David Roberts

helenwebberley.comAre transgender sports bans really about protecting women? | Dr Helen WebberleyThe data says no. Those most hostile to women are most in favour of banning trans athletes.

"A new survey of 1,000 American adults found that the strongest supporters of transgender sports bans are not the people who admire women most: they are the people who hold the most hostile views about women."

wired.comThe Tragedy of Having a Wikipedia Page—and Then Losing ItEvery day, Wikipedia biographies of living people are flagged for deletion because the subjects are not “notable” enough. How do these poor souls take the news?

11h

Lol, I am part of this motley fraternity:

The political media is visibly chafing at the current situation, where Republicans are glaringly awful, fucking everything up, running deviant candidates everyone hates, and Dems are just being normal & winning. The force is out of balance. They are viscerally eager to go after Dems about something.

The minute Dems gain any power at all, watch them descend like locusts, hyping an endless series of fake scandals fed to them by the same RW slop machine that's been playing them for fools for decades. They can't wait.

I am so sick of data center & AI pitches in my inbox. I miss when the cleantech community was focused on decarbonization.

huffpost.comWoman Describes ‘Brutal’ Rape By Donald Trump In Interviews With DemocratsFormer beauty pageant contestant Beatrice Keul previously said Trump tried to force himself on her but she rebuffed him.

"In a series of interviews with Democratic staff on the House Judiciary Committee, Beatrice Keul said Trump raped her that year in 'brutal' fashion in a hotel room at Trump’s Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City after the pair spent time with Jeffrey Epstein ..."

bbc.co.uk'It's offensively cheap': How solar power is quietly becoming bigger than nuclearAfter defying projections, solar's dramatic growth means it is overtaking nuclear as a global power source. Here are seven reasons for solar's success, and where it might go from here.

18h

"Energy independence"

Lauri Myllyvirta@laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social

New from me: The US has faced a higher cost than any other country from the global Hormuz oil shock, with the crisis adding $160 billion to its fuel bill — or $471 per person on average — despite being the world’s largest oil producer.

David Roberts reposted

Jan Rosenow

@janrosenow.bsky.social

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth. Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

David Roberts reposted

David Ho

@davidho.bsky.social

21h

In addition to two fascists losing elections in Serbia and Brazil yesterday, Oxford Street in London was closed to vehicular traffic and transformed into a pedestrian zone. 🥳

londoncentric.mediaWhile you were asleep, Oxford Street was pedestrianisedPhoto essay: We spent the night with the team making it happen • The last bus is packed • The taxi drivers don’t know • The pedicabs don’t care

texastribune.orgThe small-town cop who helped ICE deport his neighborsIngram was just rebuilding from a devastating flood when its tiny police department enrolled in ICE’s 287(g) deportation program. Within a year, cops would hand over the equivalent of 10% of the town.

"Ingram was just rebuilding from a devastating flood when its tiny police department enrolled in ICE’s 287(g) deportation program. Within a year, cops would hand over the equivalent of 10% of the town." Terrible people.

This is a pro-solar PAC that is strategically spending to take out vocal opponents of clean energy. They are racking up quite the record. Their CEO will be on Volts this week.

Reconstructionist@unavaleable.bsky.social

Uh what

utilitydive.comGeorgia electric cooperative plans 50-MW home battery deploymentCentral Georgia Electric Membership Corp. plans to use the batteries to reduce system peaks and energy costs as hyperscale data centers seek to connect to its grid.

Base Power finds its first utility partner outside of Texas.

David Roberts reposted

Hoodlum 🇺🇸

@nothoodlum.bsky.social

Jesse Ventura: “If Donald Trump would have gone in the military, he would have been the guy that wet his bed, cried for his mom, went hysterical, and would be carted out in the middle of the night. The man’s a coward. He’s a bully. All bullies are cowards. That’s why they’re bullies”

Thank you, ladies.

Jo Wolff@jowolff.bsky.social

Incredible gender difference in voting intention in Brazil.

I'm at a Halloween party. Getting ready to dig in.

elizabethspiers.comJames Carville, Please Go Away, a column by meNo matter how hard I try to excise any commentary from James Carville from my media diet, he persists in my inbox, and in the newspapers I read, and on television if I am masochistically watching cabl...

