#government scientists

[uboat53]

Science time? How about science and government? Government scientists, that is. Time for a SHORT RANT (TM).

A few weeks ago, a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, releasing toxic chemicals. Officials burned off the chemicals because they were afraid that, if they didn't, the train would simply explode and scatter those chemicals off in a far less controlled manner. So this raises the question:

If you're a government scientist, probably at the EPA, what should you tell the residents of the nearby town?

Well, in mid-February, the EPA told residents that it was safe to return to their homes. Once there, residents described symptoms ranging from rashes to headaches to nausea. In early March, scientists found high levels of hazardous chemicals in the air around the town.

Does this mean the EPA scientists, government scientists, got it wrong? Did they give inaccurate information to the public?

Well, the best answer I was able to find came in an NPR interview with Peter DeCarlo, a professor of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

He pointed out in the interview on February 16th, after the EPA had said it was safe, that they hadn't done proper measurement. Instead of sampling the air for the specific chemicals at issue and determining what the concentration was, they'd used handheld devices that don't measure any chemicals specifically and don't have the sensitivity to measure concentrations accurately.

In addition, when the EPA had done proper sampling, where air is collected and then taken to a lab where chemical concentrations can be measured, it hadn't done it at the accident site or downwind from the derailment. In other words, there was no way the EPA could have known, from the data they had, whether or not it was safe for residents to return.

In other words, based on the information we have, I'd say the answers to my questions, in reverse order are "no", "yes", and "we cannot say whether it is safe to return".

So why did EPA/government scientists say it was safe? Well, I think it's time to talk about uncertainty. Specifically, how most people, especially in politics these days, seem to be unable to admit it.

You see, in science, when something isn't certain, we're supposed to say so. "I don't know" is an accurate and perfectly acceptable answer. But if you're in government, "I don't know" is a good way to get ignored and, if you say it too often, completely sidelined. In fact, it's the perfect way to get your budget cut. That's likely why, instead of honestly answering "I don't have enough data to say" when asked if it was safe to return to East Palestine, the EPA told residents it was safe based purely on the fact that they didn't have enough data to say it was unsafe.

"How do we improve that?" you may ask. Well that's tough.

There's a huge incentive in the direction of saying things are safe. Unsafe places are bad for business and cost money. More importantly, they also drive negative news cycles which are bad for the politicians that government scientists work for.

Real change would require changing politician's mindsets with regard to science and, to do that, you have to change how they're rewarded and punished. The fact is that probably not a single politician is going to lose their job or even lose a significant amount of votes because of what happened in East Palestine.

Voters aren't paying close enough attention to know that the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are the ones with oversight over the EPA or that Michael S. Regan is the EPA Administrator and, more importantly, their news sources aren't providing them with this information. They have no idea who is responsible, it's just nameless, faceless government bureaucrats to them, so how are they supposed to hold anyone responsible for a major screw-up like this?

So I'll be honest, I don't see it getting better anytime soon. In the future, if you're deciding whether something is safe or not, you're probably best off trying to find the opinion of an independent scientist, preferably a university professor with no financial ties to the issue at hand, than blindly trusting government scientists.

If you're interested, here are some resources if you're interested in learning more about what I've described above:

I wish I had better news on this front but I don't. If you have any thoughts on the matter I'd love to hear them, particularly if they're more optimistic than mine.

[lolottes]

Ida is Constantine's good ex.

They separated on good terms after a few months because Ida wanted to start a family and not Constantine (for obvious reasons). Then, despite Ida's efforts to keep in touch as a long-distance friend, she quickly no longer received any news from him.

So when she sees him barely older and seeming lost in his town… she takes him for a ghost who has retained a very human appearance. She rushes to him because she is surely not the only one to notice the presence of a “tourist” in town.

