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Fellowships and scholarships have been revoked.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

Long COVID in Kids

“An article recently published in JAMA Pediatrics (or, the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics) presents findings from a study suggesting that Long COVID, a condition where symptoms last at least 3 months and up to several years after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, has surpassed asthma as the most common chronic health problem affecting children.”

Summary here… Long COVID in Young Children, School-Aged Children, and Teens

Full article here… Characterizing Long COVID Symptoms During Early Childhood

Don’t bother vaccinating them, they’ll be fine.

Another Attack on Public Education in Ohio

It is hard enough for districts to get levies and bond issues passed. This is just another assault on Public Education because teacher unions are the last public unions that reliably raise money for Democratic candidates. I mean, if Republican candidates supported schools like some of them used to, this wouldn’t be an issue. But it’s the kids who are losing out.

YouTube video from WEWS Channel 5: Ohio bill would restrict election, levy information from being sent out during early voting

You can’t embed a video from News Channel 5 I guess, so you must watch it on Youtube.

Education in America

So recently I saw a new Thomas Sowell video cropped up on Youtube entitled: “Sowell EXPOSES Why American Education Is a Global MOCKERY”. Sowell is an interesting guy. Sometimes when I watch a video of his I think yeah, right problem, weird conclusion. It’s like you took your car to a mechanic and he said, “Spark plugs are bad so we should drop your gas tank.” You’d think “What?” I won’t link to the video, as America’s most prominent African-American conservative intellectual does not need my help in publicizing his views. Continue reading

Why Do Some People Say We Need More Babies?

I have wondered about this for a while. I consider myself a Malthusian. Which is to say, I worry about the Earth’s growing population and how that will strain (and indeed already is straining) the ecosystem. So it has bothered me to see the recent obsession by some, with increasing the domestic birth rate. When taken along with recent anti-immigrant sentiment, I just chalked it up to racism. But there is more to it. This video does a nice job of summing up the argument. And also why the argument isn’t that strong.

It is weird that many of the proponents of having more children are also proponents of increased automation and AI. I have a strong belief that adherence to weak arguments comes from a lack of training in logic and rhetoric. Seems all too common these days.