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Matthew Smith

@smithmatthew.bsky.social
172 followers 150 following 218 posts

Birdsite abandoner

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Reposted by Matthew Smith
Jenny Chase @solarchase.bsky.social · 10h
10. We oughtta be building more wind, especially in seasonal climates like Europe. Solar will get built anyway, it’s cheap, but wind blows at night and in the winter. We’re going to need something to charge the batteries in winter, especially with rising heatpump use.
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Jenny Chase @solarchase.bsky.social · 10h
6. In a way, it’s reassuring that solar is saturating, as it means solar is actually displacing fossil fuel rather than power demand increasing vertically. But it means the beginning of a new phase: the age of cheap solar and batteries. This too will pass, but it’s just getting started now.
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Jenny Chase @solarchase.bsky.social · 10h
5. Solar is still the cheapest source of bulk electricity in many countries, and the quickest to deploy, and now you couldn't stop it if you wanted to. The limits to PV build in most places that aren’t yet running into saturation effects are grid access and permitting.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 9h
I hope to learn more! Many headlines on the tech lately, but I always bring heavy skepticism based on what you have shared in the past.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 9h
In New England, @efficiencyvermont.bsky.social & Efficiency Maine have successful cold climate #heatpump rebate programs. Challenges remain unrelated to the tech: old housing stock needs #weatherization, old hydronic heating systems costly to retrofit or require multiple mini splits to fuel switch
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 10h
I tune in annually for this thread and my favorite part is “perovskite watch”
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
An amazingly stark example of how the US economy has broken: Zaslav clears nearly a *billion* dollars amid a CEO tenure where he made basically anything he touched worse, harmed multiple prestigious brands, led huge layoffs—but delivered a corrupt merger for shareholders. variety.com/2026/tv/news...
variety.com
David Zaslav Gets $606 Million Payout From Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger
David Zaslav will receive $606 million as he leaves Warner Bros. Discovery, after the company's merger with David Ellison's Paramount was completed.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The Wire, the very show you’re quoting, was using paper in this way 20 years ago. “You on paper?” Cutty or other ex-cons ask a few times, essentially asking “is there some document trail on you?”
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Batman The Animated Series Batmobile Drive
ALT: Batman The Animated Series Batmobile Drive
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The Wire lost me on season 6, literally unwatchable.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Exactly. If network effects are real, they’re amplifying stupid as much as they are anything worthwhile.
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Reposted by Matthew Smith
Johnny Oberg @johnoberg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Farm animals are individuals forced into systems of exploitation created by humans. Cows, pigs, chickens, fishes, and others are not products, they are living beings who value their lives and deserve freedom, dignity, and compassion. #WorldFarmedAnimalsDay 🧡🐮🐷🐔🐠
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Are we doing the dead parrot sketch?
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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026
Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all
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Dan O’Sullivan @osullyville.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Today I saw the new 4 hour documentary Musk, directed by Alex Gibney. There were too many times to count that a sold out theater burst out laughing at Elon Musk, something he said or did, even sometimes just how he looked. I believe that is his worst nightmare come to life.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This day comes but once a week.
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#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
*Every day I see the fossil fuel biz getting mercilessly pounded with increasingly powerful and accurate robot bombs, while every day, the planet's carbon emissions also somehow soar *This activity seems like the apotheosis of the "unsustainable," if that word means anything
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Jaap Burger @jaapburger.eu · 19/09/2026
The tightrope challenge for carmakers, not just German ones, is that the market wants electric cars now. However, this does not align with the slow transition towards 2035+ that carmakers had planned, which would have involved ongoing high returns on past investments in combustion engine models.
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Jigar Shah @jigarshahdc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Heating oil just hit $5.39/gallon in Maine, 60% above last year. A heat pump installed today pays back in 3–5 years and you keep the oil system for backup. 4.79 million households should be making this call right now. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
linkedin.com
Heating oil is at its highest level in years across the Northeast at ~$6.00/gallon. Families are budgeting around $2,300 this season — up $600 from last year. Close watchers who once described Middle…...
