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I grew up in Oak Ridge Tennessee in the ‘60s. At the time, it was a town with one of the highest concentrations of scientists and engineers in the nation. Both of my parents were college grads. So, I took it for granted that most Americans graduated from college. I didn’t know until I was in college that  in 1977 (the year I graduated), approximately  15%  of American adults aged 25 and older were graduates of four-year colleges or universities.   Today, that number is nearly 40%. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that a bachelor’s degree from a 4-year college or university isn’t the meal ticket it once was. “ The unemployment gap between workers with bachelor’s degrees and those with occupational associate’s degrees - such as plumbers, electricians and pipe fitters -   flipped in 2025, leaving trade workers with a slight edge for six months out of the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the first time trade workers have had a leg up since ...

Apart from their utility in criminal finances, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (other than stablecoin) are manifestations of The Greater Fool Theory of Investing. So how is the Bitcoin investment performing for ya? “ The world’s largest cryptocurrency slipped below $76,000 in thin weekend trading, dropping about 40% from its 2025 peak and revisiting levels last seen in the aftermath of the “Liberation Day” tariff fallout.” *snip* “ Bitcoin fell nearly 11% in January, marking its fourth straight monthly decline — the longest losing streak since 2018, during the crash that followed the 2017 boom in initial coin offerings. “I don’t think we’ll see a new all-time high for Bitcoin in 2026,” said Paul Howard, director at market maker Wincent.” So a buying opportunity, right? “ Even more striking than the drop itself is the relative lack of optimism around it on social media. In a space known for relentless bravado and “number go up” memes, Bitcoin’s slide has been met with little cheerlea...

I spent my entire research career working on animals. In this case, the animals were Drosophila melanogaster, or “fruit flies.” I dissected tens of thousands of larval salivary glands because their giant polytene chromosomes afforded a relatively high resolution map of the genome. I made over 100 transgenic lines to gain insight into gene function. I screened tens of thousands of flies in mutagenesis screens to identify mutations that answered questions about genetics. And of course, much of my research rested on a literature of science using flies. Now I understand that some folks consider flies to be vermin. Their status as invertebrates places them beneath the notice of the NIH rules on animal care. But much of our lifesaving vaccines, drugs, devices and surgical techniques relied on research using vertebrate models, rodents and primates in particular. Yes, I know we’ve cured cancer in mice hundreds of times in ways that didn’t translate to cancer in humans. But I wouldn’t take a va...

Musk’s Tesla brand is becoming toxic. The unsold cyber trucks are accumulating in large lots. Sales of Tesla sedans have slumped, partly because Musk himself is a toxic brand and partly because of competition. Looks like Musk is crying “uncle.” “Elon Musk, who turned an upstart electric vehicle maker into an industry-changing powerhouse, is pulling the plug on the two models that helped get him there, as he struggles with another quarter of declining profits and car sales. “He announced the end of production of two models – the Model S and Model X, among the company’s most expensive models, on a Wednesday earnings call. Instead, the company will use that factory space to build humanoid robots instead. “ And he seemed to suggest that selling electric vehicles, which Tesla helped to introduce to the global mass market, would soon be an afterthought for the company.” Musk says Tesla will pivot to robotaxis: “Musk predicted the Cybercab, a two-seat self-driving “robotaxi” vehicle with no s...

There’s certainly some Schadenfreude to be had by the underbussing of Gestapo Greg Bovino, but he’s just one ring in the ever-mutating three-ring circus that is the Trump Administration. As David Kurtz over at TPM cogently observes: “But Bovino, while a problem, is not   the   problem. Stephen Miller, while a stain on American history, is a mere henchman. Switch out Bovino and Miller and Kristi Noem and whoever else is most deserving of your repugnance, and you’re still left with a mad king in the White House, who replaces Bovino in Minnesota with new muscle: the villainous Tom Homan.   “In Donald Trump’s reality-TV addled brain, his underlings are merely a rotating cast of characters. He gloms on to some of them very hard, but they are all expendable. Once their plot line runs its course, Trump is on to the next hook. He’s not invested in them or a particular plot point or in anything really. He’s looking for the next spectacle, the next distraction, the next provocation...

I’m opposed to allowing private citizens to carry guns in public unless they are hunting on public land. The 2 nd  amendment explicitly links “bearing arms” (nobody “bears arms” into a 7-11) to membership in a well regulated militia, Antonin Scalia notwithstanding. If you believe you need a gun to protect yourself in your own home, fine. I’m also opposed to concealed carry. If we’re going to allow people to carry, it should be conspicuous carry. All civilian firearms should be orange, the same orange as a hunter’s vest, so I can spot them from a distance and avoid the company of ammosexual amateurs. Alex Pretti was packing legally. He had a concealed carry license. He was the proverbial “good guy with a gun.” But he was murdered by the government, giving the lie to the juvenile notion that guns in the hands of civilians will stop government oppression.  The NRA and other gun manufacturer lobby organizations have long defended the proliferation of deadly force under the control...