Michael Busch

I can report good reception of @diane.dianeduane.com 's "Young Wizards" series from a current kid.

But she took the time to update the books to account for things like everyone having a phone.

Impacts of Atmospheric Carbon Species and Stellar Type on Climates of Terrestrial Planets The climates of terrestrial planets are largely determined by the composition of their atmospheres and spectral types of their host stars. Previous studies suggest a wide range of carbon species abund...

Today on the #arXiv :

Landry et al. 2025, "Impacts of Atmospheric Carbon Species and Stellar Type on Climates of Terrestrial Planets" - arxiv.org/abs/2508.05975

Discussing situations where planets might end up with atmospheres dominated by carbon monoxide.

New ways for the air to be unbreathable.

There just seems to be a lot of overlap between the "everything is hostile aliens" contingent and Cold War weapons-of-mass-destruction types.

Trump considering deploying up to 1,000 National Guard to D.C. The number of Guard who would be assigned is still in flux, the officials say, and most of the troops would likely be pulled from the D.C. National Guard.

Yet again, USA:

Require that Congress do its job; block this and anything like it; and #ImpeachTrump.

www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/t...

It remains strange to me that a random poster from Champaign-Urbana equating Pritzker to Temüjin has somehow stuck.

I at least understand where the couple of times I have encountered Walz being jokingly compared to a Viking comes from.

#subpost

Proxima b and d are closer to Earth than any planet orbiting Alpha Cen A can ever be for the next 25,000 years or so.

As an aside:

After the fraudulent "Alt Gov" accounts, I have become suspicious of any group that refuses to name any of the claimed members.

Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif killed in Israeli attack in Gaza City Al-Sharif killed in what appears to be a targeted Israeli attack on tent housing journalists outside al-Shifa hospital.

Al-Sharif killed in what appears to be a targeted Israeli attack on tent housing journalists outside al-Shifa hospital.

Loeb's biography includes the line "international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983-1988)".

I did not immediately find any documentation about exactly what he was doing for that.

(Tagging @nuclearanthro.bsky.social for interest.)

Now I am reminded how Avi Loeb worked on an SDI-funded project in the 1980s.

* WHAT...The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued an Air Quality Alert for fine particles pollution. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is expected to reach the Red or Unhealthy category. * WHERE...Central, east central, west central, north central, northwest, and northeast Minnesota. * WHEN...From 9 AM CDT Sunday to 9 AM CDT Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Some members of the general public may experience health effects. Sensitive groups, such as people with lung disease (including asthma), heart disease, and children and older adults, may experience health effects. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Heavy surface smoke from many wildfires across central Saskatchewan and Manitoba will wrap around the backside of an area of low pressure this weekend, as the low moves east across south central Canada. Poor air quality will most likely impact western Minnesota beginning Sunday morning, and then expand further east through the evening. Heavy smoke should then disperse from west to east across the state from Monday into Tuesday morning.

Air Quality Alert issued August 9 at 1:25PM CDT by NWS Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN
Additional Details Here.

accepted in apj letters with a few minor changes! the new slightly altered version (our figures look better, our photometric error bars are smaller, and we've added a bit of discussion about subsequently submitted 3I papers) papers just got uploaded to arxiv, so it should be available there soon.

I appreciate that the Minnesota Historical Society does not generally display that flag and instead keeps it buried in a drawer in the archives.

Inverse of "trendy". Or so I am told.

Hegseth is specifically from a Norwegian immigrant family; while Norwegian-Minnesotans make a big deal about the Scandinavian Regiment having fought for the Union.

#ImpeachRFKJr

Nixon resigned only after Republican members of the Senate told him that he had less than half of the votes he would have needed to avoid impeachment & removal.

Just like Agnew only resigned and took a plea bargain after the House leadership refused to give him immunity for his crimes.

From Michael Chwe:

The letter we wrote demanding that the University of California reject the malicious demands of the Trump administration has collected 1470 signatures in four days. Please sign and please distribute widely in all your networks!
sites.google.com/view/ucstand...

A reminder that there is a precedent for removing both a POTUS and VP for their crimes - although in that case Agnew was forced out before Nixon.

#ImpeachTrump and #ImpeachVance.

Strictly speaking; I do not know if young Lister Wyble died from the influenza or any of the so many other things that used to kill young children - nobody was testing for specific viruses in Michigan in 1919.

And yet we have people now who want to bring all that back.

#GetYourFluShot

And get your COVID shots too.

Martian meteorite: Niger's anger that a piece of Mars ended up for auction The West African country investigates how a space rock found there was put up for sale in New York.

Another case of apparent meteorite smuggling:

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

also "Nazi science"

Struggling what to picture when you see a fleck of grain from an asteroid world?

[Grabs the chalk] From the planet cookbook to crystals of soda water that might kick start life, let's hit three top analysis results!

Prefer wordy over chalky? I got your back 🔗: cosmos.isas.jaxa.jp/the-sample-f...

I keep thinking about how my grandfather was one of three brothers before the 1918 influenza pandemic and one of two brothers after.

But apparently far too many people missed that lesson.

It would be better to stand next to the radar and enjoy the waste heat; although brief exposure is not too much of a problem.

But the planetary radar at the Arecibo Observatory was known to sometimes cook birds that got into the Gregorian dome and could not get out of the beam in time.

I cannot recommend Percy Spencer's approach to laboratory safety.

Percy Spencer was working as an engineer for Raytheon in the mid-1940s when he realized this.

He then invented microwave popcorn.

The microwave oven was invented by a radar engineer who realized that a chocolate bar in his pocket melted when he stood in the beam path.

All of the penicillin in use worldwide comes from a strain of mold that was growing on a cantaloupe bought at a grocery store in Peoria, Illinois in 1942.