Before getting into my science topic of the day, here is an item I received this morning from the  New York Times .  There are fewer international students coming to the U.S. Why? The decline is occurring as the Trump administration has   delayed visa processing , instituted   travel bans   or restrictions for 19 countries,   threatened to deport   international students for   pro-Palestinian speech , and   heightened the vetting   of student visa applicants . The New York Times  also reported: The civil war in Sudan has displaced 12 million people and may have killed about 400,000. It is, as Declan Walsh, our chief Africa correspondent, called it, “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” Experts call it a genocide. Read more about   the escapees from El Fasher . And finally a third story: Baby Shark:   In news from the world of apex predation, a pod of killer whales in the Gulf of California   hunts juvenile great wh...

Nothing much is changing today, so far. The  Los Angeles County wildfire  continues, with the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires still burning. Trump cabinet confirmation hearings  doing well, with no bumps in the road today. The hoped for first phase of  peace in the Gaza Strip  still seems ready to occur on Sunday, January 19. President Joe Biden made his farewell address,  and warned against the influence of the super-rich.  Surely sounds like the coming of a dictatorship featuring oligarchs, as in Russia. Kilauea Volcano inside Halemaumau Crater  still erupting .  It comes and goes, and is now again active. It took me two weeks, but I watched all 9 episodes of Squid Game Season 1 and 7 episodes of the second season.  Each chapter is about an hour long.  I normally would be discrete about sharing too much from these productions, but will make an exception for this series. Most of you don't know South Korean culture, nor their perf...