@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social
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markmccaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social

Former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency / JWST Science Working Group Interdisciplinary Scientist / Co-founder Space Rocks / New worlds ahead / Opinions very much own

Located in The Netherlands for now, so expect lots of cycling with wide horizons & big skies for a bit longer 🚴‍♂️

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markmccaughrean, to random
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“What was the best space film you ever saw?”

“Well, I’ll tell ya. I seen a lot of ‘em & most of ‘em are just pictures on a wall. But there was one film I once saw which I think truly did have the right …

… What was the best film I ever saw? Well, err, you’re looking at it 😄”

😉

markmccaughrean, (edited )
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Just in case there are young folk here who haven’t seen The Right Stuff, the dialogue is an adaptation of Gordo Cooper’s riff on being asked who was the best pilot he ever saw, the reply being “You’re looking at him.”

It’s a running joke in the film, but near the end, he goes off track & starts talking about Chuck Yeager without actually naming him.

I mean, I love The Right Stuff, but there is one space film that’s better, the Yeager to its Cooper.

YMMV, of course 🙂

https://youtu.be/3keXDg7naPU?feature=shared

markmccaughrean,
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@bert_hubert See my profile header … but you knew that already, Bert 🤪

markmccaughrean,
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@Impertinenzija Great questions, to which only the last one has a very obvious answer 🤪 As for the written works, it varies from day to day and book to book, but Iain M Banks is very high up there 🙇‍♂️ And perhaps not hard sci-fi, but I have a lot of time for David Mitchell as well. Ann Leckie writes great stuff too … I could go on & on … 🙂

markmccaughrean,
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@Impertinenzija Remind me in the future – bed time now 😴

markmccaughrean, to random
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I hate getting rid of books, but apparently not half as much as books hate being got rid of 😬✌️

This bunch were mostly duplicates or water-damaged (as was the box, evidently), although perhaps I’ll regret not having those calculus textbooks in my life any more 🤷‍♂️

markmccaughrean,
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@apolitosb Note that it ends in “telescopes” plural, i.e. it shows undue faith that there will be more than one 🤪

To be honest though, that one was artfully placed in such a way as to draw exactly such a response 🎣🙂✌️

markmccaughrean,
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@apolitosb When in Holland, clogs are de rigeur, even if they’re pink plastic ones.

I promise to wear Birkenstocks with white socks for the German equivalent picture 🙇‍♂️🙂

markmccaughrean,
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@doddington My wife has made four trips to Edinburgh in recent weeks & not a single jar of Marmite came back. I have a six month supply, probably, but that feels very marginal … ✌️

markmccaughrean,
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@BettinaKoza Indeed. I threw away many copies of The Economist from 2012 on & lots of 1990s National Geographics. Many of the latter were in a bad shape, but I did check through & rescued the copies that had some of my pictures in 👍

markmccaughrean,
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@apolitosb What about the baby blue ones; them too? You’re a hard sartorial task master, Mr Spyromilio – you will have to arrange me a remedial appointment with your tailor.

markmccaughrean,
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@apolitosb I’m just a retired old scientist, thrown on to the scrap heap of corporate irrelevance, it seems, so expect far worse from me in the offences against decent dress code department in the future if that’s what it takes to stand out from the crowd 🤪

markmccaughrean,
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@apolitosb Pot, meet kettle 🙃

markmccaughrean, to random
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Thoroughly enjoying the 2007 documentary “Ian Rankin’s Hidden Edinburgh” on BBC FOUR.

Partly about his famous detective, John Rebus, it’s more about Ian & his life in Scotland’s great city.

I didn’t realise we were undergrads & postgrads at the university at almost exactly the same time, & my daughter now continues the tradition, living & working there.

Also love the use of music by This Mortal Coil, an ensemble also with very strong Edinburgh connections 🙇‍♂️

https://youtu.be/3CaUGYW70N0?feature=shared

markmccaughrean, to Kurzgesagt
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Another loft discovery today, from a time when I was evidently on the Christmas list of Charles Elachi, then director of JPL 🤷‍♂️🙂

Unopened, as it turns out, so let’s see if I can find it again by December this year 😬✌️

markmccaughrean,
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The card it is attached to says “Joy Peace Laughter” (ha ha) on the front & “May your holiday season be out of this world”. It’s signed by Charles, with the handwritten words “best wishes for 2014”.

