TheVat

I don't think that's inevitable, given that even many conservatives value our system of each state controlling its elections - it's enshrined in Article I of our Constitution. Also, I think foreign interference is not the only pretext, and is harder to sell to Congress than, say, civil unrest or voter fraud. And again, the reality controlling 50 different voting systems could prove far more daunting than what Turnip imagines. States rights is an issue that can draw strong bipartisan support. There's also the problem that the only proven instance of foreign interference was when Turnip won, in 2016. I'm guessing he might rather lean hard on civil unrest and "insurrection" to delay the midterms.

Yes, and it's a classic joke, which I first heard as a teenager, and not in a vaccine context. It went something like: Doctor: Your baby has jaundice. Mother: I want a second opinion. Doctor: Okay. Your baby is ugly!

All valid statements, but there is an element of causation when a specific party begins to generate propaganda against science and vaccination. I agree that education levels play a role, but I am witnessing one party which is pitching these anti science messages to those most easily fooled. And these partisan messages have caused a great increase in opposition to vaxxing, renewable energy, EVs, climate change preparation, etc.

Seems like now it has become more political, in that the Far Right MAGA faithful have embraced science denial, conspiracy theories and anti-vaxx. I think recent surveys show far more people on the Right are rejecting vaccinations.

I monitor this stuff on NOAA's SWPC page fairly regularly - some of my partner's work has some vulnerabilities, so she usually does more of a HD backup if I give a heads-up. It's not great to have a mini Carrington Event catch you with your pants down. There's a lot of infrastructure that's not well shielded for a direct CME hit. SWPC isn't showing anything problematic, so far, but there could be some auroral displays tonight if anyone lives in Scandinavia or N Canada/Alaska.

In places like Southern California, pumped storage also loses some to evaporation while it sits. IIRC, there are ideas out there, like covering the reservoir with plastic balls, or other forms of coverage.

To my regret, I saw it on tv, early seventies. I recall they would show huge boulders hurtling over people and it became obvious it was the same boulders i.e. they just used the same clip over and over.

I didn't know that was the painting which inspired the famous novel by Bulwer-Lytton. So that's a "TIL," for me. I remember reading a story about it in the library when I was young, and then later Robert Harris's fine 2003 novel which got into the volcanology quite a bit for a novel. It was Harris who really impressed upon me the horror of a pyroclastic flow. Yep, it was quite the turkey. And there was something so dull about it that it couldn't ever be one of those campy party movies.

My daughter and I are both bluegrass fans, and she has played professionally in a bluegrass band, along with a varied career in music and music teaching. I like Jarosz's clawhammer style and use of a banjitar, a custom instrument I think is superbly suited for bluegrass. I played a banjo (standard 5 string w/resonator) for a time in my early twenties, but the call of the keyboard pulled me away. Now I want to go back and take another crack at it, maybe with an Irish tenor banjo, a 4 string with GDAE tuning (which I call "Australian tuning," due to a bad pun, viz "G'dae, mate!"). 🙄

Added to my list, too. I was also introduced to famous eruptions in late sixties, partly by a cheesy US movie about Krakatoa (which Americans my age may recall had a humorous geographical error), and also a story about Pompeii. I remember my 12 year old mind being blown that people over 2000 miles away in Alice Springs could hear the explosion of Krakatoa.

This recent analysis suggests the RE switch can't come too soon. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/05/flawed-economic-models-mean-climate-crisis-could-crash-global-economy-experts-warn Flawed economic models mean the accelerating impact of the climate crisis could lead to a global financial crash, experts warn. Recovery would be far harder than after the 2008 financial crash, they said, as “we can’t bail out the Earth like we did the banks”. As the world speeds towards 2C of global heating, the risks of extreme weather disasters and climate tipping points are increasing fast. But current economic models used by governments and financial institutions entirely miss such shocks, the researchers said, instead forecasting that steady economic growth will be slowed only by gradually rising average temperatures. This is because the models assume the future will behave like the past, despite the burning of fossil fuels pushing the climate system into uncharted territory. Tipping points, such as the collapse of critical Atlantic currents or the Greenland ice sheet, would have global consequences for society. Some are thought to be at, or very close to, their tipping points but the timing is difficult to predict. Combined extreme weather disasters could wipe out national economies, the researchers, from the University of Exeter and financial thinktank Carbon Tracker Initiative, said. Their report concludes governments, regulators and financial managers must pay far more attention to these high impact but lower likelihood risks, because avoiding irreversible outcomes by cutting carbon emissions is far cheaper than trying to cope with them...

