Mac

Interests include: interesting things

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

A Danish scientist counted bugs on the same windshield, same road, same conditions, every year for 20 years. By year 20, 80% of the insects were gone.

In Germany, a group of volunteer bug scientists did something even bigger. They set traps in 63 nature reserves, not farms, protected land, and weighed everything they caught. Same traps, same method, 27 years straight. The total weight of flying bugs dropped 76%. In midsummer, when insects should be peaking, it was 82% gone. A follow-up in 2020 and 2021 checked again. No recovery.

In the UK, they literally ask drivers to count splats on their license plates after a trip. The 2024 count came back 63% lower than just 2021. Three years.

A 2020 study pulled together 166 surveys from 1,676 locations around the world. Land insects are disappearing at roughly 9% every ten years.

Here’s where it hits your plate. About 75% of the food crops we grow depend on insects to pollinate them, everything from apples to almonds to coffee. One 2025 study modeled what a full pollinator collapse would look like: food prices jump 30%, the global economy takes a $729 billion hit, and the world loses 8% of its Vitamin A supply.

Birds are already feeling it. North America has lost 2.9 billion birds since 1970. A study from just weeks ago found half of 261 bird species on the continent are now in serious decline, and the losses are speeding up in farming regions. The birds that eat insects lost 2.9 billion. The birds that don’t eat insects? They gained 26 million. That ratio tells the whole story.

One of the German researchers behind the 27-year study drives a Land Rover. He says it has the aerodynamics of a refrigerator. It stays clean now.

[Mac @andymac2272]

@weatherchannel Duke, from Floral Park, NY

[Mac @andymac2272]

@DigitalCameraW I love my Sony A7r5, but I have to admit that there are times where the images coming out of my Canon M6 Mark II just look better. I'll never get rid of that camera.

[Empire State Building Observation Deck @EmpireStateBldg]

NOT AGAIN

[NWS Mount Holly @NWS_MountHolly]

Weekend Coastal Storm: PLENTY of uncertainty continues, and while it is still too early for specifics, impactful snow, heavy rain, strong winds (land and marine) and coastal flooding all remain on the table. Latest forecasts at https://t.co/ka2HFv1KuB #pawx #njwx #dewx #mdwx

[Mac @andymac2272]

@alexanderrusso A few hours a week, month after month, for several years, all to learn a skill that you will abandon the moment you turn an adult.

[Mac @andymac2272]

@nytdavidbrooks You obviously have not spent a single day in an American elementary school. This is literally what we teach every day, year after year after year.

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

Since Edward Sexton's death last week, I've been reflecting a lot on his work. I doubt another tailor will leave as strong and distinct an impression on men's tailoring in my lifetime. For those unaware of him, I thought I'd share a bit about his story. 🧵

[The Atlantic @TheAtlantic]

Donald Trump is an enemy of the United States, @RadioFreeTom writes, and after today’s indictment Americans must “put a shoulder to the wheel and defend our republic in every peaceful, legal, and civilized way they can.” https://t.co/XEUyMepc0g

[Paul Krugman @paulkrugman]

Maybe the economy wasn’t too hot after all https://t.co/C8pVW1zIKn

[John Gibbons 🇵🇸 @think_or_swim]

Not to be alarmist but…this is what’s called a six-sigma event, now unfolding in Antarctica.

Otherwise known as a once-in-7.5-million-year event.

Hang onto your hats.

HT @EliotJacobson

[fooler initiative @metroadlib]

I LITERALLY stopped working on my memo so I could read this indictment.

I am on page 24 and JESUS LUPITA NYONG'O CHRIST.

HOW this man still has the capacity to shock me after everything that's happened, i'll never know.

but I am sitting here *STUNNED*.

[Nick Gerli @nickgerli1]

Mortgage rates back to 7%.

Meaning that the cost to buy a house in America is now approaching $2,700/month when including mortgage, tax, insurance, and maintenance.

Meanwhile, cost to rent is $1,850.

Biggest gap we've ever seen. Something has to break.

[Mac @andymac2272]

@resnikoff Fantastic article. The only hope, as I see it, is a generation of young people tuning out to cable news entirely. They seem to understand, and rightly so, that it's a waste of their attention.

[Mac @andymac2272]

@erikhalvorsen18 What part of the lying is just mindless trolling? Assigning such a deep and purposeful meaning to the lying --- ie, that their true intent is to shape & declare reality --- seems like giving them too much credit.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

People w/ mental health conditions make up 53% of the population at Rikers.

On average, they are held 61% longer.

We pay $556,000 per person annually to keep them in jail. 90% on Rikers are held without conviction.

By contrast, it costs ~$42k to put them in supportive housing.

[POLITICO @politico]

America's regions are poles apart when it comes to gun deaths and the forces that drive them.

And gun violence is actually most severe in the southern swath of the country in regions where Republicans have dominated state governments for decades. https://t.co/BIfBXN0gQC

[Oliver Willis @owillis]

pls share/RT

The Media Isn't Liberal, And It Hasn't Learned Anything From Trump Or Iraq https://t.co/NUFupFJrs3

[Mac @andymac2272]

@DPhotographer Excellent camera for Macro photography, among many other things.