Heating oil is at its highest level in years across the Northeast at ~$6.00/gallon. Families are budgeting around $2,300 this season — up $600 from last year. Close watchers who once described Middle ...
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Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The best film about 9/11 is only indirectly about 9/11. It is also IMO Spike Lee’s best film, period. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_Hour
en.wikipedia.org
25th Hour - Wikipedia
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Reposted by Matthew Smith
Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
*Everything* is another chance to remind the public of what's working for them
An Oregon license plate that states "PUBLICLY OWNED" along the bottom
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Also evidence of him being bad at reining himself in: the story of every game he’s made since Metal Gear Solid in 1998. And even that was borderline in parts.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
True: Kojima is an excellent game developer. Also true: Kojima needs editors/bosses who can save him from his worst indulgences. Also, also true: Kojima has sent anyone who tried to edit or manage him running (apparently)
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
L2 at home with a great reduced rate from my utility for managed charging, L3 for long trips. I just plug in at home when needed and the charger gets the signal via WiFi on when to charge from the utility (usually after 9pm) and those electrons flow at ~30% cheaper rate
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Reposted by Matthew Smith
Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
It does seem like this is happening. I consider that great news. Diesel generators pump out poison. "Generating the same electricity from a diesel generator as from a solar panel would cost as much in diesel, every three months, as the solar panel itself"
yahoo.com
In Africa, a Growing Underground Solar Buildout
Households and businesses are driving a solar boom in Africa, where rooftop arrays and other small systems account for the bulk of new solar installations. But this rapid buildout, which is driving so...
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I finally played and finsihed The Last Guardian and this advice somewhat applies.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A slack channel for potential titles would have solved this in 5 mins.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Almost there! Just gotta finish FSD for the cars first. Much like nuclear fusion is always a decade away, FSD is perpetually 6-12 months from being solved.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
"Take the global economy for example ... LET ME SHOW YA SOMETHING!!!"
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/08/2026
Genuinely abundant, cheap, accessible energy has vastly more liberatory potential than AI, for vastly more people -- especially more poor people. Which, I guess, is your answer.
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Settlements are pure business decisions. If Meta was willing to pay $18 billion, imagine how guilty they must’ve been, how big they feared the real damages would be, and how insanely profitable it was to do this wrong in the first place.
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
On the topic of doing the right thing for the future while sharing joy, here's an electric ice cream van that I passed while out walking this evening. More of this!
Ice-cream van with "e-power" on the front, and a sign saying "zero emission icecream"
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John Hanger @jrfhanger.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
LDES! China’s 80‑hectare HiTHIUM Heze Base is world’s first integrated industrial park dedicated to long‑duration energy storage (LDES). Production lines exceed 15 GWh. LDES is just starting! Price will plunge. LDES expands solar & wind. interestingengineering.com/energy/china... #energysky
interestingengineering.com
80-hectare Chinese factory scales up long-duration energy storage
The project brings together battery-cell manufacturing, materials production and energy-storage system integration.
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Reposted by Matthew Smith
Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 14/08/2026
Scientists have created a new category of heat waves: "snow eaters"
motherjones.com
Scientists have created a new category of heat waves: "snow eaters"
And this year, it's brought about wildfire havoc in the American West.
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Chris Jones @drcgjones.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
About 2/3rds of the primary energy consumed in the world is thrown away as heat. Electrification of industry and transport, and producing that electricity from intrinsically primary sources (like water, wind and sunshine) reduces the task enormously.
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Doctor Charlton Cussans PhD @charltoncussans.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The film declares that far from being the thing to save Western civilization, the machismo that delights in cruelty to outsiders and stranger... is the very thing causing a contemporary civilizational collapse, by rupturing the bonds between men. We are the sea people.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 11/08/2026
The tech industry constantly talks about its ability to "flex" data centres in response to demand pressures, but this Aus grid operator report shows that they simply don't actually do that So AEMO assumes demand flex from them is zero megawatts in their forecasts www.aemo.com.au/consultation...