Yeah, how right he was () 🙂🛰️☄️

And in a classic piece of US piety, it says on the back “Not printed at government expense” 🤷‍♂️👍

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Another lovely May evening ride, albeit with a brisk northerly wind 💨

Inland to Vogelenzang, including part of the Leidsevaart with its daisies, then back along the coast & past the beaches, then to Noordwijk & its new Ferris wheel, before the riding home through dunes to Wassenaar in the dusk 🎡

70km tonight, 200km for the week 👍

🚴‍♂️
🇳🇱
📷

The Sun very close to the horizon surrounded by an orange glow. The North Sea is seen below it, with a beach and some people in the foreground.
The Sun close to the horizon seen through some daisies and grasses on the back of a canal.

markmccaughrean, to SciComm
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Another “victim” of my sorting & clearing ahead of our move: five copies of my 1988 University of Edinburgh PhD thesis headed for recycling 😬✌️

But don’t panic: these are all water-damaged & I still have eight clean copies of the one hundred originally printed for me during my first postdoc at NASA Goddard 🚀🛰️

The rest were circulated to colleagues back in the early days of infrared arrays in astronomy 🔭

How far we’ve come 🙂👍

#Astronomy #Infrared #SpaceScience #SciComm #Astrodon #JWST

markmccaughrean,
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p.s. Let me know if you have a copy: I suspect that at least few people here on Mastodon do.

I’d offer to share the rest, but I think it’s fair to say that the work on infrared array detector characterisation, data simulation, & early near-IR imaging of the Orion Nebula have been rather, err, surpassed 🙀

markmccaughrean, to random
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When you realise you are just a brain in a vat 😬

Was busy yesterday & kept wondering whether I’d remembered to do the daily Wordle over breakfast as usual 🧐

Sort of assumed I did, because I always do, but forgot to check before going to bed 🤷‍♂️

Woke up this morning & realised I hadn’t 🙀

25 day streak lost 😭

Decided I should get back to it immediately 😤

Then this happened 😬✌️

Must be because it’s Jürgen Klopp’s last Liverpool game today 🙃

markmccaughrean,
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@AkaSci Exactly. Lots of people will be failing today – it’s one of those classic Wordle tank traps 🫠

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Well, that was quite lovely 🙂

A sunset ride out along the Lisserdijk & Hillegommerdijk on the west side of the Haarlemmermeer polder, & back via Bennebroek & the Leidsevaart.

61km in total & beautifully cool by the time I got home in the dark 🙇‍♂️

I’m going to miss this 😬

🚴‍♂️
🇳🇱
📷

markmccaughrean, to climate
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You are with friends in a forest at night. It is winter & snow covers the ground.

Wolves growl just beyond the faint light of your candles.

You are cold, hungry, & afraid.

You discover a wooden summer house in a glade. It is open & well-stocked.

Safety.

Then one of your friends runs inside, locks the door, & eats all the food.

Another sets fire to the house & dances joyfully in the warmth.

Sparks fly & ignite the trees.

You are hot, hungry, & afraid.

#Oil
#Capitalism
#ClimateCrisis

markmccaughrean,
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@AlexanderKingsbury You’re completely missing the point about the brief moment of light & warmth from the burning house.

Of course these things are possible & have happened under capitalism.

But at what cost to a universally uplifted humankind & the future?

Try reading this & tell me that neoliberal capitalism, where the rich become immensely richer by exploiting their “care” of the vulnerable is morally acceptable.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/18/child-care-cost-year-wealth-funds-councils-britain-residential

markmccaughrean,
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@AlexanderKingsbury You can have both. That’s where your lack of imagination betrays you. You actually believe that the current form of rampant neoliberal capitalism is actually the very best system possible.

But you’re right. I don’t have to listen to apologists for billionaires.

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