Tim Bell

I’ll be hanging out on Bluesky more than the other place now. I’ve switched over my profile pic so you can see I’m a real person (wearing a hat and standing on a NZ glacier). To help people coming from the other place, this is what my profile pic looked like there:

This is one of the most holy sh*t stories I’ve ever read in my life. www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-...

Humiliating and dangerous: Trump has now finally just made America an ally of the Kremlin and is aiding Putin in his war against an American friend and partner. Shameful betrayal of a US friend, and pathetic submission to a US enemy. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

We’ve been talking about this for years. None of these far-right movements are organic.

For a long time I've wanted a sense of how trump has or hasn't interacted with chatbots (we know he posts a lot of slop sure). And this TIME anecdote about Grok arguably leading Trump into war is just extremely bracing

I love this paper so much. If I had my way every single journalist, pundit, analyst, and politician in the US would read it & then read it again. I want to quote all of it. www.frontiersin.org/journals/soc...

Australia has 72 F-35s in the RAAF. What does the Defence Minster have to say about this? The PM? @albomp.bsky.social

Discworld QOTD, from The Truth “So... we have what the people are interested in, and human interest stories, which is what humans are interested in, and the public interest, which no one is interested in.”

Terry, as always, with a depressingly accurate view of human nature: funny shaped vegetables are of more interest to the average person than deeply reported stories of powerful wrongdoing

"Inside Centcom, which conducted the US attack, some personnel relied too much on the artificial intelligence embedded in Maven Smart System, the officials said. Maven, which is made by Palantir..." Inside the US ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

NEW: Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin Umar Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses at Donald Trump Jr.’s lavish wedding, including renting out a private island and paying for the fireworks show.

One of the stubborn dynamics in climate politics is conservatives being simply unwilling to believe that their ideological opponents were/are right about something very important. Lots of conservatives really did covince themselves it was all a conspiracy to impose more government control.

IT’S HERE! Out custom-engraved bottle of champagne is chilling as we speak! #WhenItHappens

A new paper out of MIT investigates "The Net Climate Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)." Tries to weigh immediate carbon impacts, possible improvements in decarb tech, impacts of accelerated growth, etc.

Sick. My @smh @theage cartoon.

I have not the slightest notion of how @firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social hoovered up all my brain thoughts, emptied out the dust bag, and then sorted through the detritus for the makings of a magnificent 'toon... BUT HE DID!! x

It's First Dog's handy hints on how to live your best life! (firstly try not to die) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Carl saw this coming

The Negotiating Table by Nick Anderson

Folks: here's a meaty long read for you on how Australia's data centre industry lobbied (successfully) to kill regulations that would force them to cover their new demand with renewables And how (this is spicy) the desire within some climate/energy spaces to see data centres as 'cleantech' helped

ICYMI, over the past two weeks, English-language Wikipedia editors have engaged in a successful effort to change the first paragraph of the Republican Party entry to reflect its current status as a "neo-nationalist" political party. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republi...

Gotta love these 10 "Coward-in-a-Crate" memes!* *a/k/a "Bone-Spurs-in-a-Box" Collect 'em ALL!!! 😂 😍 😜 👍

Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.

BREAKING: Capital One bank closed Trump’s accounts in 2021 over money laundering, per a new court filing. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

6. It's tempting to call Trump insane, but I suggest we think of the intent as being faithful to the result, which is to say that his tariffs were a statutory and constitutional crime, and that crimes are what criminals do.

"Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity." Carl Sagan

is there a pulitzer for photo captions because if so @theguardian.com just won it

Regardless of politics, we can all agree that the President should stop lying to the American people about Iran’s capabilities, right? It’s insane that we’re sticking to the “completely obliterated” lie while Iran is actively killing Americans.

Last-Ever Global Warming Report Released For Posterity

Discworld QOTD, from Snuff

Well, the fireworks began on the Fifth of July.

In which, on the 4th of July, I go through Hannah Arendt's amazing analysis of "the pursuit of happiness" and ask what we can learn. Short answer: the revolution will not be televised, because it's mostly the unglamorous, unheroic work of "public happiness", of learning to live well together.

Really enjoy @timhollo.bsky.social ‘s writing. Here’s another thoughtful piece for your Sunday reading. in-between-days.ghost.io/the-pursuit-...

Are America's founding principles being challenged?

I'll summarize this: Mamdani asked NYers to keep air conditioning at 78 degrees. A wave criticism hit online. A MSNBC broadcast pointed out the US Department of Energy recommends that 78 degree figure. Immediately after, the US Department of Energy deleted 6,000 web pages related to energy saving.

This is a great example of what's called "pluralistic ignorance" -- the phenomenon whereby most people share a particular view, but they *don't think other people share it*. In this case: most people are concerned about climate change but think others aren't.

7. I really hate how social media reduces complex issues to team sports, pro & con, good & evil, thus relieving everyone of the burden of actually learning anything or grappling honestly with trade-offs. You don't have to do that! You can hashtag-resist.

It’s a bit foggy in Melbourne/Naarm

When people invoke a “black swan event,” they mean the unthinkable: a shock that comes from nowhere. The arrival of #H5N1 bird flu on the Australian mainland is many things. Unexpected is not one of them. This virus could spell the end for our black swans thepoint.com.au/opinions/aus...

The viral fake quote attributed to Jeff Bezos got me thinking about how, in contrast to the fossil industry's disinfo campaigns, big tech is just destroying our shared reality from the inside out Inside media outlets, inside academia and yes, inside climate organisations and institutions as well ->

Trump was adamant he had not been out-negotiated, claiming he had brought Iran to its knees. “They know who calls the shots around here,” he said, wearing an “I ❤️ Tehran” cap. Read more: theshovel.com.au/2026/06/22/b...

Account kenwhite.bsky.social was suspended by moderation.bsky.app The account was 1150 days old at the time of banning. #BskyBans #veryOldAccountBan

It looks like Popehat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) has been suspended! Any ideas why? Cc: @popehatnamechanges.bsky.social

Happy Father's Day 🖤

“We were left with no option but to come to the negotiating table and accept billions of dollars,” a Cuban spokesperson said. Read more: theshovel.com.au/2026/06/19/cuba-offers-to-give-up-nuclear-weapons-its-not-developing-in-return-for-us300b/

"So ... so I said ... why not sign your treaty here, at Versailles?"