Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

Off to another ASET meeting. Each month the club grows!

Yeah. I mean I think kids should have projects... but doing months of work in a research group where you don't understand what is even happening is silly.

Its sad because the only way kids get to ISEF now is by having some kind of lab sponsorship. Its nearly impossible for kids in rural areas without universities.

Science fair is super competitive these days. Tons of high schoolers are doing work at research labs and publishing results. Last year at state a kid brought a fusion reactor, and I saw other kids doing cancer research with KO animals.

Non geologist here.

I would assume that landslides are generally rare events in arizona. Not a ton of earthquakes, and without human activity I would guess that large, lake cuasing landslides are 'rare events' even on 55000 year timescales.

Is there actual data on the landslide rate?

My boss asked me about the alien comet last week and I had to resist the urge to facepalm.

I need that as a poster please

A striking picture with a bright pink 5 petaled azalea flower. A butterfly with a long, hummingbirdlike tail sits on the lowest petal, approximately the same size as the flower. The wings are brown with white squares, and the back of the butterfly is a cyan blue.

Enjoy this picture I took of a Long Tailed Skipper on an azalea. Urbanus proteus are cool butterflies because they look so much like moths that they used to be in an entirely separate superfamily from other butterflies (Hesperioidea), but through genetic studies are categorized alongside them.

The average in my AP PHYSICS class is hanging around a 45, it's not looking good.

C/2025 A6 looked great this morning through a 6 inch tabletop dob. From the suburbs it was not naked eye visible, but in an 8 second photo with a 50 mm lens, it shows up clearly.

You can still see it in the mornings for the next few days, around UMa

Had a day off to get something done. Accidentally spent the day summarizing how the big bang is a real theory to my family, who don't believe in the big bang.

Poof, now its 5 pm and I have 30 tabs to close again.

I'm tired, boss

This is so depressing. Why????

My students can't read. ap test practice today was terrible, only 4/19 students could complete a single FRQ question.

My school IT group has decided that we can't use open source software since it is a security risk. Wtf? I'm sorry but even the supposed 'closed source' code in every other application still depends on languages and packages that are inherently open source.

Any ideas on how I can convince them?

Slapped together a new Atwood machine this afternoon with a pair of 2x4 and some nails. I think it will work fine for the senior labs this year. But next year I'm definitly going to need to improve it.

Fun things about teaching physics:

I get to use power tools sometimes. This week I'm slapping together a few Atwood machines for the AP class. Maybe I'll publish the plans or something.

50% is wild

Replaced my 10 year old ram sticks today, and now I have a whopping 16 GB of ram.

My PC rises from the dead.

Hey, if you see a hatch act violation, report it here.

osc.gov/Services/Pag...

Oh man. I haven't seen moon man in a while. That's a really racist symbol from the early 2000s on 4chan. Like, REALLY racist. I cant believe our government posted this.

I need this mug so bad, especially if it is in the squiggly handwritten font

No, the real problem is that someone already tried all my ideas in the 1970s.

Ever wonder why astronomy is important? Read this.

iauarchive.eso.org/public/theme...

We had 600 PEOPLE at the star party in shreveport last night. Crazy stuff!

I operated the 14" SCT, and the line went beyond where I could see.

That would be wild. I dont think I've ever seen one that bright!

My clone army has arrived, they are beautiful

Did a 70 person star party with the 10 year old 6" telescope I got in high school. People love seeing saturn!

Big Gest has taken us all for fools.

Sorry but everything since the Almagest is a lie by Big Science.