@kevinjkircher.com
Engineering prof (mechanical + electrical) at a big Midwest state school. Energy, climate, buildings, power grid, control, optimization, data science. He/him. Personal account. https://kevinjkircher.com/ Email: my last name at purdue dot edu
Researchers are always neutral arbiters of truth, steadily and selflessly advancing human knowledge regardless of who funds them. Except researchers I dislike, who are shameless partisan actors.
And never forget, peer review of papers whose conclusions I agree with is always an unimpeachable truth-certifying process, while peer review of papers whose conclusions I disagree with is a messy, fallible social process.
Just a reminder to non-academic plebs: No one with a PhD is ever full of shit. Every graph and statistic created by a Dr. always conveys absolute truth and is never meant to intimidate or impress you into believing a Dr.'s fancied-up opinions.
Ya. Worth remembering when these Very Serious People start trying to (re-)ingratiate themselves with genuine left leaders.
This new paper by @zeitzoff.bsky.social looks at the evolution of tactics in the environmental movement in the US, finding that repression has a substantial affect. Read all about it here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
There’s so much I agree with in this piece by @davekarpf.bsky.social and I love this: The best thing a researcher can do right now is focus on “What questions do I actually want to answer?” Then do the work of ANSWERING IT.“ and, if AI is a better social scientist than you,
yikes 😬
Heat pump sales rose 11% in 2025 across 16 European countries, with 2.63 million units sold.
Twelve countries saw growth, largely where subsidy schemes were stabilised and electricity costs addressed.
Policy certainty and energy levies & taxation are proving decisive.
It seems weird that the world's largest petrostate is so invested in making its product as volatile as possible, turning electrification into a national security imperative. But here we are.
Crucial and powerful essay by @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social. Lest we forget.
www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...
Five years ago it was widely assumed the grid would always need gas peaker plants. So this is quite a sentence. Good article too.
"In the energy industry, we’ve spent decades leaning on a single, reliable “get out of jail free” card: the natural gas peaker plant...it’s becoming a liability."
whaaaat! that... is a hallway
Everything you think you know about EV charging is going to become obsolete. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋 insideevs.com/news/789094/...
Domestic natural gas prices, too, are now tied to global markets due to liquified gas exports. Hasn't always been this way! Doesn't have to remain this way. Bad policy can be undone.
7. "No more than 0.5 footcandles of glare at any adjacent property line" lolololol
"Murder, pedophilia, toxic sludge that turns rats into man-sized villain rats, solar, hurricanes that kill moms. All opposed?"
Next time you're out for a beer with old friends at a conference, play the "which men in our field would hang out with today's Epstein if they aren't already" game! Write down a name on a napkin, shuffle, flip, and see how many times that one egomaniacal clout-chasing bootlicker comes up
Ugh I can't even think about it, too soon after annoying shenanigans
@johnsmillie42.bsky.social tag in?
Board: "Oh look 5 options arranged from 'not great for solar but not a total ban' to 'total ban with hilariously little justification."
Subcommittee director (anti-solar): "Yup balanced menu take yer pick"
Board: "All in favor of the middle-of-the-road option, 'soft-ban solar 12 ways'?" "Aye" x7
Spoke briefly at a county zoning board meeting about solar ordinance revision. Just before the meeting, solar opponents on the drafting subcommittee snuck in 3-5 anti-solar options per solar-neutral option (board was shown zero pro-solar options). Very stupid procedural shenanigans but they worked 🙄
It’s time to talk about Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein, and how much harder questions need to be asked about his foundation. Great to get @timschwab.bsky.social’s insights!
In a couple weeks, we’ll also be talking about Epstein’s relationship with Elon Musk.
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Of course it is
- Joeykevin
We also need to know whether AI was used to select the target. WaPo is reporting Anthropic and Palantir tech were used to identify 1000 targets in Iran 24 hours. Who vetted those targets? Who pays for errors? It's possible they weren't involved in this strike but this we need to know.
This new @clientearth.bsky.social lawsuit could set important precedent on whether retirement plan managers have a fiduciary duty to address climate risk. Cushman & Wakefield's small cap fund disclaims any effort to analyze climate risk, ignoring how climate change threatens portfolio value.
The Middle East conflict is stress testing global energy. Bloomberg sees oil at $108 in a severe escalation.
We have seen this before. The difference now is that solar and batteries are more cost competitive. Every fossil fuel spike strengthens the case for renewables on energy security alone.
"Instead of Googling Epstein, Aaronson, then 29, turned to what he considered an even more reliable source: his mother. She did some checking. “Be careful not to get sucked up in the slime-machine going on here.... Since you don’t care that much about money, they can’t buy you.”"
Scientists! Avoid entangling yourself in a global child trafficking ring using this one weird trick (talking to literally any woman)
www.science.org/content/arti...
lol yeah, maybe time for me to adopt a fuzzy buddy.
And also, what if we didn't need the excuse of the cutest tiny (fine yes I'm unapologetically biased) to be warm and friendly?
Just remembering how in 2020 I used to walk around Boston with my then-baby strapped to my chest and burbling about bikes and buses and whatever else zoomed by. How even in a big plague-ridden city, strangers would beam and wave and stop and chat. Most people are pretty great.