enhancements detailed
Details on upgraded PSSR visuals, a deeply immersive Caribbean, and more arriving July 9.
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MetJam @metjam.co.uk · 25/06/2026
A minimum of 23.5ºC at Cardiff Bute Park this morning provisionally breaks the UK June highest minimum temperature record by 0.8ºC [22.7ºC Ventnor, 28th June 1976]. It breaks its own station record for June by OVER 4ºC and its all-time station record by over 2ºC - impressive.
Spaghetti chart showing Cardiff daily minimum temperatures for every day of the year from 1913 to 2026. Faint grey lines trace 111 years of historical data, forming a seasonal cycle from around -5°C in winter to a summer peak of roughly 15°C. A dashed red horizontal line marks the previous all-time minimum temperature record of 21.4°C, set on 20 July 2016. A dashed amber horizontal line marks the previous June minimum record of 19.4°C, set on 20 June 2017. A thick red line shows 2026's observed minimum temperatures, climbing sharply in late June well above the entire historical envelope at that point in the year. A large bold number, '23.5°C', sits at the top of the chart, connected by an arrow to the peak of the red line on 25 June 2026. A subtitle states this is a new all-time Cardiff minimum temperature record, and a further line notes it is also a new UK provisional June highest minimum temperature record.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Dylan, on life in your 80’s, is incredible. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/o...
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Hit Save! @hitsave.org · 11/06/2026
Sorry but we'll never shy away from an excuse to highlight one of the rarest items in our archive: Check out some clips of Nintendo veteran Steve Okimoto introducing the GBA to Nintendo of America employees for the first time! This tape is dated 9/22/00, nearly 8 months prior to the GBA's US launch!
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Paul "Paulie" Hughes @pauliehughes.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
No idea which of my former colleagues at Tt did this, but whoever you are, I doff my hat to you - that is the best Easter egg ever. Seriously brilliant.
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eric stirpē @stirpicus.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
4 years ago in the Telltale Games Alumni FB group, Michael Parsons was asking if anyone had advice for helping his 15 year old son Kane achieve his dreams of being a filmmaker. Turned out alright.
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MetJam @metjam.co.uk · 25/05/2026
The most anomalous maximum temperature recording regarding stations and their records seems to be 33.3ºC at Wellesbourne. This beats the old May record for the station by 6.1ºC before this spell (27.2ºC, 2010) as well as the June record by 2.2ºC (31.2ºC, 1976), extraordinary.
Spaghetti plot for Wellesbourne from 1959 to 2026 with all daily temperatures on record shown with 2026's observed maximum temperatures shown with the spike of 33.3ºC at Wellesbourne noted
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Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Not now, Elder Gods From Outside Reality Frozen Under The Ice For Aeons
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Science Magazine @science.org · 05/05/2026
Deepfakes are everywhere, but digital forensics investigators are fighting back. Learn more: scim.ag/42dMPBg
To verify images, digital forensics investigators will often check whether the geometry of the scene is realistic. In a real photo, lines that run parallel in reality—like floor tiles—should meet at a single vanishing point. In this image, however, the dotted lines do not meet in a single point, indicating it is a fake.
Image: an AI-generated image of soldiers marching down a hallway in three lines, wearing fatigues and carrying rifles. Four dotted white lines have been added over the image, running along the floor tiles visible in the foreground and extending back to where the vanishing point should be, behind the soldiers. Instead of meeting in a single point, the lines all cross at different points.Investigators also examine reflections. The lines connecting points on an object to matching points in its mirror image run parallel in reality, so similarly should meet at a vanishing point. In this image, the lines again do not converge on one point, revealing it to be a fake.
Image: An AI-generated image of a plastic cartoon dinosaur toy with its reflection visible in a small mirror. Four dotted white lines are layered over the image, connecting points on the toy with the same points on its reflection: the top of its eye, the end of its jaw, its hand, and its foot. The lines extend out to the side of the image, where they all cross at different points rather than meeting at a single point.Shadows can be a giveaway, too. Because the Sun is so far away, its rays are essentially parallel when they reach Earth's surface. That means that the lines connecting points on an object to the shadows they cast in sunlight should also intersect at a vanishing point. In this Al-generated image, that is clearly not the case.
Image: An AI-generated image of colorful, semi-transparent plastic cubes arranged in a group in a city plaza. Six dotted white lines are layered over the image, connecting corners of several cubes with the corresponding corners in their shadows. The lines extend upward off the edge of the image, toward where a vanishing point should be. Three of them converge on roughly the same point, but two extend further, and one cuts across all the others at an angle.
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Powflip @powflip.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
As a child I was stumped on how they got the motion blur in this scene. It's claymation so it can't just be drawn in. Much later I found out that all the blur in the tracking and panning shots is actual *motion* blur. The sets were moved for a fraction of a second during each exposure!
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Hey, this is fun (I missed it on #EarthDay but it’s still fun today 😅). Use this NASA outreach tool to spell your name with LandSat images of our beautiful Earth! science.nasa.gov/mission/land...
