No. 36 of 108
July 19, 2025
The Office of Research and Development of the Environmental Protection Agency has been eliminated. Long criticized by industry, the Office’s mandate was to independently conduct research on hazardous chemicals. Their findings would form the basis for future regulations. Environmentalists also criticized the Office for not moving quickly enough, or aggressive enough in protection of the environment. In other news (of the non-headline variety), researchers discovered translations were repetitively made from incorrect medieval transcriptions that discovered and corrected change in entirety the storyline in the 12th century Song of Wade, referenced in Chaucer. Instead of “elves”, the hero battled wolves (an allegory to dangerous men rather than supernatural forces); instead of “sprites”, sea snakes (natural dangers rather than mythical forces).
Truth is rarely black and white, obvious and concrete, singularly good or singularly bad. Truth takes effort to be rooted out from hidden places, understood as knowledge is gained and penetrated. Independent research and inquiry, rigorously pursued with purpose and without bias, are critical to uncovering the truth. The alternative is to chase the imaginary elf, believe what we choose to believe, pit our beliefs in increasingly existential fights against what it is and the sprites we don’t believe. There are enough real wolves and sea snakes to contend with! Pursue the objective truth.