Jonathan Mingle

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Pictures emerging from today’s heavy bombing of Isfahan. Damages to the mirror works, tiles, floors, and carved wooden doors of Safavid palaces of Aali Qapu and Chehelsotoon. Both of these are within the UNESCO Heritage complex of Naqsh-e Jahan Square. These are 16th-17th century bldgs.

the entire state of Vermont

Something I think about a lot: virtually all concrete, practical wisdom about energy grids was developed at a time when there was no energy storage at any kind of scale. The introduction of storage *fundamentally changes* the basic dynamics of the grid in a way that renders much of that CW moot.

I’m briefly in India. This is a facile observation, but Americans have barely scratched the surface in understanding how the rest of the world is reacting to this war. It’s already an Iraq War-style disaster in the global imagination, underscored by the thuggishness and caprice of the Trump approach

WTI (US oil benchmark) really is a mad chart. doing an inverse-Covid

The Long-Feared Persian Gulf Oil Squeeze Is Upon Us Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a virtual halt, unleashing the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s.

“In the whole written history of the strait, it has never been closed, ever,” said JPMorgan Chase analyst Natasha Kaneva. “To me, it was not just the worst-case scenario. It was an unthinkable scenario.”

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

climate journalism and nonfiction not being, uh, the most lucrative of gigs, i've had (well-intentioned) people tell me:

"hey why not pivot to true crime?"

to which i reply:

"my genre *is* true crime."

Well, gas is expensive, and food is expensive, and we’re doing a war nobody wants, but at least there are no jobs

uh, so this might be a good moment to snap up a deal on a used EV while you can

Sea Levels Are Already Higher Than Many Scientists Think, New Study Shows Researchers found that a majority of studies on coastal sea levels underestimated how high water levels are, and hundreds of millions of people are closer to peril than previously thought.

Breaking News: Scientists have been using methods that underestimated how high sea levels already are, a new study found. One result is that hundreds of millions more people are already living dangerously close to the rising ocean than Western scientists had previously estimated.

I just had a conversation with an expert on shipping and the Strait of Hormuz that brought into sharp relief just how completely messed up that situation is.

Y'all, 20% of the world's oil / natural gas, plus 15% of all container shipping passes through there, and almost no ships are now transiting

shame is back on the menu boys

I’m trying to think of the most neutral, objective, apolitical way to say this and it comes down to:

There is a claim that the President of the United States sexually assaulted a child. The claim had enough credibility to merit several FBI interviews. Trump’s DOJ is withholding that information.

hmm let's see how the "State of the Union could help the president shift the narrative" discourse is faring today

Overnight this aircraft completed its deportation trip to India. The migrant passengers were likely shackled for at least 59 hours.

AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations Leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases

AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations

Leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases

www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

Another option if you're looking for something to do instead of watch SOTU tonight:

check out the 2024 version of GASLIGHT

a.co/d/0dh6PkhQ

A+ State of the Union counterprogramming by TCM.

Volts is *essential* listening for our times. And not just for climate and energy obsessives.

Each episode somehow manages to get way down in the weeds AND remain very engaging (no easy feat), with no punches pulled.

Subscribe if you want to become a better, more informed, clear-eyed citizen.

How the National Media Failed Minnesota And how Trump mastered the omniscandal.

When was the last time you heard a media outlet apply the word 'scandal' to the Trump administration? (despite a steady torrent of scandalousness)
Their flood-the-zone approach has shifted media baselines.
@jvl.bsky.social argues citizens can step into that breach:

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

or a Herman Cain biopic?

RFK Jr., once poisoned by mercury, is silent as EPA weakens rules against it The HHS secretary has fought mercury pollution for years. He’s now in an administration that wants to make it easier for industries to dump it into the air

RFK Jr spent years denouncing mercury pollution from power plants. He was one of Trump's most public opponents when he tried to roll back mercury limits in 2017. He himself actually got mercury poisoning (eating too much fish). On Friday, Trump's EPA weakened mercury rules. RFK Jr said nothing.

After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the U.S. accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost, according to officials briefed on the matter.

🚨 WaPo scoop: You've heard of Trump's "board of peace."

Now HHS wants to build its own World Health Organization that will cost exponentially more than the U.S.'s contribution to the WHO.

-- with the incredible @lenasun.bsky.social

Just this week the Trump administration has moved to:

--boost production/use of glyphosate weedkillers (carcinogen)
--ease caps on coal plant emissions of mercury (neurotoxin)
--ignored legal deadline for ID'ing areas where people are breathing too much soot (asthma/dementia/heart disease trigger)

The EPA now deems the value of a human life saved by avoided air pollution at zero.

Even as study after study shows that particulate air pollution is even more costly and damaging than we thought.

Latest Exhibit A: PM2.5 exposure drives up Alzheimers risk.

theconversation.com/air-pollutio...

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.

And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

Recent CBS News news:
1. Anderson Cooper leaves 60 Minutes after two decades
2. Stephen Colbert reveals network won’t let him air interview with Dem
3. Producer says politics dictating what airs
4. Owner’s bid for CNN parent back on the table.
5. Not firing Epstein pal.

USAID money that saved people’s lives now reallocated to create a paid entourage for the guy who promised to put federal employees in trauma

Late 1990s climate denier talking points resurfacing

time is a flat circle etc