Daniel Rothenberg

What's going on at the @ncar-ucar.bsky.social Mesa Lab?

Opinion | How Far Can We Degrade Our Hurricane Forecasting Before People End Up Dead?

It's been death by a million papercuts to U.S. weather forecasts by the Trump administration, but yesterday's detailed 2026 budget feels like a deathblow. In today's @nytimes.com I ask: How far can we degrade our hurricane forecasting before people end up dead?

Both languages ought to be good for the task. Rust seems to have a more mature dev and integration community, especially among folks writing Python tooling. I also see more demand for it in my corner of the job market.

You should totally build a BUFR decoder in Rust... HMU and let's chat about it

A table titled "Funding Levels Summary (in millions)" shows funding data for various U.S. federal agencies over fiscal years FY24, FY25, and the FY26 President's Budget Request (PBR). It includes five columns: Agency, FY24 Omnibus, FY25 CR (Continuing Resolution), FY25 Enacted, FY26 PBR, and % Change from FY25 to FY26 PBR. Agencies and their respective funding levels (in millions) and percent changes are: DOE (Department of Energy) FY24 Omnibus: $50,246.75 FY25 CR: $50,246.75 FY25 Enacted: $49,800 FY26 PBR: $45,100 % Change: -9.4% DOE Office of Science FY24 Omnibus: $8,240 FY25 CR: $8,240 FY25 Enacted: — FY26 PBR: $7,092 % Change: -13.9% EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) FY24 Omnibus: $9,158.89 FY25 CR: $9,158.89 FY25 Enacted: $9,100 FY26 PBR: $5,000 % Change: -54.5% NASA FY24 Omnibus: $24,875 FY25 CR: $24,875 FY25 Enacted: $24,800 FY26 PBR: $18,800 % Change: -24.3% NASA SMD (Science Mission Directorate) FY24 Omnibus: $7,334.20 FY25 CR: $7,565.70 FY25 Enacted: — FY26 PBR: $3,908.2 % Change: -46.7% NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) FY24 Omnibus: $997.02 FY25 CR: $997.02 FY25 Enacted: — FY26 PBR: NA % Change: NA NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) FY24 Omnibus: $6,319 FY25 CR: $6,319 FY25 Enacted: — FY26 PBR: $4,799 % Change: -24% NSF (National Science Foundation) FY24 Omnibus: $9,060 FY25 CR: — FY25 Enacted: $8,800 FY26 PBR: $3,900 % Change: -55.8% USGS (United States Geological Survey) FY24 Omnibus: $1,455.43 FY25 CR: $1,455.43 FY25 Enacted: — FY26 PBR: $891.43 % Change: -38.8% Red text is used to denote percentage decreases in FY26 PBR compared to FY25. Several entries for FY25 Enacted are missing or denoted with a dash. NIEHS has no FY26 PBR or percent change listed.

This is not a science budget. This is a massacre.

thebridge.agu.org/2025/05/05/t...

Unbelievable. This makes sequestration look like a haircut.

If this goes into effect it will have a generational effect on American science and innovation. We cede the future to Europe and China - full stop.

An interesting subplot is all the kids get projected into 2D to float in a thunderstorm. But when the same thing happens in Death's End in the Three Body Problem trilogy it kills all life in the Solar System. Interesting...

In solidary, watching The Magic School Bus with my daughter this morning. The weather episode, of course!

Is it just me or is 90% of social media content (particularly on TikTok) about student loans? Like... I don't have student loans. No reason I should be fed this content through organic engagement. Gotta say, there's some _discontent_ out there right now...

Friendly reminder for colleagues at Harvard facing disappointing NSF news today - there's a pretty good law school across campus with an impressive alumni network. I seem to recall them also facing the ire of the current Administration. Perchance a coffee chat with a colleague to align incentives?

HORIS-1 & -2 Fully Assembled, prepped for testing! Keeping You Ahead of the Storm!

READ MORE:
www.startengine.com/offering/acm...

I think I should start charging for prospecting calls. I respect the hustle for folks selling services to startups, but time is my single most valuable resource. If I politely reply that I don't need or want your service, please respect that - or be prepared to compensate me.

April snow showers bring May .... ?

No.

Are sprinkles kosher for Passover? My daughter is worried her matzah+honey+sprinkles may break the rules...

Don't 👏turn on 👏 your sprinklers 👏before 👏 Mother's Day.

All these front rangers watering their lawns already taunted Mother's Nature and now this? SMH.

I think the hardest challenge of working independently / leading an organization is being satisfied that you've "done enough" on any given day. It's like the early PhD phase on steroids - there's always so much to do, and priorities aren't always obvious!

Yep, right up I-25 near Johnstown. They've been open a full year now and it's still always packed!

That's 10 minutes round-trip! Unacceptable, I should prorate the bid on the property to account for the emotional impact...

Oh no, I just realized if we do end up moving to Erie I'll be 5 minutes further away from Buc-ee's :(

Words you probably never thought I'd utter in anything other than dripping sarcasm - "Great job, Harvard!"

Might need a CAPTCHA for future economics discussions with people:

If on Monday the market loses 10% of its value, and on Tuesday it recovers 10% during the course of the day, then what is the net impact on the market as of Wednesday morning?

Surprise storms and chaos theory: How AI is about to cause a ‘weather revolution’ A model pioneered by the person who came up with the concept of the butterfly effect is still being used in forecasting systems, writes Anthony Cuthbertson. A new method uses similar tech to ChatGPT –...

www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-weat...

Running mate on a serious(?) Presidential ticket, folks. SMH.

nooo SNL stole my joke, I've been calling this Adminstration's trade policy a "tariff"-ic idea since it was rolled out on the campaign trail last year!

Yes, it does... I'm spoiled by my Polestar and if there is favorable financing I might just buy out my lease. Else I will almost certainly jump to an Ioniq 5 or 6, especially if Hyundai continues the crazy financing offers from the end of last quarter.

Ughh don't remind me... My lease ends in June and I need to quickly get into something new.

Totally... I've definitely tortured the CESM in my day!

YouTube video by xkcd's What If? What if the Earth rotated 90 degrees?

Bad Randall! This is supposed to be a classic PhD orals question! youtu.be/WH4g1ptJ-70?...

I've led major infrastructure / system re-writes a handful of times in my career. Lots can vary from project-to-project, but you _absolutely do not_ try to one-shot them with a brand new, external team which had no involvement in writing the old system. Guaranteed to cause a mess.