slampoud

"War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington -- not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict." Graduation Exercises at the United States Military Academy, 6/3/47 "Possibly my hatred of war blinds me so that I cannot comprehend the arguments they adduce. But, in my opinion, there is no such thing as a preventive war. Although this suggestion is repeatedly made, none has yet explained how war prevents war. Worse than this, no one has been able to explain away the fact that war creates the conditions that beget war." Remarks at Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 10/19/50 [DDE's Pre-Presidential Papers, Principal File, Box

Was browsing the Eisenhower Library site this morning trying to find a quote I remembered.

President Eisenhower, WW2 military hero:

“In my opinion, there is no such thing as a preventive war… none has yet explained how war prevents war.”

take care of those shut down babies so they can become big ole trees <3

Ok, awesome, I hope that works out! and if not lmk and I’ll put you in touch with our GM at CalForest.

Where are you, or more importantly, where are the seedlings, Steph? I suspect the closest I could put you in touch with is CalForest in Siskiyou Co.

It remains to be seen if the evidence will stand up in court.

I am mortified to be an American.

Iran Does Not Have Nuclear Weapons - Lawyers, Guns & Money It’s time to say it again: It’s highly doubtful that the Iranians were pursuing a nuclear weapon. And they certainly don’t have any. Donald Trump says that (one of the purposes/ the purpose) of his at...

I would remiss if I did not adequately amplify @cherylrofer.bsky.social's concise, clear, and unassailable summary of why one of the Trump administration's main rationales for its illegal war is bullshit.

ML for accomplishing marine environmental & biodiversity monitoring that is essentially unfunded and will not happen otherwise is in no way related to LLMs or loss of jobs. This is a (understandable) conflation, and worth addressing, patiently, in good faith.

if there is anyone I trust to parse out the pros and cons of jumping onto bandwaggon terms like AI (because this is what this is about: scicomm), it’s @kakanikatija.bsky.social and the FathomNet team.

we had those in the Southern Sierra last night, too. You’re back and we can share weather now, a sweet thought :)

Community Members Clash with ICE Agents in Downtown Santa Barbara - edhat Residents clashed with ICE agents in downtown Santa Barbara on Friday with one man arrested and another man pepper sprayed.

Community members clashed with ICE agents in downtown Santa Barbara this morning, resulting in the arrest of one man and another man getting pepper sprayed while Santa Barbara High was placed on a hold status.

edhat.com/news/communi...
#edhat #SBnews

Measurement of a lithium plume from the uncontrolled re-entry of a Falcon 9 rocket - Communications Earth & Environment A plume of pollutants in the upper atmosphere above Germany is identified using lidar observations of lithium concentrations and can be traced back to the uncontrolled re-entry of a specific rocket la...

🚨🚨🚨

This new paper's interesting results indicate a sudden 10-fold increase in lithium at 96 km altitude due to #SpaceX Falcon 9 re-entry debris.

This is now joining further modelling and evidence of impacts on the upper atmosphere - a shared global common we all rely on.

🔭🧪

Honestly how did any of us without family support ever survive graduate school. The grocery rationing remains with me viscerally.

Lemme tell ya, job #6 is just one dam hassle after another.

It is hard to watch NSF bow so easily to their destroyers.

Vannevar Bush formed the NSF out of the US response to the fascists in WWII.

We had a similar reckoning with endocrine disruptors in waterproof and fireproof PPE used in the maritime sector. I participated in an initiative where a bunch of us (women) gave blood to document how much higher our detectable levels were than the general population.

“If you wanted to create a tool that would enable the destruction of institutions that prop up democratic life, you could not do better than AI. Authoritarian leaders & tech oligarchs are deploying AI systems to hollow out public institutions with an astonishing alacrity.”

How new AI technology is helping detect and prevent wildfires From vegetation scans to 360-degree smoke detectors, new tools are trying to shine a light on the most dangerously dark areas of the electric grid

sciam article profiling Overstory, Pano AI (my current employer) and Alert West, three companies applying ML to wildfire prevention and early detection www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

(4/4)

Visa Issues Force Cancellation of Famed Les Ballets Africains Performance at Granada Theatre - edhat UCSB cancels Les Ballets Africains’ performance at the Granada Theatre on February 6, 2026, amid reported visa complications.

A performance by Les Ballets Africains, a renowned Guinean dance company, scheduled in Santa Barbara has been canceled as the artists are being prevented from entering the U.S. by the Trump administration.

www.edhat.com/news/visa-is...
#edhat #SBnews

RETRACTED: Integrative phylogenomics positions sponges at the root of the animal tree Determining whether sponges or ctenophores root the animal tree has important implications for understanding early animal evolution. Here, we examined support for these competing hypotheses by constru...

This is a beautiful case of how real science happens & serious scientists work. Kudos to both set of authors: “This has been a humbling experience, but one that speaks to the self-correcting nature of the scientific endeavor.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Are you a community ecologist interested in fire ecology? Come join our group! Postdoc position for project FEVER, that aims to understand how fire affects biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and biogeochemical cycles in Mediterranean forests @umramap.bsky.social.

Engineering Director - Digital Services (0932) The Office of the City Administrator and its 25+ divisions and departments operate core internal and public-facing services in San Francisco.   The Office of the City Administrator’s Mission and Visio...

hallo, I am hiring again! - SF Digital Services is looking for a new Engineering Director careers.sf.gov/role/?id=374...

This reports directly to me, & I’m looking for a practical & flexible technical expert with excellent communication & coaching skills, who is excited to do both. More below...

Specifically asking for a book or paper about the history of Western Australia fire management.

WA is often presented as the model for flipping the wildfire script from suppression bias to planned burning of fire adapted landscapes. This tells the story of how and why the initial change occurred.

Does anybody know of a really good book about this process?

wildfiretoday.com/a-lasting-le...

when we say complex processes of repression & violence are highly contingent & dynamic, we mean they depend on active choices people make—nothing is inevitable.

we know from lots of research that people can interrupt violent processes by making choices that reflect their values. this is an example.

This is really big news and is the result of years of careful, steady work. We will soon have over 80 Radnote solar powered cellular wireless radiation sensors in place in Ukraine, forming the largest independent monitoring network of its kind. Huge thanks to all of our supporters worldwide!

I thought they couldn’t wear masks in California anymore (SB627)

ICE Agents Confront Santa Barbara Eastside Residents with Pepper Spray, Santa Barbara Police Respond to Scene - edhat ICE agents confronted residents of Santa Barbara's Eastside neighborhood deploying pepper spray on Wednesday morning.

ICE agents confronted residents of Santa Barbara’s Eastside neighborhood this morning with video showing an agent shoving and pepper spraying a woman in the face.

www.edhat.com/news/ice-age...
#edhat #SBnews

The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules The rewrite was done to speed up the construction of a new generation of nuclear reactors. Critics warn it could compromise safety and public trust.

EXCLSUVIE: The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules and shared them with the companies they're meant to regulate, without making the new rules publicly available.

We've obtained a copy of the new rules and here's what we found.

www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...