RFK Jr. ends Covid vaccine recommendations for healthy children, pregnant people
Experts call unilateral decision by HHS secretary unprecedented
From: blenderdumbass . org
We all love some mayhem when it comes to playing games. And nothing makes car games more satisfying than damage models. RockStar Games understood it early on, and all GTA games have breakable cars. Today some of the most popular car games like BeamNG.drive holding on a reali...
Read or listen: https://blenderdumbass.org/articles/making_breakable_cars_in_video_games
Increased Flood Exposure In The Pacific Northwest Following Earthquake-Driven Subsidence And Sea-Level Rise
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https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2424659122 <-- shared paper
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https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/05/02/big-one-coupled-with-rising-ocean-could-leave-many-in-northwest-living-in-flood-zones-study-finds/ <-- shared media article
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #coast #coastal #sealevelrise #sealevel #SLR #climatechange #PNW #PacificNorthWest #Cascadia #flood #flooding #risk #hazard #exposure #damage #infrastructure #publicsafety #geology #fault #faulting #engineeringgeology #subsidence #earthquake #floodplains #omgoing #spatialanalysis #model #deformation #modeling #roads #residents ##Washington #Oregon #California #subduction #communities #management #planning #mitigation #coastalengineering #sinking
Water Data Keep Us Strong | USGS WaterAlert Water Safety at Your Fingertips [USGS Water]
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https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/water-data-keep-us-strong and https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/usgs-wateralert-water-safety-your-fingertips <-- shared pair of USGS water-related infographics
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https://accounts.waterdata.usgs.gov/wateralert/ <-- shared link to subscribe to USGS Water Alert
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#water #hydrology #fedservice #fedscience #watersecurity #infographics #infographic #opendata #data #GIS #spatial #mapping #US #USA #alert #risk #hazard #monitoring #notification #waterdata #usecase #farms #agriculture #businesses #industry #residential #cost #economics #vitalresource #damage #assesr #resource #energy #HEP #watersupply #waterresources #management #planning #education #awareness #national #nation #WaterAlert #alerts #flows #streamflow #river #streamgauge #notification
@USGS
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/15/us-government-nuclear-waste-doge
Dealing with the nuclear waste legacy of constructing the first atomic bombs has been, and will continue to be, a multidecadal process. That process is apparently threatened by the ongoing gutting of federal government in the US.
The RAND report notes that “ … the CHI Research study concluded that publicly funded science is having a ‘major impact on U.S. technology’ (Narin, 1998).”
That major impact was assessed by PCAST to have driven 40% of the economic growth of the US since WWII. The recognition of basic research as a public good was advocated by Vannevar Bush.
Despite G. W. Bush’s flaws he didn’t try to burn this entire engine of progress to the ground. A wild contrast with the US presidency today.
3/3
PBS News Hour - Segments https://flex2.acast.com/s/pbs-newshour-segments/u/d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/trckingcliamtechange.mp3
What does the dismissal of so many climate scientists mean for a flagship climate report? NOTHING. GOOD.
Which, I suspect, was the point.
PBS News Hour - Segments https://flex2.acast.com/s/pbs-newshour-segments/u/d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/escalatingfeud.mp3
A look at how the US adminstration’s broad assault on research (“feud” is a poor choice of words for what they are doing) will affect one, of many, important lines of discovery.
Quantifying The Compounding Effects Of Natural Hazard Events - A Case Study On Wildfires And Floods In California
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-025-00090-7 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #casestudy #California #wildfire #fire #flood #flooding #climatechange #weather #extremeweather #risk #hazard #debrisflow #massmovement #impacts #damage #infrastructure #cost #economics #quantification #compoundinghazards #compound #compounding #framework #naturalhazard #naturaldisaster #recovery #temporal #regional #planning #policy #management #mitigation #geology #soils #engineeringgeology #geomorphology #resilience #preparation
From: blenderdumbass . org
We all love some mayhem when it comes to playing games. And nothing makes car games more satisfying than damage models. RockStar Games understood it early on, and all GTA games have breakable cars. Today some of the most popular car games like BeamNG.drive holding on a reali...
Read or listen: https://blenderdumbass.org/articles/making_breakable_cars_in_video_games
It has begun, as the story reported by Science Magazine suggested.
"The NSF Is Being Dismantled — With Broad Implications For The American Economy"
Groundwater Pumping Is Contributing To The Subsidence Of Major U.S. Cities
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/08/climate/sinking-cities-us-causes-groundwater.html <-- shared media article
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00240-y <-- shared paper
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#water #groundwater #subsidence #city #cities #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #engineeringgeology #engineering #risk #hazard #pumping #overpumping #waterresources #USA #America #sinking #infrastructure #damage #cost #economics #repais #mitigation #sealevelrise #flood #flooding #foundations #urban #remotesensing #earthobservation #satellite #elevation #measurement #change #vertical #movement #geology #soils #model #modeling #prediction #waterresources #farming #agriculture #watersupply #industry #well #riskassessment #landuse #monitoring #management #utilities #growth #population #demographics #construction #sprawl
America appears to be caught in a terrible vice, squeezed between a tariff regime designed to crush the economy of the present and an anti-science regime designed to crush the economy of the future.
"The agency is also expected to issue another round of notices tomorrow terminating grants that have already been awarded, sources say. In the past 3 weeks, the agency has pulled the plug on almost 1400 grants worth more than $1 billion."
The burning of the intellectual foundations of America's success continues.
"According to sources who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight NSF directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced. "
The U.S. is losing a generation of young scientists | STAT https://www.statnews.com/2025/05/07/us-science-lost-generation-scientists-grants-canceled-nih/
“If Americans want to maintain our leadership in science and innovation, we need to restore the pact that has always sustained it: that when students devote their lives to discovery that serves all of us, we will stand by them. Anything less is a betrayal — not only of them, but of the future they are trying to build for all of us.”
From: blenderdumbass . org
We all love some mayhem when it comes to playing games. And nothing makes car games more satisfying than damage models. RockStar Games understood it early on, and all GTA games have breakable cars. Today some of the most popular car games like BeamNG.drive holding on a reali...
Read or listen: https://blenderdumbass.org/articles/making_breakable_cars_in_video_games
Watching arsonists burn the US scientific forest to the ground is painful and awful.
https://www.nsf.gov/policies/document/indirect-cost-rate
Half the economic growth of the US since World War II was fueled by basic, unapplied, curiosity-driven research. What will power the economy of the future when this fuel is spent?
This is a rhetorical question.
From the journal "Nature":
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
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Greg Cocks