I am reminded again how in 1935, the US Congress passed a tax law that created a new top tax bracket of nearly 80%.
That tax bracket contained exactly one person, John D. Rockefeller, and was designed to stop him from causing so much trouble.
In case anyone needs the precedent.
Local news for @pzmyers , since this was found in Stevens County.
Probably no spiders, though.
When rocket parts fall from the sky in #Minnesota.
@planet4589 tentatively links it to the Zhuque-2E upper stage.
Check your sources. Even if you like what they are saying.
QT Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social
2026 October 13
Y’all, I hate to rain on the dead bot parade, but the Yandex data center destruction doesn’t seem to have significantly impacted social media bots. I made temporal graphs of X posts about AfD around the time of the attack and there’s no sign of a sudden dip or residual impact on that conversation.
https://bsky.app/profile/katestarbird.bsky.social/post/3mxrjoq7cqs2b
Yet again, USA:
Take your shots and wear your masks.
And require clean indoor air rules and public health authorities & regulators who will actually enforce them.
Instead of letting eugenicist quacks remain in government.
QT Mike Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA @michael-hoerger.bsky.social
2026 October 12
The actuaries at one of the largest reinsurers in the world expect 3% excess mortality in the US through at least 2033, unless boosters improve or viral evolution stops.
https://bsky.app/profile/michael-hoerger.bsky.social/post/3mxqaaez4oc2c
Margaret Hamilton is rightly remembered for her work programming the flight computers for Apollo.
But she should also be remembered for her work on early weather prediction software, which informed the realization that weather is chaotic and the limits to predicting it.
https://news.mit.edu/2026/margaret-hamilton-computing-pioneer-dies-1007
Mark Sykes describes just how much funding is being withheld from NASA's Planetary Research & Analysis programs: https://blog.planetary-research.org/2026/09/25/ra_funding_cut_50percent_fy2025/
(With the context of how what Congress has ordered has already been well below what the National Academies recommended.)
And require that Congress #ImpeachRFKJr and remove him & all the lethal quacks with him.
Yet again, USA:
Get the kids their shots. Get yourselves your shots if you have not had them. Get your immunity checked if it is doubt.
Require that the state governments expand vaccine mandates.
QT Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social
2026 September 26
"At least six babies in Pennsylvania have been born infected with measles, with two so sick they had to be admitted to intensive care. Congenital measles is a disease that’s rarely, if ever, seen in the U.S..."
https://bsky.app/profile/maddow.bsky.social/post/3mwgmg7fmj225
"Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee unveil massive 11,000 patch quilt made in protest against ICE"
https://www.audacy.com/wccoradio/news/local/activists-quilt-protest-ice-walz
RE: https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman/117299861062480465
Keep voting, #Minnesota.
It remains way past time for the arXiv to stop letting Avi Loeb use it to promote blatant nonsense.
Because this apparently needs to be explained:
Current human-caused CO2 emissions: ~40 gigatons of carbon/year.
Total global CO2 sinking by geochemical weathering: ~0.25 gigatons of carbon/year.
Work for everything necessary to sharply cut emissions, everyone.
Sometimes, sunlight shining on asteroids makes them explode.
QT Riley Bruce @rileybruce.bsky.social
2026 August 13
What’s a thing from your area of expertise (or special interest) that you think it would behoove everyone else to know?
https://bsky.app/profile/rileybruce.bsky.social/post/3mswpqntbf223
Dr. Alice Gorman has provided a list of spacecraft impacting the Moon since 1959: https://bsky.app/profile/drspacejunk.bsky.social/post/3ms6ei3lf5s2d
Elon Musk continues to be an ombigoted sexual predator and liar who has caused mass death.
And it remains way past time for everyone to stop giving him money & power.
For those unfamiliar:
MDSCC is located at Robledo de Chavela; in the mountains 50 km outside of Madrid.
That is not the answer I would like to "why are those six DSN antennas offline?".
May everyone who works onsite be safe.
QT Andy Scollick @andyscollick.bsky.social
2026 July 24
The Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex at Robledo de Chavela municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain on fire. Burgohondo wildfire.
[ picture ] via Infues Avila
[ image of wildfire behind one of the 34 meter antennas at MDSCC ]
https://bsky.app/profile/andyscollick.bsky.social/post/3mrfqswr65s2z
Reasons for more better-qualified DFL candidates to run for office:
If they had actual challengers, more incumbents seeking re-election might endorse a life-and-death policy supported by three-fourths of the people whose votes they are trying to win.