Latest news with #Tom'sDiner
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Godfather of climate science decries Trump plan to shut Nasa lab above Seinfeld diner: ‘It's crazy'
Perched above the New York City diner made famous by the TV show Seinfeld, Tom's Restaurant, a small research laboratory became, improbably, crucial to humanity's understanding of our changing climate and of the universe itself. Now, it is being shut down by Donald Trump's administration. Nasa's top climate and space monitoring lab, called the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss), has been housed in six floors of a leased building owned by Columbia University on Manhattan's Upper West Side since 1966. Since then, it has launched the career of a Nobel prize winner, aided missions to Venus and Jupiter, mapped the Milky Way and alerted the world to global heating by creating one of the first climate models. The climate model ran on an IBM computer, the fastest in the world in the 1970s and so gargantuan it took up the entire second floor. But this storied history has meant little to the Trump administration, which is ending the lab's lease on 31 May, releasing 130 staff to work from home with an uncertain future ahead. Donald Trump, who has called climate science 'bullshit' and a 'giant hoax' in the past, wants to slash Nasa's Earth science budget in half. 'They are trying to kill the messenger with the bad news, it's crazy,' said Dr James Hansen, known as the godfather of climate science and previously director of Giss for more than 30 years. The Guardian talked to Hansen, who was wearing a trademark felt fedora, as he tackled a plate of eggs and bacon at Tom's Restaurant, which sits below the Giss office. The eggs, as well as some pancakes for your Guardian reporter, were ordered at the barked behest of the manager: '$12 minimum on food! $12! Each!' The diner is famous – its neon-lit exterior regularly appeared on Seinfeld (photos of Jerry, Kramer and Elaine, some signed, adorn the walls inside) and it inspired Suzanne Vega's 1980s song Tom's Diner and so is now regularly thronged by tourists as well as Columbia students, though perhaps less so by Giss staff. 'Are they going to destroy this place? Are they bombing it?' said Hansen about the dismantling of the institution above where we were poking at our food. 'That's the approach of Doge [Elon Musk's so-called 'department of government efficiency'] to blow things up, to use a chainsaw,' he said. 'That's a big mistake because science isn't something you start over. You've got a lot of knowledge there.' Hansen gave Congress and the world its first major warning of a climate crisis in 1988 but left Giss in 2013 to speak out more publicly about climate breakdown. His latent activism became so concerning to Nasa that, Hansen claims, it sought to install a camera outside his office to monitor his movements. Giss's independence and nimbleness allowed it to chart the dangerous heating of our planet but also spurred resentment from senior officials who long desired to subsume it within Nasa's main Goddard space flight center campus in Greenbelt, Maryland. 'We survived under a non-supportive situation for decades,' Hansen said. 'Somewhat it was a matter of jealousy, of scientists in Greenbelt thinking: 'Why are these guys getting to this privileged position?'' Ironically for a place that has produced world-leading climate science for a tiny fraction of Nasa's budget, however, it will be closed down ostensibly for efficiency reasons. Last month, the US president signed an executive order calling for a review of all leased federal office space, particularly in cities, to slash costs. 'Over the next several months, employees will be placed on temporary remote work agreements while Nasa seeks and evaluates options for a new space for the Giss team,' a Nasa spokesperson said. Science isn't something you start over. You've got a lot of knowledge there Dr James Hansen It's unclear where, or if, such a space will eventuate. The move will likely not even save the federal government any money – the $3m a year lease is between Columbia and a different federal agency and cannot be broken early. Researchers, their books and equipment are being packed up and removed so that the US taxpayer can fund an empty building in New York City's moneyed Upper West Side. 'Ours is not to reason why,' said Gavin Schmidt, the current Giss director who noted the lab was only recently renovated at a cost of several million dollars. 'It is frustrating.' The final weeks of Nasa's time in Armstrong Hall, the name of the Columbia property, have been marked by team picnics with a farewell party planned among past and present staff. 'There are a few wobbly lips, the contribution of this place to science has been huge and people are emotional about that,' Schmidt said. 