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ofnumbers
@ofnumbers.bsky.social
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levparikian.bsky.social
250 million birds flew across America last night, tracked by radar. Migration season is upon us, and it’s wilder than you could imagine.

Birdcast’s live migration maps and forecasts (from Cornell Lab of Ornithology) are brilliant, and you can find them here. birdcast.org/migration-to...
August 27, 2026 at 7:59 PM
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arstechnica.com
Hunter-gatherers in Siberia died of a plague outbreak 5,500 years ago
We can't blame the Neolithic Transition for the plague anymore.
arstechnica.com
June 18, 2026 at 3:06 PM
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jsrailton.bsky.social
NEW: malware developers added nuclear & biological weapons text to to their spyware.

Goal? To trigger LLM safety refusals... so that their spyware wouldn't be analyzed by an AI security scanner.

Cleanest practical example I can think of for why over-indexing on first order "safety" is risky. 1/
June 10, 2026 at 11:25 AM
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grahamj.bsky.social
I'll admit I haven't read a lot of WOTR in recent years, but this on the actual utility and pitfalls of AI/LLMs for nuclear escalation and wargaming (by @nktpnd.bsky.social and @areddie.bsky.social), is quite good:
I’m Sorry, Dave. I’m Afraid I Can’t De-escalate: On (AI) Wargaming and Nuclear War
Recent experiments placing large language models in simulated nuclear crises have produced alarming headlines. “Bloodthirsty” AI systems escalate
warontherocks.com
April 28, 2026 at 6:35 PM
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erictopol.bsky.social
Microplastics and nanoplastics were found in 100% of healthy brains, 99.4% of diseased brains, with much higher concentrations adjacent to brain tumors
nature.com/articles/s44...
April 20, 2026 at 4:28 PM
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alexsteffen.bsky.social
I hadn't seen this before. This is pretty remarkable.

Earth and Moon in one NASA photo.

ht @astrokatie.com
Earth and Moon from DSCOVR NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured this unique view of the Moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth last month. This view shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the moon that is never visible from Earth. Ian Regan processed this version of the image to account for the Moon's motion. NASA / NOAA / Ian Regan
April 6, 2026 at 8:19 PM
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theferocity.bsky.social
“11 sperm whales huddled together at the surface, strangely still and taking occasional shallow dives. After about an hour, the animals seemed to start thrashing, and a plume of blood reddened the water. The researchers feared trouble, maybe a shark attack. But it was something else.”

WHALE DOULAS!
Scientists Filmed a Whale Birth. The Surprise: Mom Had Many Helpers.
www.nytimes.com
March 27, 2026 at 5:30 AM
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erictopol.bsky.social
How a Covid mRNA vaccine can extend healthspan, delay age-related organ deterioration and promote resilience to systemic inflammation, via inducing p16-high immune cells, independent of its benefit vs the virus.
www.cell.com/immunity/abs...
March 26, 2026 at 4:10 PM
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fxmc1957.bsky.social
FACT OF THE DAY. 26 March 1953. In a huge medical breakthrough, US medical researcher Dr Jonas Salk announced that he had created the first polio vaccine. Polio cases fell from 58,000 per year in 1952 to 6,000 by 1958. Salk’s vaccine was replaced by a new one developed by Albert Sabin in 1962.
March 26, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by ofnumbers
masnick.com
There's a six page appendix listing out all of the many many times these lawyers appeared to rely on hallucinated citations. YIKES.
clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social Mrs. Detective Pikajew, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · Mar 17
Everyone stfu the Sixth Circuit issued *gigantic* AI sanctions

