Solar Sarah
@solarwindsarah.bsky.social
geologist working in renewable energy - yes they need geologists too and i'd rather not sell my soul to oil&gas thank you
Pinned
Solar Sarah
@solarwindsarah.bsky.social
· Nov 20
I'm a geologist working in renewable energy development - so i'm either looking at foundation drawings and shaking my head or looking at rocks and shaking my head a lot. It's a fun gig :-)
Reposted by Solar Sarah
👀 Irish data centres are now using 22% of all electricity generated in Ireland, more than all urban homes combined & drawing an unquantified amount (lots) of Ireland’s water capacity
Could AI demands be related to recent push to fast-track infrastructure, side-step safeguards & reduce court access?
Could AI demands be related to recent push to fast-track infrastructure, side-step safeguards & reduce court access?
A new state-by-state evaluation of the projected energy and water use of "AI" data centers in the US. Looks… real bad. Like, "undoing tech sector climate gains" bad.
Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA - Nature Sustainability
The rapid expansion of AI server installations in the United States poses sustainability challenges in terms of water usage and carbon emissions. A study now quantifies these potential impacts and out...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 10:12 AM
👀 Irish data centres are now using 22% of all electricity generated in Ireland, more than all urban homes combined & drawing an unquantified amount (lots) of Ireland’s water capacity
Could AI demands be related to recent push to fast-track infrastructure, side-step safeguards & reduce court access?
Could AI demands be related to recent push to fast-track infrastructure, side-step safeguards & reduce court access?
Reposted by Solar Sarah
"is bullied" respectfully, institutions don't have feelings. They gave in because they wanted to.
First the Girl Guides and now another venerable British institution is bullied (and capitulates) into discrimination against their will by another fine British institution: the pure bigotry of a small cabal of the meddling rich and a craven media whipping up a moral panic
Women’s Institute will no longer accept trans women as members from April
Exclusive: CEO says decision taken with ‘utmost regret and sadness’ after supreme court ruling on definition of a woman
www.theguardian.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:28 PM
"is bullied" respectfully, institutions don't have feelings. They gave in because they wanted to.
Reposted by Solar Sarah
“The math is brutal and the juxtaposition stark: millions for OpenAI while pink slips go out to longtime lecturers. The CSU isn’t investing in education—it’s outsourcing it, paying premium prices for a chatbot many students were already using for free.“
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 3, 2025 at 2:58 AM
“The math is brutal and the juxtaposition stark: millions for OpenAI while pink slips go out to longtime lecturers. The CSU isn’t investing in education—it’s outsourcing it, paying premium prices for a chatbot many students were already using for free.“
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
Reposted by Solar Sarah
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
December 1, 2025 at 11:09 AM
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
Elaine Miles is an icon. WTF!
Indigenous actress Elaine Miles of "Northern Exposure" was detained by ICE at a Redmond bus stop. When she showed them her Tribal ID, they told her it was fake
‘Northern Exposure’ actor gave ICE agents in Redmond her tribal ID. They called it ‘fake,’ she says
Indigenous actor Elaine Miles of "Northern Exposure" was detained by ICE at a Redmond bus stop. When she showed them her Tribal ID, they told her it was fake.
www.seattletimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Elaine Miles is an icon. WTF!
Reposted by Solar Sarah
Reposted by Solar Sarah
Reposted by Solar Sarah
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
@mrjamesob.bsky.social i'm reminded by this on your property tax discussion. American but the UK has the same disease
November 25, 2025 at 10:40 AM
@mrjamesob.bsky.social i'm reminded by this on your property tax discussion. American but the UK has the same disease
how wonderful!
One of my favorite things is getting to tell friends who are new to NYC that the subway "stand clear of the closing doors please" voice is a trans woman named Bernie Wagenblast and she's amazing.
November 25, 2025 at 9:34 AM
how wonderful!
Reposted by Solar Sarah
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
Reposted by Solar Sarah
Reposted by Solar Sarah
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
November 23, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
Reposted by Solar Sarah
Too late. Marco Rubio already spilled the truth. The so called peace plan was Russia’s wish list, not something the US drafted. He’s trying to walk it back but the damage is done.
He’s scrambling.
He’s scrambling.
November 23, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Too late. Marco Rubio already spilled the truth. The so called peace plan was Russia’s wish list, not something the US drafted. He’s trying to walk it back but the damage is done.
He’s scrambling.
He’s scrambling.
Reposted by Solar Sarah
If you’re a journalist who’s still on Twitter, from now on in your writing you have to replace “the American people want” with “troll bots in Eastern Europe demand”
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
November 23, 2025 at 4:27 PM
If you’re a journalist who’s still on Twitter, from now on in your writing you have to replace “the American people want” with “troll bots in Eastern Europe demand”
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Reposted by Solar Sarah
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
November 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
Reposted by Solar Sarah
We saw it with big tobacco, we saw it with the fossil fuels industry. When their own internal research showed the harm from their product, the defunded the research and attacked independent researchers coming to the very same conclusions.
