It is so hot here that the house finch nesting on the front porch is standing above the nest and just letting the world incubate its eggs.

I guess when the Post was told it had to embrace a pro-free-market editorial slant, this sort of thing was the inevitable result.

I don't write a lot of editorials because my opinions are nothing special. But I feel the proposed OMB rule is a large enough threat that it merited one. I hope that you'll read it and act.

NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...

As someone who did their PhD on the genetics of sex determination, a strong concur on this.

Every one of these "IDGAF about precedent" decisions from the Supreme Court further convinces me that Massachusetts v. EPA is doomed, and Democrats need to be preparing to squeak climate policy in through reconciliation again.

Strong statement against the OMB's proposed rule change that puts research under political control from the American Association for Cancer Research.

Classic NYT. A view-from-nowhere, both-sides approach to offshore wind, _and_ a blatantly false statement? (Wind turbines do not take up "vast amounts of valuable land." If they did, they wouldn't be the second cheapest way to add new generating capacity.

The current Supreme Court's approach to precedent seems to be "precedents are good only so long as enough people who set them are alive and haven't retired from the Supreme Court yet." It is no way to run a legal system.

Remember when people actually suffered consequences for putting false information out under the NYT's name? Those were good times.

At least I don't have to worry about Paraguay dropping into an excessively defensive stance now that they've got the lead. They already were in one.

You may have heard about the OMB rule change that will put politics over federal grants. However bad you think it is? It's probably worse. Thanks to @theverge.com for letting me report this one out. There is still time to comment. bit.ly/4v2X4nQ

Just realized that one chunk of the bracket has Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Ouch.

I remember it a bit better since I was about 10 years old, and can confirm.

This is presumably the same reporting team that has been saying that Harvard is close to a deal for the last year and change.

I'm teaching Dutch to my kids, socialize with other Dutch people, regularly cook Dutch meals.... But I'm guessing that Emmer would not think me unassimilated.

My grandparents taught Schweizerdeutsch to their kids, socialized with other Swiss people, joined Swiss cultural groups in the area, etc. I'm about as American as anyone gets. Assimilation is a process. This bozo a racist because he's demanding one specific group to do it instantly.

These people have not suffered enough consequences for their ever more overt racism, so they're going to keep pushing the boundaries until they do.

Happy to confirm that @bwjones.bsky.social is as awesome in person as he appears to be. Great to finally meet one of the good ones.

This is how it has started pretty much everywhere. Once the mid-day dip cuts about half way into the coal, storage will make even more sense and it's off to the races.

I wanted to share my appreciation of the Ars readership here. Yesterday, I simply mentioned that the climate.us effort is a non-profit in my article covering it, and lots of readers announced they were donating to support it.

++BREAKING++ Leading climate scientists in the UK have written to senior editors in broadcast media - and OFCOM and IPSO: "To express our concern about recent media coverage of extreme weather, climate change and net-zero and to urge you…to inform public audiences of the scientific links"

It'a also notable that Musk made an evidence-free contention of fraud and waste, and then demanded that others prove him wrong or he'd view his actions as justified. Quite a bit of narcissism involved there.

This is the kind of almost magic-like payoff we get from decades of basic and applied research by thousands of scientists across the globe. This is why we do it.

Have just read the Executive Order on quantum innovation. Reading it, it's difficult to escape the impression that the Trump Administration doesn't realize that it's the Trump Administration.

There are a lot of good people at Sci Am, and they carry a lot of institutional knowledge. This is a big loss for science journalism.

It is so humid and there is so much algae floating around in the air in northern Virginia that it just grows on walls.

Were these people not awake during the Harris campaign?

My weight is about what you'd expect given that I've been writing on the internet for decades. The hallucinations, though! I'm both a former NFLer and co-founder of the Verge, apparently.

This should put to rest the arguments that Democrats need to move towards conservative positions in order to neuter Republican attacks. It's clear that if no attacks are available, Republicans will just make something up and attack with that. It should put them to rest, but it won't.

It's Juneteenth. Post your favorite Black fictional character.

Alchemy by Jackson Pollock, 1947 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137381

Wow, Portugal's defense let a large cluster of blue jerseys form in the center of the box on this one.

We're being governed by personalities, not experts or rules.

The Trump Administration is blatantly saying that, if they don't like some aspect of reality, they have the right to stop funding anyone who studies it.

House finches are trying to build a nest on my porch, and the female keeps grabbing some plant material that's a heavy lump at the end of a long twig. Every time she tries to work the twig into place, the lump slips off the edge of the ledge the nest is intended to sit on and plunges to the floor.

NYC climate folks and journalists, Rei from DeSmog here - I'd love to meet you! I've just arrived from the UK to start my ovarian cancer treatment - there's lots to hope for. I'm new in NY, and would love to meet people and enjoy this city. Or get recs! Happy to get comments on this :). Cheers!

His father, a classical Northeast Republican moderate, has probably been slapping him silly for his role in enabling all of this insanity.

I'm not loving how PR people now make you agree to the embargo on every announcement, even after you've not violated one on the last dozen bits of news they offered you.

The thing that strikes me about this result is that, had the outcome been the opposite — birth rates went up — there'd be just as many justifications for why the connection might be real.

Why is anyone interviewing this guy on a news program? Does anyone with sufficiently loud opinions qualify now?

Like other countries, the US is urbanizing. NYC may be special in many ways, but a large majority (>80%) of the US population lives in urban areas, so it is far more representative than any rural area in everything but geography.

Remember this scene the next time a corporate reporter tries to insist that a rural diner full of white men in their 60s is somehow a more authentically "American" place, somehow more representative of who we are as a nation.

Disappointing...

The oil companies are clearly going to lose in the long run to renewables + EVs. But they're not going down without a fight - one that may take critical parts of US science down with them.

yes — hereby endorsing ‘flawsuits’ for the growing pile of ones that include AI-hallucinated cases

I just typoed "of lawsuits" as "o flawsuits", and I think flawsuits should probably be a word.

Now and again, when searching for past stories, I come across stuff like this headline and immediately think "I can't believe they let me do that." Then I remember that it got there because I said something as a joke and one of the more senior editors said "no, you should do that, it'd be awesome."

Really well reported piece that shows why Congress appears to be itching to get into a fight with the National Academies.

I'm reading a paper where "OGs" refers to ortholog groups, but its common culture meaning also works surprisingly well.