So much this.

nytimes.comHow Trump Gave the Worst Polluters a Free PassThe president temporarily waived clean-air rules for industrial facilities that spew cancer-causing gases. Then his appointees worked to gut the regulations altogether.

"In total, since taking office again, Mr. Trump exempted 202 facilities in 39 states & Puerto Rico from clean-air regulations that were going into effect. Some were among the country’s worst industrial polluters, including chemical manufacturers, copper smelters & coal-burning power plants." MAHA!

wired.com‘Dune: Part Three’ Cowriter Has a New Comic on the WayBrian K. Vaughan claims he’s seen “Dune: Part Three” and it’s “a fucking beautiful movie.”

I, for one, did not know that my very favorite writer of comic books, Brian K. Vaughan, *co-wrote Dune 3*! Makes me even more excited.

David Roberts reposted

On Monday, I'm recording a podcast with @ketanjoshi.co. He's going to present the strong version of THE CASE AGAINST (AI) DATA CENTERS. Tech company fuckery, discarded green pledges, the rush to gas, the empty promises that AI will help reduce emissions ... all of it. Got questions?

defector.comCatapult Elizabeth Koch Into The Sun | DefectorI don’t know if Elizabeth Koch would fashion herself a personal essayist, but she has certainly dabbled in the form. In an 11-part essay published in Smith Magazine in 2007, the billionaire’s daughter...

"It is brutal that these days, pursuing creative work so often means operating under the whims of a billionaire whose attention, when shifted, can cut the ground from under your feet."

canarymedia.comAs US grid batteries surge, risk of fires plummetsConcerns about fires loom large in communities, but data shows the tech is no more at risk of failure than boring legacy infrastructure like substation…

The risk of battery fires from lithium-ion batteries has fallen dramatically.

We're all doomed.

Assuming Volts is at 51...

I'm off to Costco to get not one not two not three not four but FIVE shots. Covid, flu, hepatitis b, something something, don't even remember. Pray for me. 😟

I ended up only getting 4. The hepatits b got postponed for reasons I didn't fully understand. Anyway, pretty quick and painless, so far so good!

volts.wtfBuilding our piece of the electric stackA conversation with Sam D’Amico of Impulse.

Today on Volts: I talk with Sam D'Amico, the guy who engineered that drool-worthy high-end induction cooktop, Impulse. We discuss the "electric stack," why it's important to manufacture some of it in the US, why he started with cooktops, & which mid-sized appliance he wants to upgrade next.

David Roberts reposted

Cascadia Journal

@cascadiajournal.bsky.social

This so sad and infuriating. A Canadian woman who lives in the US enclave of Point Roberts and was detained by border patrol agents for six hours over bogus illegal voting claims has died because she was too scared to cross the border again to get medical care. www.cascadiadaily.com/2026/oct/20/...

cascadiadaily.comAfraid to cross border for medical help, Canadian living in Point Roberts dies | Cascadia Daily NewsShe had been detained at border last month, faced deporation hearing after being accused of voting in US elections

seattletimes.comA remarkable new picture is emerging of how the air around us could harm the brainResearchers discovered that some particles had penetrated deep into the brain, reaching the amygdala, a region that helps shape emotion and memory.

I really don't think most people appreciate how much damage air pollution does to our bodies & brains. Even in the last 10 years the science has progressed a ton & everything it has discovered is *grim*.

As I've said many many times, the health care savings *alone* would more than pay for the transition away from fossil fuels.

nytimes.comOpinion | The Midterms Pit the Democrats Against the BillionairesMoney probably can’t buy a midterm election.

Plutocrats vs. Democrats.

Beyond parody.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Joe Mitchell: "Thank God you're building the ballroom. Thank God you're getting rid of those awful bike lanes. We don't ride bicycles in Iowa."

canarymedia.comNew York to build state’s first two utility-scale thermal networksPilot projects in Haverstraw and Buffalo will test whether utilities can deliver clean heat instead of fossil fuels, all while retaining jobs.

Thermal 👏 energy 👏 networks!

heatmap.newsNet Power Surrendered Its Clean Dreams to Data Center DemandThe zero-emission pioneer is doing the dirty work for the AI boom.

