America is...

Have you seen the gun photo tweeted by Jeb Bush along with "America"? WTF does that mean? I'm not even going to link to it because I find it so frighteningly awful.

Instead, I'll link to Brian Bilston's poem, America is a Gun.

My America wouldn't allow students to carry guns to class. See campuscarry.utexas.edu. And this elaboration of the policy that states:

Under the law, I cannot adopt a policy that has the general effect of excluding licensed concealed handguns from campus. I agree with the working group that a classroom exclusion would have this effect.

My America includes me helping (via email) three high school students do an independent study project about salinity changes near the Greenland ice sheet*.

Their teacher contacted me last week to ask where we should point them. This week, the students contacted me as they explored the data. Their names indicate Indian, Chinese and Turkish ethnicity. This is what I believe makes America America.

What makes your America America?

* Did you know that the sea level is rising in the mid-Atlantic states due to a change in the path of the Gulf Stream (GS), possibly related to a slow-down in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)? The warmer water of the GS bulges up. If the GS hugs closer to shore, sea level will rise there.

So now you know why you should care about the salinity and the thermohaline structure near Greenland.