Slide titled "Limited demand flexibility from data centres" showing three date panels of time-series charts where red dotted price spikes coincide with little or no reduction in blue data-centre load, concluding data centres aren’t dependable DSP and DC DSP set to 0 MW.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I think if there's anything that's guided me from military tech journalism to foreign policy advocacy it's broadly this: "getting the violence of war to end has to come from a place of understanding why it continues," which is a metric useful across conflicts, like in this on Sudan:
internationalpolicy.org
Congress Can Still Act To Prevent Atrocities in Sudan - CIP
To meaningfully stop the violence in Sudan, Congress needs to condition arms sales to those supplying the civil war.
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Rewiring America @rewiringamerica.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
How much does it cost to install a heat pump? And how much can you save with rebates and incentives? We teamed up with @consumerreports.org to crunch the numbers, and here’s what we found: innovation.consumerreports.org/heat-pumps-m...
innovation.consumerreports.org
Heat Pumps: Making a Major Home Upgrade with Confidence - Innovation at Consumer Reports
results from a community driven survey of heatpumps, showing true costs of installation. Overall, we collected heat pump installation costs from 1,393 zip codes, 760 counties, and all 50 states. The m...
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Derf Backderf @derfbackderf.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
What a photo! A female Amur tiger is released into the wild in Kazakhstan.
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John Hanger @jrfhanger.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This Texas 430 MW solar & 250 MW/500 MWh battery plant pays $100 million in local taxes to support schools, infrastructure and emergency services. Solar, wind & battery projects bring major tax payments that help to fund public services for millions! www.pv-magazine.com/2026/08/06/o... #energysky
pv-magazine.com
Ørsted turns on 500 MWh battery project with co-located solar in Texas - pv magazine Global
The Old 300 Storage project has reached commercial operations and is now fully integrated with the ERCOT grid, using made-in-America Tesla battery energy storage systems (BESS). It is co-located with ...
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Shipwreck @shipwreck75.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Gulf allies have asked the U.S. in recent weeks for more air-defense interceptors and continued guarantees that the U.S. military will protect them if the tit-for-tat fighting drags on, officials have said.-WSJ
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Shipwreck @shipwreck75.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Behind the scenes, Gulf countries are frustrated with what they see as a lack of a clear strategy from the U.S. as the war drags on, subjecting their territories to frequent Iranian attacks, people familiar with the matter said.
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Jigar Shah @jigarshahdc.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Everyone talks about batteries as “firming” wind and solar. In this conversation we talk about why batteries make fossil better. Storage makes the ENTIRE grid run better fossil, nuclear, everything and treating it as a renewables-only cost is the wrong mental model. 🧵
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VTDigger @vtdigger.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
John Klar was chosen for an EPA panel on federal policy that impacts farmers, ranchers and rural communities not just because of his farming experience, but also his leadership in the MAHA movement.
vtdigger.org
A Vermont farmer has a growing voice in Trump’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ campaign - VTDigger
John Klar of Brookfield was appointed to a national EPA advisory panel even as he and other MAHA advocates see some federal changes they oppose.
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#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
*This diabolical hack would be actually funny if it rewrote all the "poisoned" text as Situationist-tinted postmodernese. Entirely in French, of course
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Seinfeld’s standup has always had a polished showy veneer atop substance as robust as cotton candy (or the garbage sustenance-free breakfast cereals he appears to love so much). Five minutes of Carlin or Hicks reveals his comedy for all its minuscule insight and humor.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Best I can do is this audiobook of Mike Myer www.goodreads.com/book/show/34...
goodreads.com
Canada
Listening Length 5 hours and 58 minutes Comedy superst…
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Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 29/07/2026
A better future is possible.
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Matthew Smith @smithmatthew.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
This is the most chilling fate for ASoIaF I could have imagined.
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