Ugh this is so depressing. Net Power was working on these fancy zero-emission natural gas turbines (which produce a stream of pure CO2 on the side). Been wondering what happened to them. Turns out they, like everyone else, are just pivoting to old-fashioned polluting gas turbines.

consumerreports.orgConsumer Reports Launches Power Smarter Initiative to Help Americans Fight Back Against Rising Energy Costs

Consumer Reports has hopped on the electricity affordability bandwagon. Makes me nervous.

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My worry is that a mania to bring down electricity rates will result in a bunch of slopulist policies that have the effect of choking off investment in the grid & thereby stymying further electrification. I worry we'll start to see "rising demand for electricity" as ipso facto a *bad* thing.

Rising demand for electricity is a *good* thing & should be encouraged! Yes, part of that means policies to get more out of the grid we've already built, which will help keep rates reasonable. But part of it means investment & growth! We need to remember that growth of the grid is a positive thing.

consumerreports.orgConsumer Reports Launches Power Smarter Initiative to Help Americans Fight Back Against Rising Energy Costs

Consumer Reports has hopped on the electricity affordability bandwagon. Makes me nervous.

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In other words, we desperately need to be investing in electricity infrastructure. That means spending a lot of money. It probably means electricity rates rising. Those rates rising is fine & good *if* it means we're spending less on gasoline for transport, natural gas for heating, etc.

Obviously we don't want bad or counterproductive spending. We don't want higher rates purely to satisfy hyperscalers' demands for speed. We don't want piratic profits for utility executives. We need the sector to invest smartly & efficiently. But we do need it to invest!

consumerreports.orgConsumer Reports Launches Power Smarter Initiative to Help Americans Fight Back Against Rising Energy Costs

Consumer Reports has hopped on the electricity affordability bandwagon. Makes me nervous.

OK, some folks asked: why does the stampede toward electricity-affordability as a political issue make me nervous? This probably warrants an essay or something, but I'll try to summarize. Basically: we need to electrify the economy. That will involve a grid 2, 3, even 4X the capacity of ours.

bloomberg.comGM Leads $108 Million Funding Round for Sodium-Ion Battery StartupGeneral Motors Co. led a $108 million Series B funding round for Peak Energy to help ramp up manufacturing at the energy-storage startup’s California plant.

Sodium-ion batteries scaling up.

nytimes.comEmissions Gap Report Identifies U.S. as Outlier Among G20 NationsThe scientific report, identifies the United States as an outlier among the nations responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions.

So many reasons to be ashamed to be American these days.

I used to think, if we could get everyone to see the *patterns* in reactionary lies & manipulations, the way they're always the same, we'd be better at guarding against them. But I've lost that faith. On some level people *want* to shut their frontal cortexes down & wallow in monkey-brain shit.

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It's not just that people aren't applying rational thinking, it's that they don't *want* to. They actively gravitate to people & ideologies who give them permission not to.

nytimes.comVance Defends Ramaswamy Ad Featuring Acton’s Mother Despite BacklashThe vice president backed an advertisement featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s mother, who has been estranged from Dr. Acton since her stepfather was charged with child rape.

The Republican Party has become so utterly fucking vile I hardly even know what to say any more. If you support this kind of shit, you're just a bad person and should feel bad about yourself. I don't know whether that's "helpful messaging" but it's the truth.

nytimes.comOpinion | What Makes Men in Groups Behave So Badly?Why do men in groups behave this way?

"A 2007 study found that men who join fraternities are three times as likely to commit sexual violence during their freshman year, even though they were no more likely to have committed assault beforehand. ... Frats appear to have the power to take men and turn them into rapists."

brattle.comNew Brattle Report Finds Batteries Could Deliver Up to 66% Greater System Value When Deployed at the Grid Edge | BrattleA new Brattle report finds that distributed batteries could deliver 22% to 66% greater system benefits per kilowatt than comparable transmission-connected

Contrary to conventional wisdom, a new Brattle report finds that batteries have up to 66% *more* system value when placed at the grid edge, distributed, rather than centralized in large utility-scale installations.

heatmap.newsThe Surprisingly Exciting Race to Be California’s Next Insurance CommissionerBen Allen wants to reform the existing market. Jane Kim wants a revolution.

In my opinion, progressives like Sanders should not be endorsing hardcore NIMBYs like Kim. And hardcore NIMBYs like Kim should not be allowed to call themselves progressives.