'Giss has a unique culture of autonomy, there's a special sauce here that's responsible for some really great science. Everyone knows why they are here – they could've gone anywhere else but they stay in an office that is dedicated to public service. Science for the public good is imbued in the floors and walls and elevators here.' Related: 'A ruthless agenda': charting 100 days of Trump's onslaught on the environment The work will, for now, continue in a different, disparate form. 'It's doable but it is disruptive,' said Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at GISS. 'People would rather be doing science than thinking about moving. This is a building full of nerds who love doing science, love learning new things about our planet.' But for how long, and from where? A best-case scenario could be that Giss goes into some sort of hibernation before being resurrected under a future administration. Or it could be a terminal end of an era, an apt outcome in an age of anti-enlightenment where climate science is torn from websites, scientists and their work are jettisoned, vaccines and even weather forecasting are eyed with suspicion and the president can opine that the rising seas will happily create balmy new beachfront property. 'I see this as an attack by this administration on climate science,' said Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, a researcher who worked at GISS for 13 years. 'We were afraid of something like this because we saw what was happening at other agencies, so obviously Giss is on their list because of the good climate science done there. I don't see how it can survive without a building. It's really quite devastating.' After making the most of his eggs and bacon, Hansen wandered to the nondescript side-door that gains entry to Giss, to say hello to those who followed him. Shortly after he first came to Columbia, in 1967, the building's second-floor windows were bricked up after student protests erupted over the Vietnam war. Today a different sort of tumult is in the air – before Hansen can walk in he bumps into a Nasa scientist who is delighted to see him but then swiftly asks: 'Do you have space somewhere where I can work?' Schmidt said he was unsure what comes next, but that he wouldn't want to move to Maryland and that others at Giss will feel the same. 'People have lives, some just won't want to go,' he said. 'The mission hasn't changed, though. We've punched above our weight for a bunch of folks living above a diner in New York. We've had a good run. But it's not over just yet.'
NZ Herald
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Music: Suzanne Vega flies high again with reflective new album
American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega arrived in a flash in the mid-1980s with two albums and memorable singles Marlene on the Wall, Luka, Solitude Standing and her a cappella Tom's Diner – all delivered in a distinctive, emotionally flat manner.
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Godfather of climate science decries Trump's plans to cut Nasa lab: ‘They're trying to kill the messenger'
Perched above the New York City diner made famous by the TV show Seinfeld, Tom's Restaurant, a small research laboratory became, improbably, crucial to humanity's understanding of our changing climate and of the universe itself. Now, it is being shut down by Donald Trump's administration. Nasa's top climate and space monitoring lab, called the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss), has been housed in six floors of a leased building owned by Columbia University on Manhattan's Upper West Side since 1966. Since then, it has launched the career of a Nobel prize winner, aided missions to Venus and Jupiter, mapped the Milky Way and alerted the world to global heating by creating one of the first climate models. The climate model ran on an IBM computer, the fastest in the world in the 1970s and so gargantuan it took up the entire second floor. But this storied history has meant little to the Trump administration, which is ending the lab's lease on 31 May, releasing 130 staff to work from home with an uncertain future ahead. Donald Trump, who has called climate science 'bullshit' and a 'giant hoax' in the past, wants to slash Nasa's Earth science budget in half. 'They are trying to kill the messenger with the bad news, it's crazy,' said Dr James Hansen, known as the godfather of climate science and previously director of Giss for more than 30 years. The Guardian talked to Hansen, who was wearing a trademark felt fedora, as he tackled a plate of eggs and bacon at Tom's Restaurant, which sits below the Giss office. The eggs, as well as some pancakes for your Guardian reporter, were ordered at the barked behest of the manager: '$12 minimum on food! $12! Each!' The diner is famous – its neon-lit exterior regularly appeared on Seinfeld (photos of Jerry, Kramer and Elaine, some signed, adorn the walls inside) and it inspired Suzanne Vega's 1980s song Tom's Diner and so is now regularly thronged by tourists as well as Columbia students, though perhaps less so by Giss staff. 