Only one in four Americans approve of the US strikes that killed Iran's leader, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. About half of respondents — including one in four Republicans — said they believe Trump is too willing to use military force to advance US interests reut.rs/4aSiAoF

Christie's out on a trail and hears the odd trembling trill of the sandhill cranes. Which you can hear only if, you know, you don't have earbuds in. lastwordonnothing.com/2026/03/02/l...

❄️Afternoon snow areawide, winter weather advisory west of I-95 overnight for wintry mix * Wet snow steadiest 3-6p. Up to 1" on grass, little slush on roads poss. * Wintry mix late tonight changes to rain E of I-95. W of I-95, slick spots poss from icy glaze poss Tues am. Details at cwg.live

"That's the way it is," says the five-time draft dodger to our military families who fear their loved one in uniform could be next. What a disgrace.

Camera settings for bug/macro photos can be very different than for birds or other wildlife! Here is how I set up my camera for the little guys. weneedtogooutside.com/blogs/main/y... #bugsky

More than 20 US presidents had sons who served in armed forces. And then there are the son-in-laws. TRump dodged the draft, none of his kids or his son in law have ever served. They are all war profiteers though.

RFK Jr *lies* when he says cervical cancer risk is increased in women who get the HPV vaccine. New study: "States with high vaccination rates have seen the biggest drop in cervical cancer, while states with low vaccination rates have had little to no progress" www.cidrap.umn.edu/human-papill...

It took years and billions of dollars for the U.S. Defense Department to stockpile these munitions. It now risks depleting them in a matter of weeks.

President Donald Trump’s administration is expending a significant proportion of America’s best firepower – at a speed that may take the country’s industrial base years to replenish and leave American power diminished for other wartime scenarios.

This is a bombshell: "the Pentagon wanted the company to allow for the collection and analysis of unclassified, commercial bulk data on Americans, such as geolocation and web browsing data" This kind of agenda echoes the defunded Total Information Awareness effort, post-9/11

This is a graph of the death of US science.

Aside from Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, none of his associates have been criminally charged in the U.S. Millions of pages of Justice Department records help explain why, and how Epstein was able to act with impunity for so long. trib.al/Jw3IVYj

Is it possible for grace to be excessive? Botticelli really testing that in this Annunciation from 1490. Plus check out little Christ-in-tomb w/ sudarium on lower frame.

Researchers say the ancient breakup of tectonic plates creates churning waves in Earth’s mantle that tumble in slow motion under the continents for tens of millions of years, sculpting topography deep within continental interiors. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4s8GTEs #ScienceMagArchives

Sum: RFK Jr is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. Safe bet: if it comes out of his mouth it is wrong. What new research says about RFK Jr.'s claims about Tylenol, vaccines and antidepressants www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

cool.

Since these idiots only speak incel, someone should tell Hegseth his job is defensemaxxing, not lethalitymaxxing. We have an drunken meathead running the DoD who thinks Full Metal Jacket is an aspirational movie.

@annfinkbeiner.bsky.social needs some Springtime in the worst way: "I move beyond science and say that anyone with eyes to see and brains to remember knows that January and February emit evil, they give off a miasma of evil, they’re a drifting miasma of sharp-toothed evil."

Traffic Alert: Starting at approximately 8:30am this morning, Sunday March 1st, Harford Rd will close in both directions at the intersection of 25th St for water main break repairs. Use alternate routes away from this area throughout the day to avoid delays. 🛣️ 🚙 🚧

Publishing my normal Sunday polling article early (for obvious reasons): Trump starts a war with Iran that few Americans support. Overall support for Trump in early post-strike polling is below that for Afghanistan and Iraq, including among Republicans. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/polls-trum...

“Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital did not share how much Parton donated as part of the naming announcement. But Matt Schaefer, its president and CEO, said her support would ensure ‘every child who walks through our doors receives the treatment they deserve.’” GOD BLESS DOLLY PARTON

Via @projectsaltbox.bsky.social, who will be giving a talk at the store tonight at 7pm: "As ICE builds out a detention infrastructure across the mid-Atlantic, equipment from its Minneapolis operation is heading to Maryland." projectsaltbox.substack.com/p/ice-moves-...

meanwhile, war rages on at home.

Historically, these are TERRIBLE polling numbers for day 1 of a major US use of force, particularly against a well known and disliked adversary. Usually it only goes down from the start

"But there is a major problem in Trump’s strategy: No government in history has been toppled by air strikes alone."