She takes a minute to pity him and apologize. He hadn't ignored him, he was dead!!! Then start explaining to him why as a ghost it's not safe for him here even though it's very nice of him to visit <3

Constantine had not informed Ida about magic, after all it was one of his exes from before his cancer (a little near the time when he stopped responding to her) and his first triple sale of soul for escape death. But he knows Ida well enough not to contradict her. In addition, she gives him all the information in flash notes that he is looking for.

…

Okay, he also missed Ida. It felt SO strange to see her old. But she apparently hadn't lost anything from a mental point of view

This is how Constantine was invited to have tea and catch up on lost time at Ida's in addition to having a more complete debrief of the Amity Park situation

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 238

"Ugh. There's a group at the barrier again." Star squinted over the buildings they were all sprawled on almost lazily. "Seriously? I thought the GIW would have given up by now since there's 'no more humans' here," Sam's voice was sarcastic as she combed claws through her hair. The others grumbled in agreement, Valerie spreading her wings in a stretch. "Who wants to bet Danny is already about to crash their intrusion?" "Hah! I bet Dash is there already to video it!" "Those are both suckers bets," Wes scoffed, clear eyelid closing over his eyes and temporarily dimming the glow. "Let's be honest, Paulina has already left, she's going to get there first."

- - -

The GIW have been having a bit of trouble. Maybe just a bit. See, they were supposed to be taking care of the ecto-entities. Studying them, y'know? But er, some earlier agents had been a bit trigger happy, which meant the entities were well... aggressive. And a city full of dragon-fae-beings disliking any presence wearing white was rather terrifying, so they... might have gotten permission to bring a hero with them. For protection of course. ... Hopefully no one dies-

Feel free to ignore any of these pics lol, they're just ideas.

Order: Jazz, Danny, Tucker, Sam, Valerie, Wes, Dash, Kwan, Paulina, Star, Ellie, Dan

[tanglepelt]

Dpxdc

Danny reveals phantom to his parents. They immediately jump ships to support Danny. That is their baby. Why would they think he was lying? Clearly they let confirmation bias cloud their heads. They have non bias research to conduct!

Unfortunately for them. The GIW does not like this change. Clearly the fentons have gone crazy. They must be mad scientist! The GIW of course reports them mainly to get them out of the way. Can’t have people spreading propaganda that ghost Ms are sentient. They can’t have that.

Maddie and Jack don’t come in easily. Instead they flee. Not letting thier kids get hurt. Of course they locked down the portal before they left. All they needed to do was get set up in a new city. Keep the kids safe after all.

Gotham was to obvious. Why wouldn’t they flee to ecto rich environment. Danny would be to obsessed with hunting down Superman in metropolis. Ever since the reveal Danny had been letting his ghostly instincts out more and more. The whole alien thing would cause to much obsession.

Besides. Technically they were wanted by the government. Couldn’t draw attention with Danny stalking the supers. Which whatever. Maddie and Jack would fight them if it came down to it.

They ultimately decided on central city.

There is enough that happens there to keep eyes off them. They absolutely totally could stay low to the ground. They couldn’t hide out with any relatives. Plus if it came to it. They were certain they could at least talk to the flash before anything violent occurred.

Maybe he would even listen.

For now. They would just prioritize Danny’s and jazzs safety.

[cottonwoolsocks]

if you don't know what's happened in UK politics today, it's terrifying news for climate change —

the UK government have just announced plans for over 100 new oil and gas drilling licenses. these new licences will directly contribute.

alongside this, the government announced funding for carbon capture and storage projects — this is great! carbon emissions are stored deep underground, and thus removed from the atmosphere. this solution has been being worked on by climate scientists for 40 years.

but the UK government are using carbon capture as a get out of jail free for drilling more oil.

this is dangerous.

carbon capture and storage works at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it does not negate further emissions. it only works if we stop burning fossil fuels.

carbon capture and storage is not the problem — continuing to burn fossil fuels is.

we should be angry.

[nando161mando]

[hufflepuffwritingstuff2]

Hero vs Government- Part 4

Part 3

Scientist ran a few more basic tests. They took Hero’s blood pressure, got some saliva samples, and even a small sample of ice.