#ScienceUnderSiege
#ScienceUnderSiege
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges
Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:59 AM
We saw it with big tobacco, we saw it with the fossil fuels industry. When their own internal research showed the harm from their product, the defunded the research and attacked independent researchers coming to the very same conclusions.
#ScienceUnderSiege
#ScienceUnderSiege
Reposted by Solar Sarah
talkin' about the AI bubble
November 20, 2025 at 6:56 PM
talkin' about the AI bubble
AI is just making everyone stupid while destroying trust and the environment.
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 11:18 AM
AI is just making everyone stupid while destroying trust and the environment.
Reposted by Solar Sarah
You ever just sit down and realize that the rise of 21st century fascism is capital's answer to climate change?
November 21, 2025 at 9:25 AM
You ever just sit down and realize that the rise of 21st century fascism is capital's answer to climate change?
Reposted by Solar Sarah
The stakes: If the 2003 European heatwave was repeated in a world 1.5C hotter (basically now), it would kill 18,000 people in a week
- that is comparable to peak COVID-19 mortality
#cop30 #climatecrisis
HT @carbonbrief.org
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- that is comparable to peak COVID-19 mortality
#cop30 #climatecrisis
HT @carbonbrief.org
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Increasing risk of mass human heat mortality if historical weather patterns recur - Nature Climate Change
The authors couple calculations of historical heatwave intensity at present and future global temperatures with exposure–response functions to quantify mortality from extreme heat events in Europe. Th...
www.nature.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:35 PM
The stakes: If the 2003 European heatwave was repeated in a world 1.5C hotter (basically now), it would kill 18,000 people in a week
- that is comparable to peak COVID-19 mortality
#cop30 #climatecrisis
HT @carbonbrief.org
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- that is comparable to peak COVID-19 mortality
#cop30 #climatecrisis
HT @carbonbrief.org
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Solar Sarah
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
![Excerpt from a BBC article: ""We usually work, 10, 11 or 12 hours a day," says a 49-year-old woman from Jiangxi unwilling to give her name. "On Sundays we work around three hours less."
She is in an alleyway, where a dozen people are huddled around a row of bulletin boards.
They are reading the job ads on the board, while examining the stitching on a pair of chinos draped over it.
This is Shein's supply chain. The factories are contracted to make clothes on order - some small, some big. If the chinos are a hit, orders will ramp up and so must production. Factories then hire temporary workers to meet the demand their permanent staff cannot fulfil.
The migrant worker from Jiangxi is looking for a short-term contract - and the chinos are an option.
"We earn so little. The cost of living is now so high," she says, adding that she hopes to make enough to send back to her two children who are living with their grandparents.
"We get paid per piece," she explains. "It depends how difficult the item is. Something simple like a t-shirt is one-two yuan [less than a dollar] per piece and I can make around a dozen in an hour.""](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ks3gpa6ftoyaq7hmf6c4qx4c/bafkreiber7g4o5pujmzmjjzsp5dkz7blfexburuwjispfpv6dki7akjb7a@jpeg)
November 20, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
she didn't know what the fourth commandment was
as always with people like this, it's just hypocrisy - all of it
as always with people like this, it's just hypocrisy - all of it
Oh my.
James Talarico is incredibly skilled in dismantling Christian Nationalists.
Get this man in the Senate.
James Talarico is incredibly skilled in dismantling Christian Nationalists.
Get this man in the Senate.
November 20, 2025 at 8:35 AM
she didn't know what the fourth commandment was
as always with people like this, it's just hypocrisy - all of it
as always with people like this, it's just hypocrisy - all of it
Reposted by Solar Sarah
Winter is coming. I love the sensory experience of snowfall. The shades of monochrome and the dampened sounds. Snow sounds different at different temperatures. The intermingled smells of woodsmoke and cold air. Icy hot on your skin.
November 17, 2024 at 2:15 PM
Winter is coming. I love the sensory experience of snowfall. The shades of monochrome and the dampened sounds. Snow sounds different at different temperatures. The intermingled smells of woodsmoke and cold air. Icy hot on your skin.
Reposted by Solar Sarah
I’m still thinking about “quiet, piggy.” No president should be able to speak to a member of the press that way and remain president. That moment encapsulates how vile, misogynistic, and horrible that man is.
November 18, 2025 at 2:34 PM
I’m still thinking about “quiet, piggy.” No president should be able to speak to a member of the press that way and remain president. That moment encapsulates how vile, misogynistic, and horrible that man is.