wvcaver.bsky.social

wvcaver.bsky.social

@wvcaver.bsky.social

Retired entomologist (MS Purdue 1967), but interested in just about all scientific disciplines. Vietnam veteran -Need to digitize a lot of 35mm slides. Served in US Army 1967-88 Born and raised in North Dakota Started caving in 1965; had to stop in 2025

442 followers94 following7.4K posts

“Over 4 decades…roughly as many bats may have died from wind turbines as from white-nose syndrome…The findings are “shocking,” says Winifred Frick, chief scientist of Bat Conservation International, and they add urgency to recent proposals for reducing the hazard to bats…”

“Mexico has become a showroom for the electric cars you can’t buy in the United States. Amid aging fleets of American Chevys and Fords is a growing stream of sleek new vehicles from Chinese EV brands you’ve never heard of, such as Zeekr, JAC and BYD.”

washingtonpost.comColumn | I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buyMexico is a showroom for electric cars, with a growing fleet of sleek new vehicles from Chinese brands unknown to Americans.

“Nothing screams America like a pickup truck. BYD’s $48,000 Shark would feel at home in the patriotic, truck-buying heartland. Only you can’t buy it, or anything like it, in the U.S. No U.S. automaker currently sells an electric pickup at this price — or a plug-in hybrid truck at any price.”

“Mexico has become a showroom for the electric cars you can’t buy in the United States. Amid aging fleets of American Chevys and Fords is a growing stream of sleek new vehicles from Chinese EV brands you’ve never heard of, such as Zeekr, JAC and BYD.”

washingtonpost.comColumn | I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buyMexico is a showroom for electric cars, with a growing fleet of sleek new vehicles from Chinese brands unknown to Americans.

“… gasoline-only cars were the minority of new car sales in the first half of 2026: 49 percent down from 73 percent in 2021. Most still have a gas tank — thanks to hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles — but the fastest-growing segment is battery-electrics… Most were made in China.”

“Mexico has become a showroom for the electric cars you can’t buy in the United States. Amid aging fleets of American Chevys and Fords is a growing stream of sleek new vehicles from Chinese EV brands you’ve never heard of, such as Zeekr, JAC and BYD.”

washingtonpost.comColumn | I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buyMexico is a showroom for electric cars, with a growing fleet of sleek new vehicles from Chinese brands unknown to Americans.

Chinese branded vehicles have gone from less than 1 percent to 15 percent market share in five years, as well as about 90 percent of all EVs. That’s fast eroding America’s market in its backyard, as well as abroad, where the U.S. has seen its share fall or stagnate in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

“Today’s amphibians are ill-suited for life at sea. Out of more than 8000 living species, only a few can tolerate any amount of salt, and none are known to live in fully marine environments…during the Late Triassic, one amphibian overcame these challenges to prowl the ocean floor.”

nature.comA fully marine stem amphibian from the Late Triassic of China - Nature Ecology & EvolutionA new fossil species of a Late Triassic stem amphibian lacks the permeable skin of present-day amphibians, and its find location, taphonomic context and geochemistry suggest that it maintained a fully...

“This ancient bottom-dweller, which scientists have named Gerrothorax maritimus…was pushing 1 meter in length, with a flattened, disc-shaped body covered in bony armor…The specimens’ finger bones were remarkably intact, suggesting that bodies had not drifted to the bottom of the sea by chance.”

““I’m here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator.”...“If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadists to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas.””

theatlantic.comIslamophobia Is Trump’s Closing Midterm GambitPresident Trump and his allies are ending the campaign with naked but nonsensical appeals to anti-Muslim bigotry.

“El-Sayed has disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood, and no one has produced any evidence that he has ties to the group. Neither has anyone produced any evidence that El-Sayed has ties to any jihadists or is one himself. If he did, the Justice Department would presumably be prosecuting him…”

“Geiger is part of a research group that has spent years investigating the nightlife of spiders…But now her team has made a breakthrough discovery: Jumping spiders actually fall asleep, even entering a rapid eye movement (REM)-like state in which they may be dreaming.”

science.orgThese spiders sleep like humans. But do they dream?Jumping spiders enter a REM-like state, darting their eyes and twitching their legs. What’s happening beyond that remains unclear

“While the jumping spiders sleep in their silk and dart their eyes, could they be dreaming? Could they be imagining scenes of their natural Australian habitats, or of running around in their boxes? That question won’t be easy to answer; even the scientific definition of a dream remains elusive.”

