John Timmer

Defund the police: something that never really happened, but everybody talked about. Defund the scientists: something that's actually happening, but almost nobody's talking about in those terms.

Here we are folks: demand gold standard science from others, say "fuck it, anything goes" for their own ideas.

If you were wondering about the lack of opposition to massive research cuts from the investor class, and you think "surely they can't be so stupid that they fail to realize that most startups that get launched arise from government-funded, fundamental research", well, maybe it's time to think again.

I had "aunts" and "uncles" I wasn't even related to at all, and three of my four grandparents were born in Europe.

I managed to typo "suffering" so badly that autocorrect suggested "subfreezing" as a possible fix.

Westinghouse is saying it's made a deal with the US government to build $80B in new nuclear reactors. The Dept. of Energy, however, has nothing on its website about it. And, while $80B sounds like a lot, it's only about 5 full sized reactors total.

There are jokes to be made here about guys being assholes, so have at it: "Our results suggest that the bilaterian anus shares a deep evolutionary relationship with the xenacoelomorph male gonopore."

2025 year to date increase in solar production: 55 TW-hr 2025 year to date decrease in natural gas use: 52 TW-hr So far at least, it looks like solar is largely displacing flexible generating sources. Unfortunately, rising demand is being met by coal. (numbers are US only)

Can't decide whether I'm more annoyed at the fact that our democracy is being severely eroded, or that the people doing the eroding are such complete and utter tools.

This was being used regarding LLMs, but it applies just as well to politics these days.

MEMO To: all drivers From: all cyclists Please be aware that every time you edge your car out into the intersection because you think the bike that has the right of way doesn't need the whole lane, I'm going to slow down because I worry that you're completely unaware of my existence.

One of the reasons the big lie worked after the 2020 election is that lots of people in rural were completely unaware of the spontaneous celebrations that went on in cities after the election was called. These protests need to get big enough and pervasive enough that everybody knows about them.

The war on science is going to turn getting a PhD into something only the wealthy can do. Which I suspect is something the administration is perfectly comfortable with.