What I Did Last Week
By Paul VanRaden
From
February to May 2025, HR@opm.gov required me and all other US government employees
to report each Monday what we did the previous week. It was so fun that I will
continue reporting after retiring. The main difference is that now I have a
separate document for planning what to do in future weeks and then each week I
transfer what got done into this online report posted at:
Solutions to Personal
Problems
September 14, 2025
During the week of September 8-14, I:
Switched my wife’s at-home health care to hospice care. A person
who dies at home while in hospice care is considered a natural death. Other at-home
deaths may be viewed as suspicious, requiring the state to test for other possible
causes even if family members and skilled home nurses all tried hard for months
to restore their loved one’s health.
Prepaid a local funeral home for cremation service after my
wife gradually lost her ability to eat and then to drink.
Found my wife still warm but without life at 7am after I last
held her hand and told her “I love you” at 5am.
Consulted with daughters Charlee and Angel about how to cope
with this big change to our lives while we miss the head of our family. Informed
other family members that Cheryl’s life was complete, sent her life story to
them, and posted her story for others to read:
Cheryl’s philosophy was to live a happy life and share happiness
with others. She worried very little about eternal things. The following song by
Earth, Wind, and Fire may explain her final philosophy and mine. Two lines in
the song seem not exactly correct to me and could instead say: by livin’, we can
tell, that there’s no heaven, and there’s no hell; and currently 2.1 children are born for
each 1 life that ends because twice as many people share the world today as when
us seniors were born. In some future year, when my life ends, you will get no report
from me what I did last week. Then you should play this song to remember me, or
play now to remember Cheryl, your choice. Like hundreds of times in past years,
I will play and sing this fine song again today:
September 7, 2025
During the week of September 1-7, I:
Reviewed my past hospital stays after summarizing my wife’s
recent medical bills on July 21 (below). My 4 stays were all to restore my
sanity. After reporting on religion, thinking, and politics in the 3 previous
weeks, mental health seemed to be the next related topic:
Added a Labor Day page to my Holiday History
report. It just says that “Over 7 billion people on 5 continents celebrate International
Workers' Day or Labour Day on May 1. They all remember the U.S. worker’s strike that began on 1 May 1886 to
reduce working time to the standard 8-hour day still enjoyed by billions of
people 139 years later. About 0.4 billion people on 2 continents celebrate Labor Day in the first week
of September. Like the metric system, if most of the world agrees on a uniform
system or a holiday for the benefit of all workers, the United States sometimes
says no just to show them who’s the boss.
Converted about 100 early pictures of our family to
electronic, compressed them to medium resolution, and displayed them for
convenience into 3 powerpoint files by theme because 1 large file might not
transfer by email or load quickly. Then I sorted the original photos into 4
sets featuring 4 different family members so each could keep the pictures of
them. Deciding who should keep the group photos is harder but now that those
are electronic everyone in them can at least have a copy, and maybe the public
too. About 15 more books with 80 pictures each are waiting to be processed.
Retirement could be a lot of work.
Hosted our granddaughter Elexys for a weekend visit from
Baltimore. She got the 20 original pictures featuring her as a baby or a child
and took a similar set featuring her Mom back to her Mom.
Began getting home care visits that our daughter arranged to
help me give better care to my wife.
August 31, 2025
During the week of August 25-31, I:
Posted an updated report on my religion or lack thereof 42
years after changing from Christian to Atheist. My 1983 letter explaining my
change is still an excellent read today and I would not change one word of it.
The main difference is that now I am more willing to help you change your
religion. That is easy:
The Right to Have No God (2025)
Dear family, I am an Atheist (1983)
Posted the visual aids for my September 1996 lecture to the
Atheist Student Association, University of Maryland – College Park. Their club
had about 60 members but fewer than 20 attended my talk. It was the only time I
spoke on Atheism. I was not trying to convert them, instead I was “preaching to
the choir” so to speak:
Better Beliefs for
Nonbelievers
Drafted a life story of my wife Cheryl. Since I report what I
did every week, a report of what she did over 63 years also seems nice to have.
It lists mostly her positive events and traits like a resume would, but she and
I are not applying for jobs right now. During our daughter’s first 25 years, I
kept an ongoing list of Things Angel Did both good and bad on paper and kept
that private. Then I typed it into one long table of 219 events in date order
(~9 events per year) and gave it to her with a new title Angel’s Nice Life for
Christmas 2022. In May 2025 she also got her files of paper mementos, and maybe
soon her picture books. Few kids keep a diary of their whole lives, but you can
do that for them or even ask them to help you.
Costarred with 2 dogs in a video on owner obedience training.
Some dogs are taught to carefully follow their owner’s commands, but my wife’s
2 little dogs mostly decide when we stop, when we go, and how fast we run. We
chase rabbits and squirrels and birds together but did not catch any yet, only
lizards and insects. In my daughter’s video, she called the dogs, they ran to
her as fast as they could, and I tried to keep up.
Got my first retirement check from the Thrift Savings Plan
and consulted with family on what to do with it.
August 24, 2025
During the week of August 18-24, I:
Thinking,
Computing, and Improving Both
Valued variety more and repetition less while biking. Doing
the same routine exercise every time gives your mind a chance to relax or
wander, but in retirement I prefer more variety. Circular paths (such as the
trail around BWI airport) can give you twice the sights of going straight back
on the same path. My current 6 routes have large loops or many U-shaped side
streets, and now to get more mental exercise and see opposite angles of the
same scenery I go clockwise or counterclockwise every other time. Only about
25% of my miles go out and come back on the same path and the routes overlap
only about 10% with each other. One route is on new roads just built between
new houses being constructed, so I ride that route twice as often because it is
twice as interesting. After almost 4 months and 400 miles (644 km) in FL, I am
still finding new side paths to explore. Even simple repetition can get
difficult as we age. For decades my grandpa drove the same 5 miles to and from
my uncle’s farm each day but after age 90 he missed a turn and got completely
lost. I will try to avoid that.
