David Burbach 🇺🇸🌹

Poll out today shows Platner up 2:1 over Mills in Maine among D primary voters and Id love it if someone could explain this to me

Snow arch is kinda cool

Some tautaun activity observed

That's an 8ft tall fence. Our heat pump to the right

Good morning from the ice planet Hoth

So if the only engagement im likely to get is being snitch tagged to sean parnell, it doesn't feel like there's much point. But while my ego doesn't like "no one notices me there" sadly there is a lot of professionally relevant news and discourse.

At the same time the maga milbligger crowd is getting more aggressive about going after disloyal pme faculty. One prolific X poaster who is now an acreddited Pentagon press corps member has a personal vendetta against me specifically.

Ditto, even replying to non Nazis on professional topics. As a test this weekend I tried posting engagement bait of some cute cat pics, my recent rocket launch trip, and our ridiculous snow fall. Nada. One or two likes. Feels like a shadowban.

Remembering a bit of warm from Florida recently (Merritt Island NWR)

I'm all for it!

It solves the problem of MOAR STUFF IN SPACE, which is apparently important, for some reason

Good news! Elon's million satellites busy generating AI-girlfriend 👀s will be just as visible from Afghanistan or Antarctica as they are from Arlington!

So, I admit to being a bit jaded at my age, and view "this time it's real!" claims with a grain of salt. There's a lot of motivated reasoning, probably sincere but rationalizing to yourself is the first step! Maybe this time it IS real, but "we need a killer space app" is a red flag, not a feature

On the "terrestrial better cheaper", I routinely see solar power satellite studies that assume today's solar cell and battery specs even as they talk about solar satellites 10 - 15 years from now, after big R&D money. Let alone ruling out breakthroughs in fusion, etc.

There's a long history of the space advocacy community glomming on to what appears to be the killer app that this time, finally, will be real. And so far they generally don't pan out, often it turns out terrestrial applications get better and cheaper even faster

Sure, but there are many many sincere advocates who aren't just long on space and short on liquidity

Of course, many advocates don't see it that way. Space is the point, because it's space (at the scary extreme was my state's L-5 society prez back in the 80s who said he'd burn down every last tree on Earth if that gave us a 'spacefaring civiliation' somehow)

It makes sense to try to find uses if you've literally invested in space, your career is as rocket builder, etc. But from a societal standpoint, again, who cares? If something is profitable and practical in space, great. But doing it * IN SPACE * is neutral, not a good in itself

Thread captures a reason my first instinct is skpeticism: many space advocates are so desperate for a 'space killer app', be it solar power satellites, missile defense, zero-g mfg, or now, data centers.

It's a backwards question. If space makes sense, great, if not, who cares?

Uniform laws and regulations? You mean US federal law only vs some state laws also mattering? A SpaceX data center would still be under US federal regs.

*this* is the question I've been asking.

If we were to fully pave our driveway area from house to fence -- which we've thought -- about I'd be inclined. Right now we have a ribbon driveway (not my house but similar, except with a property fence 2 feet to the right of the right-hand strip)

I've considered it. But I really don't have that much to clear, and my driveway is so narrow I wouldnt be able to get a big blower from the garage past the cars (the electric is light enough I can just pick it up and carry it as needed).

Sadly true -- defense tech and anything to do with space business, space tech, space policy. I dislike it but need to read X regularly.

I don't post through, because my engagement is zero despite 13k 'followers', quality of replies, and a specific MAGA crowd actively targeting PME faculty there

If any bored youth in Cranston/Warwick want some shovelling cash DM me. "private college tuition" is probably out of range but short of that this is your opportunity to exploit market power.

Making my best guesses about heart attack-avoiding shovelling rates -- especially since ambulances aren't even getting around yet -- I don't see how we can get out of our driveway before Thursday/Friday. It's not even a powdery 38", moderately wet

Final airport tally -- 3 miles from us -- is 38 inches of snow in about 18 hours.

Mine's on a half meter stand, but in 18 hours we got a full meter of new snow on top of 20cm already on the ground. That's the average before drifting, and sadly the 3 meter wide alley between the house and the adjacent property line fence picked up a ton the way the wind worked out.

"Why do you have a three-breasted anime girl on your screen???"

"Just working towards the Führer, boss"