Max the Cat roams Vermont State University campus for 4 years, is bestowed with an honorary doctor of ‘litter-ature’ degree.
The diploma, dated May 18, reads - “With a resounding purr of approval from the faculty, the Board of Trustees of the Vermont State Cat-leges has bestowed upon Max Dow the prestigious title of Doctor of Litter-ature, complete with all the catnip perks, scratching post privileges, and litter box responsibilities that come with it.”
Trump making no bones about his vindictive slash and burn plans in a 2nd term.
"Wouldn't it be terrible to throw the president's wife and the former secretary of state into jail? Wouldn't that be a terrible thing? It's a terrible, terrible, path that they're leading us to. And it's very possible that it's going to have to happen to them."
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Preparations for NASA’s Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Launch are in progress.
Launch time: 12:25 pm ET
"The two NASA astronauts aboard, flight commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, will test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, including launch, docking, and return to Earth. After a one-week stay docked to the International Space Station, the Starliner and crew will land under parachutes in the western United States."
Starliner launch is now scheduled for 10:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday, June 5.
"The ULA team identified an issue with a single ground power supply within one of the 3 redundant chassis that provides power to a subset of computer cards controlling various system functions, including the card responsible for the stable replenishment topping valves for the Centaur upper stage."
The faulty chassis have been replaced with a spare unit.
This week, a science team announced the discovery of JADES-GS-z14-0, a galaxy that existed just 290 million years after the big bang. JADES-GS-z14-0 now holds the record for the most distant known galaxy, with redshift z=14.32.
The discovery is based on spectroscopic measurements made using the Webb telescope of light from this distant galaxy that has traveled for over 13.5 billion years.
29 May 1953 - Edmund Hillary, an explore and mountaineer from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, the Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer, became the first people to stand on the summit of Mt. Everest, the world’s highest peak.
Interestingly, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mt. Everest on Tenzing Norgay's birthday.
Tenzing Norgay was born on May 29, 1914 in Tengboche, Khumbu, in northeastern Nepal.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay - "Although his exact date of birth is unknown, he knew it was in late May by the weather and the crops. After his ascent of Everest on 29 May 1953, he decided to celebrate his birthday on that day thereafter."
Happy Birthday to Frank Drake (May 28, 1930 – Sept 2, 2022), astrophysicist, astrobiologist and creator of the Drake equation, which is used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.
The equation was formulated in 1961 as a way to stimulate discussion at the 1st scientific meeting on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory site at Green Bank, WV.
Frank Drake on the Drake Equation:
"It amazes me to this day to see it displayed prominently in most textbooks on astronomy, often in a big important-looking box.
...
I’m always surprised to see it viewed as one of the great icons of science, because it didn’t take any deep intellectual effort or insight on my part. But then, as now, it expressed a big idea in a form that a scientist, even a beginner, could assimilate."
The “Vault Plate” for the NASA Europa Clipper spacecraft carries a number of inspirational messages from Earth for posterity, including the Drake Equation! In Drake's own handwriting.
The price is rising for buying the government and destroying Democracy under republican rule.
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When Donald Trump met some of the country’s top donors at a luxurious New York hotel earlier this month, he told the group that a businessman had recently offered $1 million to his presidential effort and wanted to have lunch.
“I’m not having lunch,” Trump said he responded, according to donors who attended. “You’ve got to make it $25 million.”
"
"Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump only received .65% (6 votes) as a write in candidate in the first round of voting to be the 2024 Libertarian Party presidential candidate."
6 votes! And a lot of Boos.
Let's plan to make it happen again in November.
Also, "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was eliminated as the 2024 Libertarian Party presidential candidate in the first round of voting with 2.07% (19 votes) at their national convention in DC."
Searing heat in India today.
Max. recorded temp: 49.8°C
Many central regions of the country with above 40°C temperatures.
May tends to be the hottest month in India.
Source: India Meteorological Department #India#WxIndia
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The largest camera ever built for astrophysics arrived this week at the Rubin Observatory at Cerro Pachón in Chile.
The LSST camera, built by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA, is the final major component of the Rubin Observatory's Simonyi Survey Telescope to arrive at the summit.
Development of the observatory has been funded by the NSF and the DOE.
The Rubin Observatory Simonyi Survey Telescope consists of 3 aspheric mirrors: an 8.4-m primary mirror M1, a 3.5-m convex secondary mirror M2, and a 5.0-m tertiary mirror M3.
The primary and tertiary mirrors are fabricated from a single piece of glass.
The secondary mirror (M2) is the largest convex mirror ever made.
Field of view = 3.5°.
The 3.2-gigapixel camera hangs below the secondary mirror. https://www.lsst.org/about/tel-site/optical_design #Rubin#astronomy
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The focal plane of the Vera C. Rubin telescope consists of 189 charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors, arranged in a total of 21 3-by-3 square arrays. The system is cooled to about -100 °C to minimize noise.
The 3.5° field of view of the 64 cm wide array is 40 times the area of the full moon in the sky.
Camera Data Rates: ~3.2 GBytes/sec peak raw data
1 pixel = 16 bits (raw)
Pixels: 3.2 billion!
Detector read-out time: 2 sec
Here we go again. Another round of severe weather, tornadoes and misery coming up this evening for the plains.
A Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS, the highest severity level) tornado watch has been issued for southern Kansas, central Oklahoma and far north Texas until 11 p.m. CDT, including Oklahoma City, and Wichita, Kansas. Extremely large hail, strong tornadoes and and destructive wind gusts are possible in this area.
Please take care if you are in the region. #okwx
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Monster tornado touchdown in Eddyville, Kentucky (about 30 minutes east of Paducah).
Another one spotted near Goreville, IL about 30 miles southeast of Carbondale, IL and one more energetic tornado north of Dawson Springs, KY.
Line of severe thunderstorms now moving into KY and TN.
Tornado Warnings issued for Greenville KY, Powderly KY and Beechmont KY until 10:00 PM CDT, Beechmont KY, Drakesboro KY and Belton KY until 10:15 PM CDT.