The AI czars have been Sacks, Burns, and Fall? are they doing a bit?

Ahead of a hearing before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee tomorrow, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released a 120-pg report, "Science: A New Golden Age" www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u... Here's the summary from the press release:

Just finished Radical Cartography by William Rankin. Biggest surprise was chapter on color arguing against usage of “objective“ linear color maps like ColorBrewer b/c colors have connotations and maps make arguments by construction. Uniform colors also express a view. www.amazon.com/dp/052555979...

About time!

The FF LSRs coming out of Texas right now are horrific. "Feet of water over bridges" or "Every highway underwater". Wildfire smoke pouring into some areas across the north. GOES-19 down with possible massive problem. No ETA on fix. Good luck to all my fellow forecasters out there. Rough week.

Join us the day after tomorrow (see what we did there?😉) to discuss ocean circulation systems using disaster blockbusters as a springboard for conversation in the next Explorer Series event. 🗓️: Wed, July 15, 7-8:30 PM MT 📍: NSF NCAR Mesa Lab & online https://bit.ly/4wAGjBD

Another twist on the OMB grant regulations. Implementation could lead to degrades in institutional bond ratings (since grant funding now becomes explicitly dependent on political whims) removepaywalls.com/https://www.... 1/3

NSF announcement is out: NSF "appreciates the concerns raised by the range of stakeholders that have informed us they rely on data from the [OOI.] Effective immediately, NSF will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays." www.nsf.gov/news/update-...

Noting the forecast for 9 PM Eastern tonight from the 20Z HRRR for no reason in particular.

ICYMI If you're wondering what to make of new "AI models" for weather forecast or climate science, I've got you covered. I talked to a number of researchers and found that the story is pretty different between the two fields, but in both cases it's more complex than it looks on the surface.

More for @elizabethginexi.bsky.social on the proposed OMB rule, addressing the far reaching consequences of the rule including and beyond science: open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

Several people have asked for possible content and structure for comments regarding the proposed OMB regulations. With some suggestions from others, I have posted on example (as a Word document) for downloading). jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... I hope this is helpful.

Here's a great training from @peerresearch.bsky.social explaining how researchers can provide the most effective public comments! static1.squarespace.com/static/68c72...

If you wish to submit a public comment on this, you can do so at www.regulations.gov/commenton/OM.... Public comments regarding the legality of the rule, how arbitrary and capricious the changes are, negative impacts on cities and states, etc can be used as evidence in subsequent lawsuits.

New post: we should be more tired than the model vickiboykis.com/2026/05/28/w...

So here's what happened to my lab (and @viralemergence.org). www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Love it: the night after he was kicked off of CBS for good, Stephen Colbert hosted a public access show in southeast Michigan.

The push to cut funding from the National Academies of Science will involve illegally impounding funds on the claim that fringe Republican lawmakers understand what constitutes the “gold standard” for science better than the best scientists in America. www.aip.org/fyi/republic...

Looks like Waymo's flooding recall temporary non-fix non-fixed: Midtown, Atlanta, reportedly Waymo's recall notice sounded like they were just going to try to keep their robots away from floods until they can figure out how to make them 'smart' enough to drive near them safely. Maybe try harder.

The Flatirons are going full Bob Ross the morning.

Wrote about how you're not a scalable asset and neither am I (free with email signup!) channel-6.ghost.io/you-are-not-...

Nothing like barely outrunning an impending hail-containing bow echo storm to make a trip to the grocery store more of an adrenaline rush.

I found the NAM operational source code for anyone out there who wants to keep the dream alive: www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/codes/nw...

I've released autumnplot-gl v4.1 on Github and NPM! New features: - Geostationary satellite and single-site radar support (@jaredpbostic.bsky.social) - Support for simple calculations on the GPU - Color maps on station plot text fields - More contouring optimizations - Revamped paintball plots

The typical state university has the same business model as Ferrari (sports team + R&D lab + handcrafted bespoke outputs that are expensive to maintain, temperamental, and sit in buildings with rich people's names on them) except with a lot more downstream positive impact.