“Enough of that doctor’s office fiddle-faddle, Scientist,” General said, “we need to test for temperature tolerance and cryo-healing.”

Scientist looked at Hero.

“I was thinking we should stop for today,” Scientist started slowly, “they’ve already passed out once-”

“Scientist. We are on the clock here, we don’t have time to worry about them swooning,” General interrupted, “run the temperature tolerance test.”

Scientist sighed, then waved the three agents over. Two of them got Hero back in the wheelchair, while the third gave injected them with another dose of the drug they had been given earlier.

“Woah man,” Hero said, feeling dizzy on the spot, “you guys are sick.”

The third agent wheeled Hero into a chamber. It looked like an industrial freezer, with glass windows on all sides.

“Good luck, Hero.” General smiled, folding their arms across their chest.

The agents left Hero inside, slamming the door shut behind them and locking it. Scientist pushed a button, and cold air wafted into the chamber. Hero sighed contentedly, too dazed to care about hiding how nice it felt.

The air continued to get colder as Scientist wrote notes on a clipboard. Hero tried to stand a few times, but collapsed back into the chair, their limbs wobbly. They heard Scientist and General talking to each other from outside.

“It’s below freezing, and they’re still just sitting there!” Scientist said in awe, “not even shivering at all. They must be quite comfortable in the cold.”

“I’ve seen enough. Let’s see how they fare in the opposite direction.”

General took hold of a knob on a control panel and turned it all the way to the right. The cold air stopped pumping through the chamber and was instead replaced by warm air. Hero’s brow started to form little cold beads of sweat. Hero tried to get up, but collapsed to the floor, breathing hard.

“S-stop,” Hero said, “turn it off, please.”

Scientist wrote a note on their clipboard, then reached for the knob. General grabbed their wrist and shook their head.

“Not yet,” they said.

Dark spots started encroaching on Hero’s vision. Their skin felt hot, and their clothes stuck to their body in wet patches.

“Please.”

Hero’s world started to go dark just as the door opened and cool air filled the chamber. The agents lifted them up, placing them back in the wheelchair and bringing them back to the padded chair. After strapping them down, Scientist came over with a match.

“I really think we should sedate them for this,” Scientist said.

“Nonsense, how will you get feedback if they’re asleep?” General asked, “and matches? We talked about this.”

“We don’t need that much power for my data-”

“Scientist, if you keep arguing with me I’ll have you thrown off this project completely and get someone else who will do the job. Get the blowtorch.”

Scientist stood, frozen.

“Oh for the love of- it’s fine. Really. Lily-livered beaker brains like you don’t have the stomach for this sort of thing anyway.”

General grabbed a blowtorch from the cart and brought it to Hero’s skin. Scientist hid behind their clipboard, knowing what was coming next.

General pressed the ignition button, and Hero screamed. Oh how they screamed, loud and long, as the white-hot flames licked up their entire forearm. General turned off the torch, setting it aside, then turned to Scientist.

“Write that down,” they said over Hero’s wails of pain.

An agent injected a serum into Hero’s neck, and their agony was coupled with such a strong drowsiness that their screams turned to whimpers, which turned into snores in a matter of seconds.

Hero was unstrapped, and their sleeping form was wheeled back to their room, their forearm bubbling with third-degree burns.

Part 5

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[baejax-the-great]

Sometimes I want to shake people and remind them that scientists have loved ones who get diagnosed with cancer, too, and most scientists don't actually work for big pharma, so if something like vitamin C worked, the science community would be yelling about it as loud as they could.

[halogalopaghost]

Really extra tired of black and white thinking around COVID like can you guys activate your brain and understand that lockdown was NECESSARY to prevent massive economic and social breakdown that would have been induced by our entire population getting infected at once before we figured out how to treat it

Not to mention the whole "young people didn't need to worry about dying they shouldn't have been locked down what about their social lives!!11!!!"

