And the details thereof:

The administration proposed a massive 55% reduction for NSF’s FY 2027 budget, cutting funding from $8.75 billion (FY 2026) to $3.96 billion. This includes sharp reductions to graduate fellowships and the elimination of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences directorate.

…it’s perhaps unsurprising that alarm bells are beginning to ring in the USA. And even the anti-science demon in charge of tearing the US apart has noticed – but he can’t quite put his finger on why it’s happening:

So close.
I love the confused look on his face here. Like a baboon that is contemplating why it can’t get into a locked car at Cape Point.

There’s a great op-ed by Sally Kornbluth – President of MIT – which is well worth a read, but let me just share the final couple of paragraphs here:

Now, I don’t really mind if the US falls behind in its scientific research. But while everyone is bombing and hating everyone else on the widely-publicised political stage, there are a lot of international scientific collaborations that quietly continue – often despite the politics of the countries concerned – and work to advance healthcare, technology and our understanding of the world around us, and – through those things – to advance humankind.

Those collaborations are also now falling apart because of the lack of funding. And that’s hurting everyone.

We’re already seeing the effects of the USAID cuts in Africa, and now we’re watching a brain drain from the USA because of the same policies.

And it’s equal parts of hilarious and terrifying to watch them repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot.

This from Dr Craig Spencer:

And he should know:

To be fair, this assumption means that I should be a bit of an authority on a lot of illnesses. And – because people do ask, my Top 3 worst ones from a personal experience point of view would be: Covid at number one, with Malaria and Influenza rather close behind. I’m guessing that if I managed to get it, Ebola might top the list quickly and (in all probability) finally.

Anyway…

The combined confirmed and suspected Ebola cases in DRC are now more than 1,000.
All signs are pointing to a very long and catastrophic outbreak in Central Africa:

1. This is a vast undercount. We know this because the test positivity rate is hovering around 50%, only 20% of contacts are being traced (and in some areas, no contacts at all), and more cases keep popping up with no known connection. This all points to widespread and undetected community transmission.
   
2. This is in only a week of detection. Compared to previous outbreaks, the growth is very fast, as the huge West Africa outbreak in 2016 was first detected at 49 cases and rose to 208 cases a month later. It took four months for that outbreak to reach the size of the current one in the DR Congo.
   
3. The cases are spread out across 16 health zones. There are now multiple epicenters, making containment very difficult.

Next door in Uganda, the case count is seven. While this number is low compared to DRC, a concerning development is that two health care workers recently tested positive with uncertain exposure histories. If they weren’t treating known Ebola cases, this means it’s spreading undetected in Uganda as well.

As ever with outbreaks in less developed areas of the world, we’ll likely never know the true scale of this outbreak. And we definitely won’t have an accurate handle on what is going on day-to-day. That makes it very difficult to direct whatever resources might be available in order to help those on the ground. And all of this has been compounded by the withdrawal of USAID in the region. We can’t say for definite that this caused the outbreak to occur, but it’s fairly well accepted by those in the know that it will be playing a big part in not being able to control it more quickly and efficiently.

The US plan to bury their heads in the sand, and direct anyone from the affected region to a (as yet unbuilt) field hospital in Kenya is a worrying and bizarre decision (at least when compared with previous presidencies).

But whatever the causes and whatever the complications, it’s clear that this outbreak is – at the present time, at least – completely out of control.

Firstly, it was meant to be a background thing, and the plan to be getting on with other stuff while it was on actually seemed like a very good idea when I checked the half time score: 6-20.
I later found out that it had been 0-20, so actually, that 6 points was the start of a bit of a comeback.

But as the second half wore on with no additional score (but plenty of mistakes) from each side, I figured that I’d made the right call.

Never give up on a game though. Especially one as passionately partisan as this one.

A particularly nasty shoulder charge to the head, a red card, and suddenly there was momentum, belief and a will to win.

The last twenty minutes had me captivated.

And that it game down to the very last kick of the game to crown “the greatest comeback in Origin history“?

Perfection. What an incredible finish.

If only all sport was that exciting.

(I’ll lob a highlights video up on here as soon as it’s available.)

It’s available:

Wow.

Sarcopenia – the age-related progressive loss of muscle mass, strength and function – is a real thing, and while it (allegedly) starts at 30 years old, I never really noticed it until fairly recently. But now suddenly standing still (metaphorically, and literally) is just not good enough. You have to work twice as hard: once to build the muscle mass, strength and function, and once to overcome the age-related progressive loss of muscle mass, strength and function.

