Josh Nicholas
@joshnicholas.com
Scribbler and data journalist. https://joshnicholas.com
Pinned
Josh Nicholas
@joshnicholas.com
· Mar 21
Tourists, watercolours and the sad, still Star: sketching the route 35 tram showed me a Melbourne I had never really noticed
When you are in a city every day, you start to take things for granted. So, after three years in Melbourne, Josh Nicholas decided to be a tourist
www.theguardian.com
I wrote a thing about drawing and Melbourne www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Got a new grey fountain pen ink for adding tone
January 28, 2026 at 10:09 AM
Got a new grey fountain pen ink for adding tone
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
The Open Visualization Academy launches on FRIDAY! openvisualizationacademy.org
More information in our newsletter: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/the-open-v...
#dataViz #dataVisualization #infographics #dataJournalism
More information in our newsletter: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/the-open-v...
#dataViz #dataVisualization #infographics #dataJournalism
January 27, 2026 at 6:07 PM
The Open Visualization Academy launches on FRIDAY! openvisualizationacademy.org
More information in our newsletter: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/the-open-v...
#dataViz #dataVisualization #infographics #dataJournalism
More information in our newsletter: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/the-open-v...
#dataViz #dataVisualization #infographics #dataJournalism
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
Introducing Ai2 Open Coding Agents—starting with SERA, our first-ever coding models. Fast, accessible agents (8B–32B) that adapt to any repo, including private codebases. Train a powerful specialized agent for as little as ~$400, & it works with Claude Code out of the box. 🧵
January 27, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Introducing Ai2 Open Coding Agents—starting with SERA, our first-ever coding models. Fast, accessible agents (8B–32B) that adapt to any repo, including private codebases. Train a powerful specialized agent for as little as ~$400, & it works with Claude Code out of the box. 🧵
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
"Tyrants", Jefferson explained, "seldom have anything but the best interests of the people in mind, yet they are so often misunderstand. Hence it is crucial that they be granted second and third chances and that the people never take up arms—or worse yet mock them in the public square."
January 27, 2026 at 6:06 AM
"Tyrants", Jefferson explained, "seldom have anything but the best interests of the people in mind, yet they are so often misunderstand. Hence it is crucial that they be granted second and third chances and that the people never take up arms—or worse yet mock them in the public square."
January 27, 2026 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
I think of this long history every time 26 January rolls around #invasionday #notadatetocelebrate
January 26, 2026 at 3:58 AM
I think of this long history every time 26 January rolls around #invasionday #notadatetocelebrate
There is so much bushfire smoke in Melbourne we can't open the windows. How are professional athletes going to play tennis?
January 24, 2026 at 9:15 PM
There is so much bushfire smoke in Melbourne we can't open the windows. How are professional athletes going to play tennis?
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
Do not miss this. Absolutely fascinating for anyone who loves political cartoons.
How we draw the age of Trump and turmoil: two cartoonists go head-to-head | Martin Rowson and Ella Baron
Martin Rowson has been drawing for the Guardian since the 1980s; Ella Baron since 2022. In paint and pixels, each is tasked with capturing the chaos and absurdity of our political moment
www.theguardian.com
January 24, 2026 at 7:27 AM
Do not miss this. Absolutely fascinating for anyone who loves political cartoons.
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
Please read this thread to the end
A few days ago, I stood in the graveyard of an 1100 year old church, getting damper and damper in the drizzling rain.
A woman walked into the graveyard, waved, said hello, and, as we had previously arranged, handed me a paper bag full of human bones.
The life of a churchwarden is a strange one...
A woman walked into the graveyard, waved, said hello, and, as we had previously arranged, handed me a paper bag full of human bones.
The life of a churchwarden is a strange one...
January 23, 2026 at 12:48 PM
Please read this thread to the end
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
While Australian heatwaves were some of the very first extreme events attributed to climate change, people still underestimate how much worse they got - killing more people than all other natural hazards combined. New @wwattribution.bsky.social study. www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...
January 22, 2026 at 1:56 PM
While Australian heatwaves were some of the very first extreme events attributed to climate change, people still underestimate how much worse they got - killing more people than all other natural hazards combined. New @wwattribution.bsky.social study. www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...
Almost got taken out by a guy on an e-scooter as I was walking around a corner this morning. I'm still shaking. OTOH I've ridden bikes around and Australian car drivers are terrifying. How many people need to get hurt before we get more bike lanes?
January 22, 2026 at 8:15 PM
Almost got taken out by a guy on an e-scooter as I was walking around a corner this morning. I'm still shaking. OTOH I've ridden bikes around and Australian car drivers are terrifying. How many people need to get hurt before we get more bike lanes?
Ridiculous place to live
January 22, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Ridiculous place to live
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
We set out to determine how many images of women and girls Grok created during its nudifying spree. What we found was “industrial-scale abuse,” experts said. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...
Musk’s Chatbot Flooded X With Millions of Sexualized Images in Days, New Estimates Show
www.nytimes.com
January 22, 2026 at 2:56 PM
We set out to determine how many images of women and girls Grok created during its nudifying spree. What we found was “industrial-scale abuse,” experts said. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
In our conservative estimate, 41 percent of Grok’s images — or 1.8 million — were sexualized depictions of women. Separately, CCDH analyzed how many were sexualized images across genders and ages. Their findings: an estimated 3 million images, including more than 23,000 of children.
January 22, 2026 at 3:01 PM
In our conservative estimate, 41 percent of Grok’s images — or 1.8 million — were sexualized depictions of women. Separately, CCDH analyzed how many were sexualized images across genders and ages. Their findings: an estimated 3 million images, including more than 23,000 of children.
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
Sentence Transformers 🤝 @unsloth.ai
We've collaborated with the fine folks at Unsloth to make your embedding model finetuning ~2x faster and require ~20% less VRAM!
The Unsloth team prepared 6 notebooks showing how you can take advantage of it!
🧵
We've collaborated with the fine folks at Unsloth to make your embedding model finetuning ~2x faster and require ~20% less VRAM!
The Unsloth team prepared 6 notebooks showing how you can take advantage of it!
🧵
January 22, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Sentence Transformers 🤝 @unsloth.ai
We've collaborated with the fine folks at Unsloth to make your embedding model finetuning ~2x faster and require ~20% less VRAM!
The Unsloth team prepared 6 notebooks showing how you can take advantage of it!
🧵
We've collaborated with the fine folks at Unsloth to make your embedding model finetuning ~2x faster and require ~20% less VRAM!
The Unsloth team prepared 6 notebooks showing how you can take advantage of it!
🧵
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
January 22, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
Lovely piece by @jessharwoodart.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Tech bros have made us lonely. I’m fighting back by getting off social media and talking to strangers | Jess Harwood
Connections can be found anywhere: the local cafe, the dog park and community events
www.theguardian.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:11 AM
Lovely piece by @jessharwoodart.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.
The Carney doctrine
Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech
paulwells.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
The Prime Minister of Belgium speaks:
January 20, 2026 at 12:47 PM
The Prime Minister of Belgium speaks:
Reposted by Josh Nicholas
The dream is over for Chicago. Bulls can still finish 81-1, but season feels hollow now.
November 3, 2025 at 2:28 AM
The dream is over for Chicago. Bulls can still finish 81-1, but season feels hollow now.