Author | Lightnews

Bryan McAvoy

@bryanmcavoy.bsky.social

720 followers 430 following 270 posts

Former NWS met, currently involved in state air quality work. Read the same cyberpunk novels the tech bros did. Reached different conclusions. Ardent Bokononist. Don't follow me! I mainly repost, which is to say, there is no original content herein. (:

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Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

cow tools daily @cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social · 18h

43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.

The original Far Side Cow Tools Cartoon by Gary Larson. A cow stands on its hind legs behind a table, staring blankly at the viewer from behind its heavy brow ridge. On the table are four crudely made tools: a lump, a lump with an offset crooked handle, a long stick with hooked prongs at the end, and a crude handsaw with irregular teeth. In the background a barn sits on a hill. Caption reads, "Cow tools."

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Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 1d

Sigh. Amped-up global heat redistribution engine goes whirrrrrrrrrrrr

Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 1d

While I do enjoy watching the Taskmaster podcast, that's my only exception.

Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 1d

90% chance he cheated on it anyway

Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Jeremy DeHart @jeremydehartwx.bsky.social · 1d

From a crewmember on yesterday's Teal 74 mission into now-Category 5 Hurricane #Melissa. As clear of an eye as you will see in the Atlantic basin.

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Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 19

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

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Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 1d

Come on guys. He draws a clock for Stephen Miller everyday. And it's perfect

Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 1d

The bones of an idol?

Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Alissa Azar @alissaazar.bsky.social · 2d

Portland City Councilor @counciloravalos.bsky.social woke up to her car and home engulfed in flames late last night. She had to grab her cat and escape to safety.

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Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, that's a Hurricane Hunter. All good. Well, among the very few things that ARE good, that is one.

Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 2d

I will definitely watch this one this evening. Those chairs don't look particularly comfortable... speaking of enshittification.

Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 4d

Isn't that basically feudalism?

Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 5d

August and Everything After by the Counting Crows. (Is that weird?)

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 7d

I keep saying “it’s almost impossible to explain how corrupt this is” but then something like this happens that’s even MORE corrupt:

Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 7d

President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him.

Whether he gets paid will ultimately be up to DOJ's second-in-command, who was recently his personal lawyer.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...

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Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Jeff Seidman (he/him) @jeffsseidman.bsky.social · 7d

#Greensky : Webinar TOMORROW (noon EST, 10/22): "Battery Energy Storage Systems: Getting to Yes and Getting it Right." The webinar aims to help local communities and their elected officials understand the benefits of grid-sale batteries as well as safety concerns. Register here: shorturl.at/d8QXa

Poster advertising a webinar. Title: "Battery Energy Storage Systems: Getting to Yes and Doing it Right." Description: "Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are essential to modernizing the electric grid to accommodate increased use of renewables and ensure reliability. What do communities need to know about planning, permitting, safety, zoning, and bringing neighbors into the planning process to get to YES in adopting this technology on appropriate sites?" With Nick Petrackis, P.E., Director of Engineering, ESRG; Jeffrey Seidman, PhD Vassar College, Veronica Ciechowska Polanco, Clean Energy Siting Project Mangager NYSERDA." The event is Oct. 22, 2025, 12:00PM - 1:00PM via Zoom. Registration Link: https://shorturl.at/d8QXa

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Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Dave Lee @davelee.me · 7d

WELL HOW ABOUT THAT

"A millionaire levy in Massachusetts has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing significant high-profile departures from the state."

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Millionaire Tax That Inspired Mamdani Fuels $5.7 Billion Haul in Massachusetts

A millionaire levy in Massachusetts that New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani holds up as a model for taxing the rich has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing...

www.bloomberg.com

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Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 8d

One of the more shocking images of the past several years. Probably up there with the qanon shaman standing at the dais of the Senate.

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Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 8d

Truly Christmas for nerds. (:

Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 10d

I rarely resort to scripture but all those Sunday School hours sometimes come in handy. #NoKings 🐸

Protest sign leaning against a tree. Text says:

Exodus 8:2
If you refuse to let my people go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country.

# no ice
# no kings.

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Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 11d

Wikipedia is seeing a significant decline in human traffic because more people are getting the information that’s on Wikipedia via generative AI chatbots that were trained on its articles and search engines that summarize them without actually clicking to the site

www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...

Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors

“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”

www.404media.co

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Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 13d

Keep it up. I'm as liberal as they come, but one does have to deal with objective reality.

Bryan McAvoy @bryanmcavoy.bsky.social · 15d

I didn't realize a Jones Act compliant wind turbine installation vessel had been put in service. That's cool in and of itself.

Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 15d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Tobias S. Buckell @tobiasbuckell.bsky.social · Sep 28

Between the search becoming almost useless, to websites becoming ad-rotted, infused nightmares, the web has become functionally dystopian.

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Reposted by Bryan McAvoy

Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 16d

“One of my previously published studies found that for every additional 10 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter of air there was a corresponding 10 percent increase in infertility risk.”

She Found a Link Between Air Pollution and Infertility

www.nytimes.com

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