The Wordsmith's Forge

Indivisible reports that these Democratic senators in particular need to hear from their constituents right now to oppose HR22, a bill which would disinfranchise millions of people, mostly women, from voting.

FDA to suspend quality-control program for food testing due to staff cuts

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is suspending a quality-control program for its food-testing laboratories as a result of staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to an internal email seen by Reuters.
The proficiency testing program of the FDA’s Food Emergency Response Network is designed to ensure consistency and accuracy across the agency’s network of about 170 labs that test food for pathogens and contaminants to prevent food-borne illness.
The firing and departure of as many as 20,000 HHS employees has upended public health research and disrupted the agency’s work on areas like bird flu and drug reviews. Donald Trump hopes to slash as much as $40bn from HHS.


Disturbing, but hardly a surprise.

Do you have a yard, or access to a community garden? You might want to plant edibles so you'll know where they've been.

Exclusive: Musk's SpaceX is frontrunner to build Trump's Golden Dome missile shield

SpaceX is leading a bid to build Golden Dome with startups Anduril and Palantir, six people said
The SpaceX-led group is pitching the Pentagon on a 'subscription model' for missile defense, sources said
SpaceX proposes a constellation of 400 to more than 1,000 missile defense satellites, sources said

The stupid, it burns like hydrogen.


Today In “I Literally F*cking Wrote This” by John Scalzi

You know who thought up a subscription-based defense model in his book Starter Villain? FUCKING ME THAT’S WHO. That smug fascist owes me a percentage. I won’t get it, of course and if I did get it I would donate that shit to all the “woke” things he hates so fast it would make his brain swim.


*sigh* Those who don't read science fiction are doomed to repeat it.

UK Supreme Court says legal definition of ‘woman’ excludes trans women, in landmark ruling

The United Kingdom’s highest court ruled that the legal definition of “woman” excludes trans women, in a case with sweeping consequences for how equality laws are applied.

Britain’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the definition of a woman in equality legislation refers to “a biological woman and biological sex,” sparking celebrations outside court among gender-critical campaigners but warnings it was a “worrying” development for transgender people.


Aside from the obvious abuse of transfolk, this also raises issues because biological sex is not binary. There's a whole handful of intersex conditions where outward appearance does not match chromosomes, hormones, etc. So exactly which part of "biological" do they mean, and what will they do when the parts point in different directions? Since they've just decided that a gender recognition certificate is irrelevant.

Hundred-year storm tides will occur every few decades in Bangladesh, scientists report

With projected global warming, the frequency of extreme storms will ramp up by the end of the century, according to a new study.
For the highly populated coastal country of Bangladesh, once-in-a-century storm tides could strike every 10 years -- or more often -- by the end of the century, scientists report.


Oh, it's worse than that. Sunny-day floods will wipe out coastal settlements long before the dramatic storms do.

Priestess Statue Found Preserved in Walls of Pompeii, Set to Star in New Exhibit on Roman Women

Later this month, an exhibition will open at the Archaeological Museum of Pompeii where a brand-new discovery will play a starring role in communicating the lives of women in the Roman world’s famous buried city.

Found mounted against a wall inside a necropolis near Porta Sarno, one of Pompeii’s city gates, the statues of a man and a priestly woman have emerged from the ash in remarkable condition.

Sound frequencies of stars sing of our galaxy's past and future

Researchers interrogated the 'sounds' of a cluster of stars within the Milky Way, uncovering a new technique for astrophysicists to probe the universe and learn more about its evolution.

Western diet causes inflammation, traditional African food protects

Study from Tanzania shows major impact of diet on the immune system.
A switch of just two weeks from a traditional African diet to a Western diet causes inflammation, reduces the immune response to pathogens, and activates processes associated with lifestyle diseases. Conversely, an African diet rich in vegetables, fiber, and fermented foods has positive effects. This study highlights the significant impact of diet on the immune system and metabolism.


In case you're curious, the traditional African diet is the only one I've seen with a base of dark leafy greens. Of course, when you can walk outside and pick things like moringa leaves, that makes sense. Most out of humanity's birthplace and you have to work harder to grow a lot of edible crops. Did you know that you can eat sweet potato leaves? Or pumpkin leaves? I've seen them for sale, dried or frozen, in African grocery stores.

'Thriving ecosystem' of creatures found in a previously unseen seafloor

Scientists discover thriving ecosystem after city-sized iceberg breaks away from Antarctica.

Sea spiders, octopuses, and icefish have been found thriving on a newly exposed seafloor, which is also home to giant corals and sponges. Researchers can now see all the creatures that call it home after an iceberg broke off near the Antarctic and exposed the ecosystem below.


While it's possible for underwater currents to carry nutrients, my bet is the ice itself. It can carry a lot of nutrients from land, either picked up from soil or deposited from wind. That bottom layer is melting as it its the water, so whatever is carried by the ice will be released for the use of nearby organisms.

My partner Doug tipped me to these articles:


Surprisingly big organic molecules on Mars: A hint of life?

NASA’s Curiosity rover has now discovered the largest known organic molecules to date. They are three kinds of long-chained carbon molecules that scientists say are the remains of fatty acids. Fatty acids are common in life on Earth, but can also form without life.
The complex carbon molecules are in mudstone rocks that used to be at the bottom of an ancient lake. Scientists don’t yet know how they formed, but they are certainly tantalizing.


See auroras on Neptune for the first time!

The Webb space telescope has finally caught auroras on Neptune. Neptune lies in the frigid, dark, vast frontier of the outer edges of our solar system about 3 billion miles away from the sun.