Noaa - Tumblr Posts
Scientists estimate the Greenland shark lives at least 250 years and can potentially live for centuries. Researchers estimate that some individuals may exceed over 500 years in age, making them among the oldest known vertebrates on Earth.
One theory to explain this long lifespan is that the Greenland shark has a very slow metabolism, an adaptation to the deep, cold waters it inhabits. A NOAA remotely operated vehicle doing a dive off New England encountered a Greenland shark at a depth of 783 meters, but these sharks are known to dive as deep as 2,200 meters. They’re also the only shark that can withstand the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean year-round.
Guys. The NWS and NOAA are two of the most uncomplicated public goods that the US government provides. This is a new level of "fuck you" to the American people.
NOAA “should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories,” Project 2025 reads. The proposals roughly amount to two main avenues of attack. First, it suggests that the NWS should eliminate its public-facing forecasts, focus on data gathering, and otherwise “fully commercialize its forecasting operations,” which the authors of the plan imply will improve, not limit, forecasts for all Americans. Then, NOAA’s scientific-research arm, which studies things such as Arctic-ice dynamics and how greenhouse gases behave (and which the document calls “the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism”), should be aggressively shrunk. “The preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded,” the document says. It further notes that scientific agencies such as NOAA are “vulnerable to obstructionism of an Administration’s aims,” so appointees should be screened to ensure that their views are “wholly in sync” with the president’s.
Climate change is the single most important issue in the entirety of human history. One party wants to fight it. The other party wants to let the earth burn; in fact, they want to accelerate the fire.
Reminder: the companies and political entities pushing Project 2025 have addresses and go out to lunch a lot and should never eat a spitless meal for the rest of their lives.
Practice bagpipes outside their secure compounds.
Follow them around ringing a bell wherever they go.
If they are going to be farcically evil, be Animaniacally good. Be the definition of chaotic justice.
Also, vote. It might just kick the ball down the road a bit, but that gives people more time to organize a concerted resistance (in no way on any social media platform) to the fascist creep happening in America. It is possible to take this country from the bastards who control it, it will take work, effort, and occasionally going offline and talking to humans though.
PKMN & rainy resources
It’s raining again, & Sora’s in a reading mood (I like how her eye markings look like glasses, hehe).
So, I don’t have much of a mind for science (I share Ansy’s weakness to numbers lol), but I do find it interesting! Sora could probably tell me everything I’d want to know about meteorology (she’s originally from Hoenn’s esteemed Weather Institute after all), but for now, here are some things I’ve found helpful for the casual weather fan 🌧️
The book she’s reading (“Cloud Spotting” by Pocket Nature) is a good start: this is the first weather book I owned which combines cloud facts with mindfulness. One fact that’s been on my mind lately is the fact that most weather happens only 7 miles (11.2654 km) up - mind blowing when people drive more than that in a day! I guess one way to think about it is “something that looks out of reach might be closer than you think” ☁️
NOAA (National Weather Service) - Stands for the “National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration” the best place to follow the forecast in my country. While certain folks would like to limit this resource, it would be a great disservice, especially with Hurricane Helene currently blowing through the southeast (& I just learned might reach me a little with some storms - thanks NOAA!). ☔️
MinuteEarth - An offshoot of “MinutePhysics” (quick animations teaching physics stuff in a way that even I could follow!), MinuteEarth teaches bite-sized lessons on earth sciences, including weather, & sometimes Pokémon cameos! Some of their fun rainy videos include “How Mushrooms Make it Rain”, “What Came First: The Rain or Rainforests?”, & my personal favorite, “Why Doesn’t All Thunder Sound the Same?” (if you watch it, look for Zapdos!) ⛈️
Even if you have trouble following the technical aspects of a science like me doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. I don’t think there’s any shame in learning at the pace you learn, or in the way you learn. The important thing is that you learn! 📖🌧️
I’d also like to add with my “casual hobbyist” understanding of meteorology on why violent storms like hurricanes are notoriously difficult to forecast, because YES, conditions are in constant flux.
If there’s a vast nimbostratus promising to pour down rain all day, that’s pretty easy to forecast. You can even observe it from the ground - if the skies go gray with the sun half visible through the clouds (altocumulus), it’s likely going to rain soon.
Meanwhile, if it’s a more vertical cumulonimbus brought on by surface heat that rages for a few hours before being spent, that’s harder to track. Hurricanes may be big, but they’re constantly rotating with the heat, then slows / weakens when it makes landfall.
Here’s a video from MinuteEarth that goes into it a bit more:
The more you know, guys & yes, certain folks would like to privatize/dismantle NOAA, meaning natural disasters like hurricanes will be a lot harder for regular folk to prepare for, let alone follow. 🌧️
(PS: if you watch the video to the end & hear “AI” from their sponsor, this is the good kind that help us calculate things like weather forecasts more accurately, & not the bad kind that steals your data or your creative content 😅)
This is especially frustrating because the only reason we know the wind speed is because NOAA's Hurricane Hunters literally fly into the hurricane and collect vital data. They fly in and out of the storm over and over in 8 hour shifts.
This brave team flies two identical Lockheed P3s called Kermit and Miss Piggy.
You can see the dangling ornaments in the videos to determine which plane they are in.
And when I say they fly into the hurricane, I mean they fly *into* the hurricane.
Here they are in the eye of Milton.
And here they are in the eye of Irma.
As you may notice, this flight was in Kermit.
So the next time you see live data about a hurricane's wind speed and pressure, just remember how that was collected and don't be a giant turd about it.
And please vote because conservatives want to kill NOAA.
