And on This Day Let Us Consider…

This is the beginning of a current article in Scientific American…

“From World War II until 2024, the US stood unchallenged as the scientific leader of the free world. Across practically every discipline — physics, materials science, astronomy, chemistry, biology, medicine, geology, etc. — American scientific missions and initiatives, often in collaboration with European, Canadian, Asian, and many other global partners, brought us new advances and breakthroughs, paving the way for generations of scientists to thrive. In a society that values facts, scientific truths, education, and the public good, this recipe led to multiple generations of continued breakthroughs and advances.
Since late January of this year, however, all of that has rapidly changed. Many of the most valuable scientific organizations in the world, including NOAA, NASA, the NSF, the CDC, the EPA, and the FDA, have experienced a set of unprecedented internal attacks.

Funding streams have been terminated.
Grants that have been successfully competed for and won have been pulled.
Fellowships and scholarships have been revoked.
Contracts have been broken.
Thousands upon thousands of employees have been terminated, often in defiance of court orders.

And now, at the start of the second half of 2025, a new budget is on the verge of becoming law, which would largely eliminate science as we know it across universities and colleges, research institutes, and national labs. This isn’t a horror story; this is a real-life nightmare for the most educated and skilled American workers of all: scientists.”

This is a sad thing indeed. And a real betrayal of our country. Hope all that “winning” was worth it Trumpers.

American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

This is Why Fighting Climate Change is Good Fiscal Policy

I am always amazed by the lack of logic from those who deny climate change. I have watched friends change their stance from “I don’t believe climate change is occurring” to, “Well maybe, but we can’t be sure it is caused by humans” to the current, “Well China and India aren’t doing anything about it why should we?” This last comment has become popular as China overtook our country on EV (electric vehicle) and Solar Panel production. We now have a 100% tariff on Chinese EV’s because China can make a pretty good EV for about $12,000 U.S.! Can you imagine what a $12,000 car could do to the U.S. car market? Poor folks could almost afford a new car.

My point is that as we delay, the problem grows worse and we lose any ability to offset the cost of fixing it by providing the technology to do so. Soon we will be forced to buy that technology from China. So before Trump tries to abolish all climate research to avoid those pesky facts, please enjoy this latest report from the good people at USGS (United States Geologic Survey).

14 Million Americans May Sink Within 76 Years

BTW, That estimate is $1 trillion in damages by the end of the century, just for the southeastern coast.

Oh, and for those who wonder why I post so many Yahoo links it is because they have less advertising than the websites the stories come from.

Oxygen from the Ocean

Okay, this could be a real game changer. People have been talking about mining manganese nodules (metal nodules made from a number of rare metals) from the bottom of the ocean floor since I was in elementary school. Just as the technology is being developed we discover this…

Oxygen discovery defies knowledge of the deep ocean

If this is true, mining these nodules could be another heavy straw on the camel’s back as far as the ocean is concerned. Our world ocean is already stressed to the breaking point.