'Are they going to destroy this place? Are they bombing it?' said Hansen about the dismantling of the institution above where we were poking at our food. 'That's the approach of Doge [Elon Musk's so-called 'department of government efficiency'] to blow things up, to use a chainsaw,' he said. 'That's a big mistake because science isn't something you start over. You've got a lot of knowledge there.' Hansen gave Congress and the world its first major warning of a climate crisis in 1988 but left Giss in 2013 to speak out more publicly about climate breakdown. His latent activism became so concerning to Nasa that, Hansen claims, it sought to install a camera outside his office to monitor his movements. Giss's independence and nimbleness allowed it to chart the dangerous heating of our planet but also spurred resentment from senior officials who long desired to subsume it within Nasa's main Goddard space flight center campus in Greenbelt, Maryland. 'We survived under a non-supportive situation for decades,' Hansen said. 'Somewhat it was a matter of jealousy, of scientists in Greenbelt thinking: 'Why are these guys getting to this privileged position?'' Ironically for a place that has produced world-leading climate science for a tiny fraction of Nasa's budget, however, it will be closed down ostensibly for efficiency reasons. Last month, the US president signed an executive order calling for a review of all leased federal office space, particularly in cities, to slash costs. 'Over the next several months, employees will be placed on temporary remote work agreements while Nasa seeks and evaluates options for a new space for the Giss team,' a Nasa spokesperson said. It's unclear where, or if, such a space will eventuate. The move will likely not even save the federal government any money – the $3m a year lease is between Columbia and a different federal agency and cannot be broken early. Researchers, their books and equipment are being packed up and removed so that the US taxpayer can fund an empty building in New York City's moneyed Upper West Side. 'Ours is not to reason why,' said Gavin Schmidt, the current Giss director who noted the lab was only recently renovated at a cost of several million dollars. 'It is frustrating.' The final weeks of Nasa's time in Armstrong Hall, the name of the Columbia property, have been marked by team picnics with a farewell party planned among past and present staff. 'There are a few wobbly lips, the contribution of this place to science has been huge and people are emotional about that,' Schmidt said. 'Giss has a unique culture of autonomy, there's a special sauce here that's responsible for some really great science. Everyone knows why they are here – they could've gone anywhere else but they stay in an office that is dedicated to public service. Science for the public good is imbued in the floors and walls and elevators here.' The work will, for now, continue in a different, disparate form. 'It's doable but it is disruptive,' said Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at GISS. 'People would rather be doing science than thinking about moving. This is a building full of nerds who love doing science, love learning new things about our planet.' But for how long, and from where? A best case scenario could be that Giss goes into some sort of hibernation before being resurrected under a future administration. Or it could be a terminal end of an era, an apt outcome in an age of anti-enlightenment where climate science is torn from websites, scientists and their work are jettisoned, vaccines and even weather forecasting are eyed with suspicion and the president can opine that the rising seas will happily create balmy new beachfront property. 'I see this as an attack by this administration on climate science,' said van Diedenhoven. 'We were afraid of something like this because we saw what was happening at other agencies, so obviously Giss is on their list because of the good climate science done there. I don't see how it can survive without a building. It's really quite devastating.' After making the most of his eggs and bacon, Hansen wandered to the nondescript side-door that gains entry to Giss, to say hello to those who followed him. Shortly after he first came to Columbia, in 1967, the building's second floor windows were bricked up after student protests erupted over the Vietnam war. Today a different sort of tumult is in the air – before Hansen can walk in he bumps into a Nasa scientist who is delighted to see him but then swiftly asks: 'Do you have space somewhere where I can work?' Schmidt said he's unsure what comes next, but that he won't want to move to Maryland and that others at Giss will feel the same. 'People have lives, some just won't want to go,' he said. 'The mission hasn't changed, though. We've punched above our weight for a bunch of folks living above a diner in New York. We've had a good run. But it's not over just yet.'