Around NCAR, WRF has become a cautionary tale on attempting to maintain a sprawling community-contributed codebase. It’s a multi-million dollar investment just in people time to keep these codes running.

Here's our story out of yesterday's NCAR hearing in Denver. We just used it as an opportunity to update on where things are with NCAR, as we haven't written about this topic since the December restructuring announcement. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Great summary of the NCAR injunction hearing today!

UCAR had their preliminary injunction hearing this morning. The judge has taken the motion for the injunction under advisement, which means that they will issue a written ruling later. No decision today. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

My shirt finally manifested some snow in Boulder.

Introducing NSF NCAR’s Medium-Range, Real-Time Convective Hazard Forecasts, a tool leveraging AI weather models to improve predictions of potential tornadoes, hail & damaging winds up to a full week in advance. The experimental forecasts are run daily & are available online. https://bit.ly/3OZJ4fG

UCAR posted its response to the government defense statement with some especially spicy retorts. Hearing is next Thursday. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

In the UCAR lawsuit, the full defense response is now freely available on courtlistener. The University of Wyoming also filed an amicus brief on behalf of the defendants. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

Development in the UCAR lawsuit: the defense filed their response to the allegations last week. Essentially, their argument is that because NSF has not ordered NCAR broken up, just that they *intend* to break up NCAR, an injunction is not appropriate at this time.

Morning! I'll be liveblogging some of the CJS subcommittee markup which is supposed to start nowish. Bill here: docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/...

Breaking: Trump has fired the membership of the National Science Board, which is oversees NSF. I have confirmed separately with multiple now-former members of NSB.

TRUMP on Truth Social just now: "I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks."

Update in the NCAR case: Hearing about a prelim injunction is scheduled for May 7, but the plaintiff's motion for discovery (i.e. rationale for NSF's actions) is denied for now. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

Initial WH budget request details for FY27 are out. Not a ton of numbers, but some R&D highlights: -"maintains funding for research in artificial intelligence and quantum information science at key agencies" -"$1.2 billion for AI to support seven AI supercomputers at the Argonne and Oak Ridge."

The Artemis astronauts have their own laptops and tablets loaded with entertainment. I really hope we get to see one of them playing Kerbal Space Program or watching Apollo 13 on their way to the moon.

For National AI Literacy Day, NCAR CISL scientists will discuss AI machine learning models & visualizations along w/ emerging opportunities & challenges of AI application in Earth system science. Join us virtually on Friday, March 27, at 11 AM MDT. https://bit.ly/4bPLAMR

UCS filed Freedom of Information Act requests to the NSF to publicly release all of its communications about its plans to restructure the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “NCAR represents one of the most successful models of federally supported scientific infrastructure in the US.”

🚨 BREAKING: A federal judge has ruled in favor of @ameracadpeds.bsky.social and issued a preliminary injunction against the CDC. The ruling pauses the Jan 2026 childhood immunization schedule revisions, blocks RFK Jr's 13 recent ACIP member appointments, and pauses all votes taken by the committee.

The full complaint is worth a read. There are several additional overreaches in there that I wasn't previously aware of.

NCAR is the backbone of Earth system science in the US and a global leader in open climate research. It directly supports our mission. Alongside a wide range of peers in the scientific research community, we submitted a letter to NSF strongly opposing any efforts to dismantle or restructure NCAR.

This should be the biggest weather and climate news on your radar today. You can send an email today to say why dismantling NCAR is a bad idea for everyone: [email protected]

🧵In support of NOAA+OAR+NSSL's R2O efforts, for those here involved in severe-storm warning operations, I'll share some results from my current study on radar-based prediction of hail size, which focuses on improved detection of giant hail. Background info (from an article submitted to WAF) (1/11)

The NSF has provided no evidence to justify dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Doing so would undermine one of the nation’s most vital scientific institutions. @ncar-ucar.bsky.social Read the letter UCS submitted today: 🔗 act.ucsusa.org/3NeWZh1