Studied Alexei
Navalny’s life for inspiration after noticing that many Russians are
reading my reports (second after Americans). Last week president Putin claimed
that if Trump had been president in 2022, Putin would not have invaded Ukraine.
What is much easier to believe is that if Navalny had been president of Russia
in 2022, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine. Winning an election against
Putin is not easy when his government controls the news, makes false charges
against all opponents, puts them in jail, tries
to kill them, and then succeeds by storing them in Siberia. Many of Putin’s
critics die mysteriously, but in July 2024 only 3 of 9 US supreme court
justices agreed that ordering
the assassination of opponents should be illegal for a US president, like
it is for the rest of us. Trump bragged that he personally “could
stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any
voters.” Please vote for people more like Navalny and less like Putin.
Learned from my retirement specialist in the Office of
Personnel Management that employees at OPM still had to report the 5 things
they did last week until this week when they got a new director. In January I
submitted forms for my May retirement and OPM hopes to complete the paperwork
and determine my pension amount by August 27.
Consulted on a project to estimate conception rates for
individual bulls by including their matings to both heifers and cows and
matings using X-sorted semen. The USDA-Beltsville sorting technology
was first developed in 1989 and is now a huge global business. For the latest
news on that subject, see our Basiel
et al article published this week.
August 17, 2025
During the week of August 11-17, I:
Posted a new report showing that while the Republican party
drifted radically into a personality cult, my political beliefs learned from
Republicans in the 1980s and 1990s still make sense:
Republican Politics You Can Believe In
Updated my previous report on How to Live with a new
section (5) about preventing evil people or natural disasters from decreasing
your happiness and my happiness. The report already explained how I quantify
and try to do the most good for the most people and now also explains how
stopping or preventing harm can be more important than doing good because good
people cannot make nice things as fast as bad people can destroy them. Other
sections of the report were not revised.
Watched 2 criminal authoritarians meet in Alaska to thank and
praise each other but say nothing useful and answer no questions at a ‘press
conference’. Peace happens when governments respect national borders and stop
shooting at or threatening their neighbors, but the Russian leader illegally
stole 10% of Ukraine’s territory in 2015 and 12% more since 2022, and in 2025
the American leader threatened to illegally take all
of Canada, all
of Greenland, Panama’s
canal, deport
all Palestinians from Gaza, and signed a deal to take 50% of Ukraine’s
minerals. Putin and Trump could divide Ukraine like Stalin and Hitler divided
Poland and eastern Europe in 1939: you take half and I’ll take half. The
day after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Trump called Putin’s decision “genius”,
“wonderful”, and “savvy” because whatever Putin took, Trump would let him
keep. While praising Putin for taking land and starting a war, Trump’s first
thought was to act like him and take more land from Mexico: “We could use that
[strategy] on our southern border”. A better goal than winning or conquering
may be to stop fighting, such as when the Korean war ended in 1953 with help
from the United Nations. My father was in the Air Force when that country was
divided. He and Koreans on the south side of that line were pleased that the
fighting stopped 72 years ago but Koreans on the north side are still suffering
from brainwash and little freedom. That is what Putin will give to Ukrainians
on the land he stole and what Trump wants to give you and me.
Contributed $10,000 to CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and
Relief Everywhere), a major global charity with government and corporate
support. I gave > $5,000 to that charity in each of the last 4 years
deducted from my paychecks as part of the Combined Federal Campaign but after
retiring I gave a single donation. The global need is greater this year after
Republicans viciously destroyed the US Agency for International Development and
the lives of many of the world’s poorest people. I still care about the poor
and sometimes try to help them.
Sorted a box of old, loose family pictures into several
stacks, converted the best pictures to electronic, organized those into
powerpoint files, and emailed or showed that display to family. I got nice
comments back and a request to convert many more picture books into electronic
displays.
August
11, 2025
During
the week of August 4-10, I:
Finished
reading “Ghandi’s Search for the Perfect Diet: Eating with the World in Mind”
by Nico Slate (2019). An employee of the National Agriculture Library suggested
it to me. The 180 pages were a little repetitive, but I enjoyed many quotes
from Ghandi such as after limiting his diet to no more than 5 ingredients per
day for several years: “Experience suggests that as we start leading a simple
life and as we become firm in our search for self-realization, our craving for
variety in food dwindles.” That agrees with my nutrition experience
after eating 13,500 bologna sandwiches for lunch every day during the past 37
years (bologna with peanut butter added since 2020). Ghandhi defended the right
of Indian people to move to South Africa: “We have as much right to be here as
the whites have.” That agrees with my philosophy of letting people live
where they choose, such as letting people from India (or anywhere else)
move to these American continents that the whites took from the Indians.
Read the
65-page Homeowner’s Maintenance Manual and 10 booklets of appliance
instructions for the house that my wife bought for us 2 years ago. She is the
sole owner and I’m studying how to care for this house after moving in
recently. Two weeks ago, on a 95-degree day, our air conditioner shut down
because its condensation pipe clogged, costing about $200 to get unclogged the
next day. The instruction book for the central air system did not mention
flushing out the pipe every few months but the homeowner’s manual did. I made a
check list to record the service intervals and future dates of maintenance for
all appliances.
