Cole Donovan
@colesci.bsky.social
S&T Ecosystem Development at the Federation of American Scientists. Former White House OSTP, NOAA Office of Space Commerce, National Academies, State Department. Geeky painter. Views my own.
“We know that this decades-long process of an ever closer economic relationship between Canada and the United States has ended…”
Prime Minister Mark Carney's government announces that Canada is realigning Canada's economy away from the United States.
December 1, 2025 at 1:35 AM
“We know that this decades-long process of an ever closer economic relationship between Canada and the United States has ended…”
Note on nomenclature: the “third world” countries referred to Cold War era non-aligned nations more than anything else. First world were countries aligned with the U.S., second world with Russia, third were basically everyone else. Using the term reveals willful ignorance more than anything else.
Homan on asylees from "third world nations" -- "I really truly think that most of them are gonna end up being deported"
November 30, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Note on nomenclature: the “third world” countries referred to Cold War era non-aligned nations more than anything else. First world were countries aligned with the U.S., second world with Russia, third were basically everyone else. Using the term reveals willful ignorance more than anything else.
Not just newspapers. Consider other data sources, like scientific collections. The compact for R&D infrastructure has been that if you publish in the open you get it for free, but if you’re engaged in profit-seeking activities you’ve gotta pay full cost recovery to support the high-value tool.
Imagine if they just subsidized newspapers and magazines the way they’re subsidizing this slop
"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."
November 30, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Not just newspapers. Consider other data sources, like scientific collections. The compact for R&D infrastructure has been that if you publish in the open you get it for free, but if you’re engaged in profit-seeking activities you’ve gotta pay full cost recovery to support the high-value tool.
Yttrium is also important for tech like quantum and fusion. YBCO superconductors can operate using liquid nitrogen (higher temperature, much easier to contain, much less cryo and lower needed).
YBCO is often also framed as less geopolitically charged than niobium, which has fewer mines.
YBCO is often also framed as less geopolitically charged than niobium, which has fewer mines.
Yttrium plays a critical role in everything from aircraft engines to semiconductors. China controls the vast majority of the market—and that’s not changing any time soon. www.wired.com/story/yttriu...
The Rare Earth Metal Driving Tensions Between the US and China
Yttrium plays a critical role in everything from aircraft engines to semiconductors. China controls the vast majority of the market—and that’s not changing any time soon.
www.wired.com
November 30, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Yttrium is also important for tech like quantum and fusion. YBCO superconductors can operate using liquid nitrogen (higher temperature, much easier to contain, much less cryo and lower needed).
YBCO is often also framed as less geopolitically charged than niobium, which has fewer mines.
YBCO is often also framed as less geopolitically charged than niobium, which has fewer mines.
Like a broken record I’ve been harping on this point for years now: U.S. sanctions and technology policy is weakening the type of soft power we’ve extended over much of the world. This is going to make America weaker. Great way to kill the value props offered by American companies.
Justice Recoded? Why It Matters that the International Criminal Court Embraced Open-Source Software and Ditched Microsoft
On 31 October 2025, the International Criminal Court (Court) confirmed reports that it is replacing its Microsoft Office Suite with openDesk– open-source software (OSS) developed by Germany’s ZenDiS (...
www.ejiltalk.org
November 30, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Like a broken record I’ve been harping on this point for years now: U.S. sanctions and technology policy is weakening the type of soft power we’ve extended over much of the world. This is going to make America weaker. Great way to kill the value props offered by American companies.
It’s not about the drugs…
WHOA. Trump says he will pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, who once said that he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.” He had people killed as part of his narco-trafficking ring, which he at times operated directly out of his presidential office.
November 30, 2025 at 9:49 AM
It’s not about the drugs…
Oh JFC
Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.
