susanvalot.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

It’s the best season in Southern California.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Bluesky is collegial and interesting, the way Twitter used to be. Bonus: most people can spell.

submitted 10 days ago • 2464 comments

Did Mt. Spurr announce the selection of a new Pope?

submitted 11 days ago • 5 comments

It seems weird that we’d also feel this up in LA. It felt small here, but like it was a large quake somewhere far away. I’d have guessed larger than this.

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

It's the best of distractions when you get to go to a private, backyard concert by the lead singer (Glen Phillips) of your favorite band (Toad the Wet Sprocket). And you also get to meet fellow fans, who are awesome. Now, back to doing fire stories.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

The owl stands alone. Literally. On a chimney.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Every Californian with an email address and an internet connection can now visit California’s Bookshelf and access more than 300,000 ebooks and audiobooks. www.library.ca.gov/uploads/2025...

submitted 35 days ago • 115 comments

“wildfire resilience…requires thinking about how to lay out homes to make them more defensible in the path of an approaching wildfire, such as by adding buffer zones between heavily vegetated wildlands and housing developments, and building a road network that’s more conducive to evacuation.”

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Who predicted this part? Oh yeah, me. Newsprint price goes up - newspapers suffer. Cutbacks = less coverage. This is not collateral damage.

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

Good god

submitted 58 days ago • 11 comments

I spent some time today with my non-STEM colleagues discussing NOAA. This recent article in @us.theconversation.com is one I am going to forward along as a follow-up. The article just scratches the surface of all that NOAA does and its essential role in our lives, but is an essential overview. 🧪🌊

submitted 60 days ago • 2 comments

With US tariffs on Canada coming into effect, utilities and grid operators are scrambling to figure out how this will affect cross-border imports and exports of electricity. For context, EIA have a nice primer on the extent of US-Canadian electricity trade here: www.eia.gov/todayinenerg... 🔌💡

submitted 60 days ago • 2 comments

mstdn.ca/@ingalls/114... Let the damage be tallied. DoGE fukt the weather forecast services they hope will take over for #NOAA’s authoritative weather data sources…by cutting NOAA. The stupid hurts.

submitted 62 days ago • 1 comment

I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F. 18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it. We made this website to tell our story: 18f.org

submitted 63 days ago • 3292 comments

Again, there are literally not enough jobs to rapidly absorb all these displaced federal workers (who will also now be competing for non-government jobs with everyone else in the U.S.).

submitted 73 days ago • 57 comments

Great piece by Lauren Oakes in @emergencemagazine.bsky.social about how to replant after wildfire. emergencemagazine.org/op_ed/beginn...

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

U.S Forest Service fires a Type 2 wildland firefighter after 9 years of exemplary service. These firings are going to leave the U.S. extremely vulnerable this summer and any devastating events will be able to be laid at the door of the White House and DOGE.

submitted 74 days ago • 2 comments

Want to go visit the national parks this year? Sorry. The reservation system is shut down, EMT personnel are gone, so don't get hurt or lost. No one can clean the bathrooms or cabins, so they'll be closed. Rangers are fired. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

submitted 74 days ago • 827 comments

When the dismantlists talk about "trimming the fat" or "bloated" whatever relating to the federal government, remind them that there have been about the same number of federal employees since the 1960s. Meanwhile US population has increased by ~70% and GDP has increased 29-fold.

submitted 74 days ago • 14 comments

Glassy beads created by the American atom bomb have been washing up in Hiroshima for years and people only noticed in 2015: vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/beaches...

submitted 74 days ago • 3 comments

Doing the unthinkable: The deep cuts to the #CDC's workforce today are expected to decimate the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a program that has trained public health rapid responders for decades. Envy of the world. Poof! www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...

submitted 78 days ago • 535 comments

Related to mass federal firings today: If anyone out there in private sector has a need for a highly-qualified PhD-level wildfire risk modeler (or MS/PHD-level meteorologist), available immediately, please do reach out via email or DM! (Not for me, but trying to help others out.)

submitted 78 days ago • 9 comments

New: The Energy Department is seeking to bring back nuclear energy specialists after abruptly telling hundreds of workers that their jobs were eliminated, according to two people familiar with the matter

submitted 77 days ago • 581 comments

Dismantling the death penalty is a responsibility that belongs to all of us. Inspiring to see how a group of nuns are trying to save women on death row in Texas: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

submitted 78 days ago • 407 comments

My heart goes out to all of the probationary federal workers who lost their jobs today in the largest layoff in US history. You all deserved so much better.

submitted 78 days ago • 2 comments

Half of EIS, the CDC's renowned "disease detectives," gone. These folks respond to emergencies in the US and around the globe, and are now in tatters.

submitted 78 days ago • 9 comments

Additional evacuation warnings issued in the #EatonFire area. 1/12/25 1829 https://protect.genasys.com/zones/US-CA-XLA-SMD-E019?z=12.217472530130998&latlon=34.07108084577807%2C-118.54507329919471

submitted 79 days ago • 0 comments

In the past weeks, the Trump administration has purged federal law enforcement agencies of prosecutors and investigators who’d been pursuing white supremacist groups that had been listed among the most dangerous threats to national security. By @hannahallam.bsky.social

submitted 79 days ago • 71 comments

Language is power. Three cheers for the AP and Julie Pace sticking with language rooted in reality and not Reality-TV authoritarianism. www.cnn.com/2025/02/12/m...

submitted 79 days ago • 1 comment

So what has the Trump/Musk push on USAID achieved so far? I reached out to contacts, and here's the state of play: Children dying. Hospitals closing. Ebola at risk of spreading. US food aid rotting. Moms at risk in childbirth. China gaining soft power. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/o...

submitted 80 days ago • 11 comments

This is a big deal. The DOJ will no longer defend for cause removal protections for commissioners of agencies like the FTC, removing a barrier to the President firing minority commissioners at will

submitted 79 days ago • 32 comments

Xitter is state media, and has been since November.

submitted 91 days ago • 1 comment

Incredibly moving Justin Trudeau remarks: "We have fought and died alongside you....During your darkest hours...we were always there. Standing with you, grieving with you, the American people....Canadians are a little perplexed as to why our closest friends and neighbors are choosing to target us."

submitted 90 days ago • 705 comments

This amounts to the most significant data leak in cyber history. Private individuals in the data business now have access to your Social Security information. This violates privacy laws in every state. Hopefully, state AGs will file suit & pursue criminal charges. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u...

submitted 91 days ago • 419 comments

NEW for @latimes.com: “I was like, ‘Oh, Jesus. What's gonna happen?’” Jordan Chiles happened. Perfection — for 2nd time in 2025, the 10th time in her career — to write her name into more UCLA lore. Somehow, someway, No. 6 UCLA won: www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/...

submitted 90 days ago • 0 comments

hmm, where can i bet on the odds of a catastrophic economic collapse this year?

submitted 90 days ago • 207 comments

The National Association of Home Builders explains what happens if we make inputs for home construction, such as Canadian lumber, more expensive.

submitted 91 days ago • 1444 comments