Zane Selvans
@zaneselvans.org
Data Liberation Engineer @catalyst.coop. Climate, energy, bikes, cities, co-ops, and the strangeness of Our Modern Age. A former space explorer, now lost in the misty highlands of Mexico.
https://amateurearthling.org
🇺🇸/🇲🇽 he/él
https://amateurearthling.org
🇺🇸/🇲🇽 he/él
The whole Boomer story arc is turning out surprisingly 100 Years of Solitude.
January 17, 2026 at 5:33 AM
The whole Boomer story arc is turning out surprisingly 100 Years of Solitude.
"President Donald Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel technology companies to effectively fund new power plants." #EnergySky
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump Moves to Make Tech Giants Pay for Surging Power Costs
President Donald Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel technology companies to effectively fund new ...
www.bloomberg.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:22 AM
"President Donald Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel technology companies to effectively fund new power plants." #EnergySky
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Little known fact: fossil fuels are actually the long-buried bodies of chthonic deities. When you burn them they wake up and wreak havoc in the sky battling Apollo.
Hā́idēs, Attic Greek: [háːi̯dεːs], later [háːdeːs]), in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and riches and the King of the underworld
January 16, 2026 at 6:54 AM
Little known fact: fossil fuels are actually the long-buried bodies of chthonic deities. When you burn them they wake up and wreak havoc in the sky battling Apollo.
The only outline of a story I'd previously heard about the end of apartheid South Africa's nuclear program was that they had "voluntarily" dismantled it when they realized their rule was going to end, so as to avoid the technology falling into the hands of the ANC government. A very different story.
Holy hell, what an obituary
Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program
www.nytimes.com
January 16, 2026 at 6:41 AM
The only outline of a story I'd previously heard about the end of apartheid South Africa's nuclear program was that they had "voluntarily" dismantled it when they realized their rule was going to end, so as to avoid the technology falling into the hands of the ANC government. A very different story.
January 15, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Zane Selvans
And this is what it looks like...
Video: SKYLIFTUAV
Video: SKYLIFTUAV
January 15, 2026 at 12:19 PM
And this is what it looks like...
Video: SKYLIFTUAV
Video: SKYLIFTUAV
January 15, 2026 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Zane Selvans
We've been running our data archiving scripts weekly since last spring, and this week the top level page for NREL's Electrification Futures Study seems to have gone down. Our last snapshot is from August, 2025 (there haven't been any changes since then) #EnergySky
zenodo.org/records/1529...
zenodo.org/records/1529...
NREL EFS -- Electrification Futures Study
The Electrification Futures Study (EFS) is a multi-year study conducted by NREL and its research partners—Electric Power Research Institute, Evolved Energy Research, Lawrence Berkeley National Laborat...
zenodo.org
January 14, 2026 at 4:56 PM
We've been running our data archiving scripts weekly since last spring, and this week the top level page for NREL's Electrification Futures Study seems to have gone down. Our last snapshot is from August, 2025 (there haven't been any changes since then) #EnergySky
zenodo.org/records/1529...
zenodo.org/records/1529...
Now that's an S-curve.
Denmark's December car sales data just released. Battery-electrics reached an incredible 81% in December to make up 68% for the year.
January 14, 2026 at 7:33 AM
Now that's an S-curve.
Like, what kind of god are we talking about? Trickster? Sacrificial? Cthonic? God of chaos or the void? More of a Huitzilopochtli or a Tiamat? Maybe an unholy AI reincarnation of Inanna as a cybernetic goddess of synthetic porn?
NYT managing editor: "So, godlike AI system, what do we mean by this?"
NYT reporter: "“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
[beat]
NYT managing editor: "Make sure there's a period after the A and the I. Ship it."
NYT reporter: "“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
[beat]
NYT managing editor: "Make sure there's a period after the A and the I. Ship it."
January 14, 2026 at 6:42 AM
Like, what kind of god are we talking about? Trickster? Sacrificial? Cthonic? God of chaos or the void? More of a Huitzilopochtli or a Tiamat? Maybe an unholy AI reincarnation of Inanna as a cybernetic goddess of synthetic porn?
Reposted by Zane Selvans
I think the reason we have not seen Frey, Her, and Walz change their orientations on exercising the use of state policing power to repel the federal occupation is that to do so would be to admit the State Patrol, National Guard, MPD, SPPD, et al., are de facto not actually under their command.
January 14, 2026 at 5:35 AM
I think the reason we have not seen Frey, Her, and Walz change their orientations on exercising the use of state policing power to repel the federal occupation is that to do so would be to admit the State Patrol, National Guard, MPD, SPPD, et al., are de facto not actually under their command.
I feel sad when I hear least developed countries advocating to keep the COPs going even if they don't work because it's the only place they get an equal voice. Because I've come to believe they're only given an equal voice *because* the COPs don't work. So their voices aren't actually a threat.
January 14, 2026 at 1:09 AM
I feel sad when I hear least developed countries advocating to keep the COPs going even if they don't work because it's the only place they get an equal voice. Because I've come to believe they're only given an equal voice *because* the COPs don't work. So their voices aren't actually a threat.
Reposted by Zane Selvans
I didn't save this tweet but somebody did and it feels worth resurfacing
January 13, 2026 at 4:08 AM
I didn't save this tweet but somebody did and it feels worth resurfacing
"...a processing of social preferences that magnifies and reflects trends back at us then feeds on itself producing at worst grotesque hallucinations and at best conventional wisdom [...] And here's the thing. None of these were generated by AI."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km2b...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km2b...
Everything Was Already AI
YouTube video by Unlearning Economics
www.youtube.com
January 13, 2026 at 4:07 AM
"...a processing of social preferences that magnifies and reflects trends back at us then feeds on itself producing at worst grotesque hallucinations and at best conventional wisdom [...] And here's the thing. None of these were generated by AI."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km2b...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km2b...
The Kings River! Which flows into the endorheic basin that once hosted Lake Tulare.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_R...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_R...
January 13, 2026 at 1:58 AM
The Kings River! Which flows into the endorheic basin that once hosted Lake Tulare.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_R...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_R...
I'm so curious what the people in my conservative hometown think about 21 GW of solar + storage being built in the county.
Also curious how 21 GW of flatland PV in CA can cost *more* than twice as much per Watt as rooftop solar in Australia.
www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...
Also curious how 21 GW of flatland PV in CA can cost *more* than twice as much per Watt as rooftop solar in Australia.
www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...
The biggest US solar-storage project yet takes shape in California
Westlands Water District approved 21 gigawatts of solar and batteries on water-parched fields in the Central Valley, giving farmers a way to profit from…
www.canarymedia.com
January 13, 2026 at 1:53 AM
I'm so curious what the people in my conservative hometown think about 21 GW of solar + storage being built in the county.
Also curious how 21 GW of flatland PV in CA can cost *more* than twice as much per Watt as rooftop solar in Australia.
www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...
Also curious how 21 GW of flatland PV in CA can cost *more* than twice as much per Watt as rooftop solar in Australia.
www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...
On paper at least, Musk is like 3x as rich as Crassus in terms of the size of his fortune relative to the GDP of his home country. Now if only he would also go lead some legions in Syria.
January 11, 2026 at 9:39 AM
On paper at least, Musk is like 3x as rich as Crassus in terms of the size of his fortune relative to the GDP of his home country. Now if only he would also go lead some legions in Syria.
