International student visas cancelled in Montana

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April 12, 2025

International student visas cancelled in Montana

International student visas are being cancelled in Montana. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked F-1 student visas for four international students at Montana’s flagship universities.

Three students at Montana State University (MSU) were discovered during a routine check of visa statuses — MSU in Bozeman has an estimated 400 students from 64 countries, and the vast majority of them are on F-1 visas.

The other student was from the University of Montana (UM), a graduate now living out of state. UM has students from roughly 50 different countries.

MSU was not notified in advance of the revocations, which is atypical for such cases.

The reasons for the recent revocation of international student visas in Montana remain unclear, with no specific explanations provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, broader trends under the Trump administration suggest potential reasons for such actions:

Some international students across the U.S. have had their visas revoked for expressing political viewpoints, particularly pro-Palestinian activism, through editorials or protests.

Visa cancellations have also targeted students with prior legal issues, such as DUI convictions.

The State Department has emphasized visa revocations as part of efforts to maintain national security and community safety.

In this specific case, DHS did not communicate directly with Montana State University or the University of Montana regarding the revocations, leaving both institutions and affected students without clarity on the rationale behind these decisions

MSU President Waded Cruzado emphasized support for affected students and compliance with federal laws.

Other universities like Harvard and UCLA have also faced similar actions.

Revocation processes differ between F-1 and J-1 visas.

The revocation process for F-1 and J-1 visas differs primarily in terms of governing regulations, reasons for revocation, and procedural steps.

F-1 Visa Revocation

Reasons for Revocation:

Ineligibility under visa criteria (e.g., failure to maintain full-time enrollment or unauthorized employment).

Legal infractions, such as DUIs or other criminal activities.

National security concerns or suspected immigrant intent.

Process:

Revocations are often initiated by the Department of State (DOS) or Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The visa holder may not always be notified in advance, especially in cases of “prudential revocation” (precautionary cancellations based on suspected issues).

Affected individuals may remain in the U.S. until their status is formally terminated by an immigration judge, but future applications for extensions or changes of status may be denied.

Impact:

The visa becomes invalid for re-entry if the individual leaves the U.S., requiring a new application to return.

J-1 Visa Revocation

Reasons for Revocation:

Violations of SEVIS requirements, such as failure to report arrival, dropping below full-time enrollment without authorization, or unauthorized employment.

Expulsion, suspension, or failure to maintain required health insurance.

Process:

SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) records are terminated upon violations, immediately placing the individual out of status.

The revocation process is tied closely to compliance with program-specific requirements outlined in the DS-2019 form.

Impact:

J-1 holders typically have a short grace period after termination to depart the U.S. or rectify their status.

Reinstatement options are limited compared to F-1 visas.

Key Differences

Aspect	F-1 Visa	J-1 Visa
Primary Oversight	DHS and DOS	DOS and SEVIS
Common Violations	Unauthorized employment, legal issues	SEVIS violations, program noncompliance
Notification	May lack prior notice	Immediate SEVIS termination
Grace Period	May remain until formal removal	Limited grace period
Reinstatement Options	More flexible	Limited

In both cases, visa holders are encouraged to seek legal advice immediately upon notification of revocation to explore available remedies.

Your home might be hazardous to your health

By

brad

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April 5, 2025

Your home might be hazardous to your health — Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary, your safe place, your retreat from the world. But what if the very walls around you are quietly wearing down your health? You won’t hear it knocking or catch it in your periphery.

It comes subtly: disrupted sleep, mystery headaches, persistent fatigue, irritated lungs. In the age of wellness culture and biometric trackers, we’ve focused intensely on what we eat and how often we exercise, but we’ve largely ignored the structure that shelters our lives.

The reality is: your home can either heal you or hurt you. And most of us are overdue for a gut check on the environments we’ve normalized.

Invisible Air, Visible Effects

Let’s start with air quality. If you live in a city apartment, your windows probably stay closed for long stretches. Meanwhile, dust accumulates, mold spores may linger, and that chemical-cleaner scent you associate with “freshness” might actually be toxic.

The EPA reports that indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than outdoor air. What’s worse, the culprits—like VOCs from paint and flame retardants in furniture don’t announce themselves. A fix? Invest in a HEPA filter, crack your windows daily, and introduce air-purifying plants like snake plants or pothos.

You can’t control outside pollution, but you can detox the air you breathe for eight hours a night.

