As NASA closes Goddard Space Flight Center, Union says: “High profile missions currently supported by the public, Congress and/or the President (e.g., Roman, Dragonfly) will be immediately harmed or endangered.” 🧪🔭

Our local animal shelter just put out an urgent request for food for the Pet Food Bank. If you have a local pet food bank please help people feed their pets during this challenging time ❤️

Reposting with alt

Kevin Marvel is leaving the American Astronomical Society as of January 9, 2026 after 20 years as CEO. He'll become Exec Dir of the Society for Neuroscience. aas.org/press/aas-an...

Right when I have to leave…cats!

Today was a freezer treats day. Made freezer pancakes for breakfast, split a thawed frozen chicken breast between lunch and dinner, had a nice homemade buttermilk biscuit from the freezer with my chicken dinner, and now a slice of pumpkin roll from the freezer for dessert

Even though my clocks don’t change (Arizona made the right choice to opt out of this nonsense), I still am forced to think about how the time change screws up my weekly telecon schedule

Happy Sunday!

It’s sunset, so I lit the pumpkins and have my bowl of treats ready. I sadly don’t ever get many kids, but I can always hope!

Re-upping the suggestion that Arizonans take advantage of the tax credit and donate to an eligible food bank! Individuals can basically direct up to $495 of their tax dollars (assuming you owe more than $495 in state taxes). Here's the information on the tax credit (azdor.gov/tax-credits/...)

@katvolk.bsky.social and I did some pumpkin carving tonight! I made the derpy vampire, Kat made…well, the cat. 😄 Happy Halloween!

While this is arguably my circus, these are not at all my monkeys.

the number of ugly words coming out of my mouth is directly proportional to how many finicky NSF-specific documents I have to generate (and regenerate, and find an NSF-system induced error, and regenerate, and so on....)

For AZ folks: if, like me, you use the charity tax credit on your state taxes, now is a great time to donate to an eligible food bank because SNAP benefits will shortly run out due to the shutdown. The Southern AZ one is here: www.communityfoodbank.org

Happy Sunday!

It is absolutely my own fault that I have to eat my dessert standing up with my back to the counter because these little monsters love whipped cream too much (they swarm if I sit and if I turn my back, echo will surprise shoulder cat me to try to catch a bite 😂)

For AZ folks: if, like me, you use the charity tax credit on your state taxes, now is a great time to donate to an eligible food bank because SNAP benefits will shortly run out due to the shutdown. The Southern AZ one is here: www.communityfoodbank.org

Ugh. NSF requires using proprietary software (Microsoft excel) to do one of the required documents for proposals. It can clearly read my Google-sheets-generated excel file just fine based on the import preview but then *refuses* to generate the required PDF because I made it in google

It’s nice that Gus never ever lets me forget his bedtime pills. Wish he would remind me to take mine too (I usually take mine shortly after he gets his, but sometimes I get distracted)

Had my first of many physical therapy appointments today for my newly re-aggravated shoulder and the therapist was like “you should go ahead and make an appointment with an orthopedic doctor” (going to work on stabilizing the shoulder but she thinks I have a labrum injury)

The one dollar bills they mail out with the with Neilsen surveys are so satisfyingly crisp.

Good!!

When you feel political cartoonists have been working too hard and deserve something easy as a treat

If some West Wing-type drama ran an episode where a deeply unpopular president faced the largest mass protests in several generation, and then ended it with visuals like this critics would universally pan it for the grossly over-the-top symbolism.

“I’ll give you something to cry about” as government policy

Someone is setting off fireworks randomly. A lot of them. What the hell?

Happy Sunday!

Look, I *had* to buy candy because I do usually get a couple trick or treaters. Did I need a full variety pack? No because the record number of kids is like 12. But I sure am going to enjoy sampling the candy

Also, the loudest chant the whole time was "swear her in!" Tucson is *pissed* that we're being denied our elected representative.

This single story is worth the cost of my year's subscription to @wired.com

As people start thinking about holiday donation drive: reminder that the Salvation Army is both homophobic and requires people to attend Christian religious services to get aid, there are lots of organizations out there that don't hate some of your employees, and you should support one of them!

Of the last 15 years, I've ended up in physical therapy for something in all but one of them. This post brought to you by the truly obnoxiously loud pop my shoulder did this morning that forced me to admit self-treatment hasn't worked and it is time for shoulder PT (again)

Good! I am sick and tired of having no representation in the House!!

Excellent piece from the Planetary Society highlighting some of the human stories of NASA's workforce losses: www.planetary.org/articles/400...

Layoff notices at JPL are going out today. About 11% of the Lab, or 550 people, are being let go. I'm thinking of my friends and colleagues there, some of whom will still be employed after today and some of whom won't. I'm sorry you're having to deal with this.

One downside of the rain is more debris in the roads. Spending the morning at the tire shop getting my tire repaired

Today is a good day. It’s a work holiday. It’s rainy (which I love), and cool enough to have to doors and windows open for fresh air. And the cats are being bonkers little goofballs, so I have excellent entertainment

Could this be aliens?

Dinner tonight is much more respectable than last night

Are you someone who is interested in astronomy graduate school? This is a list of many/most departments and their expectations for admissions this year. Please feel free to spread it far and wide. If you are doing admissions and you'd like to update your entry, reach out as per the form!

Having a real gourmet meal over here (Walmart pizza and microwaved frozen peas)

Are things good right now? No. But are there signs of better days ahead? Also no. Still, we know that it's all going to hold together one way or another, that we'll emerge from this better than we were, right? Yeah, no, probably not.

The Tucson City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the Trump administration's proposed compact with the University of Arizona. "Tucson's future depends on protecting that freedom to learn, to question, to innovate without fear of political pressure." tucson.com/news/local/g...

It isn’t a proper workday until your officemate bunny kicks your arm for moving too much and interrupting his snuggles

Sad to see the University of Washington Astronomy Department has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

The University of Arizona's faculty senate has voted to ask the UA president to reject the Trump administration's proposed compact. It's among an accumulation of voices who say not to be tempted by the good things in the compact due to its more fundamental threats. tucson.com/news/local/e...

Do this! Bookshop.org is good stuff.

Such a helper

Denying 810,000+ Arizonans our representation in Congress.

I'd take it one step further--in order to do our jobs* we need Avi Loeb to _not_ be put in charge of an international directorate. *ok, yes, this is a necessary condition but alone it's not a sufficient one