masbenmaas.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

So…about AI’s energy use… “…to create a five-second video, a newer AI model uses ‘about 3.4 million joules, more than 700 times the energy required to generate a high-quality image’. That's the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour.”

submitted 11 days ago • 103 comments

Always good to hear @claymasters.bsky.social on MPR. It's still a little weird hearing him in the afternoon, and not during morning edition, but his puns are always on brand.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I wrote about a scandal in the Big Beautiful Bill that should really be shocking even if it isn’t surprising. Replacing jet fuel with corn and soybeans doesn’t pencil out for the climate, so Congress wants to take away the government’s pencils. @yalee360.bsky.social e360.yale.edu/features/cor...

submitted 6 days ago • 8 comments

One of the best ways of spotting lizards is to look for them. Often, they’ll see and hear you before you can do either. Can you #FindThatLizard ?!

submitted 9 days ago • 5 comments

This gives a whole new meaning to the term 'oxidation - reduction reaction'...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Central Illinois is experiencing an increase in dust storms that rivals the most arid parts of the country. This was 22 million acres of rich, wet, tallgrass prairie! We've made it a corn and soy desert! climatecrisis247.com/gallery/from...

submitted 12 days ago • 2 comments

Hydrology Paper of the Day @geoallen.bsky.social on how SWOT remote sensing data can characterize flow waves generated by water inputs to a river: length estimation from a single SWOT observation; examples from three rivers and comparisons with flow gauges; and noise, errors, biases and filtering.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Landfill leachate contains PFAS, benzene, vinyl chloride, and 1,4-dioxane. This unlined landfill is next to a quarry and the Minnesota River. The quarry is dewatered to mine it. That water is used by the City of Burnsville for part of its drinking water supply. www.startribune.com/burnsville-d...

submitted 15 days ago • 2 comments

Another example from yesterday demonstrates the @nws.noaa.gov’s Storm Prediction Center’s exceptional expertise. This, along with WFOs, national centers, and more, is just $4 per year per person. I extend my condolences to those who lost loved ones yesterday. 😔 #SevereWeather #NWS #Meteorology

submitted 16 days ago • 4 comments

In early April, a Chevron well on a pad near Galeton suffered a “blowout,” and spewed water, chemicals and crude oil uncontrollably for nearly four days. The spill reached an elementary school, roadways, multiple properties, and created an oily sheen in nearby waterways.

submitted 16 days ago • 5 comments

This article was an interesting read as it focused on how the students view professors using AI tools in the classroom. Students really don't like it when professors can use AI and they cannot. My own opinion is AI has no place in the classroom and I do not use it. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

For those with gas stoves who can't afford to renovate their kitchens and go all-electric, you can buy an inexpensive portable induction stove and eliminate most of this deadly pollution.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Have I used AI in my writing? No. Have I used AI in other work? No. Have I talked about AI w/ students? No. Do I feel a responsibility to “prepare” students for AI? No. Do I feel bad about any of the above? No. It’s just not a thing for me. Maybe it will be one day but until then, I’m fine.

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

Last week the Calstate Northridge Faculty Senate passed a resolution I led, objecting to the CSU's adoption of ChatGPT Edu as undermining our educational goals and misusing scarce funds, calling for the CSU to drop the $16.9 million subscription live-csu-northridge.pantheonsite.io/sites/defaul...

submitted 18 days ago • 7 comments

We prioritize the Great Lakes over the Mississippi River. Right now, more invasive species are moving FROM the Great Lakes INTO the Mississippi than the other way around. Yet the $1.1 billion tech barrier does nothing to stop them. It only stops UPSTREAM movement.

submitted 23 days ago • 3 comments

Dowsing is bunk "science" do norlt believe in it. There are many aquifers under our feet in Minnesota. So, "finding" water is not too hard. I am happy that Mr. Kuebelbeck has made a career of finding water for people, but if you are looking to drill a well, don't use a water dowser.

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

"Natural ground cover allows stormwater to move more slowly and soak in. But hard surfaces like parking lots, driveways, rooftops, and performing stages greatly increase stormwater runoff volume and speed..." BRB, finding a way to work Tom Holland's lip-synch video into class...

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

This is how I feel, too. I think a large part of how we got here is that test-based K-12 education is so deeply flawed. There is almost no reading or writing compared to when I was in school. Then, when students hit college they've never practiced those skills, so of course turn to LLM's.

submitted 26 days ago • 29 comments

On This Day 1965: at 7:06pm an outbreak of six strong tornadoes, four of them violent F4s, began cutting a swath through the Twin Cities, destroying 1100 homes and killing 13 people in the most damaging single weather event in Minnesota history. During that week 37 tornados stuck the Upper Midwest.

submitted 27 days ago • 4 comments

Continued great reporting from Amudalat Ajasa. New research on cumulative impacts shows the combination of bad stuff in the air is even worse than previously reported. Reminder: Trump removed cumulative impact analysis from federal #NEPA rules. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

"On a weekly basis more than 90% of people use weather forecasts, job market reports, food safety warnings and other information that is based on federal science. But only 10% ... are concerned that cuts to federal support for science might impact their access to [it]." www.npr.org/2025/05/06/n...

submitted 27 days ago • 15 comments

NEW: The Trump administration’s slashing of budgets and staff have Great Lakes scientists concerned that they have lost the ability to protect the public from toxic algal blooms, which can kill animals and sicken people. By @annaleighclark.bsky.social

submitted 27 days ago • 31 comments

"In Iowa, waterways are just as impaired as the health of its residents. Almost 2 million fish were killed from the[179] manure spills that occurred in Iowa between 2013 & 2023. [Northwest Iowa was a] major hotspot for [manure] spills." sentientmedia.org/iowa-researc...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

"In Iowa, waterways are just as impaired as the health of its residents. Almost 2 million fish were killed from the[179] manure spills that occurred in Iowa between 2013 & 2023. [Northwest Iowa was a] major hotspot for [manure] spills." sentientmedia.org/iowa-researc...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Human wastewater contamination is so bad in Alabama homes that 1 in 3 adults in one county had hookworm. Biden funded efforts to improve sanitation there. But the effort is cancelled as "DEI". www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...

submitted 32 days ago • 3 comments

Is A River Alive? is published today, 1 May. It’s about the lives, deaths & rights of rivers—& how our fate flows with that of water & always has. To the people, places & rivers whose ideas run through its pages, thank you so much. I think it’s the book I’ve been learning to write all these years.

submitted 32 days ago • 46 comments

Corn ethanol is a bad idea. You could retire 97% of it back to nature, out the remaining 3% in solar, and come out even.

submitted 33 days ago • 10 comments

“It’s a lot more interesting to see the wildlife and feel the wind and sun and fresh air.” ⚡️🚲 www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/20...

submitted 34 days ago • 2 comments