The name JESSIE spelled out in six images is different features on the surface of the Earth, including rivers, ice caps, and ocean currents.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 05/04/2026
We are so, so small. #Artemis
Looking through one of the four windows of the Orion spacecraft, a tiny crescent Earth is illuminated against the blackness of space and grows smaller as the crew journeys closer to the Moon. Part of the window edge is visible; the rest is darkness. [Alt-text slightly revised from ESA/NASA version]
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
"Watching the Artemis crew on their way around the moon now is emotional. I am – still – filled with longing that it was me in that capsule and sadness that it never will be. But more than that, I marvel at it" Some personal reflections... open.substack.com/pub/christin...
open.substack.com
To boldly go...
Artemis, Star Trek, old dreams, and why science still fills me with wonder and hope
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 03/04/2026
More context on this #Artemis II image: * This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right * The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon: ☀️🌍🚀🌕
A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)
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Edd Coates | Game UI Database @eddcoates.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I wrote the world's first-ever pop song about being a Game UI designer. I'm so sorry. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g_1...
youtube.com
I'm A UI Designer (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Game UI Database
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Differences between Artemis and Apollo, No 3 in an irregular series: family members quarantined along with the crew so they can stay more in touch in the approach to the mission.
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Nicolas Lopez @nicolas-lopez.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I contributed to this PlayStation Blog post about PSSR2 in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Check it out! #AssassinsCreedShadows blog.playstation.com/2026/03/31/p...
blog.playstation.com
PS5 Pro New PSSR Upscaler is now Accessible on Assassin’s Creed Shadows!
Next-gen PSSR tech elevates image quality across every visual mode.
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Ida B Wells' Winchester Rifle @dytsras.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
You could say that Rock n Roll was born 111 years ago today in Arkansas, but probably not where you'd think. Before there was a Chuck Berry or Little Richard, there was those who wanted to be like her. Rosetta Nubin better known as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of Rock was born on this day
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Nicolas Lopez @nicolas-lopez.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Excited to share that GPU Zen 4: Advanced Rendering Techniques is officially out. This volume features work from some of the most visually impactful projects of recent years, including #AssassinsCreed , #DOOM , #StarwarsOutLaws and NVidia's Zorah. And a killer cover :)
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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." —Carl Sagan Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵 Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The "pale blue dot" photo. It shows three or four colored beams of light – optical artifacts – passing from the left side of the image to the right. The background is dark, empty space. In the topmost light beam is a single pale blue pixel. That's Earth. Sagan's quote is printed on the image. It reads ""We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history..."
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Brian Karis @briankaris.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I'm finally writing up how Nanite Tessellation works. The first few blogs posts are up. More will be coming. graphicrants.blogspot.com/2026/02/nani...
graphicrants.blogspot.com
Nanite Tessellation
Nanite Tessellation, aka Nanite Dynamic Tessellation, aka Nanite Dynamic Displacement was the next major feature I worked on after Nanite it...
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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Engineer and inventor Douglas Engelbart was born #OTD in 1925. His team at SRI developed or contributed to the computer mouse, hypertext, networked computers, and graphical interfaces, all of which were presented in 1968 at what is referred to as the “Mother of All Demos." 🧪 Image: ARC Bootstrapper
Douglas Engelbart, wearing a white button down shirt with a dark thin tie, seated, demonstrating the computer mouse in 1968.
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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” looks more likely than ever Perhaps dark matter cannot be directly detected; perhaps it only interacts gravitationally. That's not an argument against its existence. That's the nightmare scenario come to life! bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #space #astro
bigthink.com
Dark matter's "nightmare scenario" looks more likely than ever
Our great hope is that today's indirect, astrophysical evidence will someday lead to successful direct detection. What if that's impossible?
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Sam “The Great Pumpkin” Thielman @samthielman.com · 22/01/2026
I just thought everyone should see this
Dr Kareem Carr
man: i wish to publish
@kareem_carr
Jan 21
reviewer 2: your paper is no good
man: i'll do anything to improve
reviewer 2: it's simple. you must read the work of the great scientist Pagliarini
man: *bursts into tears* but i am Pagliarini
Andre Pagliarini
@apagliar
Jan 21
a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini
Jan 21, 2026 • 3:47 PM UTC
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Adrian Teal @tealcartoons.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
This is haunting... It's the oldest piece of music for which we have both the words and the notes. A song to the Hurrian goddess Nikkal, it was written on clay tablets around 3500 years ago, and was discovered in the 1950s in the ruins of the ancient city of Ugarit. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8tf...
youtube.com
THE OLDEST SONG IN THE WORLD
YouTube video by Peter Pringle
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Quest 64 Official @quest64official.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
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noodle @noodleawesome.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
NEW VIDEO HI NEW VIDEO NEW VIDEO HI HI GUYS NEW VIDOE youtu.be/bC-8y2R6IxI
youtu.be
CRTs and Pixel Art
YouTube video by Noodle
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CarFreiTag @carfreitag.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
😆
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Lesley @englishfolkfan.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Yes, the great @tomscott.com did an international survey in 2020, 64k responses had 42k results he could use. He produced a 12min video with splendid graph/visuals breakdown, including musical accompaniment, with the 'laid an egg' and 'flies away' big wow at the end. www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5u9...
youtube.com
I Asked 64,182 People About “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”. Here's What I Found Out.
