A surge in new datacenters, each with the power demand of 100,000 households and a cooling water demand of 1,000,000 m³ per year to train AI models on material obtained without consent on hardware now unaffordable to consumers so fascism-adjacent tech billionaires can sell us the idea that any skill is now worthless and in doing so creating the largest economic bubble ever while simultaneously destroying society and environment.

I think that about sums it up.

#genai #llm

people think degrowth is about living in countryside without internet or electricity or some shit and like, no

it just means that instead of churning out stuff as fast as possible in biggest amounts possible just for it all to be sold three times the actual price and discarded or broken in two three years, our society focuses on making things that last

that's why it's called degrowth. it's not abandoning technology, it's about abandoning capitalism

⏰New paper⏰

Proud to be part of this work led by Alex Quizon & Sierra Petersen where we show that most snails (we tested) precipitate their shells in isotopic equilibrium with seawater, enabling climate reconstructions like the one published earlier this week.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703725005678

For this #FridayFlyday: today I was browsing around trying to ID a fly and inadvertently discovered these. Ant-mimicking flies, genus _Myrmecothea_. Now I've seen it all. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/132235-Myrmecothea

Photos:
- Katja Schulz https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/139649   
- Louis Burns https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/292460732    
- Jane Waters https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/18914443     
- Mark Faherty    

#FlyFriday #bugstodon #flies #insects #Diptera #Ulidiidae #iNaturalist #mimicry #myrmecomorphy

“I care more about the young family getting on the housing ladder than I do about protecting some snails,” said Rachel Reeves, blaming bats and snails for the HS2 failure, reducing a complex failure to a ridiculous soundbite.

Another nail in the coffin re my labour membership! Oh wait, I already left because of multiple more important failings, none of which can be blamed on bats or snails.
#rachelreeves #hs2 #snails #labour #LabourGovernment

Save the date: We organise the next European Congress of Entomology from June 29 to July 3 2026 in Tours, France. More than 50 symposiums on almost all aspects of insects, including parental care !! @irbi-tours.bsky.social

📅 Registration opens 10 July 2025
🔗 Stay tuned at www.ece2026.org