SpaceX cleared to launch first Starship test flight after two explosive failures | CNN Federal regulators gave SpaceX the green light for another test flight of Starship, the most powerful launch vehicle ever constructed, after mishaps earlier this year rained debris near populated isla...

Don't you just love multi-colored fireworks spanning the sky?
www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/s...

Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling international students | CNN The Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, marking a sharp escalation in the battle over the Ivy League school’s autonomy in the face o...

www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/u... This must be unconstitutional. It's unAmerican, anti-American, and harmful to every American citizen.

Very interesting. Barrett's pivotal self-recusal, particularly.
I am taking frequent note of Barrett's positions and recusals.

Noem Incorrectly Defines Habeas Corpus as the President’s Right to Deport People

Is this Manifest Ignorance, or is it premeditated Nineteen Eighty-Four? Of course, why limit your answer. It can be both. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/u...

DHS says it’s in beginning stages of ‘vetting process’ for immigrant reality TV show | CNN Politics The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing a reality TV pitch where immigrants would compete for American citizenship, according to a spokesperson who said in a statement to CNN that “the show i...

What a joke of country the U.S. has become. We are led by reality-TV-show-fakery, so that's what we get. www.cnn.com/2025/05/16/p...

This is a very fine serendipitous discovery and a great technical treatment to explain the discovery.

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first. One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish. Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points. We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are. Anelise Feldman Freshman, Yarmouth High School Yarmouth

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

Like bicyclists on a racing team, or competing racers who temporarily team up to reducing aerodynamic drag. All about fluid mechanics. Are you able to share a pre-acceptance late draft (PDF)?

hahaha

Hey, Trump administration--you know all that work you're doing to "stop antisemitism"?

Call's coming from inside the house, dudes.

I scream, you scream, everybody scream, and eat BEN & JERRY'S ice cream.

The whole country and whole world has this need.
I hope you find a solid, intellectually rewarding, and reasonably good-paying niche.

Racist and sexist roots in the cancellation of NSF grants under Trump:

Grants with female PIs canceled 2x more than men
Grants with Black PIs canceled 4x over White PIs
Grants with Hispanic PIs canceled 2x over White PIs
Grants with PIs with disabilities canceled 2x more than without

A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants"

A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

Our mission is simple: we provide free legal advice and assistance to researchers being targeted by bad actors trying to censor, misinterpret, or otherwise silence them.

Please reach out by phone or Signal at 646-801-0853 or email lawyer@csldf.org for help. ☎️

The Weather & Climate Livestream Join us starting May 28th, as meteorologists and climate scientists from across the US share their research and answer your questions.

Calling all US meteorologists and climate scientists! Starting May 28th, we will be holding a marathon livestream to share our work with the public and show why the services we provide should not be cut. Learn more & sign up to speak here (and please share!)

More on the USDA's decision to restore purged data sets and webpages in response to the farmers' lawsuit. knightcolumbia.org/content/usda...

US researchers must stand up to protect freedoms, not just funding Curtailment of freedoms and disregard for the rule of law in the United States is destroying the ability of science to serve the nation’s, and the world’s, interests. Researchers can take action.

New op-ed in @nature.com: The Trump administration's assault on freedoms and the rule of law is an existential threat to US science. We urge scientists to speak out in defense of freedoms, not just funding. With Andrea Liu @upenn.edu and Sidney Nagel of UChicago! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Opinion | I Came to Study Aging. Now I’m Trapped in ICE Detention.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...

A Toxic Pit Could Be a Gold Mine for Rare-Earth Elements

ICK WATER IS RICH WATER
The article informs about an economically important advance in re-use of mining waste water to extract needed metals, including rare earths. (But the word alchemy has no scientific place here.)

Gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/s...

Right when we most need regulation.

President Xi is absolutely right, and he stated it well. But then, why does Xi also persist with bullying of its neighbors? It looks bad and is bad--incredibly bad--for Trump to do this. And so it is the same when Xi bullies nearly every neighboring country. Screenshot from CNN:

Farmers Sued Over Deleted Climate Data. So the Government Will Put It Back.

On a tough day in Congress, loving this point of light! Messing up farmers is terrible for everyone, and going to court can still unlock solutions. Grateful to our courageous clients.

The goat seemed to make use of a gap in the bicyclists to attack one of them. The goat's dim view of bicycle races and riders is on display, as is the goat's high level of thinking. But: bad goat! Ba-a-a-a-ad!

Needs human-to-human discussion. If the invite was based on understanding your seriousness and humor, it would be a productive presentation. It would open doors to broader commentary on predatory journals, misinformation, disinformation, manipulation. Also present actual science in another talk.

@meadekrosby.bsky.social Exactly. Exactly their intent. Really tragically corrupt leadership. Their only skills are in corruption and misleading gullible people. Only their ineptness exceeds their corruption.

@tcsengl.bsky.social ‬ Could you send me a pdf? Looks very interesting.

Would you be able to email me a PDF of the paper? Looks really interesting. Looks like fantastic product of the lockdown; great way to have used your lock-down time! jeffreyskargel@hotmail.com

Three R's of sustainable recycling of conservative politics: Reduce, Refuse, and utterly Reject. Then at the end of the life cycle of the trash, just burn it anyway. We'll make up for the hot gases in other ways.

Hahaha. New spin on recycling.