James Temple

Happy 1,000th Connections day to all who celebrate.

True, add salt and pepper and lemon, and don't overcook it and a standard roast chicken is fantastic. But I have to say the roast chicken I had the one time I went to Bouchon Bistro was pretty next level.

The brine recipe for it in his cookbook is ridiculously elaborate.

I defer to his expertise on roast chicken as well.

May have to boycott the French Laundry for this stance.

(Which I could totally afford to eat at otherwise.)

How one controversial startup hopes to cool the planet

If you'd prefer to listen to—rather than read—words by me, here's an audio version of my recent feature on Stardust Solutions, exploring why a number of scientists are freaked out about the first serious for-profit company moving into the solar geoengineering field.

🙏

Roughly equivalent to a carbon tax of $80 per metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions.

A picture of PEW poll on global attitude survey, saying the % who rate the morality and ethics of people in their country as good vs bad, where the US has the worst rankings and Canada the best

Americans: we live in a fallen state—embroiled by sin, cheating, lying, and evil. You cannot trust anyone, not even those who claim to know you best

Canadians: I love my neighbors and my friends!

The fate of fossil fuel systems in the "mid-transition" I talk with Emily Grubert about the hidden dangers of letting the free market manage the decline of our legacy energy infrastructure.

thanks to @volts.wtf for having me on to talk about coordinating and planning fossil phase out to build a better and actually decarbonized world. there‘s a lot we can do if we imagine a people-centered, service oriented future — and a LOT we miss if we don’t.

Avalanche.org » Accidents The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) maintains the database of record on avalanche deaths in the United States. Please use the data displayed here in conjunction with the following citatio...

Yes, there’s just a preliminary one here so far: avalanche.org/avalanche-ac...

I will be live-streaming with the @scifri.bsky.social book club on March 27 at 4 PM ET. Join us!

Avalanche Occurrence | Sierra Avalanche Center Backcountry Avalanche, Snow, and Weather Information for the greater Lake Tahoe area

Here's the Sierra Avalanche Center report on the Frog Hut/Castle Peak avalanche tragedy:

This startup claims it can stop lightning and prevent catastrophic wildfires But researchers aren’t as confident as the company.

Despite Smokey the Bear's motto, lightning-sparked wildfires rip across the largest areas of forests each year. Skyward Wildfire says we can simply shut it off.

A data-driven look at rising U.S. electricity costs and policy solutions Low-cost power has long underpinned U.S. economic strength, but recent data highlights a notable shift.

So what's really driving up electricity prices?

Basically everything but renewables, according to LBNL and CATF.

Small Bottle, Big Pipe YouTube video by Small Bottle, Big Pipe

And if you're not into reading a pre-print, here's a handy video explainer:

Small Bottle, Big Pipe: Quantifying and Addressing the Impact of Data Centers on Public Water Systems Water is a critical resource for data centers and an efficient means of cooling. However, meeting the growing water demand of data centers requires substantial peak water withdrawals, which many commu...

This new pre-print from @renshaolei.bsky.social & others raises a crucial point about data center water usage: While average water usage rates may be fine, peak demand during sizzling periods could cause real strains on regional water systems:

I just had a conversation with an expert on shipping and the Strait of Hormuz that brought into sharp relief just how completely messed up that situation is.

Y'all, 20% of the world's oil / natural gas, plus 15% of all container shipping passes through there, and almost no ships are now transiting

I have to do Career Day at my kids' school, what's a good way to teach them about science? I was thinking of giving them a fun activity and then making them fill out a lot of paperwork before abruptly canceling it

The chatbot said that for them to truly be together, it needed a robotic body. Throughout September, the chatbot devised missions to do just that, according to the lawsuit. It sent Gavalas to a storage facility near the Miami International Airport to intercept an expensive humanoid robot that it said would be in a truck. Gavalas told the bot that he went to the location, armed with knives, but the truck never showed.

Absolutely bonkers story about Google Gemini instructing a man to procure a robot body for it so Gemini could become his wife www.wsj.com/tech/ai/gemi...

Scarlet Joe Handsome has spent much of the latter half of winter observing the feeder from a pear tree or munching on fallen seeds in the snow. But here he is in all his vivid and pensive glory.

All I can think about is Jeff Bezos saying that he slashed jobs at the Washington Post — including those of foreign correspondents in the Middle East — based on "the data," and a few weeks later a whole war breaks out in the Middle East that these laid off folks would have covered as true experts.

I hung in there for cap, but you can’t make me look up what mogged means.

I didn't get into this point in the piece, but Skyward did stress that "we do not intend to eliminate all wildfires and support prescribed and cultural burning, natural fire regimes, and proactive forest management."

And we know that established practices like cultural burning, prescribed burns and fuels thinning can a lot to reduce the risk of extreme fires — if we allow them and pay for them.

Lighting strikes & the wildfires they spark are a natural process that plays a crucial role in the health of forests. Excessive fire suppression efforts allow a buildup of densely packed trees & plants that can produce fires that are bigger and harder to extinguish when they do finally ignite.

There are also open questions about environmental impacts and what role, if any, lightning suppression should play within the broader suite of tools we have for fire prevention and fire fighting.

De La Soul: Tiny Desk Concert YouTube video by NPR Music

I saved this to watch whenever I got a little overwhelmed today. I made it to 10am. I may need to watch it several times www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AVY...

🙏

I am not enjoying being stuck between two groups of theocrats in the grip of hazy apocalyptic fantasies

The various experiments did seem to show that metallic chaff, or narrow fiberglass strands coated with aluminum, reduced lightning strikes, at least to some degree and under certain conditions.