“Sweeping cuts to the premier US climate agency under Donald Trump have severely hampered the country’s capacity to forecast, research and respond to extreme weather events…as the US faces a cascade of hazards fueled by a potentially historic El Niño this winter.”

theguardian.comTrump’s cuts have exposed US to ‘cascade’ of El Niño dangers, experts warnPresident has taken an axe to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stalling climate research on and response to extreme weather events

“We are more capable than we have been in the past because of the developments in the technology, the satellites that were flying, the observing systems that we’ve put in place.” “But everything that this administration is doing suggests that we cannot and will not sustain those capabilities.”

“Sweeping cuts to the premier US climate agency under Donald Trump have severely hampered the country’s capacity to forecast, research and respond to extreme weather events…as the US faces a cascade of hazards fueled by a potentially historic El Niño this winter.”

theguardian.comTrump’s cuts have exposed US to ‘cascade’ of El Niño dangers, experts warnPresident has taken an axe to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stalling climate research on and response to extreme weather events

““People at Noaa are nervous”…employees across the organization are afraid they will get in trouble if they say something that conflicts with the administration’s anti-climate narrative. “It’s incredibly difficult.” “Imagine being told the number six doesn’t exist and then being asked to do math.””

“Sweeping cuts to the premier US climate agency under Donald Trump have severely hampered the country’s capacity to forecast, research and respond to extreme weather events…as the US faces a cascade of hazards fueled by a potentially historic El Niño this winter.”

theguardian.comTrump’s cuts have exposed US to ‘cascade’ of El Niño dangers, experts warnPresident has taken an axe to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stalling climate research on and response to extreme weather events

“…the Trump administration terminated dozens of grants representing a loss in more than $28m in funding for states, cities, non-profits and universities…Climate research has been the most affected… the administration has outlined more plans to slash budgets and research capacity.”

A Thought for Today from A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg: “This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.” Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US president (27 Oct 1858-1919)

“Scientists, not politicians, should govern the selection of these incredibly important public servants.” “A highly regarded physician-scientist recommended by U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya to lead the agency’s mental health institute is no longer in the running.”

science.orgKennedy to select MAHA-aligned researcher to head mental health institute, overruling NIH directorHealth secretary wants a leader of “metabolic psychiatry” movement to direct $2.2 billion agency

“Instead, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. favors a more surprising choice, a researcher who studies treating mental illness with diet—an approach advocated by some in the Make America Healthy Again movement.”

“Ask any parent: Kids’ personalities start the moment they’re born. Some infants are more relaxed and easygoing than others…differences in temperament slowly develop into testable traits like sociability and emotional reactivity, what psychologists consider the true definition of “personality.”

frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Repeatability in venom expenditure during defensive bites in rattlesnakes: use of a chemical weapon deployed to generate an extended phenotypeAnimal personality is characterized by consistent among-individual differences in behavior across time and contexts and can influence a wide range of ecologi...

““This continues to add to the evidence that they’re behaviorally complex creatures,” she adds—and perhaps, if everyone could see that…“These guys are complex beings that, yes, have personalities like we do. We don’t need to just be blatantly harming them. We can coexist with them.””

“Ask any parent: Kids’ personalities start the moment they’re born. Some infants are more relaxed and easygoing than others…differences in temperament slowly develop into testable traits like sociability and emotional reactivity, what psychologists consider the true definition of “personality.”

frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Repeatability in venom expenditure during defensive bites in rattlesnakes: use of a chemical weapon deployed to generate an extended phenotypeAnimal personality is characterized by consistent among-individual differences in behavior across time and contexts and can influence a wide range of ecologi...