That doesn’t seem fair.

But honestly, you still need to live your life as well. All work and no play and all that. There’s zero fun (as far as I’m concerned) in devoting all your time to just trying to stay fit. You need to enjoy your life, and not make every decision about your health.
And so when I saw this, it rang very true, and I did actually laugh:

Yep. That’s me.

I will occasionally do a 7am run, but you’re not ever going to see either of the others in any way, shape or form.

And if that means that I have to work even harder in the gym and on the road when it comes to keeping fit and combatting my age, well, so be it.

And actually, you only have to look around to see that that’s a pretty accurate synopsis. Unemployment is through the roof, costs are rising, inflation is up (and doesn’t seem to really match what’s happening on the ground), and we’re all feeling the squeeze. Multi-factorial stuff, but most of those factors can be narrowed down to a few knobhead politicians.

That’s for another post.

Sadly though, things still need doing. And we have a job that needs doing on our house, which is long overdue. It’s a project that will hopefully save us money in the long run, but it is going to cost a chunk of money up front. Like tens of thousands of Rands. And so, as any sensible person would, I contacted six different expert companies to get some comparative quotes.

Well, dear reader… Business must be better than we all thought.

Fair play, one contacted me back within a day, and we set some stuff up.

Less fair, but maybe ok kind of play, another one contacted me back after a few days, and (after a bit of misunderstanding), arranged to come out for a site inspection. But then didn’t turn up. Staff sickness apparently – when I called them. And because we all understand that these things happen, we rearranged another appointment and then they didn’t turn up again.

Red flag central, and an easy call for me.

I sent a Whatsapp saying that I wouldn’t be taking it any further, and I got a message back saying:

Great. No problem. Fully understand.

Wow. “Great”, really?
(And thanks for the apology for wasting my time.) (Twice.)

But even that was arguably better than the four who didn’t even bother to reply to my original message.

I really don’t get it. I’m literally wanting to give you business: to give you a lot of money for doing a job that you are apparently very good at. I’m doing the hard yards; I’m opening the dialogue and excusing you from doing the whole, time-consuming, costly, cold-calling marketing thing. Just give me a call.

But you couldn’t even be arsed to get in touch.

Business must be really good.

And so what do I do now? Because I’d selected those six companies based on the good reviews they had, and so now I must start selecting others that had less good or fewer good reviews. That’s already pushing me to seventh best and below before we’ve even taken into consideration that ? of them probably won’t even reply (data from a May 2026 study, n=6).

Because the thing is, much like voting for a political party in an election, selecting the least worst doesn’t necessarily make them any good. It just makes them less bad than the others. And in this case, the bar for that is so low that it’s a tripping hazard in hell.

So what choice do I have? The job still needs doing. And I still need to protect us from potentially being ripped off.

So here we go again, I guess.

Brilliant.

But those 240 minutes pale into insignificance when you learn about what Jonathon Keats, an experimental philosopher at the University of Arizona, is doing.

His is longer than mine (stop it). His is going to be 1000 years long.

His creation is simple: A small copper cylinder with a pin-sized hole sits atop a steel pole. To ensure the device survives the ravages of time, the tiny opening was pierced through a thin layer of 24-karat gold. Over the next 1,000 years, sunlight that enters the contraption will slowly fade a light-sensitive surface covered in an oil paint pigment called rose madder, resulting in an extremely long-exposure image of the landscape.

This is essentially a very (very) fancy take on a beer can solar tracking photography experiment. For which the current record is 8 years (and that was by mistake).

The camera in Tucson isn’t Keats’ first venture with experimental long-exposure photography. In 2014, the researcher worked with a team to distribute 100 cameras to residents in Berlin, instructing them to hide the cameras until 2114 for the next generation to retrieve. He has previously installed several other Millenium Cameras at Arizona State University in Tempe, Amherst College in Massachusetts and Lake Tahoe in Nevada. Keats hopes to keep installing additional Millennium Cameras in new locations around the world, from the Austrian Alps to Chongqing, China.

I guess that South Africa doesn’t make the list. Despite being plagued by the same issues as the rest of the world as far as Climate Change, rampant development and loss of natural habitat go, our local skollies also have a bit of a scrap metal fetish, and a camera full of copper and 24k gold will definitely be enough for a quick fix. It’ll be lucky to last 1000 hours, let alone 1000 years.

