@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

michael_w_busch

@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online

Planetary astronomer, studying piles of rock in space. Reader of books. Drinker of tea. He/him. This is a personal account. To bigotry no sanction.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ai6yr, to random

Southern Florida once again has "EXTREME" Heat Risk today 5/18/24.

Extreme - This level of rare and/or long-duration extreme heat with little to no overnight relief affects anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration. Impacts likely in most health systems, heat-sensitive industries and infrastructure.

https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/ #FLwx #heatwave

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@researchbuzz @ai6yr While Miami keeps flooding; the hurricanes are getting worse; and everyone in Florida is suffering through extreme heat events; the Florida GOP is trying to stop the state from talking about : https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/05/15/desantis-signs-bill-erasing-the-term-climate-change-from-state-law/

malcircuit, to random
@malcircuit@thingy.social avatar

Sci-fi: What if humanity built generation ships? That'd be cool, right?

Actual human history: You mean a designed, self-contained, indefinitely stable, culturally and ecologically sustainable society where everyone cooperates to work toward a far-off goal they will probably never see achieved?

Sci-fi: ...

Actual human history: dies laughing

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@malcircuit @nyrath

One thing I appreciated reading through Kelly and @ZachWeinersmith 's "A City On Mars" was that they made that point; as well as elaborating on what might happen to different social structures in such an environment.

Although they were focusing more on humans in the solar system; rather than people who would be indefinitely isolated by years of light travel time.

ai6yr, (edited ) to random

Oooh, look, Halloween in June!

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@ai6yr The particularly SoCal experience of having the advertised moulage artist for CERT drills.

I once had a drill in Los Angeles that was actually scheduled on Halloween so that we all could walk back afterwards without freaking everyone out...

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@ai6yr That CERT drill was outside the UCLA medical center. So I walked past a block of fraternity Halloween parties across the street with my shirt covered in fake blood up to the elbows.

And that was how I learned about the series "Dexter".

mastodonmigration, (edited ) to random
@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online avatar

So now SpaceX, with no working spacesuit, and years behind on it's multi-billion dollar moon lander, is lobbying NASA to go to the Hubble Space Telescope.

"A successful private mission could improve Hubble's ability to point at celestial objects and, by boosting its orbit, extend its life by years... however, an accident could leave the multibillion-dollar telescope broken — or, even more tragically, tethered to the dead bodies of the astronauts sent to repair it."

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1250250249/spacex-repair-hubble-space-telescope-nasa-foia

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@mastodonmigration @simonbp I consider the peculiarly billionaire behavior of having no relevant experience or skills and then imagining that one should be allowed to recklessly endanger extremely expensive public property.

vicgrinberg, to random
@vicgrinberg@mastodon.social avatar

I love Ursula LeGuin to bits (in three languages) - the shelf is (part of the) proof. But I never got the excitement about "The Ones Who Walks Away from Omelas".

I know what the story, the metaphor tries to say. But all that I see is how this is a story about walking away. Not stay and change: be the change, start the change, convince the others that things need to be better. But a story about keeping one's conscience clean and walking away. And the injustice left behind continues.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@vicgrinberg Omelas has always struck me because of how opposite it is to The Dispossessed in that regard, despite Le Guin having written them within a year of one another.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

Derek Lowe's "Things I Will Not Work With", a series about insanely dangerous chemical compounds.

In this episode, The Higher States of Bromine.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/higher-states-bromine

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@klausman @nyrath One of the earlier entries in Derek Lowe's series (from 20 years ago now!) was nickel carbonyl: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/thing-i-won-t-work-2-nickel-carbonyl .

I knew about that stuff and how toxic it is because it has been suggested as a step in processing asteroid metal in free-fall.

But I later encountered it mentioned by Gordon Dickson in his last Dorsai! book; where he had someone use it as an improvised chemical weapon...

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@nyrath Derek Lowe's entry on chlorine trifluoride was particularly evocative: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time .

I first read that when I was working in an office across from a chip prototyping lab that kept a supply of it to burn oxide layers off of silicon wafers.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@Sevoris @klausman @nyrath The planetary scientist John S. Lewis, who proposed that particular gas-phase system for processing nickel-iron, emphasized that the set up would be humans inside a shell of radiation shielding well off to one side; controlling the robotic systems doing the work.

But the idea still involved hauling around spacecraft loaded with tanks of carbon monoxide (and also halogens, because halocarbonyls are a thing that can exist).

That was quite a bit of risk all by itself.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@nyrath @Sevoris @klausman I cannot change the laws of physics.

michael_w_busch, to northcarolina
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Do not allow this or anything remotely like it, .