Your Mattress is a Chemical Minefield

Most people overlook the very surface they spend a third of their lives on. Mattresses, especially older ones or cheaper brands, are often saturated with flame retardants and off-gassing chemicals.

These can slowly leech into your system through skin contact and inhalation. If you wake up groggy despite a full night’s sleep, your mattress may be part of the problem.

Look into organic options made with natural latex, wool, and cotton, or take steps to clean the mattress you have.

Check Your Pipes

You probably don’t think about your pipes until something goes wrong—but by then, it’s too late. Routine plumbing inspections aren’t just about preventing leaks; they’re your first line of defense against mold, water damage, and the kind of slow, hidden deterioration that silently erodes air quality and health.

These days, you don’t need to wait around for someone to show up with a clipboard. There are apps now that let you chat with a plumber via video, getting real-time advice from seasoned pros who can spot trouble early and talk you through quick fixes.

And when the situation calls for in-person help, you can instantly access a roster of local, vetted experts who are ready to step in, tools in hand, before a small drip turns into a health hazard.

Lighting Dictates More Than Ambience

The lighting in your home isn’t just about vibes; it’s deeply tied to your circadian rhythm. Cool-toned LEDs late at night can throw your body clock out of sync, delaying melatonin release and wrecking sleep.

Most people don’t realize that the wrong lighting mimics the conditions of jet lag.

Replace cold bulbs with warm-tone options and lean into natural light during the day. Morning sun exposure through your windows helps anchor your sleep-wake cycle and lifts mood naturally.

Clutter and the Cognitive Cost

Mess doesn’t just make a space look chaotic—it feels chaotic. A cluttered space competes for your brain’s attention, elevating stress and reducing your ability to focus.

Over time, that kind of subtle over-stimulation can lead to mental fatigue and low-grade anxiety. You don’t need to Marie Kondo your life, but start small: clear one drawer, one surface.

Build systems that make tidying automatic, not aspirational. Think less about aesthetics and more about mental hygiene.

Moisture is a Breeding Ground

Dampness doesn’t just make a place feel uncomfortable—it opens the door to mold, mildew, and dust mites. And if you’ve got even the faintest mold allergy, those invisible spores can do a number on your respiratory health.

Bathrooms, basements, and kitchens are usual suspects. Use a hygrometer to measure humidity levels, and keep them between 30–50%.

Dehumidifiers aren’t sexy appliances, but they’ll do more for your lungs than scented candles ever could.

Rituals Over Renovation

You don’t need a massive remodel to make your home healthier. The key is cultivating daily rituals that reinforce well-being.

Open windows with intention, swap out that synthetic candle for essential oils, and designate screens-free zones. Take your shoes off at the door … it’s not just cultural, it reduces indoor pollutants by 60%.

Light a beeswax candle during dinner, which actually purifies the air. These micro-adjustments compound over time. Your home starts to behave less like a trap and more like a tonic.

It’s tempting to think of health as something that lives in gyms and green juice. But the real foundation is built under your own roof.

Your home has a nervous system. It breathes, holds, and reacts. When it’s filled with irritants and static, you carry that tension into your body.

When you take the time to design an intentional environment, you create a space that partners with you, nudging you toward restoration instead of deterioration.

Graupel: What is it?

By

Alan

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March 22, 2025

Graupel /grou′pəl/, also known as “soft hail” or “snow pellets,” is a unique type of precipitation that forms when super-cooled water droplets freeze onto falling snowflakes.

This process, called riming, creates small, round or conical balls of rime ice, typically measuring between 2 and 5 mm in diameter.

Graupel is distinct from hail, which is larger and harder, and from sleet, which is clear ice pellets.

Graupel forms in clouds when snowflakes encounter super-cooled water droplets.

These droplets freeze onto the snowflakes, creating a layer of rime ice that can completely cover the original crystal, resulting in a ball-like shape.

This process often occurs in winter storms or at higher elevations.

Graupel resembles small Styrofoam balls and is white or cloudy in color, unlike the clear appearance of sleet.

It is fragile and will disintegrate easily if handled, unlike hail which is hard.

The METAR code for graupel is GS.

Graupel can pose an avalanche risk because it does not bond well with other snow layers, acting like ball bearings in the snowpack.

It tends to roll off steep slopes and accumulate on gentler terrain, increasing the risk of avalanches.

