Michael Busch

That is not how this works.

NASA's budget has long been as much as the next two largest space agencies, CNSA and ESA, put together.

There is not now any replacement for everything that is being threatened.

In 2024, I talked with an international student considering options here in the US. After the election, they opted to take a position in Europe instead.

I cannot say they were wrong.

Graduate students in physics and many other fields get paid for their work regardless.

The problem we have in the United States right now is the funding that pays many students being threatened.

I continue to be reminded why Newsom was neither my first nor my second choice for governor when I lived in California.

For both the Minnesota and bike-riding contingents:

Today I saw someone bicycling in the snow, towing a trailer that contained a tree.

There is a precedent.

The astrophysicist Fred Hoyle started to claim that anything & everything was aliens (influenza, polio, prions, etc.) and to publish variously bad science fiction.

There is a difference between Hoyle and Loeb, though:

Cambridge made Hoyle resign.

Pretty good lava fountain today.

Best appreciated from a considerable distance.

This is one reason why I like @moonpalacebooks.bsky.social and the Uncles bookstore in Minneapolis.

I have heard the modern pentathlon redesign as "going from 19th century military officer training to 21st century movie stunt performer training".

Which does not seem so bad as updates go.

Academic freedom is applicable to anyone with a teaching role. You can’t ask graduate students to teach, advise students, and evaluate student work with granting them academic freedom. The recent debacle at OU and a previous one in the School of Social Work at UT Austin illustrate this.

Bracket for "BSky Planetary Science Image of 2025" contest, featuring small icons of 16 images grouped into four quarter-finals. There are semi-finalists and finalist placeholders against a lunar surface backdrop.

📣 Hey folks, it's time to vote on your favourite #planetaryScience image of 2025! 🧪⚛️🚀🛰️☄️🪐🌔

Follow this 🧵 not to miss a vote!

We'll have 4 quarter-finals to determine the semi-finalists, from which we'll decide the finalists and, ultimately, the winner.

#AbolishICE

UNL used bad data to make $27.5 million cuts, faculty say UNL's faculty takes issue with the data used by the university to propose program budget cuts. The eliminations are partially financial, but all of the programs up for elimination made more money in s...

It is also grossly ironic to use faulty data to cut the statistics program.
www.dailynebraskan.com/news/unl-use...

BREAKING: ‘This hurts’: UNL eliminates 4 programs despite faculty, student pleas The University of Nebraska-Lincoln eliminates the Earth and atmospheric sciences 8-0, educational administration 7-1, statistics 7-1, textiles, merchandising and fashion design 7-1 programs.

It's over.

Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.

www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...

For actual HBV vaccine information, as an antidote to all the bad takes:

bsky.app/profile/pete...

I used to frequent an alternate history forum.

There were a few people who were way too enthusiastic about trying to imagine ways for the Nazis to win WWII or for the Confederacy to win the US Civil War.

And then they wondered why other members started to avoid them.

This is depraved

Perennially:

1980s cyberpunk was supposed to be a warning and not an instruction manual.

In Feb. 2009, more than seven years after 9/11, the NRC finally issued a rule requiring new nuclear power plant designs be assessed for their ability to avoid or mitigate the effects of a large commercial aircraft crash, while insisting the US gov’t alone is responsible for preventing such attacks.

Blasting outward from variable star KX Andromedae, these stunning bipolar jets are 19 light-years long. Recently discovered, they are revealed in unprecedented detail in this deep telescopic image centered on KX And and composed from over 692 hours of combined image data. In fact, KX And is spectroscopically found to be an interacting binary star system consisting of a bright, hot B-type star with a swollen cool giant star as its co-orbiting, close companion. The stellar material from the cool giant star is likely being transferred to the hot B-type star through an accretion disk, with spectacular symmetric jets driven outward perpendicular to the disk itself. The known distance to KX And of 2,500 light-years, angular size of the jets, and estimated inclination of the accretion disk lead to the size estimate for each jet of an astonishing 19 light-years.

🔭 The Bipolar Jets of KX Andromedae

Image Credit & Copyright: Tim Schaeffer and the Deep Sky Collective

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25120...

Congress could amend 28 U. S. C. §1, which sets the current size of the court at 9

Supreme Court agrees to decide if Trump may end birthright citizenship | CNN Politics The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide if President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship with an executive order is constitutional, offering the justices an opportunity to revisit w...

Yet again, USA:

Do not allow this or anything like it.

And #ImpeachTrump and #UnpackTheCourts.

edition.cnn.com/2025/12/05/p...

#AbolishICE

I am reminded of how some anti-fluoride quacks try to pretend that the United States does not need to add fluoride to our water supply because Denmark does not, ignoring how Denmark naturally has enough fluoride in the groundwater.