“…there is a lack of work on venomous snakes—perhaps for obvious reasons. What work has been done, however, bolsters the idea that these dangerous serpents individually vary in traits like boldness and reactivity, which can have important implications for conservation and human-wildlife conflict.”

“Ask any parent: Kids’ personalities start the moment they’re born. Some infants are more relaxed and easygoing than others…differences in temperament slowly develop into testable traits like sociability and emotional reactivity, what psychologists consider the true definition of “personality.”

frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Repeatability in venom expenditure during defensive bites in rattlesnakes: use of a chemical weapon deployed to generate an extended phenotypeAnimal personality is characterized by consistent among-individual differences in behavior across time and contexts and can influence a wide range of ecologi...

“Ask any herpetologist or reptile keeper, and they’ll tell you snake personalities start from the moment they hatch, too. And there’s a growing body of literature that supports that contention.”

“Candidatus Electrothrix gigas is relatively huge — up to 8 µm long — and appears to produce centimetre-long filaments of a nickel-based MOF that help it to access energy and electron sources in the sediment of the seafloor.”

“On September 23, Sierra Club received a sweeping subpoena from the West Virginia Attorney General that targeted us for what we say about climate change. It was a blatant attempt to chill our speech and silence us, and force us to turn over details on all aspects of our strategy and operations.”

sierraclub.orgFighting the West Virginia Attorney General’s InvestigationSierra Club received a sweeping subpoena from the West Virginia Attorney General that targeted us for what we say about climate change. This unconstitutional probe was bigger than just the target on o...

“What we’re seeing now is a more hostile legal landscape where unwarranted threats continue to grow, and not just over Sierra Club. It is important, for the sake of our delicate democracy, that we not let these fights happen in the shadows.”

“On September 23, Sierra Club received a sweeping subpoena from the West Virginia Attorney General that targeted us for what we say about climate change. It was a blatant attempt to chill our speech and silence us, and force us to turn over details on all aspects of our strategy and operations.”

sierraclub.orgFighting the West Virginia Attorney General’s InvestigationSierra Club received a sweeping subpoena from the West Virginia Attorney General that targeted us for what we say about climate change. This unconstitutional probe was bigger than just the target on o...

“A new type of playbook is becoming more familiar and frequent. A baseless investigation launches. That legal intimidation is then battle-tested while draining the target’s resources and attention.”

“On September 23, Sierra Club received a sweeping subpoena from the West Virginia Attorney General that targeted us for what we say about climate change. It was a blatant attempt to chill our speech and silence us, and force us to turn over details on all aspects of our strategy and operations.”

sierraclub.orgFighting the West Virginia Attorney General’s InvestigationSierra Club received a sweeping subpoena from the West Virginia Attorney General that targeted us for what we say about climate change. This unconstitutional probe was bigger than just the target on o...

“If a state official is allowed to investigate Sierra Club for our advocacy and views, they can do the same to any group, on any issue. It has consequences for all of us in exercising our constitutionally-protected freedoms and rights.”

“We don't have inflation, and tariffs don't cause inflation. You know what they cause? Wealth. Although Trump insists that tariffs aren't contributing to persistently elevated inflation and are beneficial to the U.S. economy, reports from New York Federal Reserve economists show otherwise.”

finance.yahoo.comPresident Donald Trump Just Proclaimed, "Tariffs Don't Cause Inflation, They Cause Wealth," but Data From Federal Reserve Economists Show OtherwiseStatistically speaking, tariffs have been bad news for Wall Street and consumers.

“We don't have inflation, and tariffs don't cause inflation. You know what they cause? Wealth. Although Trump insists that tariffs aren't contributing to persistently elevated inflation and are beneficial to the U.S. economy, reports from New York Federal Reserve economists show otherwise.”

finance.yahoo.comPresident Donald Trump Just Proclaimed, "Tariffs Don't Cause Inflation, They Cause Wealth," but Data From Federal Reserve Economists Show OtherwiseStatistically speaking, tariffs have been bad news for Wall Street and consumers.

“According to the report, every percentage point increase in average tariffs equated to a quarter-percentage-point increase in consumer goods prices after one year. Economists estimate that Trump's tariffs have added 2.9 percentage points to goods price inflation by February 2026.”