Yikes

Link: open.substack.com/pub/steveins...

"I think responses [that ask only for the Administration to 'explain itself'] are pathetic. This isn’t a mystery that needs to be solved. This is not the case of the missing casus belli."

For days, we’ve been tracking the potential for periods of snow and frozen precipitation on Monday and Tuesday. The potential for snow on Monday is fading away but there may be a wintry mix Tuesday morning. Details at cwg.live

Make that "at least 80 children," according to The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

The timing of the initial strikes is unusual. Often you see these types of operations launched in the pre-dawn hours at the target site partly to limit civilian casualties. This operation began at the beginning of a work and school day, with millions of adult civilians and children in harms way.

Virginia Tech is a senior military institution. i teach courses on the medieval world & crusades and so have cadets (and vets) from every branch of service that have, over my 20 years, served in Iraq and Afghanistan (and elsewhere). Me and my colleagues have way more respect for them than you, Pete

-Zero Congressional consultation or approval. -Zero preparation of public for need/consequences of war. -Zero evidence of thought about "OK, what might the other side do?" Next month. Next year. -Zero mention of anti-nuke agreement Trump voided, or Trump claim last year that nukes "obliterated."

Running your war from a private club for millionaires — ahead of a $1 million-a-plate dinner — is a choice.

This mind-bending relativity illusion has never been seen—until now. Using ultrafast lasers and a 300-picosecond camera, researchers at the University of Vienna and Vienna University of Technology visualized the rotating Terrell-Penrose effect, an effect of special relativity.

“Mr President, your approval ratings are in the toilet, the economy is looking increasingly brittle, and you are sailing one tide ahead of a swarm of personal and corruption scandals. The midterms are looking ominous.” “What if I started a war of choice and made gas $7 per gallon this summer?”

In the before times I’d probably be relying quite a bit on Twitter right now and checking expert lists curated by people like @joshtpm.bsky.social. Any recommendations on experts and journalists to follow here on bluesky as events unfold in Iran? Please spread widely and recommend broadly…

Operation Epstein Fury

I want to repeat comments I already made on this plot since some news outlets seem to ignore them: Hubble will not reenter until early 2030s. The curve here is alarming, but will flatten out as we hit solar minimum in the coming years. I still think it's time for NASA to take action on a reboost.

NEW: Elon Musk said he was “selling almost all physical possessions” when he moved to Texas. Nope. Instead, he has secretly amassed land and penthouses and planes and mansions. We just had to spend months digging through private company records to find it all. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/t...

Police and prosecutors weren’t out to get her. It’s the automated system that snagged her, and it just doesn’t care about innocence or guilt. www.thebanner.com/opinion/colu...

Not beating the X-37B being a weapon allegations with these kinds of comments: "Now that’s just one example of orbital warfare from Mission Delta 9,” Gagnon said... “A second one was last year’s maneuvers by the X-37B orbital test vehicle.” www.twz.com/space/chinas...

“I came home from the conference to find masked agents in military vests driving around my neighborhood.” Beautiful piece on writing about moon exploration while living in Minneapolis by the fantastic @astrolisa.bsky.social 🧪

Indeed. New grants are not getting funded, already funded grants are not getting paid, and non-competitive renewals are being held up. Focusing on the top line budget, instead of looking at what is really happening on “the ground” is deeply misguided.

Thread: imagine you're a historian surveying 16th century copies of the world's most famous ancient astronomy book, and you see one where somebody with handwriting VERY similar to GALILEO (!?) has transcribed... a psalm. "Galileo, a prayer? That's something that doesn't work," Ivan Malara thought.

Kinda funny that #Elon went, yes-yes-yes on killbots and Pentagon went, no wierdo, not you, we want something else. Because #Anthropic swamped #Grok with actual tests! And Anthropic said no, and Pentagon wants to force them, instead of taking free Grok.

Yglesias & co are now adopting the position that what makes “moderates” electorally successful is that they are fighters, not that they are moderates. Finally they come around to the point in the original article I wrote last year that moderation is not a panacea and “moderate” is mostly vibes

1. A #measles & #flu update, starting with measles. The confirmed case count for this year has topped 1,000 already. It now stands at 1,136. For some context: In the first 2 months of 2026 the US has recorded half as many measles cases as were confirmed in all of 2025, which was a very bad year.