Tom Megeath

Jimmy Stewart, who could follow up Rear Window with Strategic Air Command. But he brought out the darkness in the “ordinary” american guy like no one else.

Husted is running ads thanking him for saving medicaid and reducing middle class taxes, so he might be looking at the same numbers.

This interview is so clear & quietly devastating. Public media as we understand it is over.

This is not about the end of NPR & PBS. They might be able to find ways to continue to make programs. Instead of content, this is about the capacity to broadcast at all - antennae, transmitters, licenses. 🧵

Letter from SpaceX that is complaining to FCC about AST.

So something @stilgherrian.com shared earlier caught my eye and I did some reading.

Apparently, SpaceX is lodged a complaint with the FCC that another company, AST, is putting to many satellites into orbit.

First and foremost, let's get this out of the way ... fuckin lolz. They have no shame.

1/n

beautifully articulated @fringedoctor.bsky.social

The Silencing of Science: Why Publicly Funded Science Still Deserves Our Support - Lowell Observatory Explore why publicly funded science matters, from curiosity-driven discoveries to life-saving innovations, and how you can help protect its future.

The Silencing of Science: Why Publicly Funded Science Still Deserves Our Support 🧪🔭

by Dr. Gerard van Belle @fringedoctor.bsky.social
lowell.edu/the-silencin...

as an undergrad at a STEM oriented university in the 80s, we were required to take 1 humanities course per quarter. Those classes showed me that scientists are part of a society with a tumultuous history, governed by flawed political and economic systems, that brings responsibilities. So essential.

Why Did National Geographic Disappear Its Own Documentary About A Queer Climate Scientist? | Defector If you’re not a particular kind of mountain sports nerd, you might not be familiar with the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour. But for people who live their lives in the overlapping circl...

One last time before the weekend, my new story from this week, on a film that vanished in late January without explanation. Thanks to everyone who's read and shared it so far! If you haven't yet, please join this cool group of people!

Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death A city traffic engineer credits the success to lower speed limits and smarter design.

HUGE NEWS FROM HELSINKI, FINLAND

Helsinki, a city of 690 000 people, has now had a full year without any traffic fatalities. None. No pedestrian, cyclist, scooter user or car deaths.

This is a huge achievement for a city of our size. 💪🏻

A little background 🧵 1/

yle.fi/a/74-20174831

my cats seem to disappear through wormholes all the time, it‘s about time a book takes this phenomenon seriously.

Star Trek was the product of cultural upheaval. What it was about - in my mind - was idealism. Daring to believe the future could be better, and not just in a technological sense. That society could confront its demons and change for the better. I think what is missing now is that idealism.

A nebula with a bright star at its center. The nebula has three distinct layers, and the pattern in the layers repeats in a way that implies there are more layers outside the image boundaries, though they would be faint. The shape of the nebula is something like nesting yin yangs, with the center smallest one bright and dense, shining, smooth and golden. The middle one is orange and textured like a sherpa blanket. The largest, outer shell is fainter, and red like an ember. Its texture has softened along with its dissipation into space. There are some small stars speckled around the image, and one annoyingly bright, spiky one that's got too many colors because of the way the light spreads from point sources through the telescope's optics. A pale haze of grayish cloud also covers the scene, but it is sheer and translucent.

Apep. JWST. It's weird. Just look at it.

From GO 5842: What lies beyond the inner spiral of Apep?
Principal Investigator: Yinuo Han

flic.kr/p/2riELBn

Hell-vetica must be the work of satan.

i can only “read” while riding home on my bike.

My linocut portrait of astronomer Vera Rubin with short hair, glasses and resting her face in her hand in burgundy on a background of outer space with stars and galaxies in black with blue and pink splotches to mimic how dust bends light in space. At the base of the print is a large spiral galaxy with a plot of orbital velocity versus distance going out from its centre (so the distance axis is indeed distance from centre). There are two lines labelled “observed” which goes up from the origin and then is a pretty flat wavy line all the way across. This line marks the bottom of Rubin. Below it is a wide empty gap of visible white paper down to the second line labelled “predicted”. The Predicted line goes up from the origin to a peak where it diverges from the observed and falls smoothly back down in a gentle curve.

