I have unexpected professional news to share – Announcement #2

I am going back to academia

A world of unprecedented wealth, but unevenly distributed — Explainer #1b

An illustration of the limits of aggregating data

Bluesky significantly improves how it displays threads — Note #2

Discover the features of version 1.86, a major update of the platform

How has solar photovoltaic power price evolved? — Plot #1

In fifty years, the price per Watt of solar photovoltaic power has fallen dramatically

The difference between moderation and censorship – Note #1

Some claim to be “censored” by social media platforms. They are not.

Humans have never been richer and more numerous — Explainer #1a

Discover the fascinating exponential phenomena that have transformed humanity over the last three centuries

Let's say connected with a new audio format - Plus #1

A new format so that you don't miss any of the behind-the-scenes stories of my popular science work.

In the United States, Threads already has more daily users than X

Matt Navarra on Threads, citing a Business Insider article, reports that in the United States, Threads already has more daily users than X, formerly Twitter. In April 2024, Threads has 28 million daily active users, X has 22 million. Threads has 100 million monthly active users, X has 140 million.

2024 has already broken multiple temperature records

Carbon Brief has published a comprehensive article containing multiple visualizations of global temperature data. The visualizations show that 2024 has already broken multiple temperature records. As shown in Figure 1, the first four months of 2024 have seen the largest temperature anomaly since the 1940s. The temperature anomaly is the

Joe Biden's campaign is raising a lot more money than Donald Trump's campaign

Figure 1 is an interesting plot shared on Bluesky by Jacob T. Levy. It shows the cumulative total of funds raised by the campaigns of Donald Trump (in red) and Joe Biden (in blue), in 2020 (dotted line) and 2024 (solid line), between 600 days before Election Day and Election

Threads likely to show ads as soon as the second half of 2024

As a reminder, Threads is Meta's Instagram-backed Twitter competitor. According to Digiday, Meta has been promoting Threads' upcoming advertising features to a selection of executives working in the advertising industry. The advertising features would arrive in the second half of 2024, a bit more than a year

post.news is shutting down

Noam Bardin, CEO of the social network post.news: It is with a heavy heart that I share this sad news with you. Despite how much we’ve accomplished together, we will be shutting down Post News within the next few weeks. We have done many great things together. We

Format: Guides ⚡️

Safari: Restyle a folder icon with an emoji in the bookmark bar - Guide #7

Discover how to restyle a folder icon with an emoji in the bookmark bar with Safari

Format: Guess The Plot 📈

Guess The Plot #3

Can you identify the data represented on the plot?

Format: Guides ⚡️

🚀 Homebrew: Uninstall orphaned packages - Guide #6

Discover how to uninstall orphaned packages with Homebrew

Format: Wiki 📖

What is a dependency? - Wiki #15

Discover what a dependency is in programming

Format: Guides ⚡️

🚀 Homebrew: List installed packages - Guide #5

Discover how to list installed packages with Homebrew

Format: Guess The Plot 📈

Guess The Plot #2

Can you identify the data represented on the plot?

Format: Agenda 🗓️

New online sessions for my two-days workshop "Getting Started with R for Busy People" are open

A workshop for busy people who want to get started with R

Format: Notes 🗒️

Air Canada had to refund a customer after its customer service AI hallucinated

In February 2024, a Canadian court forced Air Canada to partially refund the airline ticket purchased by one of its customers. The customer had asked the customer support AI bot under which conditions Air Canada reimburses emergency-purchased airline tickets when a loved one dies. The bot responded by hallucinating a

Format: Notes 🗒️

Daniel Kahneman has passed away

I just learned on Bluesky that the American-Israeli psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman has passed away at the age of 90. During his long scientific career, Daniel Kahneman helped to show that psychological mechanisms, including cognitive biases, have a substantial influence on human decisions. Trained as a psychologist, his work

Format: Notes 🗒️

X's lawsuit against a group fighting online hate has been dismissed

In July 2023, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a group fighting against online hate, published a series of reports claiming that X, formerly Twitter, does very little moderation of various hate speeches. In response, Elon Musk announced that X was going to sue the CCDH, alleging that the

Format: Notes 🗒️

Donald Trump’s rhetoric on the January 6th is becoming increasingly radical

According to data compiled by the Washington Post, Donald Trump is using increasingly radical language in his speeches to describe the rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. After calling them “political prisoners”, which they are not, Donald Trump now calls the rioters “hostages”, which they are not

Format: Notes 🗒️

Have you ever seen the Taj Mahal from space?

CNES, the French space agency, shared on Bluesky a spectacular picture of the Taj Mahal taken by one of the two Pleiades satellites. Le Taj Mahal en Inde, observé par un satellite Pléiades à près de 700 km d'altitude ! Ce mausolée de marbre blanc est considéré comme un