It amazes me to see what venture capitalists are willing to invest in. Are the investors actually hoping to see a positive return, or do they see investing in companies that seem doomed to failure a form of philanthropy? (Maybe I am being too optimistic.) www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

60 yrs ago today (Nov 5, 1965), the 1st US government report to warn about climate change was published. "Restoring the Quality of Our Environment" included warning of C02 build-up and sea-level rise/melting ice-caps. allouryesterdays.info/2025/11/04/6... 1/n

Experience curves indicate that successful technologies reduce in cost by ~20% for each doubling of cumulative production. However, we find that past learning rates are not very predictive of future learning rates, throwing many energy tech cost projections into doubt. doi.org/10.1016/j.ad...

Whatever happened to blind justice without fear or favor? Biden Admin gives a pass to powerful political opponents, while the Trump Admin practices it's vindictiveness. /// 'If it was anybody else, we'd arrest him tomorrow,' Justice Department aide said of Trump www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Essential background here: "did climate change cause Hurricane Melissa" is an attribution question, and there are two main approaches to attribution. Probabilistic event attribution asks: was a Hurricane Melissa-like storm more likely because of climate change? Whereas storyline event attribution...

#29 in the continuing saga of musical soundtracks for Yann Le Bihan's Mandelbrot zoom videos. Yann and I are soul brothers even though we have never met and don't speak each other's language. We met through the YouTube comments section, discussing "What is art?" youtube.com/playlist?lis...

What's the word for rounding up people and involuntarily putting them in camps? It starts with the homeless. Who wants to bet that it will end there? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

Climate change hits hardest poor people in hot places. We need to help them not be so poor and help them not be so hot. Neither climate change, nor malaria, nor malnutrition will decimate civilization. Nevertheless, we need to solve all of these problems. www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-pa...

Making America Great Again!

If you are interested in a postdoc position on the Stanford campus on the climate effects of a slowdown/shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, please contact me. Atmosphere or ocean modeling experience is a plus. sustainablesolutions.stanford.edu/people/ken-c...

#RIP the great Jack de Johnette, aged 83.

Supreme Court: "Money talks, and money talking is Constitutionally protected speech". "And by the way (wink, wink), you cannot bribe us for a specified quid pro quo, but tips for services rendered are greatly appreciated." Democracy dying in the light of day. www.skadden.com/insights/pub...

Aryan imagery

This is what the Congressional Republicans are enabling.

"Trump, as he often does when he is breaking law or norms, is acting publicly and without shame or unease." -- @jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...

"Early is on time. On time is late. Late is unacceptable." -- aphorism cited by Chris Cadenhead youtu.be/P0PMI4dwhWc?...

Move fast and break things

Trump and his co-conspirators provide us with a visual metaphor for what they are doing to our country.

Beware of antisemites who feign concern about antisemitism. Honolulu Star-Bulletin 25 March 1933 www.newspapers.com/article/hono...

"Trump says government will send National Guard troops to San Francisco" -- KTVU Fox News www.wsj.com/economy/san-...

"Legal specialists have called such killings illegal, because militaries cannot lawfully target civilians who do not pose a threat in the moment and are not directly participating in hostilities." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/w...

There is something a little ironic about streaming anti-technology polemics to our globally linked handheld microcomputers, which make use of quantum mechanical effects to transfer information to our retinas. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

No Kings San Francisco

Trump plans to have the US military fire artillery over US Interstate highway I5 -- a show of military force on US soil on this day of 'No Kings"demonstrations. They are showing that they are afraid of the will of the people. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/u...

The message, over and over again, is that if you support Trump, you can be as corrupt as you want to be and he will protect you. But if you oppose him, you will suffer vengeance. Facilitated by our most powerful people and institutions, this is what our national political life has come to.

We have learned that the principled right of a decade ago had more in common with the principled left than we thought. Belief in equal justice under the law, separation of powers, constitutionally protected freedoms, etc, united us, but it took a corrupt despotic regime to make us aware of that.

Republicans were Making America Great Again even before Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/u...

No words

NO KINGS in San Francisco Saturday, October 18 📅 1:30 - 4:30 pm PT Market Street & Steuart Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Gather at Sue Bierman Park (near Embarcadero Plaza) for the MARCH. RALLY at Civic Center Plaza www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Looks like cute inflatable animals is going to be this year's go-to Halloween costume. It is great symbolism. It shows a sense of humor in the face of adversity, and makes it clear where the violence and lawlessness is coming from.

Trump got a Covid vaccine today.

We could get rid of half of the radiative forcing of climate caused by aviation if we could get airlines to stop making contrails, mostly by flying a few thousand feet higher or lower. New open-access paper from a climate physics perspective. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

My latest collaboration, providing a soundtrack for another Yann Le Bihan video. Exercising creativity in other domains helps me be more creative in my scientific work. And life can't be all doom and gloom (democracy, climate, poverty, etc). youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Republican election operative buying a major voting machine company. What could possibly go wrong? www.cnn.com/2025/10/09/p...

Interesting description by a US citizen army veteran caught up in a Kavanaugh stop. slate.com/news-and-pol... youtu.be/Fykx6FsuGJ0?...

The Democrats should start every interaction with journalists or Republicans with two questions: 1. Will Trump have a brain scan by a respected third-party to document his dementia (or lack thereof)? 2. Why is Trump so focused on preventing the release of the Epstein files?

It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

Home of South Carolina Judge Who Blocked Feds From Accessing Voter Data Burns to Ground flip.it/.SpCda

In Portland, Oregon,(DHS) and (ICE) used pepper spray on the breathing hole of a peaceful protester who was wearing a blow-up frog costume.

BREAKING: The director of the presidential library and museum in Abilene, Kansas, said he was suddenly told to resign or be fired. He refused to give the Trump administration a historic sword from the museum’s collection.

@govpritzker.illinois.gov 37 and Kedzie, East Garfield, Illinois. This is assault.

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

It is interesting to see how horse fodder and food was as much a part of our energy mix (20%) in 1820 as coal is today. In 1920 coal was up at 70%. Note these are percentages not quantities. visualizingenergy.org/americas-ene...

Per @washingtonpost.com: New polling shows most U.S. Jews say Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza — and 39% say genocide. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...

“No self-respecting university could ever accept something like this,” said Lee Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar and former Columbia University president. “Trying to protect conservative ideas against being ‘belittled’ — that’s about as violative of the First Amendment interests as you can get.”

Totally unacceptable that Speaker Johnson won’t swear in Adelita Grijalva immediately. He refused to swear her in on Tuesday, and now he's refusing to swear her in tomorrow, though she is in Washington and stands ready.

Where is the so-called "pro-life" crowd now? Concern stops at birth?

#kavanaughstop and worse.