Happy birthday to #astronomer Vera Rubin (neé Cooper, ‘28-‘16) & her discovery that angular motion of galaxies deviates from predictions, 1st evidence for dark matter, now known as 5x as common as matter & the stuff which dictates dynamics of galaxies & evolution of our universe! 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬🎢🔭 #histsci 🧵

YouTube video by Space Telescope Science Institute Cat's Paw Nebula - James Webb Space Telescope #shorts

🐾 An image of the Cat's Paw Nebula by #NASAWebb in near-infrared light was released this month.

This visualization explores a subset of toe bean-reminiscent structures within a section of the nebula, a massive, local star-forming region located approximately 4,000 light-years away. 🔭 🧪

my dream is an adult, andor quality show covering the first 6 movies.

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Observations of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) We report on the observation and measurement of astrometry, photometry, morphology, and activity of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin ...

It's paper day! The first science paper with data from @vrubinobs.bsky.social's survey camera, the mighty LSSTCam, is a VERY quick turnaround of Rubin's observations thus far of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. ☄️
Chandler et al., submitted 🔭
A 🧵

A dual left/right stereoscopic pair of black and white photographies displaying a Martian landscape. This dual image is intended to be used to obtain a Stereo3D rendition of the scene through parallel viewing, and not cross-eyed viewing.

Stereo3D view captured yesterday by Curiosity from the top of a ridge, at the start of the main boxwork region

To go 3D: eyes' lines of sight parallel, left image for left eye, right image for right eye

ℹ️ science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosi...

#Mars July 20, 2025 - Sol 4605 🧪🔭
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This day 56 years ago.

The first photo taken by a human on the surface of another world.

Tranquility Base, by Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong.

Credit: NASA/JSC/ASU/Andy Saunders - Apollo Remastered (@andysaunders-1.bsky.social)

Fay: Cuts to research funding risk the collapse of U.S. science and technology I started as an assistant professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming in 2001.

Thanks to @isakoditomassi.bsky.social and the McClintock Letters Initiative who motivated me to submit this.

It was 56 years ago today Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon — a worldwide event that millions tuned into, including me and my brother (even if I did fall asleep). It’s a big reason we became astronauts and a great example of what our country can do when we work together.

To succeed in tech, one needs instead a degree in creative hubris.

Senate CJS bill is passed out of committee, with strong support for NASA and NSF (basically flat budgets) and strongly supportive language for many facilities.

www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex Constellation: Ophiuchus Distance: ~400 light-years This image captures the intricate interplay of reflection nebulae, dark molecular clouds, and star-forming regions within the Rho Ophiuchi complex — one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth. The striking contrast between blue reflection nebulae (e.g. IC 4604 around ρ Oph), ochre dust lanes, and surrounding interstellar matter highlights ongoing low-mass star formation throughout the LDN 1688 region. 📷 Acquisition Details Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 61 Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro Filter: UV/IR cut Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Exposure:  8-panel mosaic  Each panel: 60s × 240 subframes  Total integration: 32 hours Software: NINA (acquisition), PixInsight (processing) 🪐 This field includes: IC 4604, IC 4603, IC 4605 (reflection nebulae) Barnard 44, 45, 59, 68 (dark nebulae) LDN 1688 and 1689 (dense cores) Portions of the Pipe Nebula complex along the southern edge This mosaic was shot over several nights under Bortle 6 skies, with an emphasis on preserving natural color balance and dust structure across the full field.

Part of the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex. I am working on a 16-panel mosaic of the region, and this is the first eight panels. TH complex is located between 400-600 ly from us and is a combination of reflection nebulae, dark clouds, and emission nebulae. #astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Many grad students are supported as teaching assistants or research assistants, and don’t require large loans. This will have the biggest effect on who can pay for medical school and promises to reduce the number of new doctors entering the workforce at a time when we need doctors.

A getty images stock photo of an airliner with the wings removed.

The reverse is also true: every dollar in cuts will reduce economic activity/GDP/employment by many times over.

I've said it many times:
Defunding science infrastructure to reduce costs is like cutting the wings off an airplane to make it lighter.

the all purpose solution to every problem - including those we didn’t know we had. I think many technologies seemed almost god-like in power at first until we understood their limitations. Then they just seem mundane and annoying.

I think this is true for people who believe the primary goal of a college education is to confer prestige and status. You won’t get that at lower „tier“ universities, but you will get a good education.