Has anyone written about the parallels between the entails of aristocratic estates and the communal ownership of Mexican ejido property? Both meant to avoid the division of land (and in ejidos, reconsolidation of ownership by the rich) 🔰
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_tail
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejido
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_tail
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejido
Fee tail - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
January 10, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Has anyone written about the parallels between the entails of aristocratic estates and the communal ownership of Mexican ejido property? Both meant to avoid the division of land (and in ejidos, reconsolidation of ownership by the rich) 🔰
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_tail
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejido
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_tail
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejido
I will say, my recent binge of Latin American and Roman history alongside current events has made me feel like we're already living inside a sequel of a sequel of a sequel and I'm curious how we could collectively learn even less from history in the future. But I guess we'll find out together!
January 10, 2026 at 7:02 AM
I will say, my recent binge of Latin American and Roman history alongside current events has made me feel like we're already living inside a sequel of a sequel of a sequel and I'm curious how we could collectively learn even less from history in the future. But I guess we'll find out together!
Maybe Dems will side with Trump and support the use of non-US flagged ships here in order to try to negotiate a workaround to the Jones Act inhibiting offshore wind development despite the administration's sabotage of offshore wind development.
While some unions are protesting Trump's attack on Venezuela, 4 US unions are working with the Trump Admin to demand that all oil imported from Venezuela be imported on American-flagged ships.
The move would eliminate the jobs of workers in Venezuela paydayreport.com/u-s-unions-d...
The move would eliminate the jobs of workers in Venezuela paydayreport.com/u-s-unions-d...
U.S. Unions Demand Venezuelan Oil Be Imported On American Ships - Post-Gazette Bankruptcy Fire Sale? - WBNA Strike Likely
The four unions demanded that the Trump Administration not allow ships or workers from other nations to export oil from Venezuela into the United States. The unions that say that using American ships ...
paydayreport.com
January 10, 2026 at 3:20 AM
Maybe Dems will side with Trump and support the use of non-US flagged ships here in order to try to negotiate a workaround to the Jones Act inhibiting offshore wind development despite the administration's sabotage of offshore wind development.
It's hilarious that this qualifies as a "baby" EV.
It’s so sobering watching automotive content creators outside the U.S., who aren’t constantly schlepping for U.S. auto makers, open an honest about the majority wanting to use phone mirroring and the benefit of optionally excluding NAV to reduce cost.
Kia EV2 FIRST LOOK: Kia’s Answer to the VW ID. Polo
YouTube video by Electrifying
youtu.be
January 10, 2026 at 2:22 AM
It's hilarious that this qualifies as a "baby" EV.
Reposted by Zane Selvans
A NEW LIFE AWAITS YOU IN THE OFF-WORLD COLONIES
HASSETT SAYS TRUMP TO ANNOUNCE BIG, COMPREHENSIVE HOUSING PLAN
January 9, 2026 at 2:29 PM
A NEW LIFE AWAITS YOU IN THE OFF-WORLD COLONIES
This is the way.
Brazil’s President Lula vetoes bill to trim Bolsonaro prison sentence https://aje.news/t6pycn
January 9, 2026 at 5:53 AM
This is the way.
If the Democrats are ever in power again, will they try and pass climate legislation? Abolish ICE? Expand SCOTUS? Prosecute... anyone? Rejoin the UNFCCC? Would they return Maduro? Or Greenland? Or just let all this stuff stick, and metastasize like the PATRIOT Act and Global War on Terror have?
Top Democrats decline to say if they would rein in ICE after Minnesota shooting
Top Democrats decline to say if they would rein in ICE after Minnesota shooting
Top Democrats decline to say if they would rein in ICE after Minnesota shooting
www.independent.co.uk
January 9, 2026 at 1:45 AM
If the Democrats are ever in power again, will they try and pass climate legislation? Abolish ICE? Expand SCOTUS? Prosecute... anyone? Rejoin the UNFCCC? Would they return Maduro? Or Greenland? Or just let all this stuff stick, and metastasize like the PATRIOT Act and Global War on Terror have?
Gonna go watch the sunset and listen to the story of Marius and Sulla. Sic semper tyrannis.
January 8, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Gonna go watch the sunset and listen to the story of Marius and Sulla. Sic semper tyrannis.