The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: 9780593701683 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle...

November and December account for 20% of the typical indie bookstore’s *annual* sales so

please give books as holiday gifts and please preorder my second book from an indie bookstore today … your early order helps them stay afloat and helps me as a writer

Astronomical image of quasar MG J0751+2716 showing gravitational lensing. Faint red arcs in a ring shape are visible against a black background.

Radio #ImageoftheWeek 📡

How can astronomers study incredibly distant radio sources that cannot be directly detected? 🤔 Gravitational lensing!

Gravitational lensing explained ⤵️🧵 THREAD

(1/4)

📸 Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF

#RadioAstronomt #Astronomy #GravitationalLensing

If the vaccine denialists who have been installed by RFK Jr. were "pro-birth", they would not also be trying to deny pregnant people vaccines.

Call them the genocidal eugenicists they are.

"All is lost" narratives are popular because people generally do not want to take action. Taking action is tiring so if all is lost, you are off the hook. Nothing is more seductive than not having to do anything.

Seen in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, the barely lit surface of the icy moon Enceladus is shown with numerous jets ejecting water ice into the blackness of space. Sunlight is coming from the upper left.

#PPOD: Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed tiger stripes near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in this image released on Feb. 23, 2010. 🧪 🔭

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Photo shared by Christina Nguyen on December 04, 2025 tagging @naomi.marie__, @nathanmiller612, @rubyscher, @holaarepa, @birksg, @chefjholig, and @haihaimpls. May be an image of text that says 'AS SOME OF YOU MAY HAVE HEARD, I.C.E. PAID US A VISIT AT AREPA YESTERDAY. OUR GM NAOMI & TEAM MEMBERS FOLLOWED OUR ICE PROTOCOL PERFECTLY, THE AGENTS LEFT & NO ONE WAS DETAINED. tO WHOEVER NEEDS THIS: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS WHEN IT COMES TO I.C.E. (1/5)'. christinanguyenmpls 11h We had an ICE scare yesterday and even though we’re afraid of the repercussions of being vocal, we feel that it’s also important to inform people that this is right at our front door. ICE is not some far away boogeyman. They are here right now, spreading fear in our community. We’re so grateful to our entire staff and their bravery. They did the right things and couldn’t have dealt with this situation in a better way. We are grateful to our community activists that came to support us from @miracmn @litosonlake and Monarcha. We hope that if you find yourself in the same situation, that you find these resources helpful. Peace and take care of each other ❤️

Photo by Christina Nguyen on December 04, 2025. May be an image of text that says 'IF I.C.E. COMES TO YOUR RESTAURANT: UNLESS THE AGENTS HAVE A SIGNED JUDICIAL WARRANT, THEY CANNOT ENTER A PRIVATE AREA LIKE THE KITCHEN WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION EVEN IF THEY LIE AND SAY THY DON'T NEED A WARRANT, STAND YOUR GROUND AND INSIST THAT YOU NEED PAPERWORK (2/5)'.

Photo by Christina Nguyen on December 04, 2025. May be an image of text that says 'IF I.C.E. COMES TO YOUR RESTAURANT: HAVE OTHER STAFF OR PEOPLE PRESENT RECORD THEM AND EVERYTHING THEY ARE SAYING. (PEOPLE DOING UNLAWFUL THINGS HATE BEING CAUGHT IN TH ACT) YOU HAVE THE RIGHT to REFUSE SERVICE & YOU CAN ASK M tO LEAVE YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY IF THY DON'T HAVE A WARRANT. (3/5)'.

WE ARE HEARTBROKEN THAT OUR IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES IN THE TWIN CITIES ARE BEING TARGETED AND TERRORIZED BY THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION. THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE THAT ARE BEING USED AS POLITICAL PAWNS AND IT'S APPALLING. REGARDLESS OF THEIR LEGAL STATUS, THERE ARE SO MANY LATINOS & SOMALIANS WHO ARE AFRAID OF BEING DETAINED DUE TO MISTAKEN IDENTITY BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY MIGHT NOT GET DUE PROCESS & A FAIR TRIAL. THEY WILL JUST END UP IN DETENTION CENTERS & A LEGAL PROCESS THAT HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A BLACK HOLE. WE STAND IN SUPPORT OF OUR IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY, WHO ARE THE BACKBONE OF THIS COUNTRY. WITHOUT IMMIGRANTS, AMERICA IS NOT THE SAME PLACE. STAY SAFE OUT THERE & TAKE CARE OF YOUR NEIGHBORS. LOVE, HOLA AREPA & HAI HAI (5/5)

ICE raided a James Beard award winning restaurant & because the chef/owner was prepared, left emptyhanded: