Terry Quinn

FOX just put up a graphic saying that Shohei Ohtani's hard hit percentage is "100th percentile." Apparently, not only does he transcends the normal bounds of baseball, he transcends the laws of mathematics.

Congratulations to @dustybowl.bsky.social on being awarded the Piers J. Sellers Global Environmental Change Award from the @agu.org!

Congratulations to @drspeedydee.bsky.social on the Nanne Weber Early Career Award from the @agu.org!

Huge congratulations to Ed Cook for receiving the @agu.org Revelle Medal, which 'recognition of outstanding contributions in atmospheric sciences, atmosphere-ocean coupling, atmosphere-land coupling, biogeochemical cycles, climate or related aspects of the Earth system.'

Microscope images of Globigerinoides ruber (pink) shells from Bay of Bengal core MGS30. Panels show the same specimens in different orientations: umbilical, spiral, and ventral views. Left side: light microscope and high-resolution color images showing pink to orangish-pink shell tint. Right side: scanning electron microscope (SEM) images highlighting surface texture and chamber structure.

Map of the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea showing sea surface salinity in winter (left panel) and summer (right panel). Core site MGS30 is marked with a star in the eastern Bay of Bengal, with additional sites U1457, U1446, MD77, and RVS2 labeled. Seasonal arrows show East India Coastal Current (EICC) and West India Coastal Current (WICC) flow directions. Color shading indicates salinity, with fresher water in blue and saltier water in yellow.

🌊 🔬 New in #Marine #Geology:

Ph.D. student Ammoose Jayan (CU Kerala/Fulbright @uarizona.bsky.social) shows that "pink" #foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber survived in the Indian Ocean until 8 kyr BP—and did not go extinct in the Indian Ocean at 120 ka!

🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2025.107656

The entire business model of R1 public universities rests on 4 revenue sources:

1. Federal grants
2. Private gifts/endowments
3. Tuition (esp. from foreign students)
4. State $

For decades, 📈 in 1-3 offset a secular 📉 in 4. Now, 1 & 3 are being decimated & 4 ain't coming back. The math is clear.

IN DEFENSE OF THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE… Upon learning tonight it is now possible the death toll could reach 250, I am increasingly depressed as I am sure many of you are. This hits so close to home for me having been a member of the weather community for 40 years now—34 in Austin. I’m also painfully aware what we all feel pales with that of families of those missing or lost. Our hearts break for them all. As I mentioned in previous posts we must have answers. And in my opinion, which is mine alone and not that of KXAN-TV, here is where we stand: 1. The meteorologists that I have worked with hand-in hand for years at our local National Weather Service office are consummate professionals and I know are equally devastated about the events of July 4-5, but they should take comfort in the fact that they did their job. Flash Flood Watches and Warnings MEAN SOMETHING. And the first Watch went out on the afternoon of July 3rd. The first Flash Flood Warning went out nearly three hours before water started sweeping away campers at Camp Mystic and 4 hours before many more died downriver. The fact that Kerr County officials and others say “we didn’t know it was coming” is either the height of negligence or a demonstration of total incompetence. The questions that remain include, did adequate cell service alarm their phones at 1:15 a.m.? Was NOAA weather radio reception in that area adequate to receive the Warning and set off an alert tone? Either way, with a Flash Flood Watch in effect for 14 hours before the the flooding began, and a Warning issued 2-4 hours before the catastrophe, there is NO excuse for the lack of preparation and response from the camps, county officials, law enforcement, etc.

I read that the Kerrville City Manager was jogging on the Guadalupe River trail at 4 a.m., minutes before a FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY was declared, yet unaware that a flood wave was just miles upriver headed rapidly his way. How is it possible he was not aware his city had been placed under Flash Flood Warning nearly 3 hours earlier? I am not assigning blame to the City Manager, but obviously their emergency communications system in that city and county was woefully, dangerously inadequate. 2. Regarding these controversial federal cuts and the understaffing at the National Weather Service office: Yes, there were six unfilled positions, but the official word is that the office was fully staffed that morning. Maybe we will never know if things would have turned out differently if some of these important vacancies hadn’t existed. Donald Rumsfeld famously said, “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want…” I heard a former NOAA administrator use the analogy of two football teams facing off—one with 11 players, but the other with only 8. I know at KXAN, our forecast products and public messaging was always best when we had more people in the weather center rather than fewer. Who wants to do their job with one hand tied behind their back? And here is my great concern: Even if the meteorologists in that office that morning, or the meteorologists who are no longer there due to cuts believe in their hearts that things might have been different if not for the vacancies, would they tell us their true feelings? I have my doubts in this age of intimidation of those who criticize political decisions. Hell, if I thought I or my family might be subject to death threats if I went public with a criticism of policy-makers, I might reconsider too—or at least say what I needed to say anonymously. I’m not saying this is the case necessarily, but it would be understandable.

