Mike Nolan

Yep, same one. Nothing.

I took that same picture, but from farther away. It just missed us, so still no rain here.

NSF and NASA Budget Requests Pose an Unprecedented Threat to Astronomy The president's budget requests for NASA and the NSF were released last week. This post summarizes the major cuts and the impacts they would have, and provides resources to help fight back against thi...

From Skylar Grayson @skylargrayson.bsky.social : This post summarizes the proposed major cuts to NASA and the NSF and the impacts they would have, and provides resources to help fight back against this wasteful and unnecessary attack on science. 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/06/02/b...

Kinda feels like that's all we have time for anymore.

Dave has always been a fountain of ideas. 90% crazy, but that's still one amazingly good idea per day. He would spout off ideas while teaching undergraduates.

I don't know either of those languages, but it seems to have Swedish and Finnish words jumbled together? Yksi Kaksi Kolme were the only words I actually recognized, but there was certainly some "yeah that's Germanic" in there.

A fun tune in any case.

I don't know in inches, but I prefer lanyards short so that it's not as hard to attempt to surreptitiously look to see what the name of this person you really should know is. There are competing issues, of course.

That whole "cause - effect" thing isn't something they believe in.

What could possibly make you think that?

This happened last time too. Sometimes he would say something sane because he hadn't yet been told that that wasn't the policy.

They might if they get federal funding. That's the problem with this: so much simultaneous insanity that there's no way to keep up

I guess it depends. I have back trouble, and my PT wants to hurt me without it hurting :).

Oh, and I use that phrase because it's what Wikipedia calls it. Other choices are политический руководитель or Nationalsozialistische Führungsoffiziere

As my PT says, If it hurts when you do that, don't do that.

I guess she just should have, then.

That's the movie I'm speaking of :-(

And then there's the whole "every grant program must have a political commissar" requirement in the memo.

No salary for students and post-docs = the people who support them also lose their jobs. R1s go bankrupt quite quickly in this scenario.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

wapo.st/4gfgcHQ

Note also the requirement that every grant program have a political commissar.

This pretty much fires every scientist working for a university or research company, and most people doing work for NASA.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

For context, Russ Vought, the OMB nominee, told Congress he believes he is allowed to not spend appropriated fund regardless of the law banning impoundment. The Senate should not confirm someone promising to engage in illegal executive aggrandizement.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

This post was for you :).

Yeah but it would end up being all Sinclair news sites with the same propaganda. The point is occasional access to the local source of the news of the day, and that's not going to happen in the era of conglomerates.

Most do, unfortunately. E.g. , LA TImes is getting a lot of hits right now, but I don't have a long-term interest and certainly don't want to be on their long-term ad list.

Yes! I don't live anywhere near you. I don't need your ads. But I'd be happy to pay you a dollar for the one thing that is relevant to me.

Just to amuse a few, I will say "Mongo".

I agree with Tod. No. Dune was written as a singleton, and the rest ride on its coattails. Some are better than others (I've read about half of them, probably 40 years ago), but reread Dune a few years ago and it's still pretty good.

FWIW, Foundation is a lot shorter than Dune :).

2/2 "Stop being angry" needs to be rephrased as "It's clearly useless to gripe all the time, but I reserve some time for "I need an hour to !@#$%^& let some steam off about this ridiculous situation". I will not give away my shot.