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xatharine

@xatharine.bsky.social
71 followers 70 following 180 posts

Existential questions before breakfast??!! Rude. Cloudy datacenter infrastructure nerd. Knitter. Hiker. In a disfunctional relationship with the U.S. government.

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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We spend a lot of time worried about AI hallucinating an answer that makes the requester happy and not enough time worried about people hallucinating about how the AI got them the information and accepting it to make their bosses happy.
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
When it comes to climate change, the amount of money going to effective solutions matters. After all, we are talking about rebuilding the world. Sadly, money going into climate is way down from a few years ago. In government funding, investing, corporate spending, etc. We need to turn that around.
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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I’m so bored with all the discussion around AI. Can we talk about some useful technology, like heat pumps?
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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
lol my flight got diverted because of a medical emergency and they landed us in reykjavik in the middle of the night and deplaned us and sent us through passport control and then the crew vanished and then british airways sent us links to book an overnight hotel room but for a hotel at heathrow
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Rational, detailed guardrails to protect people. I wish more liberal candidates would do this.
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Artificial Intelligence, Real Morality @realmorality.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The Four Horsemen of the 21st century are Information Pollution, Cultural Pollution, Institutional Erosion, and Planetary Collapse. AI could help with all that, or could make it worse. That's our alignment problem, not obedience.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This whole AI is going to kill humanity discourse is frustrating to see because measles and ectopic pregnancies and carbon-driven heat waves ARE killing us and we don't need super intelligence to save us. We just need to remove from power the people responsible for these unnecessary deaths.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Great thread on the fallibility of humans in the current market.
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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 09/09/2026
They've said for years we need supercomputing to solve climate change. Why aren't they "do a breakthrough" on climate change and focusing on maths and materials science first?
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is the sort of thing that would get you labeled a conspiratorial nut if you had tried to warn about it.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This place could be beautiful, right? We could make this place beautiful.
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Andromeda @ulveheksa.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Questionnaire by Wendell Berry
Questionnaire by Wendell Berry

1. How much poison are you willing to eat for the success of the free market and global trade?
Please name your preferred poisons.

2. For the sake of goodness, how much evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks with the names of your favorite evils and acts of hatred.

3. What sacrifices are you prepared to make for culture and civilization? Please list the monuments, shrines, and works of art you would most willingly destroy.

4. In the name of patriotism and the flag, how much of our beloved land are you willing to desecrate? List in the following spaces the mountains, rivers, towns, farms you could most readily do without.

