How professors spend their time

Productive lunch break! #VoteBlue @meteodan.bsky.social 🗳️

Comments due by 11:59pm today, 11/13 rfi.grants.nih.gov?s=6a2b1c22c3... Community feedback matters. Perspective on what is at stake along with suggestions on how to respond 👇

Joshua Weitz@joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 2d ago

The NIH proposal to conceal reviewer scores from program officers, investigators, and advisory councils is ill-conceived, introduces disproportionate weight to small percentile differences, diminishes the role of scientific peer review, and should be withdrawn in its entirety. a 🧵

I give this sundog from yesterday evening an A-. #inwx

Besides being a stupid question this headline implies that I, a career academic, should consider a fucking chatbot a “peer”, and that is the most offensive thing I’ve heard in years.

Tropical Storm Rachel heads northwestward towards Baja California, where it is expected to make landfall tonight.

#Isaias 4pm CT update: A life-threatening storm surge is expected from the Mouth of the Mississippi River to Suwannee, Florida. Residents under evacuation orders should leave immediately and follow advice from local officials.

I’ve been at the @ncar-ucar.bsky.social members’ meeting the last few days, hearing from interim UCAR President Eric Barron and others about how UCAR and NCAR are weathering the metaphorical hurricane of the last two years. I came away grateful that clear-eyed leaders are at the helm.

Surprise storm chase yesterday in southwestern Ontario as the environment ahead of a cold front turned out to be more storm-conducive than had been forecast all week. Elevated supercells with some large hail. Put on a good lightning show after sunset :-) #ONstorm

Trump announced $100M to train U.S. citizen scientists only. www.bloomberg.com/news/article... These are not new funds. NSF underspent its education funds by $100M this past year. Of course, it pales in comparison to the $560M lost due to terminated NSF education grants: grantwitness.org/nsf 🧪

Ten hours of Hurricane #Isaias intensifying in the central Gulf of Mexico overnight. See my previous post related to some "first hurricane" stats.

Thoughts on the intersection of findings that the administration diverted $1.4B in NSF funds away from investigator-initiated research and today's New Golden Age of Science Summit showcasing the White House's preferred political priorities of what constitutes 'science'.

A Compromised Mission at the National Science Foundation

Rhetoric heralding a New Golden Age of Science obscures what is evident: the White House is undermining capacity for investigator-led basic research.

joshuasweitz.substack.com

Tropical Storm Isaias has an improving satellite appearance and could undergo rapid intensification during the next two days before landfall along the northern Gulf coast. @sciguyspace.bsky.social has the details: theeyewall.substack.com/p/tropical-s...

Tropical Storm Isaias poised for intensification, likely to become Atlantic season’s first hurricane

Coastal residents along the northern Gulf need to take this threat seriously.

theeyewall.substack.com

As you've probably noticed over the years, I've been a big fan and proponent of the Hurricane Threats and Impacts graphics that the NWS has produced for every tropical cyclone near the U.S. since 2015. Here is the suite of graphics from Wednesday afternoon for #Isaias. These will evolve of course.

While the Gulf Coast NWS comms issue appears resolved, with the growing tropical risk was seeing way more social media traffic about the radar outages that occurred over the weekend. Feel compelled to share a thread as seeing a lot of misinformation. (1/)

Exclusive: A new analysis refutes James Watson’s claim that he was the first to recognize the significance of the famed photograph 51. https://scim.ag/4rTKck8

How did Rosalind Franklin miss the helix in her iconic DNA image? She didn’t

New analysis refutes James Watson’s claim he was first to recognize significance of famed photograph 51

scim.ag

Privatization isn't the answer. See the private radars going up right now from climavision. They're not freely available to the public while tax payers foot the bill.

EJD@firewxguy.bsky.social · last wk.

I don't think privatization is the answer. Weather data such as this needs to be publicly available and free. The answer is this administration shouldn't have gutted NOAA's budget with the horrible DOGE cuts.