Performed
much maintenance recommended in the manuals: cleaned the dishwasher’s internal
filter and ran its vinegar wash, cleaned the microwave’s grease filters, ran
the oven’s EasyClean cycle, ran the washing machine with chlorine to smell
fresher, checked the dryer’s vent, cleaned the overhead fans’ blades, ran an
unused shower to refill its water trap, inspected the window seals, sprayed the
perimeter to keep bugs out, lubricated 2 garage doors and spray waxed their
exteriors, adjusted the splash guards under 4 eave spouts and replaced 2 guards
that were missing. Wow, those are only 1 thing I did last week! Keeping busier
in a house than in an apartment where most maintenance was the landlord’s job.
Filled out a
long Health Assessment from my insurance provider and got a score of 89 out of
100 where 79 is the average for 65-year-olds. Their medium risk concerns were
disease prevention, possible high cholesterol, and my independence, and their
high risk concern was for my productivity. So, during retirement, I will work
on being more productive.
Have missed
televised sports since moving because I did not yet add sports channels to my
wife’s cable package after my former employee Gary Fok advised me that watching
TV wastes too much time. Again this year the Florida Panthers won hockey’s
Stanley Cup championship and my Canadian friend Pete congratulated me earlier
when they defeated his local Toronto team in the tournament. I replied “The FL
Panthers have more
players from the 51st state than from all the other 50 states combined, so
people in Canada can cheer for the Panthers too.” This week, hockey players may
want to be traded north to the 51st state to avoid paying those new
35% ‘emergency’ US tariffs on Canadian goods. Shame on Florida for importing
Canadian players, they took half of our hockey jobs away!
August
4, 2025
During
the week of July 28-August 3, I:
Learned that
USDA scientists can no longer have foreign coauthors without special permission
from higher levels. “Effective immediately, all USDA employees and affiliates
are prohibited from… authoring or coauthoring a scholarly publication, in their
official capacity, along with a foreign national without a USDA agreement in
place prior to the initial drafting or editing of the publication. Failure to
comply with these requirements will result in disciplinary action, which may
include removal from Federal service.” Of the 10
papers I coauthored in 2025, 7 papers include foreign national coauthors.
The lead author’s organization often had a formal agreement with USDA but not 6
other coauthors from Canada, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, and Lebanon that the
lead authors chose to improve our research. My best publications on global data
from Interbull often included foreign coauthors. Each year we met as formal
committees during USDA-approved Interbull meetings but without a separate
agreement for each committee member. This prohibition will make international
research nearly impossible, which is their goal, since they are also not
approving any new agreements.
Graphed my
investment strategies over the past 65 years. From ages 0-9, my only investment
was a 30-year $25 treasury bill that my grandparents gave me plus some cash
from doing chores. From ages 10-18, I invested only in Holstein cattle and
owned 14 calves worth $9,000 as a high school senior. During college I held
only cash and not a lot but had no debt because college and graduate school
were affordable back then. When employed and single (ages 28-34), I invested
only in stocks. When married, I invested in housing. My thrift retirement fund
was always in stocks and gradually grew to 74% of my net worth. Those graphs
are the last 2 slides in this presentation.
Rebalanced
my retirement fund by moving 20% from common stocks to government securities,
but already had my private savings all in Treasury bills and notes since
selling my house 7 years ago. Decided to be a little more cautious now that
interest rates provide a reasonable return, the stock market is high, and I’m
not as young as I used to be. Soon we will need to plan how to spend the extra
retirement income.
Added our
daughter as beneficiary of my Thrift retirement fund because my wife needs care
and our daughter would need to provide more support if I was not here. The
online advice I saw comparing retirement fund strategies forgot to mention the
incentives for beneficiaries. People get life insurance to help beneficiaries
pay their bills if you are gone. If insurance gives them the same income that
your employment did, they may have no financial incentive either way, but of
course they would prefer to have you around instead of only your insurance
payment. When you retire and stop earning pay, beneficiaries would be better
off financially if they inherit your money right away rather than after you
spend most of it. Annuities can reverse their incentive while providing you
more total income if you live longer. If you save or give some of your annuity
directly to beneficiaries instead of spending it all, their incentive will be
to help you have a long, healthy, pleasant, frugal life.
Finally got
my Maryland license plates sent back to Maryland by my son-in-law who waited
patiently for an appointment at the DMV to get Florida plates for my former car
that is now his.
July
28, 2025
During
the week of July 21-27, I:
Learned that
the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center where I worked from 1988 until May
2025 will be shut
down. The goal seems to be to make many remaining researchers quit. Similar
recent, hostile actions of the administration including this one are now more
fully documented in:
Defend Your
Government: Trump’s Attack on Ag Research
Consulted
with my former coworkers on how to deal with the end of research at Beltsville,
MD and reviewed a revised paper on crossbreeding.
Wondered if
sports such as sprinting, high jump, and long jump could be improved by
preserving angular momentum. Humans run on 2 legs which makes us one of the
slower species, but faster running, higher jumping, and longer jumping may be
possible using tumbling passes and flipping as in gymnastics:
Born to Run but Could Go
Faster
Posted a
link to the nice film of my
daughter’s June wedding on the beach, made a presentation of their best wedding photos
that arrived last week, and added family photos from our West Palm Beach reception into
our recent vacations presentation.
Helped my
daughter sort out our thousands of loose coins into 13 rolls of 40 quarters, 9
rolls of 50 dimes, 7 rolls of 40 nickels, and 4 rolls of 50 pennies for a total
of 13(40)$0.25 + 9(50)$0.10 + 7(40)$0.05 + 4(50)$0.01 = $191. After we got
tired of sorting and packing rolls, a coin sorter counted the last $19.12 of
loose pennies, nickels, and dimes for a fee of $0.55 + 12.5% * $19.12 = $2.94
but we saved $24 by packing the more valuable coins ourselves. Now we can get
interest on $210 instead of losing value from inflation.