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
We wholeheartedly agree. Irion and Egli breached the trust that we must have in the lawyers appearing before us. They have brought the profession into disrepute. Irion's and Egli's failure to comply with the basic rules of our profession has forced us and the City to unnecessarily expend time and resources on a case that should have been litigated and resolved straightforwardly but was not. More importantly, by breaching our trust, we can no longer rely on the representations in Irion's and Egli's briefs, harming both their clients (whose cases are now viewed with skepticism and this court who must now independently verify everything Irion and Egli write. Finally, Irion and Egli have sullied the reputation of our bar, which now must litigate under the cloud of their conduct. We therefore issue these sanctions to Irion and Egli, the rationales for which we will explain below: 1. Irion and Egli must jointly and severally reimburse appellees in full for their reasonable attorneys' fees on appeal in all three appeals. 2. Irion and Egli must jointly and severally pay double costs to appellees for costs incurred under 28 U.S.C. § 1920 on appeal in all three appeals. 3. Appellees must file an accounting of their costs and attorneys' fees on appeal, with supporting documentation, no later than seven days from the date of this order. Irion and Egli shall file any responses or objections to appellees' requests for costs and attorneys' fees on appeal no later than seven days thereafter. There will be no replies. 4. Irion and Egli must each separately and individually pay $15,000 to the registry of this court as punitive sanctions for the proceedings in this court in all three appeals. 5. The clerk will forward a copy of this order to the chief judge to consider disciplinary proceedings under Sixth Circuit Local Rule 46. 6. If Irion and Egli are financially unable to comply with some or all of the requirements of this order, they must file an affidavit under seal describing their financial situation along with their objections to appellees' fee requests.
March 17, 2026 at 11:54 PM
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jigarshahdc.bsky.social
The energy transition isn’t mainly about replacing fuels—it’s about switching from inefficient heat-based systems (molecules) to efficient electrical systems (electrons).
open.substack.com/pub/electrot...
Reframing Energy for the Age of Electricity
We need to count energy from the perspective of the consumer in order to understand the changes sweeping the energy sector
open.substack.com
March 16, 2026 at 12:18 AM
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70sbachchan.bsky.social
Wait what
theconversation.com/the-worlds-2...
The world’s 280 million electric bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars
Electric vehicles get all the press – but it’s the smaller unsung two wheelers cutting oil demand the most.
theconversation.com
February 21, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by ofnumbers
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss.”

“Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath

Some costs aren’t costs.
One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss
Copenhagen, the bicycle-friendliest place on the planet, publishes a biannual Bicycle Account, and buried in its pages is a rather astonishing fact.
grist.org
February 23, 2026 at 5:48 AM
Reposted by ofnumbers
timkellogg.me
Token Anxiety

i think i mostly echo this for myself. with so much that can be done, i often feel like i *should* be doing something, always
Token Anxiety Nikunj Kothari C @nikunj • Feb 13 A friend left a party at 9:30 on a Saturday. Not tired. Not sick. He wanted to get back to his agents. Nobody questions it anymore. Half the room is thinking the same thing. The other half are probably checking the progress of their agents. At a party. All the parties are sober now. Young people don't drink because they're going back to work after. Not inspired by Bryan Johnson, although that's probably a factor. The buzz they want now runs on tokens per day. I keep noticing it on walks through the Mission. Laptops glowing everywhere. Cafes, sidewalks, heck even park benches. People walking with screens open like a flashlight guiding them somewhere. Less drunk laughter on the streets these days. More keystrokes. Dinner conversations used to start with "what are you building?" That's over. Now it's "how many agents do you have running?" People drop the number the way they used to drop their follower count. Quietly competitive. The flex isn't what you've accomplished anymore. It's what's working while you're sitting here not working. The vocabulary is what really gets me though. People describe models the way sommeliers describe wine. This one has better taste. That one hallucinates with more confidence. Opus is bold, Codex is smooth. They talk about harnesses and reins like they're controlling horses. Invisible whips directing invisible labor. Someone at a dinner said they keep labor. Someone at a dinner said they keep "Claude on a tight leash for code review but give it more slack for creative work." We've started borrowing the language of how we treat animals for something none of us actually understand yet. Waking up and checking what your agents produced overnight is the first thing now. Before coffee. Before texts. You open your laptop and grade homework you assigned in your sleep. Some of it is good. Most needs rework. But you start shipping a plan before you sleep just so you can wake up to more code written overnight. Saturdays became uninterrupted build windows. No meetings, no Slack, twelve hours of you and your agents. Sunday morning X is all terminal screenshots and shipping receipts. "What'd you ship this weekend?" replaced "what'd you do this weekend?" The anxiety is rational, which is why it sticks. Every week some new benchmark drops that makes last month's workflow feel prehistoric. Codex ships overnight processing. Opus gets faster. Context windows double. None of it reduces the pressure. It multiplies it. You can do more now. And someone already is. The window to be first at anything feels like it's shrinking by the day. Literally, by the day. I replaced Netflix with Claude Code. I lie in bed thinking about what I can spin up before I fall asleep, what can run while I'm unconscious. Reading a novel feels indulgent now. Watching a movie without a laptop open feels wasteful. This voice in my head that says "something could be running right now" just doesn't shut off. I'm not even building a company. I'm just addicted to building my random ideas. Everyone here knows they should step away more. That's not the problem. The problem is what your brain does when you try. I still take a x ss walks. The agents come with me now.
February 15, 2026 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by ofnumbers
xkcd.com
Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

