Texas Alzheimer’s patient who saw brain plaque disappear shares story in national campaign - YouTube

While I am encouraged by this news, I find it odd that it hasn’t gotten much attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87yKM-A0ua4

Even the organization that’s said to be using her story for national awareness isn’t quite doing that.  

https://www.brightfocus.org/home/hope-after-an-alzheimers-diagnosis-teri-and-gails-story-of-resilience/

The drug company isn’t saying that they have a cure, but are having encouraging results in early trials, with repeated treatments. Here’s a doctor summing it up: 

https://www.facebook.com/BrightFocusFoundation/videos/for-decades-alzheimers-disease-treatment-meant-managing-symptoms-thats-changing-/758293067241697/

Again, it’s a cautious note to look beyond the headline and understand the nature of the story itself. 

This El Niño Will Be Unlike Any in the Past Eight Decades - The Atlantic

This story is about the climate event called el niño. It is an area in the pacific that has a direct effect on the global weather. Understanding it is an important part of planning for the weather. It delves into some of the science behind what it tells us - and the reality is that our worth will be “worse” this year. 

But there’s a little subtext. While the US lags behind in climate science, the rest of the world is picking up the slack. 

The article is behind a paywall, but you can read it here. 

https://archive.is/2026.09.01-021630/https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/08/el-nino-effects/688429/

Luca McGill - Society for Science

Here’s a student who wanted to know more about CO2 emissions. Was there a higher concentration at different altitudes? Was it different in rural versus urban settings?

So he used a drone and a raspberry pi fitted with a detector to find out. 

I won’t spoil the results, but will tell you he learned something along the way. 

Curiosity and a little effort made for an interesting experiment that was well thought out and he did a good job of conducting it. 

https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-student-finalists/luca-mcgill/

ground-breaking-invention-could-revolutionize-the-bioplastic-industry-f202608-n/

A student saw an opportunity to go beyond recycling.  She invested $2,500 to find an environmentally friendly enzyme that can break down PET plastics. 

Her success won her the 2026 eco grand prize, which included some money to continue to invest into other compounds and expand her work. 

https://en.as.com/latest_news/meet-the-18-year-old-student-whose-ground-breaking-invention-could-revolutionize-the-bioplastic-industry-f202608-n/

1.3m plastic bottles collected in a day in global volunteer ocean cleanup | Plastics | The Guardian

There’s an adage to “think globally, but act locally.”

Back in the 1980s, a group called “ocean conservancy” held an event to clean up the beaches along Texas’s coastline. They managed to signup 2,800 volunteers and spent a weekend cleaning up. 

They were on to something, and grew the organization. It currently consists of 19.7 million people, across 166 countries. 

It’s not just a weekend of activity, but lots of individual events held throughout the year. 

And to date, they estimate that they have managed to collect 184,000 tons of waste, with much of the 439 million items being plastic water bottles. 

The great part is that you don’t have to belong to the group to contribute (though certainly you can). You can head down to a local beach (or a park that may have pollution) by yourself or with a group and just start collecting things and dispose of them properly. 

The earth thanks you. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/26/plastic-bottles-coastal-cleanup-ocean-conservancy

Panda Express's Founders Built a $7 Billion Empire. Now They're Helping 55,000 Employees Become Homeowners

The summary of the attached article is that Panda Express is privately owned. They are touting that they help employees to become homeowners. Sounds nice, right?

The company made $7 billion last year and has about 55,000 employees - most of which are hourly people making a little above minimum wage. 

There are some managers in the ranks, and they start at $65k, while the higher level managers can make as much as $200k. 

And this “help” they provide is in the general benefits package. It teaches people what it takes to buy a house and suggests ways to save money for a down payment and how to afford monthly payments. 

It strikes me that this kind of thing really should be in every company’s benefits package. It’s nothing special, really. 

And it’s a sad statement on the nature of things that greasy chicken from a mall food court is an industry this large - and the owners just rake in that money. 

By the way, the company does run a children’s charity. But it’s not funded by the company or its owners. Rather, they ask customers to “round up” and that money goes to the charity. 

