Oof. Those Miami dolphins.

The Miami dolphins have become a laughing stock to a large degree. 

In the 26 years this century, the dolphins have had two owners, 12 head coaches, 27 players start at QB (soon to be 28), and two major scandals (the hazing one that divided people in weird ways, and the ongoing racially charged one that appears headed for trial) - plus assorted less-prominent ones (offering a contract to a new head coach while you still have one, focusing on revenue at the stadium, etc) 

And of course they have only made the playoffs in 6 of those seasons, and have not won a single playoff game in that span. 

It’s epic futility!

And here comes another season. The new coach says that success won’t be defined by winning. Which suggests losing is in the future. Enjoy it fans, if you’re still interested! Oh, and pay full price! 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/49764367/dolphins-hafley-says-success-defined-winning

Dolphins fans have heard this one before. One of the other coaches talked about “failing forward fast” which kinda sounds like the same thing!

https://youtu.be/M4q1thh1G20?is=X841GmEv0TtEZydd

Miami has always been a town of “front running phonies” and transplants who root for the team from whence they came. 

And now you have a generation+ who have had nothing to root for here. This team used to rule the town and dominate conversations. And now, few seem to care. And that will only get worse. 

Good luck owner dude. But you’re still profitable, so why would you care?

The Miami Dolphins have used 27 different starting quarterbacks since Dan Marino retired after the 1999 season.

Starting Quarterbacks List
• 2000–2004: Jay Fiedler, Damon Huard, Ray Lucas, Brian Griese, A.J. Feeley, Sage Rosenfels

• 2005–2009: Gus Frerotte, Daunte Culpepper, Joey Harrington, Cleo Lemon, Trent Green, John Beck, Chad Pennington, Chad Henne

• 2010–2019: Tyler Thigpen, Matt Moore, Ryan Tannehill, Jay Cutler, Brock Osweiler, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh Rosen

• 2020–2025: Tua Tagovailoa, Jacoby Brissett, Teddy Bridgewater, Skylar Thompson, Tyler Huntley, Quinn Ewers

• 2026 Malik Willis 

A new long range telescope

On Sunday morning, NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman telescope into orbit. It will take some time to reach its desired location, because it’s headed to a Lagrange point (like the James Webb space telescope, this will sit in a space between two gravitational objects so it’s unaffected by them and can see great distances through our solar system). 

The telescope will look into but cosmos and study dark matter and dark energy. It’s a most exciting thing!

This is the first satellite named after a woman, and who better than astronomer Nancy Grace Roman. You can read her story here: 

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/who-is-nancy-grace-roman/

That’s par for the course these days.

I did enjoy reading about “Freedom Fuel” which some MAGA aligned people started. They came on the scene around July 4, and were selling as at a lower price than any competitor - or really what the market allowed for. 

Of course the orange menace had to promote it, because ‘Murica!

The question was: just how could they sell fuel at that low a price. This week, we got our answer: They stole it! (I should say “allegedly”)

Now that is winning!

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/28/lawsuit-freedom-fuel-gas-stations-trump-01055248

Natural disasters

The catastrophic flood in Nepal was astounding.  We saw bridges and buildings get destroyed, and people getting swept up as they fled.  It was heart wrenching, yet was a reminder of nature's fury.

The reality is that we keep seeing these kinds of things happen, with a greater frequency every year.  Recorded history tells us there are more events, and they cause increasingly more damage. 

And yet, we can’t seem to wrap our heads around it, and spend time foolishly debating about the cause of disasters. And as a result, we don’t spend much energy on understanding them, and even less on being more proactive in our response. 

This rush of water was caused by a piece of a glacier that detached. Some people simply want to say that it’s the old “act of nature” for purely political reasons, setting aside any notion of science telling us there is a change happening. 

We can see our climate is changing with our own eyes. Glaciers haven’t simply fallen off like that in our recorded history. So something is happening. And it’s our duty to investigate what’s going on and try and prevent more disasters like this. 

Of course, you can apply it to other things as well. Hurricanes are something we’ve known about for a very long period of recorded history. We’ve been studying them and trying to understand what’s going on with them. And yet, for purely political reasons this administration simply does not care and has no intention of doing anything other than letting us know one might be coming - without any sort of understanding of how it’s formed, where it might go, and more importantly why…

And of course there was the assertion that Canada "is (somehow?) responsible for" the fires this year, as a way to cast aspersions, rather than using logic to try and address the underlying problem.  

The one piece of good news is that while the number of these natural disasters has been on the uptick, the deaths resulting from them have been on the decline due to better infrastructure and preparedness.  

The Ama: Freediving with Japan's last sea women

This is a rather interesting story about the Ama free divers in Japan. They are all women, and are engaged in a centuries old tradition to be one with nature. 

https://oceanographicmagazine.com/features/freediving-with-the-ama-japans-last-sea-women/

If you’d like a little recap of their story, here’s a short piece CNN did on them. 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/19/travel/video/japan-ama-sea-women-hnk-spc-intl

Voyager 1 has been moving through space since 1977, now faster than a speeding bullet, and it still has not covered a single light-year of distance from Earth - ScienceBlog.com

The fact that voyager 1 is still active (and scientists keep finding innovative ways to keep it so, from a great distance) is remarkable. 

But don’t sleep on just how vast the universe is! Voyager launched in 1977, nearly 50 years ago, and it is traveling at about 17 km/s (or roughly 40,000 miles per hour).  And yet, it has barely moved in cosmic terms. That’s amazing. 

https://scienceblog.com/m-voyager-1-has-been-moving-through-space-since-1977-now-faster-than-a-speeding-bullet-and-it-still-has-not-covered-a-single-light-year-of-distance-from-earth/

Taking on the invasive air potato

Back in 2012, there was an invasive plant moving through Florida.  Several prominent research studies were undertaken, most notably at the University of Florida in their horticulture school.

The researchers tested whether a tiny leaf-eating beetle (the Lilioceris cheni) could help control air potato, a vigorous vine capable of smothering native vegetation, without disturbing the other foliage.

And then they worked with a group of high school students in Broward county who were studying environmental science to try releasing some beetles into the wild.  

The students released just 16 beetles into the Long Key Natural Area and Nature Centre in Davie, but they multiplied into the thousands and nearly completely defoliated the air potato vines in the release area.

Using that success as a basis, the scientists at UF released thousands more of the beetles, and the air potato was mostly eradicated over the next decade.

You can read more about all of this in the attached links, but here's a key takeaway:

Rather than relying solely on repeated chemical or physical removal, scientists were using specialised insects to exploit different vulnerabilities in the plant’s growth and reproduction.

https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2012/usda-laboratory-florida-students-release-beetles-to-combat-invasive-vine-in-florida/

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/student-run-beetle-rearing-lab-will-fight-air-potato-vine/

https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/collierco/2024/09/16/potato-vine-beetles-are-out-about/