YouTube video by Tom Scott
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John C. Baez @johncarlosbaez.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
My series explaining the Standard Model of particle physics has 3 parts so far: 1) Particles 2) The Big Ideas 3) Qubits Next: 4) Quantum Physics 5) Spinors Then isospin, pions and more particle physics! Alas, I've been slowed down by our kitchen remodeling. I want to pick up the pace.
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Menotti Minutillo @menotti.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
ladies and gentlemen...we got him
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Wilbur72 @wilboo72.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
I used to work at a small shop that made little plastic vampires. There were only 2 of us working there, so I had to make every second count.
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Waffle 🧇 @wafflecut.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
*****************
Investigation of:
LOSS OF THE SUBMARINE TITAN
IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
ON JUNE 18, 2023
*
*
*
*
*
*
Accident No.:
*********** * * * * * *
Interview of:
Co-designer/Pilot
Deepsea Challenger
DCA23FM036
via Microsoft Teams
Friday,
July 26, 2024INTERVIEW OF
10
BY LCDR
11 Q. So how did you get yourself started into submersible
12 operations?
13
A.
Well, I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic.
When I
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set down the path to make that film, the first thing that I did
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was arrange to be introduced to the head of the submersible
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program at the P.P. Shirshov Institute in Moscow, a guy named
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Professor
I. I did that through a mutual friend
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of ours, a guy named
, who is one of the preeminent
underwater cinematographers in the world. And had been on a
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submersible expedition out to Titanic the previous year with the
21
Russians. And that was organized by a Canadian company that was
22 doing an IMAX film which was released under the title Titanica.
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kottke.org @kottke.org · 25/09/2025
Engineering Lego Cars to Climb Increasingly Tall Walls. I love these iterative Lego engineering videos. [kottke.org]
kottke.org
Engineering Lego Cars to Climb Increasingly Tall Walls
I haven’t gotten my Brick Technology fix in awhile, so here’s a video featuring a series of more and more capable Lego vehicles climbing over taller and taller walls. As I have written before, here’s what makes these v
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Jaunty Art @jaunty.art · 25/09/2025
this blew my tiny mind
Gently shake phone.
A picture of a black cat on a black background in the centre of a black and white glitchy surrounding. When you wiggle your phone the cat seems to jiggle in the centre even though it’s a static image
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
She basically invented astrophysics. She proved the laws of chemistry, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics, not just gravity, applied universally. She determined the composition of the sun and primacy of hydrogen in the universe. She advised the PhDs of Frank Drake and Frank Kameny.
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Jake Adelstein @tokyovice.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
There is an iconic figure of Japan that will not be with us much longer. He is an endangered species, almost extinct. He will be mourned. Read my salaryman elegy on this week's Substack:
open.substack.com
The Death of The Salaryman
The hard-working, hard-drinking white collar company man of old Japan is dead (more or less). He is survived by Pasona, a generation of part-time workers, and a stack of unpaid overtime slips.
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🌈Dr. Frizzle @swilua.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
we have both computers and science fiction because Byron was so insufferable it inspired all the women around him to come up with elaborate reasons to get away
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Ste Curran (https://mindset.game 🟨🔺🔵) @stecurran.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
If anyone is in Brighton and has a microphone or access to a microphone, or has a friend who has access to a microphone, now would be a brilliant time to let me know. #microphonerequest
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Poorly Drawn Lines @poorlydrawnlines.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Report
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Nicolas Lopez @nicolas-lopez.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Our talk “Anvil Rendering Architecture” is up on YouTube, including Q&A! youtu.be/CcYq18bkvyU?...
youtu.be
REAC 2025 Anvil Rendering Architecture.
YouTube video by Rendering Engine Architecture Conference
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Keith Fitzgerald @keithfitzgerald.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.
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Nicolas Lopez @nicolas-lopez.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Our talk from REAC 25 is now available online! You can download the slides here: enginearchitecture.org/2025.htm#4 The recording will be published in the coming days—stay tuned! Direct Links: - PDF: enginearchitecture.org/downloads/RE... - PPT: enginearchitecture.org/downloads/RE...
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on. slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
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Berkeley Earth @berkeleyearth.org · 18/06/2025
Berkeley Earth’s high-res temperature data is now part of Climate Station on #PS5! This immersive environment is new way for global audiences to explore climate change. Huge thanks to #Sony for bringing open science into a global platform. 🎮🌍 🔗 More info: store.playstation.com/en-us/concep...
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