For so many reasons.

Roey Hadar @roeyhadar
2024 May 15

NC , 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, to Minnesota
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Looking out the window at the sunset:

Check your masks and run the air filters, .

(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.

astronomerritt, to random
@astronomerritt@hachyderm.io avatar

Does anyone cook with lard any more? Lard was sort of ever-present when I was a kid, but I was raised by my grandparents so I don't know what aspects were really out-of-date, which were normal, and which were just, well, poverty.

I can tell you that my grandmother's idea of a curry would have most folk recoiling...

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@astronomerritt I have sometimes cooked with lard, tallow, schmaltz, and duck fat (the last of which has lately been popular among American chefs, for no particular reason).

But using pork or beef fat in a curry always seems wrong.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@astronomerritt There were some claims of duck fat having lower saturated fat content than other animal fats being a good thing; but the evidence on that is pretty limited.

Re. tallow: I've mostly used it in shortening for pastry and for frying things. If we extend that to include beef pan drippings, the list of possibilities is longer.

jasonkoebler, to random
@jasonkoebler@mastodon.social avatar

Scoop: Solar storm is causing farmers' tractor GPS systems to go haywire. Many have shut down planting altogether during a critical period. A Deere dealer said accuracy is "extremely compromised"

https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@jasonkoebler Attention @sundogplanets , for the intersection of farming and space weather.

astro_jcm, (edited ) to random
@astro_jcm@mastodon.online avatar

Started boiling some Weißwurst without realising I'm all out of sweet mustard, and stores are closed today. Should I...
(a) Go out and buy mustard in a gas station.
(b) Use sriracha, the only other sauce I happen to have at home right now, and risk being deported from Germany.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@astro_jcm Add the sriracha.

With apologies to some of my family members who live in Germany.

arstechnica, to random
@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

In the race for space metals, companies hope to cash in

Mining asteroids could reduce the burden on Earth’s resources. Will it live up to its promise?

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/05/in-the-race-for-space-metals-companies-hope-to-cash-in/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@arstechnica @nyrath I have now witnessed two full generations of companies proposing to do privately funded space resource utilization projects either switch to Earth-orbit satellite projects, fold completely, or be taken over by scammers.

So I note how "Asteroid Mining Corporation Ltd" is simply starting with doing Earth-orbit satellite projects.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@maxthefox @CartyBoston @arstechnica The costs of space resources returned to Earth would be very much higher than the costs of the same resources mined on the ground.

That is the case even for the most expensive rare earths and the platinum group metals; despite the hype of the current set of space resources companies (and much to my disappointment when I first understood it).

The energy costs alone are orders of magnitude different.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@maxthefox @CartyBoston @arstechnica With ARRM, we proposed to move asteroid material to Earth (technically lunar) orbit for processing. The products would have been sandbags and maybe water for astronauts. There is no resource in the rock piles worth shipping to the ground.

Different propulsion would not change that.

And there are no high-concentration deposits of rare earths on the Moon or asteroids; while there are abundant low-concentration deposits on Earth that no one now uses.

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

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, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

"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

astro_jcm, to Astro
@astro_jcm@mastodon.online avatar

Me getting mentally ready to be super jealous of the upcoming pics from those of you living at higher latitudes.

michael_w_busch, (edited )
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@astro_jcm I will just be following social media feeds from Antarctica over-winters.

Since here the aurora will be lost behind clouds and skyglow.

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

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

michael_w_busch, to Minnesota
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

A group of Republican state legislators here in 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.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

Steel produced prior to World War II is highly sought after, and usually sells for a premium. The reason why may surprise you. It's not due to any perceived higher quality than steel produced later -- not in the ordinary sense, anyway.

The issue is that steel smelted after WWII pretty much all contains tiny amounts of radioactive contamination from above ground nuclear tests, which were common until the signing of the nuclear test ban treaty in 1963.

While the amount of radiation in that steel is extremely low, it's high enough to interfere with some very high precision instrumentation. So manufacturers of some affected equipment want that "old steel" to use instead.

Since the global atmospheric contamination levels associated with those tests has been dropping over the decades, it's a decreasing problem for newly produced steel.

Still, a large find of old steel, like a sunken pre-WWII battleship for example, is still much valued due to these issues.

So now you know.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@lauren @nyrath There has also a been a market in "ancient lead" ingots to be made into shielding for particle detectors; for the same reason.

Which has been understandably controversial because archaeologists would prefer that the artifacts they are studying not be literally melted down: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-roman-lead-physics-archaeology-controversy/

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