In these divisive times, you'd think there would still be some safe topics of conversation. But in 2025, even the old stalwart, the weather, has been removed from the confines of small talk. Today's forecast is particularly political, problematic, and pathetic (with slight chance of post-apocalypticness). In an exchange with staff, current FEMA leader David Richardson "suggested he recently learned there was an annual hurricane season, stunning members of the workforce of the agency tasked with responding to disasters. He has expressed surprise in meetings at the scope of the agency’s mission...'Yesterday, as everybody knows, [was the] first day of hurricane season,' Richardson said. 'I didn’t realize it was a season.'" He also doesn't seem to realize that the dramatic hurricane-related budget cuts will have a real world impact. "Richardson told staff Monday that the agency would be returning to the same guidance for hurricane response as last year. Some were confused how that would be possible, given the agency had already eliminated key programs and sharply cut its workforce." WSJ (Gift Article): FEMA Scraps New Hurricane Plan and Reverts to Last Year’s. Of course, Richardson's lack of qualifications for his role are hardly unique in this administration (and his unfamiliarity with the department he leads doesn't seem especially egregious when compared to his peers). But as Anne Applebaum reminds us, appointees like these "aren't there to do their jobs, but rather to prove that the president is so powerful he can appoint wildly incompetent people and no one will stop him." So where does that leave the forecast when it comes to America's next crisis? The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind. (Or at least it will be soon.) 2Have Beaker Will Travel"He arrived in Los Angeles in 1986 at age 18 after fleeing war-torn Lebanon. He spent a year writing for an Armenian newspaper and delivering Domino’s at night to become eligible for the University of California, where he earned his undergraduate degree and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience. He started a lab at Scripps Research in San Diego with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, discovered the way humans sense touch, and in 2021 won the Nobel Prize. But with the Trump administration slashing spending on science, Dr. Patapoutian’s federal grant to develop new approaches to treating pain has been frozen. In late February, he posted on Bluesky that such cuts would damage biomedical research and prompt an exodus of talent from the United States. Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to 'any city, any university I want,' he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years." NYT (Gift Article): U.S. Scientists Warn That Trump’s Cuts Will Set Off a Brain Drain. (Relentlessly attacking science, universities, and immigrants doesn't sound like an experiment that will end well.) 3Flame WarsDrone battles are a lot like first person war games, with pilots in remote locations waging war from behind a screen. But the fighters aren't the only ones with the first-person view of the action. Consider how quickly the world had access to images of Ukraine's shocking attack on Russia's airfields. That aspect is a feature, not a bug. The Verge: Ukraine’s drone strike isn’t just an attack — it’s first-person media warfare. "On top of the damage to Russian forces, the dissemination of the videos was a clear goal of the mission. This isn’t the first time Ukraine has shared raw footage of its attacks to shine a spotlight on the war, but it’s perhaps one of the most stunning and fast-spreading examples so far." 4Waymo Than You Think"Waymo’s autonomous taxis are only available in a few cities right now, including Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where self-driving cars are more of a tourist attraction than cable cars. But the trajectory suggests what’s happening there might just happen everywhere—and sooner than you think." And if you live in one of those cities, you know Waymos are everywhere. It’s Waymo’s World. We’re All Just Riding in It. 5Extra, ExtraThrowing Good Money After Bad Ideas: "The global economy is slowing. In a sharply downgraded forecast released Tuesday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned that President Donald Trump’s volatile yet sweeping tariff policies are inflicting greater damage than expected, with the effects more concentrated in the U.S. than anywhere else." Meanwhile, "when shoppers shift more spending to dollar stores, it usually reflects growing financial stress." And dollar stores are doing massive numbers. 6Bottom of the News"The condom, which was probably made of a sheep’s appendix circa 1830, is thought to have come from an upmarket brothel in France, most likely in Paris. It features an erotic etching depicting a partially undressed nun pointing at the erect genitals of three clergymen, as well as the phrase Voila, mon choix ('There, that’s my choice')." Dutch museum to display 200-year-old condom. (The condom would've been on display sooner but some of the funders pulled out.)
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Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Seasonal Effectiveness Disorder
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