MASmith

@masmith.bsky.social

227 Followers 597 Following

Mostly here for renewable energy and public health news/insights, and appreciative of those on this site who share their expertise. Also enjoy the nature photography. Views are my own.

A cartoon shoing a bridge labelled NASDAQ with a banner for "Your Retirement Savings" with a SpaceX IPO Day 15 toll being collected by an Elon Musk figure with people going through the toll with sacks of money on their back labelled 401(k), IRA, Pension Fund. A sign says "Help Elon Reach $1 Trillion" and another sigh says "S&P 500 Said No".
Scene from San Diego convention center showing a tunnel-like scene with open walls
White trillium in foreground with sessile trillium and May apple in background
Cartoon showing a path diverging with a "tin man" figure with a US flag on its chest carrying an oil barrel and a bucket of coal on a path to "the past" and with a robot with a China flag on its chest carrying a solar panel and a wind mill on a path to "the future"
Osprey perched on a branch, tilting its head to the left.
In reality, all emissions matter. They accumulate in the atmosphere, so every tank of gasoline, cross-country flight and fossil-fueled load of laundry makes the earth a little warmer. And anything you can do to reduce your emissions makes the problem a little easier to solve, once we collectively decide we want to solve it. Maybe if $5 gas can inspire more individual Americans to change, our leaders will eventually follow.
“…. you throw a pebble in a pond. It’s not the first ripples that matter. Those are easy to predict. It’s what happens when it bounces off this rock and then hits another, another pebble comes in, and you have all these reverberations, and it becomes so challenging to figure out where they end up.” Quote from Barry Ritholtz being interviewed by Paul Krugman (February 2028)
“What we’re going to have is a real-world experience of when unvaccinated people get measles,” Dr. Milhoan, the head of the vaccine advisory panel, said, sounding somewhat excited about the possibility. “What is the new incidence of hospitalization?” he asked. “What’s the incidence of death?”
Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti, released the following statement: "We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you."
Picture of crescent moon.
Full moon with slight orangish-brownish tinge.
A Fall tableau of brown oak leaves covering the forest floor
• Prominent investors and utilities are signaling caution that the AI boom may be overheating. • Rapid technological changes—like more efficient Chinese AI models and emerging quantum computing—could undermine the economics of today’s massive AI infrastructure investments. • Classic bubble warning signs are emerging: cheap capital, overexpansion, underutilization, and risk shifting to utilities and consumers.
7 Eastern turtles lined up on a log in an algae covered pond on a sunny November day
Chain link fence with a yellow caution sign with "End" written on it, and with mountains in the background that appear closer because of image compression from the telephoto lens
The field reminded them of early genetics research, when scientists hailed every tenuous link found between individual genes and health conditions. In that early work, “everybody was jumping up and down and saying ‘there’s something there!’ when, in fact, everybody was finding something slightly different,” Bishop says.
Raven in profile, with black iridescent wings folded on its back and with tan/light brown blurred background
Common buckeye butterfly on a chain with foliage in the background. The butterfly has little pieces of both wings missing.
Sunset at Charles River with light from the seeing sun lighting up the river.
Sun rising over the Mississippi River with an urban landscape in the foreground.
A round tree fruit (perhaps) made of hexagonal sides with spikes in the center of each hexagon.
Multiple sea gulls in flight over a choppy, frothy sea
Monochromatic picture of Queen Anne's lace seed head.
Picture of the LNG tanker Indianapolis in Delaware Bay with clouds in background
Half moon against black backdrop, monochromatic
Sunset with rays of sun in lower right and pink colored clouds in upper right
Swallowtail butterfly on small lavender flowers with dark background
Lantern fly on outside of window as viewed from inside, with blue sky background.
The Golden Rain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) is known for its showy, papery, three-parted fruit capsules that resemble Chinese lanterns. Picture shows many fruit capsules together.
Table showing hazard ratios for the association between cumulative aluminum exposure through early childhood vaccination and chronic disease in children. Virtually all hazard ratios are less than 1, and the data provide no evidence to support an increased risk for autoimmune, atopic or allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders associated with early childhood exposure to aluminum-adsorbed vaccines.
Picture of gibbous moon taken with Nikon P950
During my medical training in the 1980s, I worried constantly about Haemophilus influenzae Type B, or Hib, which causes devastating bacterial infections of the bloodstream (bacteremia), spinal cord (meningitis) and throat (epiglottitis). The throat infection could quickly cut off a child’s airway, requiring an emergency tracheotomy, a surgical incision into a child’s windpipe. We did blood tests and spinal taps — so many spinal taps — and we watched helplessly in the pediatric intensive care unit as children who were perfectly healthy a week earlier struggled to survive and often ended up neurologically devastated. The Hib vaccine was introduced, and in the 1990s these infections largely went away. But unless you wipe them out, these diseases come back if you stop vaccinating. For the first 25 years of his career, Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease physician in New York City, never saw a child with Hib meningitis. But this spring he was an author of a report on two cases of severe disease in unvaccinated New York infants.
An old wealthy man in formal attire has his arm around a young woman wearing a short dress. A little girl in tattered clothes is pulling at the wealthy old man's leg trying to get his attention, and the dialogue box says "My tummy hurts". The text at the bottom of the picture states "Forget the children. Billionaires need a tax cut so they can rent Rome for their next wedding."
An old wealthy man in formal attire has his arm around a young woman wearing a short dress. A little girl in tattered clothes is pulling at the wealthy old man's leg trying to get his attention, and the dialogue box says "My tummy hurts". The text at the bottom of the picture states "Forget the children. Billionaires need a tax cut so they can rent Rome for their next wedding."
An old wealthy man in formal attire has his arms around an attractive young woman. A little girl in tattered clothes is pulling the old wealthy man's pants trying to get his attention, and the dialogue box over the little girl says, "My tummy hurts." The text at the bottom of the image says, "Forget the children. Billionaires need a tax cut so they can rent Rome for their next wedding."
Black crowned night heron starting intently at photographer
Nearly full moon in a blue sky
Electric bus technology is still relatively new and requires time to fully scale and manufacture. As manufacturers continue building electric buses, they make improvements with each new model. DART’s Fleet Manager, Keith Welch, had the opportunity to test newer electric buses in January 2024, during a week with two major snowstorms and subzero low temperatures. He said, “they didn’t have any issues. We ran them for seven days straight in the cold and they didn’t have to come back in and charge throughout the day. The test bus returned with a minimum of 40% charge still left each day and was charged overnight.”
California scrub jay in profile with light sky background
Spring scene with reflecting pond and Japanese style garden and cherry trees blooming
Bluebird sitting on a branch
Blue herons nesting in Sycamore Tree.
Amazon electric delivery van that says "I'm electirc. Boogie woogie woogie."
The figure shows the estimated incidence per 100,000 population of invasive Haemophilus influenzae Type b (Hib) disease in children aged <5 years in the United States during 1980-2012. Incidence declined precipitously following licensure of vaccines for use in children aged ≥18 months and infants aged ≥2 months. Incidence dropped from > 20 per 100,000 in the mid-1980s to < 0.2 per 100,000 after 2000.