This is what Hegseth and Trump mean by "warrior culture" -- fire or ignore the lawyers, then claim the right to kill people for no apparent reason other than you enjoy the video. Time for the officers being turned into murderers to refuse these unlawful orders.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

It's not possible or desirable to keep politics completely out of research science grant funding decisions. The broad choice of areas of inquiry to support needs to come from the political branches. But the current level of political micro-management is unprecedented and unhealthy for science.

EPA has proposed to rescind its 2009 finding that GHG emissions from cars and trucks endanger public health and welfare. The Department of Energy and National Academies have issued dueling reports on the evidence. Here's how to read them: legal-planet.org/2025/09/18/t...

My take on the stay of the preliminary injunction in the "Alligator Alcatraz" case is now up on Legal Planet.

legal-planet.org/2025/09/09/p...

It would be funny if it weren't so dangerous -- Republicans on the House Oversight Committee agree with Trump that "gold standard science" means "claims that justify our policy goals, with no supporting evidence necessary and no opposing evidence considered."

oversight.house.gov/wp-content/u...

I am trying to get back to posting regularly on Legal Planet, the UC Berkeley / UCLA environmental law blog. Here's my take on the Trump administration's response to the International Maritime Organization's greenhouse gas reduction framework.

legal-planet.org/2025/09/03/t...

Calls for a new constitutional convention have recently come from both left and right. Am I the only one who thinks the most likely outcome of such a convention in this political climate is the breakup of our union? Or who can't help wondering whether that would be a bad thing?

Need a smile? (Don't we all these days) Check out the feed from this webcam.

@coralcitycamera.bsky.social

Just finished Adam Becker's More Everything Forever. Confirms my priors about the absurdity of "effective altruism" and "longtermism," not to mention the empty arrogance of tech bros, so of course I recommend.

This. We badly need to rediscover respect for virtues like integrity and humility, and to demand that our leaders make at least some effort to embody them.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

As a former NSF graduate fellow, I am deeply saddened to see this program being slashed in half. Its uniquely portable funding allows promising STEM grad students to pursue the work they find most important. These short-sighted cuts will be felt for decades. www.science.org/content/arti...

Federal workers are being rushed back to the office. It’s causing chaos.

In case you thought Trump's return to office mandate was about anything other than bullying federal workers. I don't see efficiency gains, do you?

www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Good news from Point Reyes! Agreement reached to wind down 12 cattle operations. Gets NPS closer to allowing indigenous tule elk to range free within the Seashore, although they will still be barred from adjoining private and public lands.
www.nps.gov/pore/learn/n...

Striking visual illustration of temperature increase over time from the local to the global, thanks to @edhawkins.org. Hard to deny that the world has changed a lot in a short time, looking at this Warming Stripes picture of global temps since 1850:

You can now share the Warming Stripes directly to BlueSky, such as these for my town of Reading:

showyourstripes.info/s/europe/uni...

(Find the graphic you want to share, click the blue options button - the one with three horizontal lines - and select the butterfly!)

Does anyone who believes government serves any positive function think that putting two self-styled "disruptors" in charge of structural reform is wise? Perhaps on occasion letting a bull loose in a china shop is good for the bull, but I've never heard of it being good for the china shop.