I mean, as a project, it’s very adventurous and impressive and all that, but I quite like the idea of being able to actually view what I’ve spent the time and effort creating. Jonathon isn’t going to have that privilege. Unless something very remarkable happens in the medical research field over the next couple of decades.

I’d find that incredible frustrating. But if he’s at peace with it – and I don’t really think he’s got any choice in the matter – then fair play.

It’s just disappointing that no-one came up with a similar plan back in 1023 (which was admittedly about 800 years before the invention of photography), so that we could see what the results looked like before we pop our collective clogs.

I’m a bit irritated with WordPress at the moment. It’s really tough to write when the font is 0.1mm tall and the letters appear to all be stuck together. Hopefully, there’s a quick fix for this and hopefully, it’ll be sorted sooner rather than later.

But rather than moaning, here’s some positivity before I head off to watch Hull City vs Southampton.

Oh, apparently, Southampton didn’t make the final. Oops. My bad.

Never mind.

Here’s the new one from Beck. We’ve come a long way from Loser (and so we should have done, that was [weeps] thirty-two years ago).

But this is a(nother) new direction from him, and it’s really beautiful. I’m rather addicted, but in a good way. Quite enjoying that light, country sound.

Now, let’s see what this post looks like when it’s uploaded.

Except that there is a problem that only I can see: the backend really isn’t very pretty.

I suppose you could say that for a number of things (and people), but for an app that has been probably overly indulgent on appearance above function on the last few updates, this is a real let down.

Unless I’ve just missed a setting I need to tweak?

My font is tiny, my kerning is all wrong, and it’s actually rather difficult to read. Thankfully, I’ve checked, and none of these issues seem to be occurring on the front end of the blog (the bit you’re reading at the moment).

All you’ve got to contend with is the quality of the stuff I’m writing.
And yes, I recognise that that’s not great either.

But.

Let’s pop in a quick image of an Agulhas moonrise, meaning that you don’t have to look at so much writing.

Taken last time we were down there – handheld, nogal – and a good reason why there really wasn’t much beach left to walk along at high tide.

Anyway. I need to go and search (but with what terms?) for what’s gone wrong here, because it really isn’t conducive to producing decent content.

More tomorrow.

EDIT: Hmm. It has made a difference to the font on the front end as well.
That’s great. Exactly what an update shouldn’t do.

The World Cup’s Hidden Health Operation

Because you need to have a plan in place when there are a lot of people from all over the world coming together in one – ok, several – places. This isn’t rocket surgery: lots of people, high density events, different pathogens from all over the globe. It’s microbial heaven.

A lot of people are concerned about the nasty stuff: Hanta Andean virus, and Ebola, but that shouldn’t really be an issue in North America.

(Elsewhere though…

…but that’s for another post.)

However… measles, dengue, covid and all the usual nasties will surely be present and partying hard.

And it does seem like the battered and bewildered American healthcare and epidemiological systems are doing what they can, despite The Orange Turd and The Anti-Vax Kid having systematically stripped them of powers and funding over the past 18 months.

The biggest saviour of them all though, might be the fact that no-one actually turns up because of politics or because of prices.

I love football, but I hate FIFA and I’m not a huge fan of the American Government right now, so I’m sorry to say that I would be delighted to see this whole tournament fail completely.

It won’t, of course: that won’t be allowed to happen. But I can’t wait to see it struggle. And if fewer people get sick because of it – well, that’s just a bonus.

But… actually not.

Because, please bring forth the Lighthorse of Jeju Island.
The red one.

Amazing. A 12m tall Lighthorse sitting on one of the Iho Hang breakwaters, west of Jeju City on Jeju Island, South Korea.

But you know that Lighthouses always look better in red and white?
Well, obviously, there’s a white one too:

These are modelled on the Jeju Pony – a rare, ancient breed native to Jeju Island, and were completed in 2009. And while they’re not exact replicas of the actual animals (I mean, the horsey ones aren’t those colours and don’t have a light on their heads), they’re a lovely twist on the traditional big tower with a light on the top.

And if you want more animals made into functional buildings – in this case, specifically lighthouses – then you need look no further than… er.. Jeju Island, South Korea, where they also have a 13m high Lighturtle.

That doesn’t really work as well as the horse one, does it?

Anyway:

It’s not just the name that doesn’t work. For me, this one is cheating a bit. That’s just a lighthouse with an added turtle, not a turtle lighthouse. Not that I don’t admire the effort. Just that if you set the bar so high with the red and white horses, I just think the turtle should be rearing up on its hind legs flippers and balancing the light on its nose.

Doesn’t seem like a lot to ask.