Texas, and probably other states, are openly attacking and censoring higher education as well. The provost for a place I was at carried around spreadsheets of costs since overall the university was always losing money. They are in for a tough time if populations get smaller as you say.

Correct. No complete stop.

Textbooks have more features than they used to, like online homework and the like. The online component makes it easier for companies to push new versions. Professors are overworked, and intro classes, where book prices/versions rule the most, are massive. The dept probably doesn’t have funds for a full TA so grading becomes a massive undertaking. It isn’t possible in many cases to manage lecture halls without the features from the textbook publisher. So what is a young faculty member likely to do? Pick a text from a major publisher. Generally speaking, faculty aren’t out to get you, they are trying to teach you.

Sports programs that can afford expensive coaches don’t cost the university money. Big football programs pay for themselves and fund a wide variety of other sports, which don’t make money, at the university.

Universities got more expensive as state support generally declined. Features expanded as you said to draw students as universities had to compete more to get students. Plus you have these lists that rank each university. That drives students to demand more and requires more funds from universities to compete over listing items.

The guarantees for student loans actually go the other way - the guarantee is for the lender. Given the amounts people generally need for an education, along with a complete lack of income, students wouldn’t be able to get a loan of sufficient size without government stepping in as a backstop.

State governments realized they could reduce their funding towards universities (or keep it fixed while it devalues due to inflation) and push the cost onto students. Administration has also exploded in numbers. Many get paid much more than faculty. Universities have also expanded services and features to make students want to come. Universities can’t raise prices higher than students are willing to pay. Note students are also not guaranteed to get federal loans plus there are limits. Private loans aren’t guaranteed either but have a variety of programs.

Perhaps not a complete stop but numerous aircraft were destroyed as they tried to break the speed of sound. The air building up in front of you is excess pressure that is loud enough to shake windows on the ground. We shouldn’t discount the force supplied by air. It is a pressure wave from bombs, not fire, that causes explosive damage.

Thanks! Currently the plugin is iOS only but I’m actively working on releasing it in other plugin formats. In the meantime you can check out some demos if interested. https://cosmicstudio.io/sounds/

Cheers!

Thank you! I’ve included a link to my most recent publication. You can find a couple examples of my science as art figures in there as well. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2025JA033911

I’m an awesome physicist. I’ve created valid solutions for a variety of problems the community thought impossible, as well as solved problems that nobody else was aware of. My first major solution was for the diffraction of waves through an aperture. As part of that solution I even improved upon Bethe’s solution. Bethe was a Nobel price winning physicist.

I solved a data science issue with working with a collection of arbitrary data sets in a systematic manner. That open source software is pysat, python satellite data analysis toolkit.

I invented a new neutral wind instrument for satellites called SANDS that also measures composition and temperature. It is smaller, faster, more robust, and requires less power than previous attempts. In fact the solution is a differential equation rather than a ‘simple’ formula. The reason is the instrument operates too fast to simplify the math.

Most recently I solved another impossible problem in plasma physics. Previously the community couldn’t correctly calculate the distribution of electric potential around the globe because they thought the magnetic field was too complicated. I can. My software solution also produces visual art though it was explicitly designed for physics.

I also invented a new class of musical instruments called photonic musical instruments. These instruments use the resonance of electricity and light to create music in the same way acoustic instruments use the resonance of vibrations in wood. Photonic instruments create music we can’t hear using colors we can’t see. I created a software plugin that authentically recreates photonic musical instruments but in a way that we can hear. I’m currently trying to market the plugin and my art which is proving to be quite the challenge.

Wouldn’t be the first time