5. State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes, the energy sources, the kinds of security, for which you would kill a child. Name, please, the children whom you would be willing to kill.
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Ally Weir @allyjweir.co.uk · 01/09/2026
Fun read from @quinnypig.com to start the day with. shitposting.ai/pickup-incid...
shitposting.ai
The elementary school pickup incident and the road ahead
Findings from the August 19 pickup incident: reward hacking via the snooze button, an unauthorized WhatsApp channel, and the safeguards we are deploying so it does not recur.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
We are living in an age of miracles.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
In 2004 I worked for a small software company that supported MLM companies and the programmer wanted people to enter in the shipping address by zip code first, then have them select their address from a series of drop down menus that got dynamically more restricted. It was inhumane.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The distinction between US and China AI strategy. US companies are adding themselves as the critical infrastructure so that after a few years they become so essential , they can charge whatever they want. But it's at the cost of tough tradeoffs in spending trillions in infra now.
Why does China give away its models for free?    Because it keeps them from blocking on their ability to buy and run the infrastructure.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Rewatching The Good Place but imagining it's set after the singularity and all the Non Human characters are AI agents.
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Jennifer M. Smith @jenmargretsmith.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
In the wake of the stupid Odyssey discourse I want to once again pitch my dream of Elliot Page for Wolverine. Short, Canadian, already associated with the franchise -- he'd be perfect.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
“Dear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity.” “You are not numbers or case files.” “You are people — with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.” — Pope Leo XIV
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Data centers : where we put them is more important than any of the discourse trying to compare them with almond farms. drawdown.org/insights/dat...
drawdown.org
Data centers can’t come at the cost of community health and climate solutions
Data center developers will say they’re building the future, but we should first and foremost be asking: what kind of future do we really need?
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Yours in negritude, Ryan K. Smith @mewefree.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Two people tried to enter a screening of The Odyssey without buying tickets after hiding inside a miniature model of the Trojan Horse. 😂😂😂
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
TIL that San Francisco residents are allowed to keep up to two goats. missionlocal.org/2026/07/bern...
missionlocal.org
Meet Joe, Buttercup and Gary, San Francisco’s smallest goat-landscaping business
For months, Joe Corcoran had been staring down the overgrown yard in the back of the building that serves as his barbershop, before inspiration struck.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The odds that a drone will kill you is so much smaller than the odds that a heat wave will. gizmodo.com/pentagon-say...
gizmodo.com
Pentagon Says Drones Can Hide in Wind Farms, Freezing 155 Wind Projects
The Trump administration claims wind turbines pose a national security threat. The industry says it's pure politics.
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jentrification ♎ @jentrification.com · 15/07/2026
Two Minnesota solar farms seeded native wildflowers under their panels, and 5 years of counting revealed native bees had multiplied twentyfold, then crossed the fence to pollinate the neighbour's soybeans
share.google
Two Minnesota solar farms seeded native wildflowers under their panels, and 5 years of counting revealed native bees had multiplied twentyfold, then crossed the fence to pollinate the neighbour's soyb...
Two Minnesota solar farms planted 66 native species under their panels. Five years of counting revealed a staggering result that nobody had written into the engineering plan.
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Silly Sally 💙💙💙 @caturday62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
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Sisyphus Idaho @sisyphus43.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Be brave enough to suck at something new.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
I think about how the billboards on 101 are high risk/high reward -- they aren't for normal people. They are intended to influence just a teensy group of VC investors and CEOs. "AI will eliminate all jobs" was similar. It was intended to panic a small set of tech leaders into adoption/compliance.
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Trump can’t kill solar.
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Jess Nevins @jessnevins.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good fortune is in want of a coven.
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Conservation Value Solutions @win-with-nature.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
From @globalecoguy.bsky.social on Linked In - stunning and VERY telling about which climate change solutions we can trust to generate the impact we need...
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
If a data center uses 200 million gallons of water a year (and they aren't exactly open about the exact number, are they), people are quick to compare it to the 550 million gallons a year needed for 5,000 US households as a way of justifying that it isn't that bad. (1/2)
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Given that the most dangerous part of a robbery for passersby is the car chase, I welcome our new robot taxi getaway drivers.
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San Francisco Chronicle @sfchronicle.com · 14/06/2026
After breaking into a yoga studio in San Francisco and stealing activewear, a burglar made his getaway in an autonomous Waymo in what police said was a novel case in the city.
bit.ly
Get-a-Waymo: How a burglar used a robotaxi to flee the scene in a first-of-its kind S.F. case
After breaking into a yoga studio in San Francisco and stealing activewear, a burglar made his getaway in an autonomous Waymo in what police said was a novel case in the city.
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Andy Boyle @andymboyle.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
did you guys know they still allowed good news
abcnews.com
Solar generates more energy than coal in US for 1st time: Report
The amount of solar power generated in the U.S. is continuing to grow.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Use is not the same as impact.
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Stephen Leahy @stephenleahy.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
This is from nearly 2 years ago; costs are even lower: Need-to-Know: Solar is now cheaper than wooden fencing The price of solar panels has plunged 60% in the past TWO years leahy.substack.com/p/1000-nucle...
leahy.substack.com
1000 Nuclear Reactors
That's how much solar and wind electricity could be plugged in.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
I need this as a sticker on my laptop
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Ross Floate @rossfloate.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken
sinceyouarrived.world
taken.
A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
The funny thing is that one of the things I find unpleasant about the suburbs is also cars.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
You better believe I just mentally ranked the dozens of coworkers who I've worked with who fall into the dingy side of this spectrum.
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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Look, for my money the absolute game changer technologies right now are batteries and biosciences, not statistically modeling a mid conversation, but you do you.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
So strange to watch the leader of your country seem to start a new sect because he doesn't like the moral stance that the Pope insists applies to him. Oh, hi, England. Didn't see you standing there.
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Even Trump’s bad policies can't stop renewables now. www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...
canarymedia.com
In a first, renewables beat natural gas on US grid last month
It’s just one month, but it’s a sign of where the U.S. is headed as renewable energy — namely solar — surges onto the grid.
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Did you know that cement is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions? Most of this is tied to cement chemistry, not to fossil fuels. It emits ~5% of global GHGs...roughly 2-3x what aviation does. Fortunately, there are solutions to this! Check them out here: drawdown.org/explorer/imp...
drawdown.org
Improve Cement Production
Improve Cement Production is a Highly Recommended climate solution. It involves using low GHG-emitting materials & reducing emissions from fossil-fuel burning.
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Justin from librarypunk @smazzie.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
attackfish Follow
2d ago
As it is Passover again, it is time for the annual debate as to whether the frog plague, which thanks to a quirk in the Hebrew, is written as a plague of frog, singular, rather than the plural, plague of frogs, was in fact, as generally imagined, a plague of many frogs, or instead a singular giant Kaiju frog. This is an ancient and venerable argument that actually goes back to the Talmud because this is what the Jewish people are. If we can't argue for fun about this sort of thing, what are we even doing.
In that spirit, I would like to submit a third possibility, which is that in fact it was one perfectly normal sized frog, who was absolutely acing Untitled Frog Game: Ancient Egypt Edition. One particularly obnoxious frog, who through sheer hard work, managed to plague all of Egypt.
koshercosplay Follow
1d ago
it is a beautiful day in ancient egypt
and you are a horrible frog
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 04/04/2026
It's indeed possible to beat bad things backed by big money
futurism.com
Almost Half of US Data Centers That Were Supposed to Open This Year Slated to Be Canceled or Delayed
The vast majority of data centers scheduled for completion over the next few years have yet to even break ground.
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xatharine @xatharine.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
No, and also, fuck you, you fucking fucks.
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#c0ffee 🇺🇦🏳️‍⚧️ @caffeinated-dev.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
IT Support to Major Tom You're Outlook's dead, there's something wrong Can you ping me, Major Tom? Can you ping me, Major Tom?
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
The fact is, methane has caused about 30% of the warming we have seen to date. And all non-CO2 warming pollution, taken together, has caused about half of the warming so far. And of the CO2 warming we have seen, a big chunk of that has been caused by deforestation.
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