Happy 250th, USA

All-time greatest national anthem rendition youtu.be/_n9bxfxE25Y?...

On the United States' 250th birthday, "American Objects" chronicles items that have impacted the culture.

The full paper is open-access in the journal Applied Energy until mid-August: authors.elsevier.com/a/1nML515eif... You can also find a free preprint here anytime: arxiv.org/pdf/2511.18267

I think demonstration projects like this, which sketch out the potential energy efficiency improvements and today's implementation challenges, could help make the case for manufacturing DC stuff (possibly with government support) and therefore drive down deployment costs. That's the hope, anyway!

As far as we know, this paper was the first to test (in the lab or the field) the technical feasibility of retrofitting an off-the-shelf heat pump to run on DC, or to model the performance of a residential DC nanogrid with real field and equipment data.

We then used data from performance testing, as well as solar and load data from our test house, to model different power distribution configurations connecting solar photovoltaics, a stationary battery, and a heat pump (which uses ~70% of our all-electric Indiana test house's annual energy).

Purdue PhD student Aaron Farha tested this in the lab, in the field at our DC Nanogrid House, and in computer simulations. Lab and field experiments showed that an off-the-shelf variable-speed heat pump designed to run on conventional AC can be retrofit to DC without significant performance change.

New paper! Housing increasingly has big devices that run natively on Direct Current (solar panels, EVs, batteries, motors on heat pumps and air conditioners, etc). What if we connected them on DC, rather than today's AC distribution + lossy AC/DC conversions? 🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Philadelphia hasn’t had three straight 100-degree days in 33 years.

Between 1984 and 2025, five top US news outlets - CNN, USA Today, NYT, WaPo & WSJ - covered sports and entertainment 36 times more than climate change. New report, “From Silence to Whisper: Climate Change in U.S. News Media, 1984–2025,” released this week: buff.ly/Rzf1jFf

Another professor fired for comments about Charlie Kirk is poised for a payout, this time $1.9M from University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The prof, Tamar Shirinian, won't return to campus: www.knoxnews.com/story/news/e... via Keenan Thomas

cities 🤝 businesses Energy security, affordability and resilience continue to dominate local agendas. At #LCAW26 city and business leaders, including mayors of Melbourne, Phoenix, Renca and Cluj-Napoca, discussed how working together can unlock solutions and reduce emissions.

It’s great how this administration has hired people to create explicitly white nationalist propaganda for them, and then simply mentioning this fact in a classroom can get you fired.

ALL EYES ON THE SUPREME COURT: We at @statesnewsroom.com on this muggy morning in DC are watching today for opinions on birthright citizenship, TPS, transgender athletes, Trump's firing of a member of the Fed Board of Governors, cancer liability, mail-in ballots and more. Stay tuned.

If you don’t know who Patrice Lumumba was or why it is so moving that Mr Mboladinga will be embodying him during the World Cup on the soil of the country that helped assassinate him and horrifically destroyed his corpse, this is a good primer: bsky.app/profile/comr...

I love this. Unmute.

This might be one of the funniest chart about energy scenarios I’ve seen. You can hardly see “actual” for gas

Still waiting for someone, anyone, to offer a statement to a news outlet that Meets the Moment on this horrifying un-American bullshit that keeps happening. (Also yes I realize the lawsuits and investigations are more important.) www.latimes.com/environment/...

Fantastic illustration of how batteries have completely overtaken gas in California www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

“Take backsies” is official federal policy, at least for offshore wind energy. NEW @hayleysmith.bsky.social for @latimes.com www.latimes.com/environment/...

One last thing, because I do believe in moving forward from here, but: Shame on the Janeese haters who negatively polarized themselves into opposing bike lanes and supporting surface-level parking over multifamily housing. That was so depressing to witness and revealed a lot about their character.

The toxic, racialized election discourse that pitted DC “transplants” against longtime residents was, in fact, driven almost entirely by wealthy white people. These commentators need to rethink the nasty racist stereotypes that lay behind their false and insulting conception of the DC electorate.

There were some ugly claims on X that Janeese was the candidate of white “transplants” while McDuffie was the choice of longtime Black residents. But it looks like McDuffie will only win ward 3 (wealthy, white) while Janeese will carry every other ward (including majority-Black wards 7 and 8).

Solar has overtaken gas power in Asia to become the continent’s third-largest source of electricity www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-sol...

Energy Secretary Chris Wright: "Solar is irrelevant in the winter" (this, dear reader, is false)

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent – and they’ve led to power outages and disruptions ⚡🚫 Navigating the increasingly volatile environment requires climate-adaptive planning and grid infrastructure. Full analysis 👇 ember-energy.org/lat...

With the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season underway, Virginia officials are urging residents to prepare now for severe weather. via @virginiamercury.com

totally normal Energy Department post

On this day in 1935, FDR signed an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Of 2,000 WPA posters known to exist—publicizing community activities, theatrical productions, and health and educational programs—the Library's collection of more than 900 is the largest.

Someone check on Jane Fonda 😢

California’s batteries are covering a larger share of peak evening grid demand, supplying up to 40% of energy needs. That shift has helped solar (the cheapest source on the market) power more households and businesses even after the sun goes down. tinyurl.com/49h5hkvj/ via @insideclimatenews.org 🔌💡

Every single majority Black state is calling for redistricting Almost no one in print has called that out but @elienyc.bsky.social The shift we are about to see in Black organizing behavior is gonna knock some people for the loop of their lives

John Lewis had John Roberts' number from the jump: takebackthecourt.substack.com/p/john-lewis...

Remember this? boltsmag.org/jeff-landry-...

Landry’s career has been a crusade to limit the power of the state’s Black residents. boltsmag.org/jeff-landry-...

WaPo reports Louisiana’s governor will announce on Friday that he is suspending the House primaries where people have already started voting and redraw the map; I’d expect them to go for an all-Republican map and eliminate both majority-Black districts, not just one.

i think there's a misconception that "recess" is vacation. it is for some, but lots of members are doing district work. the point is just: the people who control Congress do not even consider this their responsibility. The 119th congress in a nutshell.

Congress still in recess, btw

*sobs in Southerner*

The US attacked military targets across Iran’s Kharg Island as President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to unleash a massive new bombing campaign if Tehran doesn’t strike a deal to end the six-week war.

I saw some magnolias today.

#EliteEight reminder:

GBO! 🍊

The Trump administration's emergency orders to prevent the retirements of five coal plants and a gas plant have cost utlity ratepayers more than $230 million, Sierra Club estimates: www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-202...

Fun fact: Congress doesn’t have to ask the President for permission to pass legislation

lmao

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker acknowledged his rapid weight loss, joked about former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — another 2028 presidential hopeful — and thanked the press during a speech before Washington journalists and dignitaries on Saturday.

GBO! 🍊