3. Finally, to those in the Austin area—Williamson, Travis and Burnet counties who have lost loved ones or still haven’t found the missing, our hearts ache for you too. This additional tragedy also haunts us at KXAN, but also defines a bigger problem. The National Weather Service did an excellent job, issuing a Flash Flood Emergency well in advance, early July 5th for the very areas where people were swept away. KXAN meteorologists were on the air broadcasting dire Warnings. But, were those people who were swept away asleep at the time? Did they hear their phones alarm, or had they turned off their “alerts” setting? Did they have a NOAA Weather Radio that alarmed them, or was the first sign of disaster when they felt their homes floating? These alerts have to be taken seriously, and it is CRITICAL that people who live near creeks, streams and rivers always have a method of receiving these alerts, then take take action to protect themselves without waiting on officials to evacuate them. But, we’ve been preaching the importance of taking Warnings seriously and having a weather radio, etc. forever and nothing seems to change. Sirens are not always feasible, but I believe along high recreation waterways like the Guadalupe river they will need to be mandatory. We have technology now that could automatically trigger these sirens. We should invest in that immediately. Unfortunately, I’m becoming resigned to the fact that elsewhere, these tragic events will simply remain a fact of life.

Jim Spencer is longtime meteorologist in central TX and is in a great position to make the observations he does here about the tragic 4th of July flooding.

When it comes to Texas weather, I look to @theeyewallwx.bsky.social to cut through the nonsense. @mattlanza.bsky.social knows his business on this analysis of the tragic TX flash flooding.

This from Jeffrey Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social) on NSF budget request: Trump has proposed cutting NSF's budget by more than half, to $4B, in FY 2026. The math in his "skinny" budget request is hard to follow, so here's a quick analysis:

The President’s FY 2026 Discretionary Budget Request

Skinny Budget Day! Another terrible budget for US science and innovation. While attention is on NSF and NIH, some brief notes on energy and space, which also matter for competitiveness.

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/informat... 🧵

Yes, you do and that is the silver lining in this very dark cloud. Hang in there, your efforts are deeply appreciated.

Schemas and the Political Brain The neuroscience and psychology of why better facts don't make winning arguments in politics.

I wrote about why Republicans - and Trump specifically - often beat Democrats on messaging because they understand the politics of schemas and how to use them more effectively, while Democrats search for the best facts, but often lose the battle of perception: www.forkingpaths.co/p/schemas-an...

THE WEEK OF MARCH 31, 2025 - Trump zeros out NSF construction budget - Grant terminations proliferate - More NIH layoffs planned

Trump zeroes out NSF major research equipment facilities & construction funding for FY25 over objections of congressional appropriators. A 2.6% cut to topline. Congress had designed MREFC as emergency spending to avoid budget caps.
ww2.aip.org/fyi/the-week...

Public comment period is <30 days. COMMENT!

“This interim final rule removes the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) from the Code of Federal Regulations.”

www.regulations.gov/document/CEQ...

Trump continues to lie about aid to Ukraine but the FT brings the facts.

While NIH funded researchers have found a potential cure for one of the most deadly cancers around, Trump and Musk are continuing an illegal NIH grant freeze, threatening so many potential life saving scientific advances.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Leading Science Organization Makes History With New President The American Geophysical Union elected its first black President. Here's why that matters.

Kudos @agu.org
www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...

A wave curls and crashes from left to right as it swells toward the shoreline in Monterey Bay. the water is blue and the foaming wave front is white.

Protecting the ocean has always been a bipartisan effort, in Congress and across multiple White House administrations. In the face of ill-conceived attacks on @noaa.gov, it's time to raise our voices. My thoughts in defense of NOAA and #OceanScience: mbayaq.co/4k8vEsx

The Case for Leaving the Starter In Quantifying the hidden costs of bullpen overexposure

MLB teams' increasing reliance on their bullpens is a manifestation of optimized pitching strategy. Starters' performance wanes as their pitch counts rise and batters get multiple looks at them. Relievers keep getting nastier every year. It's just smart baseball.

But what if it's not?

Hot off the press, my book on the history of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in commemoration of its Centennial. From Maryland Sea Grant. Following its mandate for predictive ecology from the Chesapeake Bay around the world.
loom.ly/MzHzftA

I am so sorry for you and all of your NSF colleagues who are living through this shitshow. Wishing you strength and support from the community.

A tragedy at so many levels. The community grieves with you.

have you lost your damn mind

New Yorker cartoon showing a cookie factory executive in front of a company podium with the Cookie Monster Frome Sesame Street by this side. Caption: “Let me assure you that as an unpaid ‘special factory employee’ Mr. Monster stands to gain nothing personally from his work.”

From the New Yorker

Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs Explainer YouTube video by Association of American Universities

www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

A century of Bay research at the University of Maryland Formal Chesapeake Bay science began a century ago with the study of oysters from an 8x10 fisherman’s shack near the mouth of southern Maryland’s Patuxent River.

Renowned Chesapeake Bay author Tom Horton gives this preview of my forthcoming book Predictive Ecology: The History of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science 1925-2025. Available shortly from @mdseagrant.bsky.social.
www.bayjournal.com/columns/ches...

Summary of F&A costs of research from the university Council on Government Relations www.cogr.edu/sites/defaul...

oh, NYT, when your major takeaway from that performance is the jeans, you need to hire new writers.