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‘I Was Watching Osprey for Five Hours a Day’: How the World Fell in Love With Nature Livestreams (Maria)

The author writes, “In 2012, Dianne Hoffman, a retired consultant, became a peeping Tom. For five hours a day, she watched the antics of a couple, Harriet and Ozzie, who lived on Dunrovin ranch in Montana. They were nesting ospreys, being streamed live as they incubated their clutch of eggs. The eggs never hatched. … ‘I do think they experienced grief,’ says Hoffman, now 81, who watched the birds from 2,000 miles away in Pennsylvania. Hoffman was processing her own grief after losing her husband, brother and father, and said watching the livestreams is how she ‘rejoined the world.’”

‘Hidden’ Provision in Trump’s Big Bill Could Disarm US Supreme Court (Dana)

From Newsweek: “A provision ‘hidden’ in the sweeping budget bill that passed the U.S. House on Thursday seeks to limit the ability of courts — including the U.S. Supreme Court — from enforcing their orders. … The provision ‘would make most existing injunctions — in antitrust cases, police reform cases, school desegregation cases, and others — unenforceable,’ Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, told Newsweek. ‘It serves no purpose but to weaken the power of the federal courts.’”

Institutionalizing Politicized Science (DonkeyHotey)

From Science: “The opening months of the Trump administration represent a historic disruption to America’s scientific agencies. Staff have been fired or reassigned in the name of efficiency, resulting in chaos. Grants have been canceled mid-project for featuring the wrong words. ‘Pauses’ and ‘reviews’ are designed to block spending, in the hope that Congress will make the current impoundment of funds a baseline for permanent disinvestment. While the scientific community waits to see what the new normal will be, the Trump administration has a plan to institutionalize a much more politicized structure of control over government broadly, including both public scientific investments and the use of scientific knowledge in policy actions.”

Supreme Court Justice’s Stunning Premonition of Trump Era: ‘How Roman Republic Fell’ (Al)

The author writes, “Long before President Donald Trump ran for his first term in office, conservative Supreme Court Justice David Souter appeared to glimpse the future in a stunning warning of how democracy could die. The judge, who retired from the High Court in 2009, died last week at the age of 85. However, his 2012 comments were recalled in a New York Times column. … ‘One person will come forward and say, “Give me total power, and I will solve this problem,”’ Souter said while speaking at an open forum at a New Hampshire Arts Center.”

One Million New Pediatric HIV Cases Predicted if PEPFAR Funding Is Cut (Mili)

The author writes, “For the past 2 decades, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has provided more than $110 billion toward the global HIV/AIDS response. If this funding stops — as suggested by a recent directive — infections and deaths are expected to rise significantly, including 1 million new pediatric cases of HIV and 460 000 additional AIDS-related deaths in children by 2030.”

The ‘Plastic Spoon’ of Microplastics in Your Brain Could Stem From These Foods That Are Wrecking Your Health, Researchers Say (Reader Jim)

The author writes, “Earlier this year, scientists discovered that there is about as much microplastics in the brain as a whole plastic spoon. The paper, published in Nature Medicine in February, revealed that the amount of microplastics — tiny plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters — in the human brain appears to be increasing: Concentrations rose by about 50% between 2016 and 2024.”

Uncle Patrick’sSecessionist Breakfast (Reader Steve)

From the San Francisco Chronicle and McSweeney’s: A short story by Dave Eggers.