Hi. Hello. I am a youth that was disabled by COVID how are you doing today. Oh, you're not disabled by COVID? Cool shut the fuck up forever.

[spacesimp]

when your secret government assigned experimental lab partner is an ugly dweeb

aka you get a single biblically accurate heights drawing

[rexscanonwife]

Against my better judgement I'm watching more of the 2016 ppg reboot and lemme tell you something. I HAAAAAAATE the way they write Utonium I HATE IT!!!

But sometimes there'll be a little moment here or there where he's kinda...cute > ^ <

[jean-dieu]

not me giving up my lifelong dream of becoming a university professor after a formation that really made me realizes the absolute dire state of research in that damn country

i ain't doing post docs for 1,7k euros a month until I'm 35, bye. Gonna grab my PhD in AI next year and fuck off in the industry.

[cricketgutz]

Sketches from a HBG AU i really like that Tibbs and I call “Butterfly Effect”

The gist is that one little thing goes differently in each characters life, causing their path to go completely sideways

Felix “Suicide King” Enderley-Smythe came to the states bitter and angry, Liz “Doll Face” White’s attempted killer actually bothered to check to see if she died or not, and Eduardo De Leon was picked up and taken in by a Catholic church rather than a CompanDroid safehouse. Basically everything sucks worse

[baxterstockmanisthecenterfold]

Seriously why did they make him so cheeked up?! Agsjdohsisoakajs

[nando161mando]

Climate scientist says 2/3rds of the world is under an effective ‘death sentence’ because of global warming

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/climate-scientist-says-23rds-world-644615

[hufflepuffwritingstuff2]

Hero vs Government- Part 5

Part 4

Hero woke up to the feeling of something being wrapped around their arm. They forced their eyes to open, and stared up at Scientist. They went to sit up, but Scientist pushed them back down.

“Please don't try to move,” they said gently, “I doubt you could with all the painkillers, but just the same…”

“Here to patch me up just to break me again?” Hero asked bitterly.

Scientist looked down at their work, anything to avoid Hero's gaze. Hero stole a glance at their arm- it was wrapped in soft, white bandages. It hardly seemed like the kind of thing General would let Scientist do for them.

“General's gone too far,” Scientist piped up, “none of this was supposed to happen.”

“Even the abduction in the first place?” Hero asked flatly.

“…I was assured all practices would be ethical,” Scientist said, “but as far as I'm concerned, this isn't science anymore, it's cruelty.”

Scientist sat Hero up against the pillows. They set a tray of food in their lap. They picked up some on a fork and held it to Hero's lips.

“You won't really be able to hold anything right now, so, uh, we're gonna have to do it this way.”

Hero kept their lips pressed together. They eyed the tray warily.

“Eat. Please.”

Hero still didn't acquiesce.

“Oh, right…”

Scientist took a small bite of each food item and a sip of the water.

“See? Not drugged.”

That satisfied Hero for the moment. They opened their mouth to let Scientist feed them. The food wasn't five Michelin stars or anything, but it was better than what the agents had been giving them. Once they had finished eating, Scientist set the tray down on a bedside table.

“You’re a hero, aren't you? You’re familiar with taking risks?”

Hero blinked. Where was this going?

“I'm not much of a risk-taker myself,” Scientist laughed ruefully, “but, there's a first time for everything, right?”

They paused.

“I have a proposition for you, Hero. If you're willing, that is.”

“What is it?” Hero asked.

“We go to the top. As in, the very top. We tell them everything General's done to you. We get you to go free, and you never have to deal with military interference again.”

“Wait, when you say the top…?”

“The president,” Scientist said, “technically even General answers to them. They’ll have no control over you once the president finds out all that's happened.”

Hero thought it over. On the one hand, how did they know they could trust Scientist? On the other hand, this was pretty much their only chance to get out of this mess.

“Okay,” Hero agreed, “let's talk to the president.”

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