Perth Now
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Suzanne Vega regrets Prince snub
Suzanne Vega regrets turning down an invitation to Prince's house. The 65-year-old singer was touched to receive a handwritten letter from the late 'Purple Rain' hitmaker - who died from an accidental overdose in June 2016 aged 57 - and he later saw her in concert but left before the end, though offered an invitation for her to spent a day with him at his Paisley Park estate. However, Suzanne "foolishly" said no, imagining she'd get another opportunity in the future, but never did. She told Vulture: "I got a handwritten letter from him, which was a thing of art and beauty. He drew a little flower, and he wrote 'Thank God for you.' "He liked the song 'Luka'. He was at the Grammys when I performed that year. He jumped to his feet at the end of the performance, and it's a moment I've never forgotten. I think of that as sort of the pinnacle of those years. "I had hoped to meet him. He came to a show and I thought, Oh, I'll meet him then. "But he was, you know, kind of eccentric. He waited until everyone came into the venue and he came in with his bodyguards, sitting on the flight cases by the side of the stage. "When I sang 'Luka', which at that moment in time was the fourth song in the set, he got up and danced, and then he left. "He asked if I wanted to meet with him the next day and get a tour of Paisley Park. I foolishly thought, We're friends now, so I'll do it next time. Well, the next time never happened." One of Suzanne's biggest hits is 'Tom's Diner', which was inspired by her student haunt, Tom's Restaurant in New York City, but the singer quipped she's never even had a "free coffee" as a thank you, and her association with the eatery has been overshadowed by the fact it was used as the exterior for Monk's Cafe in 'Seinfeld'. Asked her standard order there, she said: "It was always fried eggs over easy with bacon, hash browns, coffee with cream, and whole-wheat toast. It was $2.75. No one at the diner has since ever given me free coffee or anything. "There is a picture of me on the menu, though, a very tiny one next to a big one of Jerry Seinfeld. They misspelled my name: 'Susan Vega'.'
Perth Now
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Suzanne Vega was advised to pull out of Glastonbury headline slot due to death threats
Suzanne Vega was told by police to pull out of headlining Glastonbury after receiving death threats. The 'Luka' hitmaker was due to be the first female to top the bill at the annual music festival back in 1989 but her performance almost didn't go ahead because of the threats that had come from her touring bassist's stalker, but she refused to take the advice from cops. She told The i newspaper: "They had included me in the threats. Scotland Yard sat me down and said, 'We advise you not to do the show.' I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'' After making it clear she planned to perform, police asked Suzanne, now 65, to wear a bulletproof vest on stage for her own protection. She recalled: 'A man from Scotland Yard took his and said, 'You'll have to wear this.' He was twice my size, so I had to gaffer tape myself into this giant bulletproof vest, and then put a denim jacket over it. It felt like every song was 20 minutes long. It was not comfortable. We were all nervous.' But despite her discomfort, Suzanne is happy with her history-making performance. She said: 'I'm proud of being the first woman to headline. There's nothing diminished about that.' The 'Tom's Diner' hitmaker recently marked the 40th anniversary of her self-titled debut album and admitted she never expected to enjoy the level of success that she has had. She said: 'I had expected to remain underground for most of my life. And it still may happen that I'm discovered after my death. 'Emily Dickinson sitting at her desk, what were her thoughts? Now we have schools named after her. So you don't know. I just prefer to think about what's going on right now.' Suzanne's latest album 'Flying with Angels' features "songs of struggle" but she gave it a more uplifting title than her original plan of 'Survival of the Fittest' because she felt it was what people "need". She explained: "But then if you call your tour ['Survival of the Fittest'] it sounds ominous or like a game show. So 'Flying with Angels' just felt to me like we need this now. We need protection. We need guidance.'
