Bruce Macintosh

Sure, it doesn't look like it'll hit the Earth now, but how will it feel after a couple of spacecraft getting in its face?

Also, the H3 looks surprisingly adorable in that log.

Highlights include stealing a valuable item from an academic by pretending to be a rich potential donor, the trained Iruvian Squirrel attacking the Provost's feet, and confusing the "move stealthily" button with the "electro-berserk mode" button on the stolen remote control for a robot spider

Although the median number is zero there could well be a long tail. I believe we can assume the electric spider number density as a function of mass follows a power-law distribution.

With sightly more killer electric spiders than a typical AAS.

I'm running a Blades In the Dark RPG session tomorrow for @debbieohi.com @wjrucklidge.bsky.social @aiabx.bsky.social @drbrake.bsky.social and after a long week with limited brain space for creativity I'm just going to set the damn thing at an American Astronomical Society meeting.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

They might be Asymptotic Branch

Similarly, Marketplace is one of the best shows on public radio because they’re trying to provide useful business information and hence they’re willing to say out loud facts like “tariffs are taxes” “presidential control of the central bank would be a bad idea”

Almost certainly true that it's stellar - I was taking it that they were saying that the effect was bigger than stellar models would have forecast at these wavelengths (but I am 100% not an expert)

Excellent papers of hard analysis by smart people. My takeaways: (1) Trappist-1E doesn't have a massive primordial hydrogen atmosphere (2) There's no evidence for or against an earthlike atmosphere and in fact (3) the data is too noisy to detect an earthlike atmosphere and don't quite know why.

"The atmospheric model and the flat-line model are indistinguishable according to the Bayesian evidence—more data are needed to distinguish between those. "

Of course, the impact on science is a feature rather than a bug from the ICE standpoint; the cruelty is the point.

US Hyundai raid: South Korea vows support for citizens detained by ICE US immigration officials detained 475 workers on Thursday - most of them South Korean nationals - saying they were working illegally.

"Many of the LG employees arrested were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver programme"

This seems worrying for scientific collaboration. Will ICE decide that people coming to give colloquia, or use a telescope, on visa-waiver are "working"?

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Also I got to reference (Smith, 1776) in some powerpoint slides.

Some versions of Excel have had suprisingly effective multivariable optimization.

Today I did Actual Math and solved a problem with nonlinear least-squares.

To be fair, it was an accounting problem and the optimization was in Excel but I'm still going to call this a win.

Automatically-refocusing spectacles is a billion-dollar holy-grail problem in my field (adaptive optics) but we're pretty much never going to make that work. "Let's make a piece of glass that's cleverly curved" does work, so get the damn progressives. Very happy with mine.

Food is one of the things I miss about Stanford. But UCSC has much nicer trees.

Congratulations! Extremely happy to hear this.

It's UCSC, so don't get your hopes up for the food.

You're like the clam guy of snarky left-wing astronomers.

It is indeed.

We should reset our constellations every 50 years or so

I'm not optimistic from here - the fact that a relatively balanced court split (only) 7-4 against the tariffs indicates that there are a lot of openings for an unreasonable court (i.e. the Supreme one) to rule using the usual "If Trump Does It" principle.

It'd also be nice to get rid of K2-18b just so we can move on from the whole DMS thing.

"Like Monarez, O’Neill is not a physician" is a fascinating sentence. It seems like it might be relevant that Susan Monarez has a PhD (dissertation: "Macrophage regulation by trypanosome GIP-SVSG during trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense infection ") while Jim O'Neill is a venture capitalist with an MA.

The Fujian in the Falklands would make an interesting movie.

My resignation letter from CDC. Dear Dr. Houry, I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business. I am happy to stay on for two weeks to provide transition, if requested. This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission. However, after much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough. While I hold immense respect for the institution and my colleagues, I believe that it is imperative to align my professional responsibilities to my system of ethics and my understanding of the science of infectious disease, immunology, and my promise to serve the American people. This step is necessary to ensure that I can contribute effectively in a capacity that allows me to remain true to my principles.

The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership. This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a “frequently asked questions” document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors. Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people. It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC. The lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense. Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function. Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.

Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc. I have always been first to challenge scientific and public health dogma in my career and was excited by the opportunity to do so again. I was optimistic that there would be an opportunity to brief the Secretary about key topics such as measles, avian influenza, and the highly coordinated approach to the respiratory virus season. Such briefings would allow exchange of ideas and a shared path to support the vision of “Making America Healthy Again.” We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources. At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him. To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information. The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer. I believe in nutrition and exercise. I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability. Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.

The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud. I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur. I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed. For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics. I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision. Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world. The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunities for growth, learning, and collaboration that I have been afforded during my time at the CDC. It has been a privilege to work alongside such dedicated professionals who are committed to improving the health and well-being of communities across the nation even when under attack from within both physically and psychologically. Thank you once again for the support and guidance I have received from you and previous CDC leadership throughout my tenure. I wish the CDC continued success in its vital mission and that HHS reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution. If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.

Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back.
"The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."

Very nice result, and I'd also like to highlight Ryan Foley's excellent quote at the end - "Foley said the funding situation and outlook for continued support is very uncertain, forcing the collaboration to take fewer risks, resulting in decreased science output overall. "

Good to know! There isn't currently a large UC Program (though individual UC PIs may be participating in the NASA programs with their PI time).