Visual journalist and producer in Los Angeles. Formerly @nytimes, @qz, @ABCNews Instagram @olsentropy. Once went down to 2000 ft in a sub. Thalassophile.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined January 2009
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Most people have no idea California has a supervolcano. Near Mammoth Lakes, you can walk through a landscape of boiling springs, steaming vents, and hot water heated by magma just a few miles below the surface. It’s an incredible place.
open.substack.com/pub/califo…
Erik Olsen retweeted
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory released the most detailed view ever taken of Mars’ wind-carved cliffs, dubbed the Yardangs, on Tuesday. ktla.com/news/nationworld/na…
Erik Olsen retweeted
Blue whales' length is routinely exaggerated. Extreme and questionable historical figures are repeated as though they describe typical whales, including much smaller blue whales seen off California. They are magnificent enough without stretching the truth. californiacurated.substack.c…
Erik Olsen retweeted
A stark new global report finds that 45% of migratory bird species are declining, with one in nine threatened with extinction. That makes places like Upper Newport Bay, a vital stop along the Pacific Flyway, more important than ever. Here’s our story:
californiacurated.substack.c…
Erik Olsen retweeted
The Walls of Yosemite Are Coming Down
Exfoliation helped create Yosemite’s famous rounded granite domes and continues to peel the cliffs apart in massive sheets of rock. californiacurated.com/blog/t…
Erik Olsen retweeted
There are wild sea turtles living in a concrete river in Los Angeles County.
Green sea turtles, in the San Gabriel River, drawn by warm water from nearby power plants.
Most people driving over it have no idea they're there.
Erik Olsen retweeted
California is full of great science stories, and finding them is what we do. If you love the science, history, and wildlife of the Golden State, follow @ScienceWeekly
Sea turtles living in a concrete river in Los Angeles. 4,000-year-old trees in the White Mountains. And more!
Even after all the hype about Apple Intelligence and all these improvements, voice to text transcription is still utter garbage.
Erik Olsen retweeted
After WWI, it was predicted that humanity would be extinguished by cropdusters blanketing cities with poison gas. After WWII, nuclear holocaust, for sure. After 9/11, terrorists with WMD, including suitcase and shipping container nukes. After the first nanotech, engulfment by "gray goo." The fact that these (and many other) end times prophesies failed does not mean that the new AI doom prophesy will fail - maybe this time it's different - but they should serve as a reminder of the cognitive bias of casually slipping from risk to existential risk, and to compensate accordingly, just as with other cognitive biases if one is a rationalist. John Mueller adds historical perspective here: Artificial Intelligence and the persistent survival of cosmic alarmism muellerbbbb.substack.com/p/a…
Exfoliation helped create Yosemite’s famous rounded granite domes and continues to peel the cliffs apart in massive sheets of rock. californiacurated.com/blog/t…
Reading California's History in Highway Roadcuts:
How geologists read millions of years of history in California's highway road cuts. californiacurated.substack.c…
I want to introduce you to the one of the most important, but least known, scientists of the 20th century. californiacurated.substack.c…
Erik Olsen retweeted
A stark new global report finds that 45% of migratory bird species are declining, with one in nine threatened with extinction. That makes places like Upper Newport Bay, a vital stop along the Pacific Flyway, more important than ever. Here’s my story: californiacurated.substack.c…
A stark new global report finds that 45% of migratory bird species are declining, with one in nine threatened with extinction. That makes places like Upper Newport Bay, a vital stop along the Pacific Flyway, more important than ever. Here’s my story: californiacurated.substack.c…
Erik Olsen retweeted
Every time you drive through a mountain pass in California, you’re also driving through millions of years of Earth history.
Those blasted cliffs along the highway aren’t just roadcuts. They’re windows into the tectonic forces that built California. open.substack.com/pub/califo…
Erik Olsen retweeted
Most people have no idea California has a supervolcano. Near Mammoth Lakes, you can walk through a landscape of boiling springs, steaming vents, and hot water heated by magma just a few miles below the surface. It’s an incredible place.
open.substack.com/pub/califo…
I recently visited Converse Basin Grove in Sequoia National Forest.
A little over a century ago, a lumber company cut down roughly 8,000 giant sequoias here, nearly wiping out one of the greatest sequoia groves on Earth.
Here’s what remains today. californiacurated.substack.c…