November 29, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Oh JFC
Absolutely GOATed movie
🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐
Like five GOATs GOATed
🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐
Like five GOATs GOATed
November 29, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Absolutely GOATed movie
🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐
Like five GOATs GOATed
🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐
Like five GOATs GOATed
What our turkey looked like this year
10 minute preparation
Loads of flavor and spice
Easy to clean up
10 minute preparation
Loads of flavor and spice
Easy to clean up
November 28, 2025 at 12:03 AM
What our turkey looked like this year
10 minute preparation
Loads of flavor and spice
Easy to clean up
10 minute preparation
Loads of flavor and spice
Easy to clean up
Seriously people it's possible to just decide your turkey should have spice and flavor
November 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Seriously people it's possible to just decide your turkey should have spice and flavor
Time to relearn/gain new appreciation for the phrase “moral hazard.”
James Bond supervillains threaten to blow up the world with their big laser unless you pay them a trillion dollars.
Real American supervillains embed themselves in the economy and threaten to cause a depression unless you subsidize their sex robots and the weird chatbots they use to avoid humans.
Real American supervillains embed themselves in the economy and threaten to cause a depression unless you subsidize their sex robots and the weird chatbots they use to avoid humans.
November 27, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Time to relearn/gain new appreciation for the phrase “moral hazard.”
Costa I did a Buffalo Old Bay Turkey one year and it was divine
November 27, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Costa I did a Buffalo Old Bay Turkey one year and it was divine
Literally what the fuck State Department
The State Department has warned employees not to use government funds to mark Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day and to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels.” nyti.ms/3KhPDrA
Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day
The State Department warned employees not to use government funds for the occasion and to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels.”
nyti.ms
November 26, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Literally what the fuck State Department
Doing a renovation right now and all the image search results for specific styles are literally just AI generated slop.
November 26, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Doing a renovation right now and all the image search results for specific styles are literally just AI generated slop.
Reposted by Cole Donovan
In the future, AI chatbots may weave ads invisibly into “helpful” advice, steering conversations without you even knowing, argues Daniel Barcay, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology. When the AI we rely on starts steering us for revenue, not our goals, human autonomy is at risk.
Advertising is Coming to AI. It’s Going to Be a Disaster. | TechPolicy.Press
Daniel Barcay sounds the alarm on AI chatbots hiding advertising in conversations—and why this threatens autonomy and demands new rules.
www.techpolicy.press
November 26, 2025 at 3:37 PM
In the future, AI chatbots may weave ads invisibly into “helpful” advice, steering conversations without you even knowing, argues Daniel Barcay, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology. When the AI we rely on starts steering us for revenue, not our goals, human autonomy is at risk.
The Department of Energy is one of the most significant global supporters of physical science research.
I joined my colleagues at the @scientistsorg.bsky.social Addy Smith, Alice Wu, Zoë Brouns, and Arjun Krishnaswami to offer our perspective and warnings on DOE’s reorganization.
I joined my colleagues at the @scientistsorg.bsky.social Addy Smith, Alice Wu, Zoë Brouns, and Arjun Krishnaswami to offer our perspective and warnings on DOE’s reorganization.
New DOE Re-Organization Raises Uncertainty for American Science, Energy Innovation, and Affordability
Eight offices with mission-critical responsibilities have been dismantled as part of the restructuring, implementing much of the proposal outlined in Project 2025 and fundamentally reshaping the agenc...
fas.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:39 PM
The Department of Energy is one of the most significant global supporters of physical science research.
I joined my colleagues at the @scientistsorg.bsky.social Addy Smith, Alice Wu, Zoë Brouns, and Arjun Krishnaswami to offer our perspective and warnings on DOE’s reorganization.
I joined my colleagues at the @scientistsorg.bsky.social Addy Smith, Alice Wu, Zoë Brouns, and Arjun Krishnaswami to offer our perspective and warnings on DOE’s reorganization.
In space, insurance markets are collapsing because only people flying expensive geo birds are buying.
With AI, insurers see they accidentally sold a new and riskier product to everyone. If not separated out, AI risk gets priced into everything, putting inflationary pressure on the whole economy.
With AI, insurers see they accidentally sold a new and riskier product to everyone. If not separated out, AI risk gets priced into everything, putting inflationary pressure on the whole economy.
