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National Library of Scotland adds Signet Library maps and Finding Placenames guides

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The following are recent additions to the National Library of Scotland's digital mapping platform at https://maps.nls.uk:

Finding placenames research guide
Ten searchable lists of placenames (or gazetteers) dating from the 1580s through to the present day, including national surveys and mapping initiatives by Timothy Pont, William Roy, John Thomson, and the Ordnance Survey. The guide is available in the Research Guides section at https://maps.nls.uk/guides/placenames/.

Signet Library maps of Great Britain and the World, 1640s-1930s
This set of 137 maps relating to Great Britain and the World, comes from the library of the Society of Writers to HM Signet (www.wssociety.co.uk) in Parliament Square, Edinburgh. Additions include 402 Signet Library maps of Scotland, as well as maps of England, Wales, Ireland, and overseas. There are also 20 Ordnance Survey One-Inch to the mile Old Series maps of England and Wales included. The collection is available at https://maps.nls.uk/collections/signet/.

The latest news and developments from the mapping department can be found at https://maps.nls.uk/additions/.


Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast AncestorsTracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

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JimB
9 hours ago
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'I'm being paid to fix issues caused by AI'

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Businesses that rush to use AI to write content or computer code, often have to pay humans to fix it.
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JimB
5 days ago
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Proposed NOAA Budget Calls for $0 for Climate Research

Eos
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The Mauna Loa Observatory, a gray building, is pictured with clouds in the background and a sign reading "Mauna Loa Observatory" in the foreground.

In the latest move in a months-long attack on climate science funding, the Trump administration released a budget document on 30 June that calls for zero funding for climate research and the elimination of a slew of NOAA services, including the agency’s climate laboratories, regional climate data efforts, tornado and severe storm research, and partnerships with other institutions.

The budget, proposed for fiscal year 2026, also calls for a reduction in NOAA’s full-time staff by more than 2,000 people. 

The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) would be eliminated under the proposed budget. OAR coordinates and performs NOAA’s climate and weather research.

“With this termination, NOAA will no longer support climate research grants,” the proposal states.

The proposed NOAA budget for 2026 contains the literal line:Total, Climate Research: $0www.commerce.gov/sites/defaul…

Robert Rohde (@rarohde.bsky.social) 2025-06-30T23:25:38.113Z

“The idea [that] these labs would be completely wiped out is surreal and dangerous,” Dan Powers, executive director of CO-LABS, a science advocacy group, told Colorado Public Radio

The proposal would also eliminate funding for all of OAR’s climate and weather cooperative institutes—partnerships between the agency and other research institutions, including universities. One such partnership is the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaiʻi, an atmospheric research station best known for its measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Another is the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, which houses the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The center tracks critical snow and ice observations used to monitor the impacts of climate change. The center had already halted maintenance for some of its data products after losing support from NOAA in May.

It is difficult to describe just how disastrous it would be if just-released NOAA budget proposal (or even large portions) were to be enacted: It would involve a wholesale dismantling (decimation, really) of entities relevant to weather, climate, & ocean research & prediction.

Daniel Swain (@weatherwest.bsky.social) 2025-07-01T17:18:29.000Z

Additional programs slated to lose funding include the National Sea Grant College Program, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, Species Recovery Grants, Climate Competitive Research, and Regional Climate Data and Information. 

The proposal also calls for the elimination of some environmental restoration and research programs, including the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, which had been used to restore 3,624 acres (1,467 hectares) of salmon habitat and enable salmon to travel hundreds of miles to their spawning streams in 2023, according to Oregon Public Radio

Whether the proposed budget becomes a reality will be decided by Congress.

The future of much of NOAA’s climate and weather research and monitoring has been uncertain for months as the agency has decommissioned datasets, put some of its weather alert services on hold temporarily, and faced layoffs

In June, the agency announced that data from three satellites used in monitoring hurricanes would not be available to researchers after 30 June. Then, on the day of the deadline, they reversed course, extending the data availability through 31 July. Scientists expressed concern that extending the data availability still would not mean the data would be available during the peak hurricane months of August, September, and October.

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

A photo of a hand holding a copy of an issue of Eos appears in a circle over a field of blue along with the Eos logo and the following text: Support Eos’s mission to broadly share science news and research. Below the text is a darker blue button that reads “donate today.”
Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.


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JimB
6 days ago
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OMG.
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This painless nanoneedle patch might one day replace certain biopsies

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Using millions of tiny needles, the patch samples molecular data from inside cells without damaging them, providing intel on composition in minutes.

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JimB
9 days ago
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How rural communities in the US are bearing the brunt of Bitcoin mining

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As US President Donald Trump loosens cryptocurrency rules, one community tells how noise and pollution from a local Bitcoin mining operation has become "relentless."
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JimB
9 days ago
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RFK Jr.’s CDC panel ditches some flu shots based on anti-vaccine junk data

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The vaccine panel hand-selected by health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to drop federal recommendations for seasonal flu shots that contain the ethyl-mercury containing preservative thimerosal. The panel did so after hearing a misleading and cherry-picked presentation from an anti-vaccine activist.

There is extensive data from the last quarter century proving that the antiseptic preservative is safe, with no harms identified beyond slight soreness at the injection site, but none of that data was presented during today's meeting.

The significance of the vote is unclear for now. The vast majority of seasonal influenza vaccines currently used in the US—about 96 percent of flu shots in 2024–2025—do not contain thimerosal. The preservative is only included in multi-dose vials of seasonal flu vaccines, where it prevents the growth of bacteria and fungi potentially introduced as doses are withdrawn.

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JimB
12 days ago
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Were they paid fir by the alternative flu shot providers, or just killers?
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