Chad Bender

I'm very sorry to hear this. I knew things up there were not going as one would hope, but the situation is apparently much more dire than that. Best of luck with your future endeavors - I'm sure they will be important to the astro community, regardless of where you carry them out.

Brief life update: On Monday I resigned from my appointment at Lowell Observatory. I wish my remaining friends and colleagues the best of luckin their endeavors in increasing new visitor center visitation, and continuing to pursue world-class research in the face of having ended tenure today.

UT Austin Astro is hiring! It's an open call, but definitely interested in getting another exoplanet person! Feel free to reach out with any questions about the department or living in Austin! aas.org/jobregister/...

That's heading somewhere interesting ...

For those frantically trying to submit their Gemini proposals tonight, it’s broken:
www.gemini.edu/news/science...

I recommend absinthe and loud music.

Led Zep new live EP recommended! (But you've got to turn the volume up to "live" levels to really appreciate it). (N.B. The cats do not appreciate it)

Today is when those of us in the Eastern Unorthodox denomination celebrate the Feast of Bratwurst, I know our cousins in the Colorado Synod are also celebrating today. I believe the Tucson Sect has a few weeks yet.

I’m not aware of other congregations this year, but I may not be plugged in!

Good thing I make my own furniture.

Picard engineering tip: Maintenance of existing systems is just as important as building new capabilities.

Donated to this effort...

A grey cat completely passed out in a cat tree.

Virgil is a true Labor Day hero

Judge Sooknanan: As I said at the start of this hearing, I got a call at 2:36 am [last night] because the government chose the wee hours of the morning on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend to execute a plan to move these children. That's why we're here.

Commercials during tonights AZ game seem to have two main themes: 1) Visit Disney, and 2) Buy pot. Quite a combination.

Yeah. Would have required advanced planning. And it would have been $30. Fee was very clearly on every ticket.

Presumably?

Arizona stadium looks half empty for the opening game tonight. I almost bought tickets this morning, but the crazy $15 fee on a $15 ticket caused me to just close the webpage. I'll be content watching on TV. I cannot figure out how the athletics dept will loose less money if the seats are empty.

Load syllabus into AI training set and then tell students to ask ChatGPT for the answer? And also before they email you...

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

I presume you now have new found energy and can get a ton of other things done...

That is quite the find...

What was the prep for the Jalapeno? Just a slice tossed in? Muddled? Extracted in alcohol before use? Curious minds with access to large quantities of peppers want to know...

New strap (aftermarket, $10 amazon) seems to have fixed the problem. Garmin connected right away and readout plausible HR readings tonight. So the monitor itself seems sound.

Garmin worked well for a year, (I used Wahoo before). But in the last few weeks it's not been reading out (it connects, but thinks my HR is 70BPM when the bike power meter says 250W, which seems unlikely). I just got a new strap; we'll see if that fixes it. I think these all are junk longterm.

At #ExoPAG32, Shawn Domagal-Goldman (acting astrophysics director) states that at *minimum*, 10% of the topline NASA astrophysics budget, whatever it ends up being, will be earmarked for the research and analysis (R&A) programs, with a focus on early career scientists.

Next time I dive into my pool, I'm going to have to remember to make a grunt as I go airborne.

Yep. I'm on the safety committee for Steward Observatory and we wouldn't allow our workers in an environment 1/10th that hazardous without fit-tested respirators. But apparently USFS and other agencies can just ignore OSHA and NIOSH because "too hard or expensive" (which it's clearly not).

There are many bad things happening in the US in the last 8 months. But it is important to remember there are also bad things (and some positive progress) that have been happening for decades that we cannot loose sight of in all of the daily noise.

Heroics of a Type 2 team saved Kitt Peak in 2022 (some buildings were lost, but no telescopes). We acknowledge their efforts in our papers, but it sounds like we should also be paying for their chemo bills.

Living in Tucson for a decade has made clear how critical these folks are to living here.

Wildfire Fighters, Unmasked in Toxic Smoke, Are Getting Sick and Dying

This is an important article covering many decade long, intentional destruction of the health of wild-land firefighters, that could be easily prevented. Gift link for those who don't subscribe. Read and then yell at your reps! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...