So it’s not like the owners are doing much, really… 

https://www.inc.com/amaya-nichole/panda-express-founders-built-7-billion-dollar-empire-now-helping-employees-become-homeowners/91396527

Words to live by.

In the memoir by Gladys West, she talks about her upbringing, and her faith. 

There’s a passage where she reminds us that this bible - that many conservatives seem to have never read yet claim to have - has some passages about being better, benefitting others, and in her estimation sharing one’s knowledge and wealth. 

In 2017, SpaceX proposed flying passengers from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes by sending Starship through space and landing it vertically near the destination—and while that service remains speculative, the rocket architecture behind it has now flown through space and survived re-entry.

I’ve talked about this before. Among the (seemingly crazy) ideas that Elon had, was one whereby you could board a rocket in, say, Texas, and it would go up and you might land in Singapore within an hour or two. 

The notion is intriguing - even if it’s far fetched. 

https://spacedaily.com/t-spacex-earth-to-earth-new-york-shanghai-39-minutes/

A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the Epstein Files. Adults Freaked Out. - Longreads

This is a good read. A student journalist looked into the Epstein files and found the name of a local woman. The editorial staff decided to publish. The woman threatened to sue … and everyone kind of freaked out. Because of course they did. 

The student reporter was the most rational and mature person in the room. Everyone else was acting essentially like a child. 

https://longreads.com/2026/07/24/redwood-high-school-bark-epstein-journalism/

From Marlon Brando’s private island to a thriving wildlife sanctuary, Tetiaroa records 15,614 turtle hatchlings | Sea and Job

This is pretty cool. In 1966, after filming Mutiny on the Bounty in Polynesia, Marlon Brando purchased an island and turned it into a wildlife sanctuary. 

And what do you know? A large number of turtle hatchlings are born there each year. 

https://www.seaandjob.com/from-marlon-brandos-private-island-to-a-thriving-wildlife-sanctuary-tetiaroa-records-15614-turtle-hatchlings/

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/

The man who drew the first geological map of an entire country spent twenty-eight years surveying it, sold his fossil collection to the British Museum to cover his debts, went to debtors' prison anyway, and walked home in 1819 to find bailiffs had taken his house - ScienceBlog.com

File this under "no good deed goes unpunished" ....

This is the story about the man who spent years of his life and drew the first geologic map Britain.  

His debts had amassed over his years away, and so he sold the fossils he collected to the British Museum.  Yet, that wasn't enough and he wound up going to debtors prison.

And then when he got out - with no money - he had to literally walk home, only to find that his house and all his possessions had been seized to cover his debts. 

He was left destitute. And his accomplishments in map making weren't recognized for many years.  

What a shame.  And I guess in a way "he didn't know the right people" who can literally get away with anything.

https://scienceblog.com/n-twenty-eight-years-of-surveying-then-ten-weeks-in-prison/

This cookie started its life as a plastic bottle - American Chemical Society

Corn stalks. Plastic bottles. Oxygen. High temperatures. Just add water and voila, you have a protein rich cookie that can help with the world’s hunger problem. 

Now I’m a little dubious about what they did and whether it’s viable, but they do attack two of the more pressing issues. So maybe they have something great here. 

https://www.acs.org/adobe/dynamicmedia/deliver/dm-aid--3c7e31c5-9663-42f9-8856-cd23b585543f/082426-plastic-cookies.jpg.webp?width=700&quality=90

https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2026/august/this-cookie-started-its-life-as-a-plastic-bottle.html

Disney patent hints at trick behind new Encanto ride

Always the innovators, Disney has come up with a new kind of ride technology which they are looking to patent. 

It’s a method to trick a rider into thinking they are going up or down, without any physical lifts or drops - or moving parts. 

The idea is that they use a kind of forced perspective coupled with narrowing walls that give the illusion of lifts and drops. 

The plan is to use this technology in the under-construction encanto ride. It will be family friendly but exciting. 

I look forward to seeing this when it’s complete. 

https://boingboing.net/2026/08/17/disney-patent-for-a-fake-elevation-ride-trick-matches-new-en.html