August 2026 Glacier Collapse in Nepal

Here's what happend: a section of a glacier collapsed which trigged a landslide across a river valley that damed-up the river for a while before collapsing and triggering the flood. Yes, these events happen naturally, but it seems very likely that global warming and the associated destabiliztion of glaciers and permafrost 'loaded the dice' and increases the liklhood, magnitude, and intensity of such events.

More here: Glacier collapse caused Nepal’s deadly flash flood — a sign of things to come?

Why do we need gen-eds?

Or, perhaps the better question is this: how many gen-ed classes should be required to get a Bachelor's degree? 10% of all classes? 25% of all classes? 33% of all classes? Trust me when I say this: nobody wants to take them, teach them, or pay for them.

Why science needs the huaminties more than ever (Nature, 25 June 2026) argues the usual: STEM fields, alone, cannot offer the ethical reasoning, historical context, and cultural connecctions that are required to be an informed and responsible citizen of the world. 'Hard' technical expertise is critical but has to be complemented by 'soft' human skills.

That's fine & I don't think anyone disagrees with that. But here are the practical questions:

1. Do we really need a take an array of special classes that have nothing to do with our desired profession to get these 'soft' human skills? Or, could this be infused & embedded in classes that also offer pratical professional skills?
2. Let's agree that we need special gen-ed classes: how many? Currently we basically force students to take about 1/3 of all their classses in the gen-ed curriculum - that seems too much to me.

Here's my proposal: create a mandatory Minor that all students need to take that consists of 6 classes or 18 credits: 1 science class with a lab, 1 math class, 1 writing class, and three more classes in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Hawaii & The Jetstream

Fun graphics, data, and map here: Every nonstop to Hawaii, and what the wind costs you

Obviously it takes longer to fly west than to fly east in the mid-latitudes because of the the prevailing winds & this website does a nice job of demonstrating this without any fancy animations.

SLR Map

Nothing new here, but a nice interface & an option for an image export - nice! The steps are 2 m, 10 m, 30 m, and 70 m - would be nice to offer more options such as 1/3/5 meters and/or specific ones, especially for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Explore here: Simulate Coastlines After Sea Level Rise

CCS will NOT work!

But, solar & wind will! More @ https://projects.propublica.org/why-carbon-capture-cant-solve-climate-change/. The chart below is from Flowing Data:

3D Undergound

Who knew: there is a website / service called DrillerDB that compiles all US well logs (something like 23 million) and also offers a 3D underground visuzalization based on these well logs. It's a little glitchy and I'm not sure about the accurcay & consistency of these data, but it would match the known regional geology prety well I would assume:

Try it here: https://drillerdb.com/underground and read more about it on Maps Mania.

Flow Maps

Flow Maps are cool, but really tricky to actually design & make look good. Here are two good resources:

• Flow Maps (by Esri) shows some hacks in ArcGIS Pro & ArcGIS Online that can be used to make flow maps.
• Flow Mapping (by PennState) is a great overview & introduction.