Folks, we've crossed the Rubicon. I just saw a pharmaceutical commercial ... for dogs. The end is near.

Guess it's time for baseball.

This is not going well.

youtu.be/pUf9K4yj-H0?... Let's hope Arizona shows up for the kill. Go Cats. #Arizona

The White House just unveiled a budget with a 50% cut to NASA science (astrophysics, climate change, etc) and overall 23% cut to NASA The goal: make NASA only for things like Artemis, which is explicitly a militarization and commercialization mission 🔭🧪 www.instagram.com/p/DWrEWbyFto...

Today on the #arXiv: Nolan et al. 2026, "Planetary Radar at the Arecibo Observatory" - arxiv.org/abs/2604.00332 @mikeynolan.bsky.social, @lynncarter.bsky.social, and @planettreky.bsky.social review everything that was done by #TeamRadar at Arecibo.

Go Cats!!!

Wow, Arkansas playing dirty. There should be a penalty that carries over to the team next year for this nonsense.

Schmidt Science Impact Report 2025 is now live. This is a good way to explore the different philanthropic projects they are funding, including many in Astronomy. #LFAST , being built here at @stewardobservatory.bsky.social @uarizona.bsky.social is described in there.

sorry i never responded to your email, i didn't want to and then i forgot

Big shoes to fill...

This is a troubling development.

I support this 1000x. I would say *especially* for spectroscopy. If you don't look at the data, you just trust that other people make the same decisions you would, and you assume they are looking at the data (reader, we are not, unless you highlight a specific problem).

Do you already have a Masters? Do you want to do a PhD in exoplanet radial velocity surveys with me at Macquarie University in Sydney? Then have I got an ad for you!

Virgil is contemplating the meaning of the door...

Tonight is the night I learned why cloves are not in the standard apple pie recipe. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was not. My tongue is tingling.

Spent the afternoon resawing some truly spectacular figured cherry for drawer fronts.

Finally found a use for AI: it's very good at debugging my one off bash scripts.

Hey y'all. I'm hiring. Are you interested in building instruments for astrophysics? wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...

I've been looking for this system for 25 years.

Finally finished Ken Burn's American Revolution. If you haven't made it through it, the last 15 minutes of Episode 6 are worth skipping ahead to, particularly in these trying times that we live in today: a true encapsulation of what it means to be the United States of America and an American.

Tonight is the night that the dumb cat discovered what happens when he jumps on top of the fish tank while the lid is open for feeding. Turns out the fish are protected by more than glass.

And this is why I'll order from almost anyone except for Uline.

Ah Tucson in January, where the local public radio host gives the hourly weather update and describes it as "a chilly 55".

As a recovering oboist myself, this is a great article (and the comments section is pretty wild...) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/a...

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG... www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Finally managed to get some time in my wood shop this weekend, and made good progress test fitting a dresser I've been working on for a while. This is modeled after the Harvey Ellis designed #913 in the Gustav Stickley catalog. I've used paneled sides and back, and full web-frames inside. 1/4

Picard management tip: Suppress your inner alarm. Be the calmest person in the room.

why you need big telescopes for spectroscopy -- “You have to collect enough photons because you’re spreading them out,” said @chadfbender.bsky.social, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, which is in charge of LFAST. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/s...

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/s... #LFAST in the NY Times.

Packed splinter session at #AAS247 for the announcement of The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System—a modular, rapid-response network of four novel observatories designed to democratize access to the cosmos. Read more about the initiatives here: www.schmidtsciences.org/focus-area-a...

Just spent the day doing a thing: www.science.org/content/arti... Roger Angel and I are Co-PIing the LFAST telescope, which is being built at @stewardobservatory.bsky.social and provides the ground based spectroscopic component of this venture. @schmidtsciences.bsky.social #AAS247 #Arizona #LFAST

Happening now!

Standing room only for the Schmidt Sciences presentation at AAS.

The above average temps we had in November and lack of freeze so far, means my fall tomatoes have lost their minds. Things we can get away with in Tucson...

More billionaires buying newspapers. Previous experience across the country suggests it would be unusual if this proceeds without meddling in the papers' content.

Truer words have never been spoken.

And astronomers everywhere give a small gasp of despair.

Wyatt thinks he's been caught in the act doing something he shouldn't. I'm like, dude, it's your cat tree...

This thread is the most fun I've had all week.

Two juvenile bobcats paid me a visit this morning. Of course our house cats missed the whole thing, since they were buried in blankets and passed out for the day

Anyone who lives in Tucson knows we have a vehicle - pedestrian collision problem, but the map in this article really drives it home. Many tens of deaths in just a couple of years. Speedway and 1st Ave particularly bad (hell, it's called speedway!). Slow down people! wapo.st/4polhCJ

Picard management tip: Ignore rules that make no sense.

This will kill federally funded STEM research, which will basically kill all research. The science community is intertwined, and cannot be separated like this. Nor is it necessary - there are already expert controls in place to prevent transfers of sensitive information.

Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

i’m excited to announce that i am hiring (again)! i am looking for a postdoc in computational astrophysics that’s excited about models of stellar transients and multi-messenger astronomy to join my group (star stuff @ steward) at @uarizona.bsky.social! apply here ✨💥: aas.org/jobregister/...

Genuinely confused: How can the (as seen on tv) cleaning product 'Alien Power' be 'Made in the USA'? They are lying about something ...

Called Ciscomani's office this morning to yell about the ATC situation, and someone actually picked up the phone on the first ring. Sadly, the staffer appeared to be channeling Mike Johnson's "I don't know anything, head in the sand" vibe.

How long until pitchers & catchers?

When they successfully block protests then they've won. A reminder to everyone: youtu.be/d-7o9xYp7eE?...