This is Not Cool

Casey Means is a “wellness influencer” (read: grifter) nominated for the office of Surgeon General, the nation’s top medical official.
I say this as someone who is well acquainted with, uses and benefits from alternative medical approaches. There are some flat-out nutballs in that space.

Attn: Senator Bill Cassidy MD – The RFK example should be a giant red flag on this one.

Atlantic:

Casey Means has, to say the least, modified her tone. When she testified today in front of the Senate’s health committee, the nominee for surgeon general didn’t, as she is normally wont to do, delve into her experiences with psychedelics or endorse raw milk. She also did not rail at length against birth control. Instead, the longtime health entrepreneur and influencer emphasized her medical degree from Stanford—even though she does not have an active medical license—and sought out common ground with the senators cross-examining her.

Before her nomination last spring, Means—who dropped out of her surgical residency in 2018—embraced some unconventional theories about wellness. As Rina Raphael wrote for The Atlantic last month, Means has talked to trees, implied that natural disasters are a “communication from God,” and dubbed the nation’s health “a spiritual crisis.” When she appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in 2024, she denounced seed oils and suggested that the widespread use of hormonal birth control was indicative of a cultural “disrespect of life.” She has also questioned the universal birth dose of the hepatitis-B vaccine.

Continue reading “If You Liked RFK, You’ll Love this Surgeon General Nominee”

There is a whole genre of YouTube video that can only be described as EV porn.
It is exclusively dominated by Chinese Built videos.
Watch this and you’ll understand by Ford CEO Jim Farley said his visits to China were the “most humbling” experiences of his life.

Seething with anger at the arrogance and laziness of US automakers, and the careless indifference even of UAW workers, their jobs on the line, who voted for the US to drop out of the EV race.

Electrek:

Capacity growth from utility-scale renewables and batteries in 2026 is projected at 80,809.2 MW. (EIA does not provide a forecast for small-scale solar, but, based on recent growth rates, the SUN DAY Campaign estimates it will provide an additional 6,000 MW or more.)

The net capacity of natural gas, coal, and oil is forecast to fall by 4,211.6 MW. No new nuclear capacity is currently predicted.

Thus, in 2026, renewables and battery storage will account for all of net new utility-scale capacity additions.

New York Times:

After a period of growing concern and accelerating momentum, the project of greening the world’s energy systems certainly feels as if it has been thrown into reverse.

But by the most straightforward measures, that’s simply wrong. There is more green stuff being installed than ever, and judged simply as a global infrastructure project the volume is pretty staggering. In 2024, 92.5 percent of all new power capacity installed around the world was renewable. In 2025, it’s believed that global green installations were even greater. And even in Trump’s United States, which has been behaving in many ways like a petrostate, more than 92 percent of utility-scale electricity capacity planned for 2026 is green.

The transition is more complicated than the headline figures suggest, and even the near future looks uncertain, especially ahead of China’s big Five-Year Plan announcement next month. In fact, the International Energy Agency recently revised its short-term renewable forecasts a bit downward, partly in response to changes in U.S. and Chinese policy. But in the big picture, I.E.A.’s global outlook is nevertheless still clear: Between 2025 and 2030, more than 90 percent of new electricity capacity anywhere in the world is expected to be renewable.

Continue reading “Green Transition Roars Despite Political Winds”

Emily Atkin, passionate climate journalist behind the Heated blog, is launching a climate podcast just in time.
The twist is that she was approached by CBS News Lead Climate reporter, fired when Billionaire and Trump buddy Larry Ellison took over the network, hired a right wing toady to run it, who quickly cleared out the pesky climate desk, including Tracy Wholf, who insiders have described as the heart and soul of the team.
Not long ago, Wholf reached out to Atkin about collaborating. The early result is above.

Wall Street Journal:

Paramount Skydance emerged victorious in the bidding war for Warner Bros. after Netflix said it wouldn’t match the David Ellison-led company’s latest offer for the iconic Hollywood property.

Netflix pulled the plug on its deal soon after the Warner board of directors said it determined Paramount’s $31-per-share offer for the entire company was superior to Netflix’s bid for Warner’s movie and television studios and HBO Max streaming service. Paramount is now poised to take control of the entertainment company, home to properties and brands including HBO, Superman and Harry Potter.

Pending regulatory approval, Paramount will own not only Warner Bros. and HBO, but also many popular cable networks including CNN, TNT, TBS and Food Network. The deal would represent a major ground shift for the entertainment industry, which is trying to adapt to seismic shifts in audience habits and technology.

Daily Beast:

MAGA-aligned billionaires Larry Ellison and his son David have dramatically won a bidding war for CNN’s parent company—and are now on track to turn it Trumpy.

Their Paramount Skydance company has suddenly won its bidding war against Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after upping its bid and the younger Ellison attending Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

Continue reading “Billionaires Gutting Climate Reporting. These Journos Fighting Back”

Rather than engage in discussion of scientific issues, Senator John Kennedy (no, not that John Kennedy) badgers a scientist for retweeting a leftie climate group.

For the record, Climate Defiance is on the right side of history and science, but they would be more effective if they figured out who their friends are.
That said, Oxford educated Senator Kennedy is a sociopath whose Gomer Pyle impression fools no one except the racist inbred troglodytes of his base.

And yeah, he’s a sick fuck.