I'm with yah on the Brits, but those sardines with the Norwegian royalty on the package are delicious! Their Mediterranean style sardines in particular. (seriously, I know virtually nothing about Norway's Royal Family, so they could all be a pack of scoundrels for all I know - scoundrels with serious sardine breath!) Kate seems rather nice.

Members of the Danish resistance would raid theatres and force the projectionists to show this film, among others. As a humorous mashup that satirizes its original footage, the film shares similarities to 21st-century remix culture. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Lambeth_Walk_-_Nazi_Style_-_by_Charles_A._Ridley.webm Schichlegruber Doing the Lambeth Walk is a 1942 short propaganda film by Charles A. Ridley of the UK Ministry of Information. It consists of edited existing footage taken from Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will to make it appear as if they were dancing to the dance style "The Lambeth Walk". The film was distributed uncredited to newsreel companies.

Listening to a lot of solo guitar recently (reviving my own picking a bit, too), and revisiting the Aussie guitar maestro, Tommie Emmanuel. Here he goes insane with (classical) gas, with a whimsical Ventures break in the middle. And here he is with Stevie's Blues (posted recently by CC, over at sci forums dot com.)...

No system, except possibly anarchy, is immune to populist demagogues. Of course, Spain had three years of anarcho-syndicalism...and then they got 36 years of Franco. So...never mind.

Thursday sounds about right. Keeping this in the humor track....so, about this: Trump’s suit states that Littlejohn’s disclosures to the news organizations “caused reputational and financial harm to Plaintiffs and adversely impacted President Trump’s support among voters in the 2020 presidential election.” Um, I thought Turnp WON 2020. That's what he has insisted for five years. If he actually won, then where's the adverse impact? 😉

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/30/eggs-hats-unfettered-political-ambition-what-we-learned-melania-trump-documentary

And then they came for... AP NewsJournalist Don Lemon has been arrested after he covered a...Journalist Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church.This is another serious breach of the Constitution. Going after a journalist who is simply present at an event to provide coverage. Banana Republic stuff.

I was not clear on "they." Not individuals, I mean we have rogue agencies, which are sent outside the established constitutional and statutory guardrails of their original mandate and mission. Like all rogues, they wear the mantle of some singleminded principle, like "national security! Stop the invasion!" Essentially it's a rogue administration which is then subverting particular agencies. And it's easier to start with ones whose original mission is easily perverted and its members poorly trained and vetted.

This seems the heart of the matter. We are seeing enforcers who are allowed to go rogue, not accountable to local/state authorities or established protocols. As long as the MAGA admin can keep the heat to a slow simmer, the frog never jumps out of the pot and so gets boiled eventually. A major problem for authoritarians in the US is the partial autonomy of the states. Which can, among other rights, sue the federal government when they overstep.

Be still my heart! Racetrack clip at the end, with Hoof Hearted, made my inner Bart Simpson laugh. (For those unfamiliar, Bart would prank Moe the bartender by calling up and asking for a patron with a name that would cause Moe embarrassment when he shouted it across the room)

I think the optimal backup would be a paper copy that is printed in some special way (like those special vertical security threads that react to UV light, in US bills of larger denomination) by a government office and is impossible to counterfeit. If there were a glitch or hack of the digital ID, this would be insurance. You wouldn't normally carry it around, but keep it on a secure location for such an emergency. It wouid be better insurance than something printed at home.

Emily has been reading about calls for the US Homeland Security Secretary to step aside. Democratic students at Yale weighed in... Yale Demos: Kristi Noem eon, it's irksome delay. It didn't go well, however, when Hollywood actors tried to rally support... On hot lover, star come drab as a fool, aloof as a bar - Democrats revolt. Oh no!

Is that Bhatia you mean? Wasn't aware he had a J, so maybe you refer to someone else? Physics Explained has, for me, just the right dose of math. Then there's Don Lincoln's FermiLab channel which is a little more advanced. Don was a member of the science forum I used to admin, until he just got too busy with his videos and books and umpteen other things. His forum persona was very similar to Swanson's.

We find our 2700 K lamps relaxing in the evening. It decreases the melatonin suppression that comes with bluer light, provided that screens are also set to night mode. The lower kelvins also mimic natural evening light, like sunsets and fires, so that helps the circadian rhythms.