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
Another small town kid who finally escapes to follow her dreams in the stars. Then finding joy in bike rides after terrible grief. And now I'm crying.
radiolab.org/podcast/gala...
radiolab.org/podcast/gala...
Galaxy Quenching
In the midst of unthinkable grief, an unthinkable discovery.
radiolab.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Another small town kid who finally escapes to follow her dreams in the stars. Then finding joy in bike rides after terrible grief. And now I'm crying.
radiolab.org/podcast/gala...
radiolab.org/podcast/gala...
Breakneck deployment of medium & heavy electric trucks in China is starting to visibly impact global diesel demand? 175% increase in deployment year-on-year? 46% of all truck sales electric this year, 60% next year? #EnergySky
www.business-standard.com/world-news/c...
www.business-standard.com/world-news/c...
www.business-standard.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Breakneck deployment of medium & heavy electric trucks in China is starting to visibly impact global diesel demand? 175% increase in deployment year-on-year? 46% of all truck sales electric this year, 60% next year? #EnergySky
www.business-standard.com/world-news/c...
www.business-standard.com/world-news/c...
This is great! But these weasel words from Xcel make it sound like they are going to keep the fixed infrastructure in place rather than pruning the gas network back over time to actually decarbonize. #EnergySky #Colorado
December 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
This is great! But these weasel words from Xcel make it sound like they are going to keep the fixed infrastructure in place rather than pruning the gas network back over time to actually decarbonize. #EnergySky #Colorado
Reading and listening to various reports from the COPs, I get the same vibe as "Sign up to serve on a city board or commission!" in some cities.
Like it's place and a role that you can use to distract energetic civic minded people from engaging where the decisions are really being made.
Like it's place and a role that you can use to distract energetic civic minded people from engaging where the decisions are really being made.
December 3, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Reading and listening to various reports from the COPs, I get the same vibe as "Sign up to serve on a city board or commission!" in some cities.
Like it's place and a role that you can use to distract energetic civic minded people from engaging where the decisions are really being made.
Like it's place and a role that you can use to distract energetic civic minded people from engaging where the decisions are really being made.
I feel like domain-specific non-fiction book author is the best level of fame. Niche fans who want to nerd out about your topic. But not so many of them that you can't actually interact.
December 2, 2025 at 5:17 PM
I feel like domain-specific non-fiction book author is the best level of fame. Niche fans who want to nerd out about your topic. But not so many of them that you can't actually interact.
Because it was required to "say" something both novel and true.
*Opposite of "slop"
*Is it because the thing didn't chat or show pretty jpegs?
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
*Is it because the thing didn't chat or show pretty jpegs?
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
AlphaFold is five years old — these charts show how it revolutionized science
Since it was unveiled in 2020, Google DeepMind’s game-changing AI tool has helped researchers all over the world to predict the 3D structures of hundreds of millions of proteins.
www.nature.com
December 2, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Because it was required to "say" something both novel and true.
Reposted by Zane Selvans
The same thing happened in Oregon, along with a massive amount of mis- and dis-information. www.propublica.org/article/oreg...
How the Rapid Spread of Misinformation Pushed Oregon Lawmakers to Kill the State’s Wildfire Risk Map
After Oregon’s record-breaking fire season in 2020, lawmakers wanted to map out which properties were most at risk. But anger from homeowners escalated quickly.
www.propublica.org
December 1, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The same thing happened in Oregon, along with a massive amount of mis- and dis-information. www.propublica.org/article/oreg...
Reposted by Zane Selvans
In 2007, we made California’s fire hazard severity zone maps online (google maps was still new!), searchable by address, and were told to take them down immediately for property value concerns. Seemed pretty clear there was not going to be any sanctioned versions available moving forward.
Real estate interests also shut down a wildfire property risk rating & disclosure system that was proposed by an independent panel in Colorado in 2014.
amateurearthling.org/2014/01/27/c...
amateurearthling.org/2014/01/27/c...
Colorado Wildfires: a Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Failure
Fanned by climate change wildfire risks are worsening in Colorado, and we are failing to either adapt or mitigate.
amateurearthling.org
December 1, 2025 at 2:18 PM
In 2007, we made California’s fire hazard severity zone maps online (google maps was still new!), searchable by address, and were told to take them down immediately for property value concerns. Seemed pretty clear there was not going to be any sanctioned versions available moving forward.
A weird side-effect of making it plausible that fossil asset owners will face future liability for climate damages is that then they have an incentive to self-liquidate rather than transition -- return all their value to shareholders and go bankrupt, so there are no guilty assets left to take.
December 1, 2025 at 6:24 AM
A weird side-effect of making it plausible that fossil asset owners will face future liability for climate damages is that then they have an incentive to self-liquidate rather than transition -- return all their value to shareholders and go bankrupt, so there are no guilty assets left to take.
The garbage truck comes by at like 7am on Tuesday and Fridays and I haven't been able to catch it for months. Luckily I don't make much trash. Those are also our meeting-free days. Maybe I should try to do trash + morning bike rides as a combo.