July
21, 2025
During
the week of July 14-20, I:
Summarized
our recent hospital and medical charges and realized that people without
insurance can go bankrupt quickly. For a stay of 11 days including 7 in
intensive care, the first hospital billed $460,000 but the insurance company
said no, only $93,000 was allowable. For the next 39 days, the second,
long-term-care hospital billed $276,000 but the insurance company said no, only
$82,000 was allowed. Our copay was $350 and our annual maximum charge is
$12,000. Some recent medical services for home care also try to bill several
times more than the insurance company says is allowable and one doctor billed
us again for the same services we already paid for a month before. Our annual
total cost for medical insurance plus life insurance was $36,000 but my employer
(USDA) paid 75% of that cost as a fringe benefit so we paid $9,000. By having
insurance, we avoided the financial shock that overbilling causes to uninsured
families when they already are in a crisis.
Prepared a monthly budget for our household incomes and
expenses after getting no salary and no pension or annuity income yet in the 2
months since retiring. My previous USDA salary after subtracting taxes and
health insurance was $9,232/month. My new after-tax retirement income for the
rest of my life could be $17,650/month if I convert the $1.9 million in my
Thrift Savings Plan to a joint life annuity and start Social Security payments
right away. High projected retirement income is why I retired at age 65, will
convert only part of my savings to annuity, and deferred my Social Security to
start at age 67. I have proven that saving too much for retirement is possible,
but that is not a terrible problem to have.
Discussed with my former boss how Congress pretended to fully
fund my former project at USDA again in the Big Bogus Bill and pretended to
increase the Agriculture
Research Service budget by 4% for next fiscal year, but the administration
prevents researchers from spending the funds that Congress budgets. Congress
giveth, but the administration taketh away, which used to be illegal and
probably still is. Many skilled researchers accepted USDA’s offer to do no work
and still get their same paychecks from May thru September, and next year most
of their positions and my own will remain vacant or be abolished. The
administration by executive
order refuses to do the research required in my
highly rated 5-year plan regardless of Congress’s budget or the law. When I
listen carefully to Republican officials nearly all seem insane except those
that left the Trump cult or never joined. You all may leave the cult and will
feel better about yourselves.
Inspected the new genetic
evaluations for milking speed now being computed for first official release
in August. Herds with robotic milking machines or large milking parlors do not
like cows that take too long to give their milk. Developing that trait was one
of our last big projects at USDA before my team was cut from 9 researchers to 4
for no reason.
Noticed that
my 5 Things often have been longer and more complex recently, including links
to further reading and some philosophy or history rather than only deeds done.
My 5 Things were short in the early months because Elon never read anyone’s
reports, but now that you are reading mine, I will try to make your click worth
your time and give you something useful to think about.
July
14, 2025
During
the week of July 7-13, I:
As author,
drafted a summary of new options and tools to consider in human genetics that
were not available when I reviewed the literature in 1983 and last wrote about
human genetics in 1985. I expected that this update might take months to
research and write but it took only a week because my thoughts were always
hidden just below the surface, waiting to see the light.
As editor,
sent my human genetics update to 5 potential ‘anonymous’ reviewers (known to me
but will not be revealed to you), got brief comments back from 3, and included
their suggestions in the report.
As
publisher, posted my report on my web site 1 week after it was drafted, faster
but also less impact than most journals. Also easier for author, editor, and
publisher to agree when they are the same person:
Finished
reading “A Book of Simple Living” by Ruskin Bond from India that Mahesh Neupane
gave me. The style of this 150-page book is a little like “What I Did Last
Week” but more immediate and more observing, with about 100 brief notes from an
old man on what was most interesting today or from his earlier memories. His
philosophy to not ask for much is like mine. He did not say how to be very
productive while also using few resources, but his impact was very positive
simply by writing and sharing his interesting thoughts. Thank you, Mahesh (and
Ruskin).
Sent to my
granddaughter Elexys the biggest of the 3 award plaques that I kept because she
might display it, but I will not. She asked “Do you think you can send your
award in the mail I would love that” and my answer was “I shipped it just now.
It should last longer than I do.”
July
7, 2025
During
the week of June 30-July 6, I:
Checked
which web pages I write are being read and by whom. In the first 6 months of
2025, paulvanraden.com had 4,225 unique visitors with 6,273
total including repeat visitors, 8,767 pages downloaded, or 11,634 total
downloads including repeats such as if you reload or refresh this page to get
new news next week. Of the 1,921 pages downloaded in June 2025, 37% went to
requestors in the United States, 19% to Japan, 13% to Russia, 11% to China, 8%
to the European Union (and Great Britain), and to at least 10 other countries.
Those statistics from awstats exclude web crawler and robot visitors. During
June, this page “What I Did Last Week” was second most popular with 85
downloads after Simple Calendars with 127 but ahead of The Right To Migrate with 58 requests in third place.
Traffic to my site more than doubled from 2024 to 2025 after I added security
(https vs http) in January and more, free, interesting pages.
Updated my
report on the ethics of abortion. The first half of the report is mostly the
same as in 2023, but I expanded the last half with further logic, analogies,
and trends:
The
Embryos That Do Not Become Babies (2023-2025)
Watched the
local fireworks on July 4 and wondered if civilized countries should unite and
declare that they depend on and need each other for many things instead of each
country celebrating their independence.
Expanded my
July 4 slides in Holidays,
History, and Political Comments after the US supreme court ruled last week
that no other judge or court may stop a president from breaking laws such as to
illegally end birthright citizenship (Trump v CASA).