Insurers are now seeking to exclude AI from corporate policies because the risks are too unpredictable and liability is unclear. This is a signal: we cannot rely on insurance markets or tort law to protect against AI harms. We need actual governance and policy.
Insurers AIG, Great American, and WR Berkley seek permission to limit liability from AI agents and chatbots and to retreat from coverage of AI risk as multibillion-dollar claims mount
www.ft.com/content/abfe...
www.ft.com/content/abfe...
November 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
In space, insurance markets are collapsing because only people flying expensive geo birds are buying.
With AI, insurers see they accidentally sold a new and riskier product to everyone. If not separated out, AI risk gets priced into everything, putting inflationary pressure on the whole economy.
With AI, insurers see they accidentally sold a new and riskier product to everyone. If not separated out, AI risk gets priced into everything, putting inflationary pressure on the whole economy.
Removing gross cabinets from the new house as part of the renovation. 50 years old leaves plenty of fun sanitary surprises
November 23, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Removing gross cabinets from the new house as part of the renovation. 50 years old leaves plenty of fun sanitary surprises
What a year tonight has been
November 22, 2025 at 2:04 AM
What a year tonight has been
Reposted by Cole Donovan
I get the "wtf just happened" reax but I think this is mostly a case of game recognize game. Trump also likes novelty, celebrity, winners, and “strong.” And we *know* he is detached from ideological commitments. Same quality that leads him to talk openly with Putin and Kim Jong Un. Not that deep.
November 21, 2025 at 11:23 PM
I get the "wtf just happened" reax but I think this is mostly a case of game recognize game. Trump also likes novelty, celebrity, winners, and “strong.” And we *know* he is detached from ideological commitments. Same quality that leads him to talk openly with Putin and Kim Jong Un. Not that deep.
🧑🍳 😘
Feat. Sir Tony Blair
lol
lol
Larry Summers’s co-teacher at Harvard:
“We will miss his insights and his wisdom”
Student:
“NO WE WON’T”
dude pretends he doesn’t hear, then intros Tony Blair lmao
“We will miss his insights and his wisdom”
Student:
“NO WE WON’T”
dude pretends he doesn’t hear, then intros Tony Blair lmao
November 21, 2025 at 3:30 AM
🧑🍳 😘
This is good news. CERN is an organization that can be counted on to manage megaprojects responsibly. China unfortunately has a history of locking down parts of projects that might be considered sensitive, usually for arbitrary reasons. The United States hasn’t been able to deliver, historically.
CEPC matures, but approval is on hold – CERN Courier
The Circular Electron–Positron Collider (CEPC), a 100-km electron–positron “Higgs factory” proposed in China, has reached the technical-design stage but will not be included for approval or constructi...
cerncourier.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:25 AM
This is good news. CERN is an organization that can be counted on to manage megaprojects responsibly. China unfortunately has a history of locking down parts of projects that might be considered sensitive, usually for arbitrary reasons. The United States hasn’t been able to deliver, historically.
Yes when I was unconscious and bleeding from the head on the side of a mountain I absolutely had a choice to go to a less expensive hospital and decline the ambulance.
Cassidy: "If she goes and gets 2 types of shampoo & one is a dollar cheaper, she'll get the cheaper one & the other lowers their price. Once you give her the power of making the decision, she's gonna shop -- that begins to save her money and squeezes waste out of the healthcare system."
November 20, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Yes when I was unconscious and bleeding from the head on the side of a mountain I absolutely had a choice to go to a less expensive hospital and decline the ambulance.
This academic summit is LIT
November 19, 2025 at 3:56 PM
This academic summit is LIT
FWIW the Monroe Doctrine was actually British policy intended to contain the imperialist aspirations of other European powers. The United States lacked the military capacity to enforce it, but it did enable us to fulfill our own expansionist goals.
November 19, 2025 at 12:32 PM
FWIW the Monroe Doctrine was actually British policy intended to contain the imperialist aspirations of other European powers. The United States lacked the military capacity to enforce it, but it did enable us to fulfill our own expansionist goals.