michael_w_busch

michael_w_busch, 6 days ago to random

twitter.com/?mx=1 is currently useable.

twitter.com is not.

Under Elon Musk's management Twitter evidently cannot even manage to consistently redirect a URL.

Addendum:

When I wrote this over on Twitter, it apparently automatically changed the links in my tweet to the non-functional "x . com" URLs: https://twitter.com/michael_w_busch/status/1791342757883109855

Which is not what I wrote.

If Twitter is going to change what I write without my consent and without cause; this may be it for me posting over there.

michael_w_busch, 8 days ago to northcarolina

Do not allow this or anything remotely like it, #NorthCarolina.

For so many reasons.

Roey Hadar @roeyhadar
2024 May 15

NC #HB237, a BAN ON WEARING MASKS IN PUBLIC, passes Senate 30-15.

The bill removes an exemption allowing masking for medical reasons.

Republican supporters say it will not criminalize mask wearing for health reasons but Democrats and the state's legislative analyst say it does.

michael_w_busch, 10 days ago to Minnesota

Looking out the window at the sunset:

Check your masks and run the air filters, #Minnesota.

(A side effect of having lived in California: Telling the air quality by the color of the Sun).

QT MN Air Quality Index @mpca_aqi
2024 May 12

An air quality alert for Red/Unhealthy for All continues for all of Minnesota. Smoke has reached St Cloud/ Marshall, and will soon reach the Twin Cities. The smoke is following a cold front moving from north to south and will linger overnight. #mnwx #aqi

michael_w_busch, 12 days ago to random

I have come across multiple instances today of people presenting old aurora photos as if they were from the current solar storm.

That is disappointing.

It is also no longer surprising to me, given what happens whenever there is a large meteor bolide.

michael_w_busch, 13 days ago to random

"SpaceX launches a flock of Starlinks it is likely to lose because somebody apparently did not check the weather report."

QT Jonathan McDowell @planet4589
2024 May 10

Launch of @SpaceX Starlink Group 8-2 from Vandenberg at 0430 UTC May 10

michael_w_busch, 14 days ago to random

Busy Saturday coming up on the space weather report: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ .

michael_w_busch, 15 days ago to Minnesota

A group of Republican state legislators here in #Minnesota want to legalize vehicular homicide: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=senate&f=SF5500&ssn=0&y=2024.

Do not let them remain in government, Minnesotans.

And the MNGOP is now explicitly a pro-murder party.

michael_w_busch, 15 days ago to random

Last chance to suggest a name for a certain rock pile: https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20231206_CC21Camp_e/

QT 小惑星探査機「はやぶさ２」
@haya2_jaxa
小惑星2001 CC21命名キャンペーンですが、いよいよ明日（5月9日＝2003年に「はやぶさ」が打ち上げられた日）が名前の応募の締め切りになります。この小惑星にふさわしい名前を是非、ご提案ください！

https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/20231206_CC21Camp/
https://twitter.com/haya2_jaxa/status/1787998846158885254

michael_w_busch, 20 days ago to random

#Chang_e6 is on the way to the Moon.

QT @AndrewJonesSpace
2024 May 3
"China launches Chang’e-6 mission to collect first samples from the moon’s far side" - https://spacenews.com/china-launches-change-6-mission-to-collect-first-samples-from-the-moons-far-side/

michael_w_busch, 25 days ago to random

Some good news.

(Carbon capture is not a thing at scale, so this rule would appear to be the US government finally working to shut down all coal power plants.)

QT PBS NewsHour @NewsHour
2024 April 28

Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a rule issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/coal-fired-plants-will-have-to-capture-emissions-or-shut-down-says-strict-new-epa-rule

michael_w_busch, 28 days ago to random

At the #HeraMission workshop today; Ian Carnelli confirms that the mission is on schedule for launch in October: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/11661626/11661645/Hera_April2024_Schedule_V5.pdf/

It is then five months out to fly by Mars before going on to #Didymos & #Dimorphos to follow up on the #DARTMission deflection demonstration.

michael_w_busch, 29 days ago to random

Today in bad science reporting:

Research study: "At high concentrations in a lab vial; polyphenols can deactivate SARS-CoV-2."

Popular news article: Pretends that drinking tea helps with COVID.

Me: "Those are not at all the same thing."

And no excuse is needed to drink tea.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

#subtweet

If proposing a space mission that has to be done in 5 years and must launch in 3-4 years; you may not want to suggest an entirely new spacecraft design.

This is not regarding any particular mission proposal. I've just been listening to a lot of mission plans today.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Keeps getting more crowded in the sky.

The Cosmos 2221 and TIMED satellites passed within < 10 m of each other on 2024 February 28; avoiding a collision only by the chance of their orientations.

https://www.space.com/nasa-timed-satellite-russian-space-junk-near-miss-february-2024

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Today on the arXiv:

Lauretta et al. 2024, "Asteroid (101955) Bennu in the Laboratory: Properties of the Sample Collected by OSIRIS-REx" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12536

Pretty good rocks.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Biology is weird.

Sendker et al. 2024, "Emergence of fractal geometries in the evolution of a metabolic enzyme" - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07287-2

Apparently just an example of random genetic drift.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

My timeline reminds me that several scientists I respect appeared on the "Ancient Aliens" show, trying to counter pseudoscience.

It was not very effective.

And that's one reason why I turned down an interview request from the "Ancient Aliens" producers and William Shatner.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Battle et al. 2024, "Challenges in Identifying Artificial Objects in the Near-Earth Object Population: Spectral Characterization of 2020 SO" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad3078

When asteroid surveys find a rocket booster from 1966.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Five years from today, asteroid #Apophis will make a very close flyby.

There will be many Earth-based observations, including by #TeamRadar, and the #OSIRISAPEx mission will get a spacecraft out there after the flyby.

For details of current plans: https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/apophis2024/

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Three years later, this is still true.

QT Michael Busch @michael_w_busch
2021 July 26

It remains way past time for everyone to stop giving Avi Loeb a platform.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

@sudnadja @nyrath The abstract notes the large number of meteors that were considered to find five candidates; but leaves the multiple-sample correction implied.

Perhaps this part from the conclusions should have been included in the abstract as well:

"Given the large number of events examined, this suggests to us the most likely explanation in these cases is simple measurement error, though we cannot rule out true interstellar origins for these events at the significance levels quoted."

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

@sudnadja @nyrath Refer to Section 4.8 of Froncisz et al. 2020; where Peter Brown's group cautions about the statistical and systematic errors in meteor radar: "instrumental effects are present among our detected population warranting caution in interpretation of the results".

(even without the systematics; given their sample size, one would expect that a large fraction of their candidate interstellar dust particles were not actually interstellar - as Peter pointed out later).

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Today on the arXiv:

@kat_volk & Malhotra 2024, "Differences between Stable and Unstable Architectures of Compact Planetary Systems" https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.06567

Most planetary systems are dynamically unstable on a timescale of order their current age. This paper explores some details.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Article headline: Advertises new low-mass aeroshell for returning spacecraft.

Me: Go on.

Article text: Promotes this for military use rather than, say, scientific sample return.

Me: No.

michael_w_busch, 1 month ago to random

Still true.

QT Michael Busch @michael_w_busch
2019 October 17

#subtweet

A geomagnetic storm like the one in 1859 would cause significant problems; and we should make some efforts to mitigate that risk.

No, such a geomagnetic storm would not do anything remotely close to "fry all the electronics in the world".