December 1, 2025 at 6:16 AM
The garbage truck comes by at like 7am on Tuesday and Fridays and I haven't been able to catch it for months. Luckily I don't make much trash. Those are also our meeting-free days. Maybe I should try to do trash + morning bike rides as a combo.
Tonight's double feature: "The Thinking Game" (2024) and "Unknown Killer Robots" (2023). 🍿🤖🔥
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5XF...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5XF...
The Thinking Game | Documentary Trailer
YouTube video by The Thinking Game Film
www.youtube.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Tonight's double feature: "The Thinking Game" (2024) and "Unknown Killer Robots" (2023). 🍿🤖🔥
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5XF...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5XF...
No kidding!
"Displaying the probability of a specific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/c...
"Displaying the probability of a specific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/c...
Zillow Removes Climate Risk Scores From Home Listings
www.nytimes.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:16 AM
No kidding!
"Displaying the probability of a specific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/c...
"Displaying the probability of a specific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/c...
I just discovered the excellent @thresholdpodcast.bsky.social and am binging the 2022 season on climate change and it's weird how much it feels like a time capsule from another era entirely. #EnergySky
www.thresholdpodcast.org/season04
www.thresholdpodcast.org/season04
Threshold Season 4: Time to 1.5
On paper, the world has agreed to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. We're not on track to meet that goal, but the window is not yet closed. Time to 1.5 grapples w...
www.thresholdpodcast.org
December 1, 2025 at 12:53 AM
I just discovered the excellent @thresholdpodcast.bsky.social and am binging the 2022 season on climate change and it's weird how much it feels like a time capsule from another era entirely. #EnergySky
www.thresholdpodcast.org/season04
www.thresholdpodcast.org/season04
Self regulation in a nutshell.
Zillow Removes Climate Risk Scores From Home Listings www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/c... (Basically because it was *working". The info prompted some changes in real estate shoppers' attitudes toward flood risk.) #greensky
Zillow Removes Climate Risk Scores From Home Listings
www.nytimes.com
November 30, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Self regulation in a nutshell.
Coyote
Cacomixtle
Brown Bear
Gray Wolf
Orca
Cacomixtle
Brown Bear
Gray Wolf
Orca
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Moose
Stoplight parrotfish
Box turtle
Elephant
Wild horse
Moose
Stoplight parrotfish
Box turtle
Elephant
Wild horse
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:
Caribou
Ravens
Seals
Kea
Turkeys
Caribou
Ravens
Seals
Kea
Turkeys
November 29, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Coyote
Cacomixtle
Brown Bear
Gray Wolf
Orca
Cacomixtle
Brown Bear
Gray Wolf
Orca
Reading about Mexico's student uprising in 1968 and thinking about how social & political progress happens in a world where old people structurally outnumber young people by a wide margin.
November 29, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reading about Mexico's student uprising in 1968 and thinking about how social & political progress happens in a world where old people structurally outnumber young people by a wide margin.
"I think everyone agrees that we need more transmission." No, dude, we don't! That's the problem! Lots of utilities don't want it and people along the rights-of-way also don't want it! Something being a good idea in a global sense is extremely different from *everyone* wanting it.
November 28, 2025 at 10:52 PM
"I think everyone agrees that we need more transmission." No, dude, we don't! That's the problem! Lots of utilities don't want it and people along the rights-of-way also don't want it! Something being a good idea in a global sense is extremely different from *everyone* wanting it.
Reposted by Zane Selvans
Do you think democracy is a good idea? Why or why not? 1/
November 27, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Do you think democracy is a good idea? Why or why not? 1/
They way all the main characters in Stranger Things keep in touch with radios and freak out when they lose contact is a funny anachronism. Like we can relate to it because smartphones but it's such a crazy contrast to the actual 1980s.
November 27, 2025 at 7:17 AM
They way all the main characters in Stranger Things keep in touch with radios and freak out when they lose contact is a funny anachronism. Like we can relate to it because smartphones but it's such a crazy contrast to the actual 1980s.
Wait the US has more Spanish speakers than any other country except Mexico?! And there's like half as many Spanish speakers in the US as Mexico?
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
List of countries by Spanish-speaking population - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
simple.wikipedia.org
November 27, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Wait the US has more Spanish speakers than any other country except Mexico?! And there's like half as many Spanish speakers in the US as Mexico?
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
The materiality of these two energy systems is so wildly different.
November 25, 2025 at 4:03 AM
The materiality of these two energy systems is so wildly different.
Reposted by Zane Selvans
I don't feel like anyone really prepared me for how multiple decades of parasocial relationships would actually feel.
xkcd.com/3172/
xkcd.com/3172/
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:04 AM
I don't feel like anyone really prepared me for how multiple decades of parasocial relationships would actually feel.
xkcd.com/3172/
xkcd.com/3172/
Maybe I should get drunk and email some real estate agents.
November 23, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Maybe I should get drunk and email some real estate agents.