Last July they said a president can never be punished for breaking any or every
law connected in any way to his job. Millions of Americans now protest against
being ruled by a king, for the rights of immigrants, and for the rights of
citizens born in America, like the signors of the Declaration of Independence
protested in 1776. King George III had taxed and ruled without consent. Now,
the US president puts high “emergency” taxes (tariffs) on goods from all other
countries, accepts bribes, pardons his criminal friends, deports people who
object to his policies, tries to expand his empire by making Canada surrender,
and in an April 28 interview said “I run the country and the world,” just as
King George III might have said in 1776. Back then, our 13 colonies united to
defend themselves against the king. Now, other civilized countries should unite
to defend themselves. Canada still prefers a friendly British king or queen as
its head of state instead of a rude, lawless American. At least the royal
family never claimed that they won an election that they lost and never sent an
angry gang to attack the legislative branch to try to stay in power.
Finished
reading an interesting 62-page book “What the Chicken Knows” by Sy Montgomery
that my daughter gave me. It explains how hens can become very good friends
with people but how mature roosters can be very unfriendly: Hens are chickens,
but roosters are brave. After retiring I thought I would have more time to read
but started reading this short book in May and finished in July. I must be
working too hard.
June
30, 2025
During
the week of June 23-29, I:
Missed the
American Dairy Science Association annual meeting held in Louisville, KY this
week following the Interbull meeting last week with one day overlap. Such
meetings always provided nice deadlines to finish research projects and
opportunities to discuss ideas for future research with fellow scientists and
industry coworkers. For the last 40 years, often on the way back home from
scientific meetings I began planning new projects to do the next year. For
example, I learned that thousands of DNA locations could be easily read by “SNP
chips” at a 2006 World Congress meeting in Brazil, and I spent all of 2007
programming and simulating how genomic data could estimate how related any 2
individuals are. Those
formulas are now applied to inspect DNA for millions of individuals of
countless species including humans.
Welcomed our
newlyweds back from their honeymoon in Europe.
Wondered how
many trips to Europe I made for USDA during 37 years of research and the answer
was 24 trips to 14 countries. Total cost was maybe $70,000 (about $3,000 per
trip), but benefits to US taxpayers from our laboratory’s research projects
were several billion dollars from faster genetic improvement of dairy cows and
more affordable dairy products as documented in this peer
reviewed paper. The whole world trusted our research because we went to
their meetings and carefully explained our science to them, and our genomic
predictions helped increase US exports of frozen bull DNA to $300 million/year
in 2024. My wife and daughter went along on 3 of those trips to Europe (at our
own expense).
Compared my
exercise totals for the first half of 2025 to my January-June totals from
previous years. My biking miles dropped 30% (401 vs 579) because I no longer
bike 6 miles/day, 5 days/week for work, but in some previous years I had fewer
miles. My running, swimming, and basketball hours are similar to mid-year of
2024, but I did 6 more hours of weightlifting due to a nice gym 1 mile away
right next to the all-year outside pool surrounded by palm trees. For the
second half of 2025, my planned exercise goals are to bike 3 times/week for ~10
mile rides, swim twice/week, and play basketball once/week to keep my total
exercise pattern steady. My total exercise of 216 hours in 2024 was more than
any previous year, and that updated report is now posted at:
Keeping Fit (Exercise 1978-2024)
Helped
revise a coauthored paper for the Journal of Dairy Science on how to
standardize milk production records. For almost a century, USDA has provided
adjustment factors to compare cows more fairly regardless of their age, season
of calving, or times milked per day. On average, cows today give twice as much
milk as cows did 50 years ago, and their milk also has better quality now.
Mammals everywhere agree that milk is still nature’s most perfect food, and
cows are trying hard to make it even better. Our new factors are now used in
ranking millions of cows for their individual productivity:
Standardizing
Lactation Yields
June
23, 2025
During
the week of June 16-22, I:
Helped my
wife celebrate her birthday.
Saw many
more wonderful honeymoon updates from our newlyweds while they tour Italy:
https://www.instagram.com/omgitsangelv/
https://www.instagram.com/imcesarmorel/
Missed the
Interbull annual meeting held in Louisville, KY this weekend. In 2025, the
United States Department of Agriculture (and other departments) banned its
research scientists from attending such meetings even after the US dairy
industry invited the global dairy industry representatives to join us here this
year. The new administration really hates science, scientists, and
international cooperation. I have opposite views. My farewell address and my
final talk to Interbull last year in Slovenia explained why I always loved
working with scientists across borders to solve important, practical problems
for all the people and all the cows on earth:
Farewell
to Interbull Friends (2024)
Breeding programs
compared across countries, continents, and breeds (2024)
Reviewed a
scientific paper on crossbreeding for the Journal of Dairy Science.
Told my
sisters and brother last Saturday: “Miriam will be demonstrating against the
king today instead of conversing with us. The king sent federal troops into
California last week to show their governor how to stop people from protesting
against the king. Miriam and many others still believe that people should
protest against having a king, but the king disagrees. The Constitution says we
should not have a king, but last July the Supreme Court ruled that kings are
ok, and 51% of Congress wants to have a king. I miss the Constitution and the
democracy that every President including this one swore to preserve, protect,
and defend. That was one more of his big lies.” Since 2020 my 4 siblings in IL,
CA, and MI and I (now in FL) meet for a video chat almost every Saturday.
Usually we discuss more friendly topics, but the king now wants the whole world
to obey his commands and do what he says. Instead, we should make America kind
again.
June
16, 2025
During
the week of June 9-15, I:
Congratulated
my former employee Dr. Jason Graham on being selected Director of Research at
Holstein Association USA and gave him this advice: Perhaps >80% of
association members voted for the government that illegally took your job away
and cut our USDA research group in half, and most of their Board of Directors
might still defend every evil, hateful thing that Trump did or plans to do. My
wife convinced me to keep my political views separate from my job duties, and
until this year many of my coworkers had no idea that I value each person on
earth equally. Hopefully you will not be fired for sometimes reminding farmers
of the moral values they used to have before they elected this criminal con man
to destroy our society. Good luck.
Walked my
daughter Angel down the beach in Jupiter, FL to marry her high school
sweetheart, Cesar Morel.
Revised the
poetic wedding vows I drafted last year with help from the bride, the groom,
and the groom’s Mom who officiated their wedding last Monday. They recited
these vows more or less:
Wished the
newlyweds a happy honeymoon in Europe plus many years of happy married life.
Shared a
nice, joint vacation with my wife, my siblings, Charlee’s family, and Cesar’s
family and friends. Everyone at the wedding had a great time, see:
Recent Vacations
2021-present
June
9, 2025
During
the week of June 2-8, I:
Learned that
federal workers will not need to report their 5 accomplishments in future weeks
after Elon officially left the US government. His “Go fast and break
everything” strategy gave much poorer results than our laboratory’s previous,
very successful, 117-year strategy of planning carefully and giving the public
and the world the most benefit from every tax dollar received. Next week Elon
could do 5 constructive instead of destructive things, or maybe just relax and
think clearly like I do.
Got an
excellent haircut from my soon-to-be son-in-law Cesar at Prestige Barbershop,
Lake Nona and gave him my old car.
Prepared a
nice little handout for my daughter’s wedding, and then she prepared a Newlywed
Times newspaper announcing the occasion.
Traveled to
W Palm Beach with Cheryl to attend Angel and Cesar’s wedding and to meet family
and friends.
Got a
Florida driver’s license to replace Maryland license but not a Florida car
license plate in the same trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles because my
auto insurance transfer from Maryland to Florida was only about 90% completed.
June 2, 2025
During
the week of May 26-June 1, I:
Found that my grocery list averaged
9% higher price in Florida than in Maryland for the same food items, whereas
federal government locality pay says that DC area total cost of living is
higher than in FL.
Compared current food prices to
previous decades and posted my complete report on nutrition at:
Human Nutrition for the Hungry (Paul’s
1987-2025 experiment)
Posted some
additional photos of my early trips (1994-96) with Cheryl. See:
Summarized
and photographed my previous awards and plaques to save space in my car by not
moving them to Florida. See:
Finished
exploring 5 new bike routes, each about 10-12 miles long and each very scenic
and peaceful. My sister Miriam suggested adding this point later because she
worried that my 3 nutrition sentences plus my full report might be counted as
just 1 thing I did and misinterpreted as not doing 5 things this week. Nice
suggestion!
May
26, 2025
During the week of May 19-25, I:
Learned
several new health care and cooking skills for Cheryl beyond the limited
doctoring and the simple food rotation that kept me going for the last 38
years.
Celebrated
30 years since Cheryl and I toured Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong
Kong (the only time either of us visited Asia). See:
Big Honeymoon (1995
pictures)
Sent an
article on selecting cows for reduced methane production to my former boss and
to the University of Wisconsin. Such research is now banned within the US
government but is progressing quickly in several other countries.
Helped my
former postdoc Bailey revise her article on advanced mating technologies after
she received very favorable comments from 2 anonymous reviewers. Congress
funded her high-quality research but then in 2025 the administration blocked us
from spending our funds to do further research.
Congratulated
Bailey on winning the 2025 Graduate Student Paper Publication Award from the
American Dairy Science Association.
May
19, 2025
During the week of May 12-18, I:
Welcomed my
wife home from the hospital.
Celebrated
30 years since we got happily married. See:
I Found Cheryl (1994 poem)
Little Wedding (1995
pictures)
Posted on my
web site 3 new reports that I wrote in recent months:
Defend
Your Government (2025)
Births,
Deaths, and Presidential Lies (2025)
Holidays,
History, and Political Comments (2025)
May
12, 2025
During the week of May 3-11, I:
Left the USDA Agriculture Research Service to begin
retirement in Florida.
Realized that doing one job very well for weeks or months or
years may be a better goal than trying to do 5 new things each week.
Wondered if that explains why the fake ‘department’ of
government efficiency did such a poor, sloppy job at most things it tried to do
without first checking what the laws require, what government services benefit
people the most, or how much more it would cost to improve upon the excellent
services our research delivered. During 37 years at USDA, the only major waste,
fraud, and abuse I saw was the extreme harm caused by DOGE in 2025.
Loaned my old car from Maryland to my future son-in-law in
Florida.
Celebrated my 65th birthday.
May
5, 2025
During the week of Apr 28-May 2, I:
Provided comments to Jason on his fertility revision paper
and to Jana on sire conception rates.
Worked with Mahesh on updates to the AGIL web site.
Discussed the future of research at Beltsville, MD with Le
Ann, the Center Director.
Copied needed electronic files and email addresses from USDA
to my personal computer.
Turned in my government ID and computer and retired.
April
28, 2025
During the week of Apr 21-25, I:
Drafted sections of the FY25 Annual Report for Sajjad, the
only full-time scientist left in my project.
Met with my 4 departing and 4 remaining staff at USDA to
discuss their future employment and research opportunities.
Presented my final slides from the U GA meeting to our local
research group.
Discussed the transition from multistep to single-step
genomic prediction.
Loaned many files to CDCB to study how the data and computer
code that they use was developed by ARS.
April
21, 2025
During the week of Apr 14-18, I:
Was selected to receive a Pioneer Award from National Dairy
Shrine.
Consulted with Jana Hutchison on how to estimate the
fertility of service sires with gender selected semen and from matings to both
heifers and cows.
Reread hundreds of my printed emails from 1988-92 and was
impressed how consistent the genetic evaluation topics are now compared to 35
years ago.
Took a day of annual leave to return to MD from FL.
Transferred my external agreements to other AGIL scientists
ahead of my retirement.
April
14, 2025
During the week of Apr 7- 11, I:
Spoke remotely on the topic “Future directions for animal
breeding” to a conference at the University of Georgia. All 16 other speakers
were at the conference in person, but ARS cancelled my travel.
Said goodbye to postdoc Bailey Basiel because ARS did not
allow AGIL to use our funds to extend her excellent research on advanced mating
strategies for dairy cattle.
Learned that 3 of my closest coworkers (Dr. Asha Miles, Dan
Null, and Dr. Jason Graham) resigned and accepted USDA’s offer to get 5.5
months of pay for no work because ARS is making research difficult.
Answered several questions from the dairy industry about
inbreeding adjustments.
Continued taking sick leave to support my wife while she is
hospitalized.
April
7, 2025
During the week of Mar 31-Apr 4, I:
Consulted with coworkers on research abstracts already
accepted but forbidden by ARS to be presented.
Documented the 43-year history of Interbull meetings that
USDA scientists are now forbidden to attend.
Advised coworkers on new research projects regarding
sex-sorted semen and using data from heifers.
Spoke to the department head at North Carolina State as a
reference for job applicant Asha Miles.
Used many hours of sick leave to care for my wife in the
hospital.
March
31, 2025
During the week of Mar 24-28, I:
Listed reasons and filled forms to extend a valuable
postdoctoral position another year.
Consulted with my employee who was illegally terminated by
DOGE and then was offered to be rehired.
Inspected national evaluation files for April and consulted
on specific issues.
Updated the National Association of Animal Breeders on base
change and selection index math.
Took 3 days of sick leave to care for my wife in the
hospital.
March
24, 2025
During the week of Mar 17-21, I:
Transferred historical files to CDCB to prepare for
celebrating a century of calculating predicted transmitting abilities for dairy
cattle by USDA, then CDCB.
Wrote a triannual summary of AGIL research and a chronology
of administrative actions affecting AGIL for the CDCB Board of Directors.
Examined the April genomic predictions including the revised
Net Merit selection index formula.
Participated in an Interbull Technical Committee meeting for
the last time.
Discussed future opportunities for data collection and
evaluation with AGIL staff.
March
17, 2025
During the week of Mar 10-14, I:
Provided managers reasons why agricultural research should
continue to exist at Beltsville.
Advised CDCB on solving specific issues about calculating the
genomic predictions for April.
Verified that fertility program code works properly after
questions about spontaneous abortions.
Revised and resubmitted research on inbreeding after
incorporating reviewer comments.
Recycled unneeded paper files and kept only those needed.
March
10, 2025
During the week of Mar 3-7, I:
Examined statistical properties of genetic evaluations for 2
new calf health traits and 1 new fertility trait.
Consulted with CDCB on specific problems in the April genetic
evaluation.
Worked on final edits for our article on the new recessive
mutation (BLIRD) affecting calf and cow survival.
Advised coworkers on best methods to complete ongoing
research projects.
Switched supervisor status for my final 2 employees to other
supervisors ahead of my retirement.
March
3, 2025
During the week of Feb
24-28, I:
Advised the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) on best
methods for imputing missing genotypes in low-coverage DNA sequence data.
Answered >10 questions from 6 different industry leaders
about my revised USDA Net Merit index to be used by all dairy farmers in April.
Instructed 3 coworkers on how to modernize and preserve
several previous research projects in advance of my retirement.
Drafted 7 slides to be presented at a conference in Georgia
in April and to CDCB in March.
Volunteered to act as Research Leader this week due to my
Research Leader’s scheduled travel to meet with the national suppliers of dairy
farm data, as our Laboratory always did during 117 years of extremely valuable
research.
Feb 24, 2025
To HR:
Last week was highly productive for our research project and
my own research after taking Monday off to honor our presidents:
On Tuesday, our team met as we do every week, and I discussed
at length the important current and future research and computer programming
projects of Asha Miles, Sajjad Toghiani, Gary Fok, Jana Hutchison, Dan Null,
and Mahesh Neupane, which help keep the price of milk very affordable for
taxpayers.
On Wednesday, I completed a reorganization of all 117 years
of historical government project files on dairy cattle breeding after merging
my own historical records since 1982 into the USDA collection in advance of my
retirement.
On Thursday, my team and I met nearly all day with 21 staff
members of the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding in Bowie, MD to transfer our
technology for immediate use by US farmers and by businesses that export
>$200 million per year of US DNA to make the next generation of dairy cows
more profitable everywhere.
On Friday, I revised an article for the Journal of Dairy
Science written by postdoc Bailey Basiel and provided guidance to her on how we
could further document the incredibly fast adoption of our USDA technology by
farmers all across the United States.
On Sunday, I wrote this reply and forwarded it to my team as
a draft of how we might reply to the Saturday request from HR, but I did not
count that extra hour of weekend work, consistent with my policy for 37 years
of working but not billing the government for countless hours of evening and
weekend work because I enjoy giving the taxpayers extra results for free.
Following are the earlier
instructions from Human Resources.
From: HR <hr@opm.gov>
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2025 9:20 PM
Subject: What did you do last week? Part II
Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets describing what you
accomplished last week and cc your manager.
Going forward, please
complete the above task each week by Mondays at 11:59pmET.
Please do not send links, attachments, or any classified/sensitive information.
If all of your activities are classified or sensitive, please write “All of my
activities are sensitive”.
From: HR <hr@opm.gov>
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2025
4:46 PM
Subject: What did you do last week?
Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you
accomplished last week and cc your manager.
Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments.
Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.
