Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@social.cleverlibre.org

Time to update my satellite pollution talk for this weekend.

There are 500 more Starlink satellites today than when I gave this talk in July.

4,924 Starlinks in orbit now (56% of the total 8,728 active satellites in orbit).

Just your periodic reminder that one company owned by one pretty awful dude effectively controls outer space now.

https://www.usluck.com/89396/the-irony-is-getting-pretty-thick/ The irony is getting pretty thick #Tweets #Twitter

@ZhiZhu

I think Blake is dangerously wrong. The GOP's culture of violence hasn't started to change "somewhat," or at all.

IMO, Blake addresses an important point, i.e. the GOP is now a revolutionary terrorist group that rejects elections and achieves power instead through violence. But then he loses the point entirely.

Every one of the Republicans listed in Blake's piece strongly supports political violence, including assassination. They're just saying, Jordan overplayed his hand this time.

NEW: The lawmaker behind Mississippi's near-total abortion ban is warning that efforts to enshrine a "right-to-contraception" into state law would legalize "morning-after abortions."

But there is no such thing as "morning-after abortions."

Read our fact check: https://www.mississippifreepress.org/36872/fact-check-senator-falsely-claims-protecting-birth-control-allows-morning-after-abortions

Trump is telling loyalists to kill new speaker candidate's prospects in the cradle: report https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2666036301/

I was recently invited to participate in a project drafting a model surveillance statute. I eventually declined to represent a civil liberties POV in this project and I thought it would be worth explaining why.

Law enforcement can send any number of people who are paid full time to participate in projects like this, while a civil liberties group would send one person, someone like me, who has eight other projects to do. Even as experienced and senior as I am, I could easily be drowned out by interests that are greater in number and provisioned with more resources (for both time and travel). Perhaps I’d make a difference around the edges, but ultimately, the ACLU name and participation could be used to claim the final product was the result of a consensus-building procedure. It can actually be detrimental to your cause to participate just so your voice is “heard”. The rules must be structured so that your participation is impactful. That is a different thing.

A reminder that having no Speaker means the House of Representatives can't conduct any business, and a reminder that THAT'S WHAT THE REPUBLICAN EXTREMISTS WANT.
To them it's a feature, not a bug.

If the penalty for crime is a fine then the law only exists for the lower class.

Why Ten Billion Snow Crabs Disappeared Off the Coast of Alaska - Smithsonian Magazine https://apple.news/AEW0SFdQeRD-X7YdlgGW7Uw

over on bsky they're having a problem with an influx of nazis and im just like "wow that sucks. over on mastodon any place that nazis congregate just get yeeted into the sun. also we can post gifs"

After a long hiatus, I’m back! Please afford me once again the opportunity to be a productive contributor to the Mastodon communities!

Why is it that we keep blaming our kids' depression and anxiety on social media and smartphones instead of the fact that we've turned the entire planet into a burning dumpster fire for them to deal with

An open-source 8088 BIOS https://github.com/skiselev/8088_bios #retrocomputing

So I’m currently unemployed and would love to use this time productively.

If anyone knows any queer folks (teens, kids, undergrads) who are in need of free (remote) tutoring in physics or math let me know! I’d love to find some time to help.

My bone fides are

BS in Physics and Astronomy (double major)
MS and PhD in Nuclear Engineering with a focus on numerical methods and nuclear physics.

Feel free to boost for visibility!

The naïveté so many are showing regarding the Stewart/Apple situation is frankly astounding.

Look at it from a pure capitalism POV. Stewart makes Apple a few tens of millions of dollars (maybe). China makes Apple *literally* billions of dollars.

Whatever your thoughts about Apple’s reasoning pale in comparison to the pragmatic decision Apple *HAD* to make.

That being said, I’ve said FOR YEARS that Apple’s decision to align the company with an authoritarian regime would bite them in the ass.

Gee, now there's an idea.

Via the wonderful Sherrilyn Ifill:

Can we now begin the investigation into threats received by members of the caucus to change their votes? It’s not enough that he lost. Something ugly & corrosive of the democratic process was undertaken on his behalf. The perpetrators should face legal accountability. #JimJordan

Killings in the U.S. are dropping at a historic rate. Will anyone notice? - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2023-10-20/killings-in-the-u-s-are-dropping-at-an-historic-rate-will-anyone-notice-essential-politics