Sunday, August 23, 2026
4% of Oregon has burned this year so far. Also, Trump is evil.
Miscellaneous
Chinese robot runs 100m sprint quicker than Usain Bolt’s world record | Sport | The Guardian. It also set a record in the men's half-marathon. Other humanoid robots in China set records in the standing high jump and running high jump.
Phoenix Arizona is forecasted to have the next several days with a high temperature of +115°F (46°C). The US government just mandated they take a 21% cut in water from the Colorado River, along with Nevada and Colorado. There just isn't enough water in the river these days.
Trump made 1,051 trades in his stock & bond portfolio in just June alone. Supposedly someone is managing his portfolio while he's in office. Supposedly.
"Paramedics Now Rolling Up to Medical Emergencies in Flying Hovercraft." Northern California. With applications like this and especially the delivery drones from Amazon, Walmart etc it's going to add to noise pollution nearly everywhere. Ugg.
7.6 billion people will be able to see the asteroid Apophis when it passes by Earth at an altitude of only 20,000 miles (32,000 km). April 13, 2029. (A Friday, believe it or not. Friday the 13th.) It's 340 m long (1,120 ft). NASA now says there is zero chance it hits Earth. Will be viewable "across Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and eastern South America" for up to seven hours. Sorry North America. ESA:
“Scientists believe that an asteroid as large as Apophis only comes this close to Earth once every 5,000 to 10,000 years,” the ESA added in a Twitter/X post.
Saturday, August 15, 2026
Climate Denial Killing Still More People
New York Times, today: "In One Week During Europe’s Record Heat Wave, Deaths Increased by 16,000." (Should be a free article, or you might need to first get a free NY Times account.)
There are all excess deaths, not just those from heat. So the spikes in excess deaths in November to January are due to respiratory illnesses such as the flu. There were 25,000 heat deaths earlier there this summer, so this makes 41,000 at least. Over 30,000 in India. (I wrote a recent Phys.org article about India.)
NYT: "Most of the deaths were in northern countries — France, Belgium and Germany — that are not accustomed to such high temperatures and struggled to respond."
France is debating ("bickering") air conditioning. It doesn't help that they love their old buildings built in the Little Ice Age.
Of course, A/C doesn't stop wildfires. Future people may be stuck in air-conditioned houses and apartments wearing masks because of all the wildfire smoke, unable to buy home insurance since the insurance companies have left that market (as they are in Florida, partly due to rising hurricane costs).
It's too bad no one foresaw all these problems several decades ago--we might have taken actions to stall the problem.
It's now clear that climate denial -- and climate deniers -- kill people. Lots of people. Where are the prosecutors?
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Only 2 in 5 Americans Give a Sh!t about Climate Change
From CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enten:
I mean, just look at these numbers. Okay, top issue in a midterm vote — you can list up to three issues. The economy, not surprisingly, comes in at number one at 54%. Immigration, 28%. Look at climate change — it’s tied for 14th, tied for 14th, all the way down here at 3%. Johnny, I’m not the greatest mathematician in the world, but I sure as heck know that 54% is a whole heck of a lot higher than 3%. So despite the climate being so warm in the month of July, the hottest month on record here in the United States of America, the voters, simply put, do not say that climate change is going to be an issue on which they vote in the midterm election.
And you can see this 3% here, and you can see in these slides right here: “Say climate change is a very big problem.” In 2016, it was 40%. It was 40%. Look where we are in 2026 — it’s 39%, it’s 39%. Now, Johnny B, you’re talking about change. Where the change we have seen is partisanship, right?<
And what we can see is Republicans, more so than anybody else, have been shifting away from the idea that climate change is a top issue for them. Take a look at this — the least important issue for Republicans, it’s just at 14% in terms of saying that climate change is a very big problem. So we’re seeing a large partisan split, but when it comes together, Democrats are going in one direction, Republicans are going in another direction. But when you put those two together, the bottom line is we’re only talking about two in five Americans, both now and 10 years ago, saying that climate change is a very big problem.
Maybe a few more towns burning down will convince them. Higher home insurance rates in Florida (if homeowners can get it at all). A few more records (this July was the warmest month ever recorded in the continental US). Or more thousands of deaths.
Relative to a 1951-1980 baseline, July's USA48 temperature anomaly is 1.81°C. Relative to 1901-2000 the anomaly is 2.34°C. [NOAA's USA48 data starts in 1895.]
This decade-to-date is 0.53°C warmer than the last decade-to-date. The 30-year linear trend is 0.31°C/decade (0.55°F/decade). The total (linear) warming since 1895 is 1.33°C (2.39°F).
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Two El Niño Graphs
Tuesday, August 04, 2026
Book Review about Howard Zinn
I found this video from an interesting book review in the NY Times about Howard Zinn, the famed historian and author of A People's History of the United States. Zinn dared to write that, actually, America's history is actually pretty fucked up, with a huge amount of oppression. In this messed up country that kind of inflammation will get you both prosecuted and respected. I read it many years ago but lately, as I'm now > 65 yo and supposedly on the US health program for seniors, Medicare, but still find it very difficult to get affordable health care. Trump plans to make medication for seniors even more expensive, despite his hypocritical lying saying he would always protect Medicare. So I'm listening more than ever and am angry more than ever.