From: HR <hr@opm.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
9:17 PM
Subject: Fork in the Road
Importance: High
During the first week of his administration, President Trump
issued a number of directives concerning the federal workforce. Among those
directives, the President required that employees return to in-person work,
restored accountability for employees who have policy-making authority,
restored accountability for senior career executives, and reformed the federal
hiring process to focus on merit. As a result of the above orders, the reform
of the federal workforce will be significant.
The reformed federal workforce will be built around four pillars:
|
1) |
Return to Office: The substantial majority of federal
employees who have been working remotely since Covid will be required to
return to their physical offices five days a week. Going forward, we also
expect our physical offices to undergo meaningful consolidation and
divestitures, potentially resulting in physical office relocations for a
number of federal workers. |
|
2) |
Performance culture: The federal workforce should be
comprised of the best America has to offer. We will insist on excellence at
every level — our performance standards will be updated to reward and promote
those that exceed expectations and address in a fair and open way those who
do not meet the high standards which the taxpayers of this country have a
right to demand. |
|
3) |
More streamlined and flexible workforce: While a
few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in
the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to
be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.
These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the
reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal
employees. |
|
4) |
Enhanced standards of conduct: The
federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal,
trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work. Employees
will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move
forward. Employees who engage in unlawful behavior or other misconduct will
be prioritized for appropriate investigation and discipline, including
termination. |
Each of the pillars outlined above will be pursued in
accordance with applicable law, consistent with your agency's policies, and to
the extent permitted under relevant collective-bargaining agreements.
If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed
focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look
forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce. At this
time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position
or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with
dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.
If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal workforce, we
thank you for your service to your country and you will be provided with a
dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred
resignation program. This program begins effective January 28 and is available
to all federal employees until February 6. If you resign under this program,
you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will
be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30,
2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason).
The details of this separation plan can be found below.
Whichever path you choose, we thank you for your service to The United States
of America.
*********************************************************************
Upon review of the below deferred resignation letter, if you
wish to resign:
|
1) |
Select “Reply” to this email. You must reply from your
government account. A reply from an account other than your government
account will not be accepted. |
|
2) |
Type the word “Resign” into the body of this reply
email. Hit “Send”. |
THE LAST DAY TO ACCEPT THE DEFERRED RESIGNATION PROGRAM IS
FEBRUARY 6, 2025.
Deferred resignation is available to all full-time federal employees except for
military personnel of the armed forces, employees of the U.S. Postal Service,
those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security,
and those in any other positions specifically excluded by your employing
agency.
|
DEFERRED RESIGNATION LETTER |
|
Please accept this letter as my formal resignation from
employment with my employing agency, effective September 30, 2025. I
understand that I have the right to accelerate, but not extend, my
resignation date if I wish to take advantage of the deferred resignation
program. I also understand that if I am (or become) eligible for early or
normal retirement before my resignation date, that I retain the right to
elect early or normal retirement (once eligible) at any point prior to my
resignation date. |
|
Given my impending resignation, I understand I will be
exempt from any “Return to Office” requirements pursuant to recent directives
and that I will maintain my current compensation and retain all existing
benefits (including but not limited to retirement accruals) until my final
resignation date. |
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I am certain of my decision to resign and my choice to
resign is fully voluntary. I understand my employing agency will likely make
adjustments in response to my resignation including moving, eliminating,
consolidating, reassigning my position and tasks, reducing my official
duties, and/or placing me on paid administrative leave until my resignation
date. |
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I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition during my
remaining time at my employing agency. Accordingly, I will assist my
employing agency with completing reasonable and customary tasks and processes
to facilitate my departure. |
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I understand that my acceptance of this offer will be sent
to the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) which will then share it with
my agency employer. I hereby consent to OPM receiving, reviewing, and
forwarding my acceptance. |
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********************************************************************* |
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Upon submission of your resignation, you will receive a
confirmation email acknowledging receipt of your email. Any replies to this
email shall be for the exclusive use of accepting the deferred resignation
letter. Any other replies to this email will not be reviewed, forwarded, or
retained other than as required by applicable federal records laws. |
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Once your resignation is validly sent and received, the
human resources department of your employing agency will contact you to
complete additional documentation, if any. |
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OPM is authorized to send this email under Executive Order
9830 and 5 U.S.C. §§ 301, 1103, 1104, 2951, 3301, 6504, 8347, and 8461. OPM
intends to use your response to assist in federal workforce reorganization
efforts in conjunction with employing agencies. See 88 Fed. Reg. 56058; 80
Fed. Reg. 72455 (listing routine uses). Response to this email is voluntary.
Although you must respond to take advantage of the deferred resignation
offer, there is no penalty for nonresponse. |
From: VanRaden, Paul
Sent: Friday, January 24,
2025 9:19 AM
To: Graham, Jason
Cc: Baldwin, Ransom
Subject: RE: Email Test
Jason
I was wondering the same thing and was going to ask Randy. It seems like a new
direct control of low-level employees from the top scheme to avoid the
supervisor chain. Could have been Elon’s idea to improve efficiency. We all
work directly for Don now. We are his YES men.
Paul
From: Graham, Jason
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2025 9:02 AM
To: Vanraden, Paul
Subject: Fw: Email Test
Am I supposed to respond to this?
From: HR <hr@opm.gov>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2025 1:25 AM
Subject: Email Test
|
This is a test of a new distribution and response
list. |
From: VanRaden, Paul
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2025 10:43 AM
To: HR@opm.gov <hr9@opm.gov>
Subject: RE: Email Test
YES
I was working hard but was interrupted by this request.
Please reply YES if you read my email. [HR never replied]
From: HR <hr@opm.gov>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2025 2:20 AM
Subject: Email Test
Importance: High
|
This is a test of a new distribution and response list. |