Under a microscope, graupel particles exhibit a unique structure formed by the accumulation of frozen super-cooled water droplets on snow crystals.

The riming process obscures the original shape of the snowflake, transforming it into a rounded, ball-like form.

Observations using low-temperature scanning electron microscopes (LT-SEM) reveal frozen cloud droplets up to 50 μm in diameter on the surface of graupel particles.

The rime ice appears frosty and milky white, with a granular texture resembling miniature beads or snowballs.

This structure is difficult to capture with traditional light microscopes due to limitations in resolution and depth of field.

Google will still have to break up its business

By

Aimee

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March 8, 2025

Google will still have to break up its business

Google will have to break up its business as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently reaffirmed its demand to do so following a federal court ruling last year that found the company had unlawfully maintained a monopoly in online search.

The DOJ’s latest filing emphasizes the need for Google to sell its Chrome browser, arguing that this divestiture would reduce Google’s dominance and allow competing search engines better access to users through the browser, which serves as a key gateway to the internet.

Key points from the DOJ’s proposal include

The DOJ insists that Google must “swiftly and completely” sell Chrome, including all related assets, to a buyer approved by the DOJ and the court. This measure is intended to allow rival search engines access to a major entry point for internet searches, free from Google’s control.
The DOJ seeks to prohibit Google from paying companies like Apple and Mozilla to make Google Search the default on their devices and browsers. This practice was deemed central to Google’s monopoly.
The DOJ also proposed reforms to Google’s Android operating system to ensure fairer competition in mobile search.
Unlike earlier proposals, the DOJ no longer seeks mandatory divestiture of Google’s AI investments, citing dependencies of companies like Anthropic on Google’s funding.

Google has opposed these measures, arguing they go beyond the court’s ruling and could harm consumers and the economy.

The company has proposed alternative remedies, such as restructuring its contracts with device manufacturers and allowing more flexibility for competitors in default search engine agreements.

The court is scheduled to hear arguments on these remedies in April 2025, marking a critical moment in one of the most significant antitrust cases since the Microsoft breakup attempt in 2000.

Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were PhD students at Stanford University in California.

Together, they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of its stockholder voting power through super-voting stock.

The company went public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004.

In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet’s internet properties and interests.

Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google on October 24, 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet.

On December 3, 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet.

1913 Holmes Wrecker transformed roadside assistance

By

Alan

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February 22, 2025

The 1913 Holmes Wrecker — In 1914, Ernest Holmes transformed the world of roadside assistance with the invention of the first tow truck, known as the “Holmes Wrecker.”

Holmes’ invention came about after he helped a friend recover a car from a creek, struggling with the primitive methods available at the time. That experience drove him to design the first-ever tow truck, outfitting his 1912 Cadillac with a crane and pulley system thus enabling it to safely recover vehicles that had broken down or been in accidents.

This innovation came at a time when automobiles were becoming more widespread, yet there were few systems in place for vehicle recovery.

Holmes’s creation filled a critical gap in the growing automotive industry, offering a practical solution for stranded drivers.

Holmes’s invention not only simplified the process of towing but also set the foundation for the future of the industry.

The robust construction and efficient design of the Holmes Wrecker provided a reliable method for recovering vehicles, making it an indispensable tool for motorists and businesses alike.

As the popularity of automobiles surged in the early 20th century, so did the need for towing services, leading to the rapid growth of an entirely new sector within the transportation industry.

Today, the legacy of the Holmes Wrecker endures in modern tow trucks, which often incorporate similar mechanical principles in their design.

The 1915 Holmes Wrecker stands as a testament to the innovation and ingenuity of the early automotive era.

It reminds us of how one man’s vision and resourcefulness helped shape an industry that continues to play a vital role in the lives of motorists around the world.

Holmes also invented the tilt-bed hauler that we see so much of today.

Here’s a picture of the tilt-bed carrier loading a truck, capturing the moment in time when Holmes’ groundbreaking ideas were beginning to take shape, soon to impact the automotive world on a global scale.

The 1913 Holmes Wrecker was sold directly to the United States Government, in limited quantity, at the tail end of World War I to be outfitted for military usage.

They would be used in full force during the second World War were in which Holmes Co supplied the Allies with 6 to 7 thousand military tier wreckers.

The regular wrecker was used in the American racing industry as it was the wrecker of choice for both NASCAR and IndyCar racing for multiple decades.