Science Daily:

New research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and published in Nature Geoscience explains what happened in 2023, when the glacier lost about eight kilometers of ice in just 60 days. The study found that the key factor was the flat bedrock beneath the glacier. As the ice thinned, this smooth foundation allowed large sections to lift off the ground and float, triggering an unusual and sudden calving event.

The findings could help scientists pinpoint other Antarctic glaciers that might be vulnerable to similar rapid collapse. Hektoria Glacier is relatively small by Antarctic standards, covering about 115 square miles, roughly the size of Philadelphia. However, if a much larger glacier were to retreat this quickly, the consequences for global sea level rise could be severe.

“When we flew over Hektoria in early 2024, I couldn’t believe the vastness of the area that had collapsed,” said Naomi Ochwat, lead author and CIRES postdoctoral researcher. “I had seen the fjord and notable mountain features in the satellite images, but being there in person filled me with astonishment at what had happened.”

Continue reading “Fastest Glacier Retreat Ever Recorded”

What an Ad. pic.twitter.com/AJUwkmD0t1

— Shubham Mishra (@brahma_4u) February 26, 2026

How hard can it be?
To be sure, he didn’t produce net energy, or electricity. Just Neutron flux.

Spectrum News:

The Guinness Book of World Records has more than 70,000 active record titles as of Dec. 31, 2025, with between 550 to 766 of those records directly connected to Texans. A new record could be attributed to a young Texan soon.

Shirin Foroudi knew that her 13-year-old son, Aidan, was wired a little differently at a young age. This is why she founded Launchpad Incubator, a space that encourages children to create and innovate with their ideas.

“When he learned the alphabet, he first learned it backwards. He first learned it as z, y and x’s instead of his ABC’s. I don’t know my z, y, x’s, so I don’t know where he got that from but that’s where he started,” Foroudi said.

Knowing this, it did not surprise the Dallas mom when her son wanted to take on a massive building project during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Eight-year-olds don’t really know what the word ‘no’ means, so I was kind of just like ‘oh hey?’ Actually, I was like, ‘oh hey, I want to build an electron microscope,’ and my dad looked up like ‘what are the parts for this?,’” said Aidan McMillan.

Aidan pivoted his planned project to a tabletop fusor. He got connected with the Dallas Makerspace, a nonprofit organization that provides a 36,000-square-foot community lab and workspace, with him being the only child in this adult arena. One of his mentors at the Dallas Makerspace lit a spark in Aidan. 

Continue reading “Dallas 12 Year Old Achieves Nuclear Fusion”

Been waiting for this break out moment for Form Energy’s long term storage technology.
Could this be it? in the cutting edge Tech Center of ..Minnesota?

Canary Media:

Form Energy invented a novel iron-air battery to store clean energy for much longer timeframes than conventional lithium-ion batteries can. The startup is still constructing its first commercial project, in Minnesota, but today revealed it has clinched a potentially game-changing follow-up in the same state to support a Google data center.

The utility Xcel Energy will install 300 megawatts of Form’s batteries in Pine Island, Minnesota. It’s a big battery installation for the Midwest, but developers have built several grid storage plants elsewhere with more megawatt capacity. What shoots this project into the energy-storage stratosphere is that it will dispatch energy for up to 100 hours straight — enough to pump clean energy through multiday weather patterns that would limit renewable production. That unique capability means the Pine Island Form plant, fully charged, will hold 30 gigawatt-hours of energy, an astonishing amount for the grid as we know it.

The deal is also notable in that it proves Form has found commercial traction even before its first installation for a utility customer is complete. That outcome was possible because Xcel has seen Form develop its technology for years, said Form CEO Mateo Jaramillo, who co-founded the firm in 2017.

“Xcel in particular has been with us through every step of the journey — when the chemistry was in a very small bucket, essentially, to complete deployed systems,” Jaramillo said. ​“They saw the challenging things that we worked through. They saw us solve hard problems. They saw us come out the other side.”

Continue reading “Long Duration Battery + Data Center Might Be a Game Changer”

Flash Joule Heating.
I first read about this process when it emerged from a lab at Rice University a few years ago.
Big potential for extracting lithium from ore, rare earths from a variety of feedstocks, including E-waste, and coal ash.

Rice University:

A new one-step, water, acid- and alkali-free method for extracting high-purity lithium from spodumene ore has the potential to transform critical metal processing and enhance renewable energy supply chains. This study was published in Science Advances Oct. 3.

As the demand for lithium continues to rise, particularly for use in electric cars, smartphones and power storage, current extraction methods are struggling to keep pace. Extracting lithium from salty water is a lengthy process, and traditional methods that use heat and chemicals to extract lithium from rock produce significant amounts of harmful waste. 

Researchers led by James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, have developed a faster and cleaner method using flash Joule heating (FJH). This technique rapidly heats materials to thousands of degrees within milliseconds and works in conjunction with chlorine gas, exposing the rock to intense heat and chlorine gas, they can quickly convert spodumene ore into usable lithium.

“This method reimagines how to harvest lithium from its most abundant ore, spodumene, a material that is abundant in the U.S.,” said Tour, co‑corresponding author of the study. “We can leapfrog monthslong water evaporation pools and dayslong acid leaching and then directly generate lithium chloride.” 

Continue reading “New Process Means Big Gains for Lithium, Rare Earths”