“We don't have inflation, and tariffs don't cause inflation. You know what they cause? Wealth. Although Trump insists that tariffs aren't contributing to persistently elevated inflation and are beneficial to the U.S. economy, reports from New York Federal Reserve economists show otherwise.”

finance.yahoo.comPresident Donald Trump Just Proclaimed, "Tariffs Don't Cause Inflation, They Cause Wealth," but Data From Federal Reserve Economists Show OtherwiseStatistically speaking, tariffs have been bad news for Wall Street and consumers.

“Recently, three NY Federal Reserve economists writing for Liberty Street Economics dug into the impact of President Trump's 2025 tariffs on consumer prices. In "How Fast Do Tariffs Pass Through into Consumer Prices," the trio of authors found clear evidence that tariffs cause inflation.”

““We gather at a time when the lessons of Manzanar have never been more urgent,” the chief executive of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Ann Burroughs, said. “The racism, xenophobia and cruelty that made what happened here possible are once again unfolding before our eyes…”

theguardian.comA child of Japanese incarceration’s call to arms: ‘The lessons of Manzanar have never been more urgent’How a rebuilt, historic California baseball diamond embodies ‘the contradictions in America’s legacy’

“So many of the laws that were used to discriminate against your families and people of color over hundreds of years of history in this country are now being used again.””

I believe that RFK Jr. is a menace to public health: “Robert F Kennedy Jr…has made sweeping changes to vaccination policy, cutting childhood immunization recommendations by a third and replacing experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with his own handpicked allies.”

theguardian.com‘It’s a mess right now’: RFK’s sweeping changes place new vaccines in limboHealth secretary’s effort to alter makeup of ACIP panel means no new recommendations coming – even as new vaccines are approved

““The reason the mRNA isn’t covered is because it’s not listed as an ACIP vaccine.” If the ACIP doesn’t recommend the new shot by the end of the year – a scenario experts say is likely – insurers won’t be required to cover it until January 2029 at the earliest.”

I believe that RFK Jr. is a menace to public health: “Robert F Kennedy Jr…has made sweeping changes to vaccination policy, cutting childhood immunization recommendations by a third and replacing experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with his own handpicked allies.”

theguardian.com‘It’s a mess right now’: RFK’s sweeping changes place new vaccines in limboHealth secretary’s effort to alter makeup of ACIP panel means no new recommendations coming – even as new vaccines are approved

“A judge’s order halted these changes because they were not done correctly, but Kennedy has not nominated any new ACIP members – which means there are no new vaccination recommendations coming from the committee, even as new vaccines are approved.”

I believe that RFK Jr. is a menace to public health: “Robert F Kennedy Jr…has made sweeping changes to vaccination policy, cutting childhood immunization recommendations by a third and replacing experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with his own handpicked allies.”

theguardian.com‘It’s a mess right now’: RFK’s sweeping changes place new vaccines in limboHealth secretary’s effort to alter makeup of ACIP panel means no new recommendations coming – even as new vaccines are approved

“US vaccine recommendations are in limbo, access to vaccines is suffering, and some of the uncertainty may continue for years following major blows to vaccination by the Trump administration, experts say.”

“Lula…has alleged interruptions to his account, restrictions on Instagram posts and unequal audience engagement. His campaign also said Meta AI…is refusing requests to create images related to Lula while generating campaign material favorable to his opponent.”

“Meta employees acknowledged in internal communications that the Instagram accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were hindered by restrictions during the country’s election, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported on Friday, citing messages it reviewed.”

“And Brazil’s own right wasn’t alone in seemingly trying to rig the election for Bolsonaro. U.S.-based social media companies, Meta in particular, appeared to put their thumbs on the scale. After the first round of voting, Reuters reported that…”

“Voting was extended by two hours because widespread disruptions to public transportation had made it difficult for working-class voters to get to the polls. Lula’s campaign alleged that these disruptions were engineered by pro-Bolsonaro mayors, a claim that was clearly supported by the evidence…”