I don't think privatization is the answer. Weather data such as this needs to be publicly available and free. The answer is this administration shouldn't have gutted NOAA's budget with the horrible DOGE cuts.

When the Trump administration started dismantling a $368 million ocean monitoring system earlier this year, scientists, fishermen and Congress fought back. On Saturday, a 238-foot ship set sail to reinstall the first batch of monitors in the waters of the Pacific.

After Outcry, Monitors the Trump Administration Tried to Scrap Return to Sea

Under pressure from Congress, a network of ocean monitors that provides vital data to meteorologists, climate scientists, oceanographers and the fishing industry is being restored.

nytimes.com

Thanks to @justingon10tv.bsky.social for point out to me that NWS Wilmington had another comms outage Fri am. That outage is ongoing and has now been joined by a Gulf Coast NWS outage. balancedweather.substack.com/p/comms-outa...

Comms outages leave multiple NWS offices down

Data from numerous radars unavailable

balancedweather.substack.com

Hawaii rarely sees significant hurricane damage. But in just over a month, the islands felt the effects of three major hurricanes. Nolo, Lowell and Lala all reached Category 4 strength or higher.

Another hurricane just sideswiped Hawaii – why the islands’ usual force field seems to be down in 2026

Cooler ocean temperatures east of the islands typically keep major hurricanes away, but El Niño is helping fuel this year’s risks.

theconversation.com

“Boys learn by watching how the men they look up to treat their partners, female colleagues, women on the street. They notice how you react to sexual assault allegations ... As always with parenting, sometimes you try your best and it’s not enough. But that does not make trying optional.”

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w ago

After rape allegations at Cornell University, why are women again being urged to talk to their sons? Why not men? | Gaby Hinsliff

I don’t think everyone realizes how bad things are for US science: For the fiscal year that just ended, the Trump regime withheld $1.4 billion from the National Science Foundation’s research budget, which is about 1/5 of its primary research budget.

National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress (Gift Article)

The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.

nytimes.com

I think there may be a new contender for a METAR "final boss": PASY 300753Z AUTO 08028G34KT 7SM GR OVC006 M A2944 RMK AO2 RAE0655GRB0655E01RAB01E12GRB12E44RAB44E53GRB53 SLPNO ALSTG ESTMD $

What does a field campaign look like, and how does it drive important research🌾🔍? This webinar explores severe weather field research, the many paths into the field, and why professional adaptability matters. Register here: https://bit.ly/4xLldR7

"Between 1996 and 2025, technology transfer from federally funded university and nonprofit research generated some $3.3 trillion in economic output across the United States. The report notes that the economic impact figures are based on self-reported data and are likely an underestimate."

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 3w ago

Commercialized Federal Research Has Generated Trillions, Study Finds https://bit.ly/4xHnNYi

Major hurricane Polo poses a serious threat to Baja California Sur, with significant heavy rainfall and flash flood potential into the Southwest US. Meanwhile the Nor’easter produced even higher coastal flood levels in Raritan Bay than Sat. balancedweather.substack.com/p/hurricane-...

Hurricane Polo poses significant risks to Baja California and Southwest US

Nor’easter continues to cause coastal flooding and power outages

balancedweather.substack.com

“OpenAI often discusses these incidents as if it were a passive observer of an autonomous technology — a rhetorical gambit that acts as a smokescreen for bad behavior. We must return the focus to the actual humans responsible for setting up these hazardous conditions” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/o...

Opinion | Dear Congress: Here’s What You Should Ask A.I. Leaders (Gift Article)

This is what Congress needs to do to rein in frontier A.I. development.

nytimes.com

Do yourself a favor and search unclaimed property portals of every state you’ve ever lived in. Today I found two checks that never made it to me because of old addresses, and filed claims for both. Search “unclaimed property [state_abbreviation].gov” to avoid being redirected to finders’ sites.