Shane Mulligan

This often shocks and motivates my students when I teach this part of my course. Last I looked, cost of solving energy poverty in low income countries is ~3-5% of annual energy infrastructure spending. That would electrify ~600-700 million people *and* provide clean cooking to>2 billion.

Never forget, a 13-year study found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all road users. ALL ROAD USERS. What about painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all. For sharrows, it’s actually safer to NOT have them. Via @usa.streetsblog.org @nyc.streetsblog.org

Oh, Canada, Our home on native land...

Normalise emailing people to say you read and enjoyed their work. Academia can be a bleak conveyorbelt of endless negative feedback. Sometimes it's hard to know whether anyone values your work. That's why it means so much when someone takes the time to message and say so! Be that person.

It is. Today's kids will tell their kids they were alive at one-point-five. Unless the parents hurry up and shift the baseline.

◥ Books containing AI-generated text, in whole or in part, are not eligible. [Aspiring vibe-authors take note.]

Anyone in #WaterlooRegion (esp. #Kitchener) still debating their votes today will benefit from taking a few minutes to read this article by @dtkmelissa.bsky.social informed by a lot of time spent watching who does what at those local government meetings. citified.substack.com/p/municipal-...

🧵. ICYMI, watch this excellent overview from Juice, then sign the petition we should never have to sign: for the fundamental democratic right to peacefully protest. #auspol

The view has improved somewhat. resultados.tse.jus.br/oficial/app/...

your yearly PSA: want to do something positive wrt the ecosystem while saving yourself a bunch of time and effort? skip the bagging and just rake leaves into a pile wherever convenient (bonus points if you do it under a tree). www.nps.gov/articles/000...

Betting markets are breaking towards Lula as we speak. If he beats Hospital Man Jr., even with all of the corrupt bullshit — from bus services shut down to Zuck and Trump's government interfering — he's a Certified Dawg™.

What a day in the history of Brazil!

Alarming threads on election sabotage in Brazil today.🧵

“Winning over voters who abstained or cast null votes, and flipping as many others as possible, is at the heart of Lula’s strategy as he tries to do what no presidential candidate has ever managed in Brazil: overturn a first-round defeat like the one he suffered to Bolsonaro on 5 October.“

in salvador, they just shut down the whole bus network and the guy responsible for it just FLEW TO PARIS in são paulo, the bus network wasn't at 100% capacity (which is required by law in the election day) and we're now trying to arrest the mayor because of this they're trying everything they can

Next up in my occasional series: "Can it swim?" BATS!🦇🏊 As video captured by Rob Mackereth (@mack2526 on IG) in the Lake District, England shows, bats can indeed swim. In fact, they're pretty good little swimmers. But there's an asterisk. Also, standard disclaimer: do not handle downed bats!

www.theguardian.com/politics/vid...

Likely the most important thing I've ever written — if you're an academic and the AI mania unsettles you, here's my best shot at presenting some intellectual tools that might help you articulate why. arxiv.org/abs/2610.27251

New on the blog for #OAWeek: Join us and Penn Libraries as we take a moment to think about the benefits of offering our scholarly and creative works to the world for anyone to use, reuse, and remix without having to worry about barriers like copyright or cost. https://bit.ly/4eK0Z3o

👀 "Nigeria confirms first Ebola case" apnews.com/article/nige...

Just discovered why it feels my electricity prices are up a lot this past year. @enovapower.bsky.social in #Waterloo Region peak prices rose >28% last Nov 1.

This is vile, and spot on.

“When people say they’re doing research, I say, You’re just postponing writing.” —Mary Karr buff.ly/jgZG6lf

I don't want to sound like a broken record but... Six years ago, I reported that the world had missed *all* of its 2020 biodiversity targets. Today, the UN has reported that the world is currently off track for *all* of its 2030 biodiversity targets (!). www.cbd.int/globalreview...

A study in the South China Sea found that a deep-sea mining trial significantly disrupted the microbial ecosystem, altering nutrient cycling and energy flow. 🌊

If your publication has banned the use of AI, I'd be happy to work as your editor. @currentaffairs.bsky.social

Cleaning a pig barn at 15. Lasted 20 minutes. But I left voluntarily.

Most interviews about fascism don’t end with me almost crying about the wonders of Pacific wild salmon, but somehow this one did. One of the best conversations I’ve had on tour so far. Thank you Oli Dugmore and The Exchange. @newstatesman1913.bsky.social youtu.be/JdfMaPrMBW4

reminder that I have a podcast! it'd be cool if you listened or shared it. each week, I talk with a great guest(s) about the amazing new things we know about the medieval world, with a special eye for how the Middle Ages are understood here in the Americas. #medievalsky art19.com/shows/americ...

🖼️ Rebecca Kinkead

This is quite extraordinary. I don't think I have heard a more coherent, articulate and accurate deconstruction & demolition of Nigel Farage's ReformUK, Tory & Restore policy than this. In under 85 seconds! @rafaelbehr.bsky.social is on here folks and worth a follow.

Had to speed it up to see the Elpidiidae face fingers (oral tentacles) grabbing food. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 972 part 2 #samplinggap #MarineLife

Amphipods on a stalk. Reminds me of a flea circus. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 972 #samplinggap #MarineLife

OTD in 1881, Charles Darwin published his last book, on earthworms. It reflected a long interest in animal minds: “One alternative alone is left, namely, that worms, although standing low in the scale of organization, possess some degree of intelligence.” 🧪 🌱🐋🦋🦫 #HistSTM #philsci #pschsky #cogsci

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your CV? Editor: It's style, sir.

‘The English belief that they have the oldest and firmest nation-state, or the Spanish belief that they are on the front line with Islam – go straight back to the middle ages. The medieval period lies at the origin of modern myth-making.’ Chris Wickham RIP www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publishing/r...

1.6 km down you may see this:

😊 I made a game about British birdsong and time travel. The newest level is set in #Ely, starting about 7000 years ago... 🐦‍⬛ Listen to birds, guess who's singing, and collect the dawn chorus. 🦻It's built for accessibility and free to play bird-times.lovable.app #IndieDev #GameDev #Birdsong

gorgeous encounter with a neoteuthis just now on @schmidtocean.bsky.social's dive: www.youtube.com/live/L9dQqpf...

Ontario's government has been gradually moving toward privatizing the water sector. What could go wrong, you ask?

Alaskan waters are one of the least-explored areas in the U.S. But where researchers have gone, they’ve found unique ecosystems like this fragile deep-sea octopus nursery. This #WorldOctopusDay, add your name to defend the deep from ocean mining: https://oceana.ly/3VuK6TS

It's world octopus day! Here is a one I saw while scuba diving this summer in the Gulf of California, Mexico (aka Sea of Cortez aka Vermilion Sea). This one was very chill and not at all bothered by me watching them. I love it when they are out in the daytime!

I have been inviting leafcutter bees in my yard for several years. They enjoy young maple leaves, dogwood, and redbud especially. I once had the thrill of watching one land on a redbud—snip snip snip snip—and fly off with a fresh bit of leaf tucked under its little bee arm.