xkcd.com/3204/
Comic. [2x2 chart. Top left quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of dinosaurs stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor, and long-neck dinosaur. Top right quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, and pteranodon. Bottom left quadrant: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of penguin, egret, ostrich, pigeon, falcon. Bottom right: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of squirrel, stapler, plant, person, and bicycle.]
February 9, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by ofnumbers
wired.com
A new analysis tries to calculate the coming environmental footprint of AI in the US and finds that the ideal sites for data centers aren’t where they’re being built.
If the US Has to Build Data Centers, Here’s Where They Should Go
A new analysis tries to calculate the coming environmental footprint of AI in the US and finds that the ideal sites for data centers aren’t where they’re being built.
wrd.cm
November 16, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by ofnumbers
jennelias.bsky.social
Waymo is set to begin offering robotaxi rides on freeways in San Francisco, LA and Phoenix. The company also installed additional infrastructure needed to charge its fleet of electric robotaxis given the freeway expansion. cnb.cx/3JZsj1B
Waymo begins offering freeway robotaxi rides in San Francisco, LA and Phoenix
The Google sister company has been testing robotaxi freeway rides with employees for more than a year.
cnb.cx
November 12, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by ofnumbers
anthonylydgate.bsky.social
"In the room for 5- to 7-year-olds, a large TV on one wall displays circle charts that update every minute with completion rates and other metrics from each student’s personalized learning software" www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...
Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out
In Brownsville, Texas, some families found a buzzy new school’s methods—surveillance of kids, software in lieu of teachers—to be an education in and of itself.
www.wired.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by ofnumbers
chyr.bsky.social
We're excited to reveal Strata, a strategy game we developed for Board, a new game console that blends physical and digital play: board.fun

In Strata, you use physical 3D blocks to claim territory and outmaneuver opponents.

Tetris meets Chess.
October 28, 2025 at 11:04 PM
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erictopol.bsky.social
Plenty of amyloid, very little tau
Low inflammatory response

nytimes.com/2025/10/07/h...
October 9, 2025 at 3:03 PM
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quantian.bsky.social
Bluesky is a site explicitly founded by cryptocurrency libertarians with the idea that it would be a decentralized platform where users would be free to choose the open-source moderation and algorithmic feed tools they wanted, and by accident acquired a power userbase that hates all of those things.
opinionhaver.bsky.social William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · Oct 3
Are people mad at the Bluesky ceo for a real reason or an internet madness reason?
October 3, 2025 at 2:37 PM
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leebillings.bsky.social
Now on @sciam.bsky.social: A fresh look at old Cassini data shows surprising chemical complexity brewing within Enceladus. This time we've found oodles of chonky organic molecules that could be precursors to (or byproducts of) even chonkier biomolecules.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-l...
Is Life inside Enceladus? Saturn’s Ocean Moon Is Awash with Biology’s Raw Ingredients
A fresh analysis of old data has found rich organic chemistry within the hidden ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus
www.scientificamerican.com
October 1, 2025 at 3:29 PM
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merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
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arstechnica.com
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else?
Now that we know what Denisovans looked like, they’re turning up everywhere.
arstechnica.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:15 PM
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carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Just when you start to doubt Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s prediction — that AI will replace half of entry-level, white-collar workers within five years — a story like this comes along.

@barrons.com
www.barrons.com/articles/pas...
September 26, 2025 at 11:55 PM