unlimited odds and ends

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

interesting and might be relevant to today's conundrums


   

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

When did Doug start making YouTube videos?

[Dougfish]

Fat guy in a thong?
Versus a splendid specimen such as me?
Thanks, pal.
Lol.

[Woolly Bugger]

Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature. They're Trying to Publish It Anyway.
The first full draft of the assessment, on the state of America's land, water and wildlife, was weeks from completion. The project leader called the study "too important to die."

The draft was almost ready for submission, due in less than a month. More than 150 scientists and other experts had collectively spent thousands of hours working on the report, a first-of-its-kind assessment of nature across the United States.

But President Trump ended the effort, started under the Biden administration, by executive order. So, on Jan. 30, the project's director, an environmental scientist named Phil Levin, sent an email telling members of his team that their work had been discontinued.

But it wasn't the only email he sent that day.

"This work is too important to die," Dr. Levin wrote in a separate email to the report's authors, this one from his personal account. "The country needs what we are producing."

Now key experts who worked on the report, called the National Nature Assessment, are figuring out how to finish and publish it outside the government, according to interviews with nine of the leading authors.


"There's an amazingly unanimous broad consensus that we ought to carry on with the work," said Howard Frumkin, a professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Washington School of Public Health who was leading a chapter on nature's effects on human health and well-being.

The study was intended to measure how the nation's lands, water and wildlife are faring, how they are expected to change, and what that means for people.

Most of the 12 chapters were written by teams of a dozen or so specialists. While some were federal employees, a vast majority of the authors came from outside government — academia, nonprofit groups and the private sector — and they were already volunteering their time. Most or all the teams were expecting to continue their work, the authors said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/climate/nature-assessment-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wk4.oyof.Z_QwOL2buOmm&smid=url-share

[Woolly Bugger]

An outbreak of bird flu has been tearing through the nation's dairy farms and infecting more and more people.

Now there are troubling signs that the United States may be closer to another pandemic, even as President Trump dismantles the country's public health system.

Apoorva Mandavilli, who covers science and global health for The Times, explains how the virus has changed and why our government might be ill-equipped to respond.

[Woolly Bugger]

'Honestly terrifying': Yosemite National Park is in chaos
California's beloved national park is on the brink of disaster

Yosemite National Park is in trouble. Hamstrung by President Donald Trump's hiring freeze, hundreds of rescinded job offers and the threat of coming layoffs, the park is poised to enter its busiest months of the year severely short-staffed. Not only that, but the park's day-use reservation system — created to protect park resources and improve the visitor experience by reducing crowding — appears unlikely to return this year.

In addition, Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon is about to retire.
Worst of it all, say current and former National Park Service employees, nonprofit leaders and other Yosemite experts interviewed by SFGATE, is that decades of efforts to protect the park's ecosystems for future generations are being derailed.

https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/yosemite-national-park-in-chaos-20163260.php

[Woolly Bugger]

President Trump's Hiring Freeze Stymies Spotted Owl Monitoring

PORTLAND, Ore.— The Center for Biological Diversity learned this week from a project collaborator, Taal Levi, that regional monitoring for northern spotted owls either won't occur or will be greatly reduced because of the Trump administration's hiring freeze. This leaves conservation agencies without crucial information needed to prevent the imperiled owls from sliding into extinction.



Monitoring of the spotted owl is required by the Northwest Forest Plan and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's western Oregon plan revision. In addition to the harm caused to the owl, it's unclear the extent to which either agency will be able to move forward with timber sale or fuels reduction projects since both hinge on monitoring the endangered owls.

"This assault by Trump and Musk on the civil servants who help save endangered species across the country is just beginning to rear its ugly head, and spotted owls could be their first victim," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "As a former seasonal spotted owl surveyor myself, I know first-hand how important keeping track of these inquisitive birds is to their survival. Decades of work has gone into ensuring the owls aren't harmed by logging on our public lands. If we can't do the surveys, the logging may need to stop."

Almost all monitoring of spotted owls, as well as many other endangered species including Pacific salmon, marbled murrelets, Oregon spotted frogs and more, is done by seasonal biologists. Hiring of these hard-working, highly trained and dedicated individuals would typically happen now in advance of the spring and summer field seasons but can't because of the hiring freeze.

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/president-trumps-hiring-freeze-stymies-spotted-owl-monitoring-2025-02-20/

[trout-r-us]

Also, one of you pretentious peckerwoods please tell me the true definition of woke.   

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[Dougfish]

Back in the canoe club.
Old Town 119. Camo w/240 cm kayak paddle. 49 lbs.

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Party on!

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

Back in the canoe club.
Old Town 119. Camo w/240 cm kayak paddle. 49 lbs.

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You cannot view this attachment. 


I don't see it working out for you!

Party on!

[Onslow]

The heaviest dude I've paddled with weighed 450 pounds. Paddled with him on a CCC outing at the Toe Gorge.  He was paddling a Blue Hole canoe.  Water was up and the rapids were kicking.

The heaviest fisherman I've fished with in a small canoe was the late Mike Byrne aka Catawba.  He weighed around 350.  He was quite agile on the Yadkin in his little canoe.

[Dougfish]

I don't see it working out for you!

225 lbs of machined manhood. 
Mr. Mudgoo. 

[Woolly Bugger]

I don't see it working out for you!

225 lbs of machined manhood. 
Mr. Mudgoo. 

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

I experienced this dirty rain last week.  Darned interesting!  At the time, I blamed it on the local Methodists driving past my place on the church road.  I was wrong, obviously.  No worries, and no apologies needed; we rarely talk.

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/dirty-rain-hits-multiple-states/ar-AA1ABsk8?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=de65597f8a414ead9d9f77c34ac97784&ei=21

[Dougfish]

We were victims.
More bad shit from TX.